Strategic Exam Re-Application Disengagement
RCTClinical Trial
High school dropouts in centralized assignment systems do not always reflect total educational abandonment, as students frequently disengage to retake placement exams for better school assignments.
Picture this
When students are assigned to a high school that is far away or unappealing, they intentionally drop out during their first year to re-study for the central entrance exam. This is similar to a college student leaving a safety university after one semester to re-take college entrance exams in hopes of securing admission to a top-choice campus.
What the evidence says
Attending 5 or more CBT sessions reduced the probability of retaking the COMIPEMS placement exam by 6.8 percentage points (p < 0.01), whereas non-attending treatment students saw a 2.5 percentage point increase (p < 0.05) in re-sitting the exam as part of disengagement.
- Who was studied
- N = 5,274 10th-grade students (with a 28.0% baseline re-test rate) across 20 public upper secondary schools in Mexico City.
- How
- Randomized field experiment tracking administrative re-registration for the COMIPEMS entrance examination combined with 11th-grade enrollment records.
What to do
Distinguish permanent educational dropouts from strategic exam re-applicants when measuring program success in centralized upper secondary assignment systems.
From the source
"Some students not enrolling in 11th grade might do so to re-enroll in the centralized assignment system, COMIPEMS, to have a chance of getting a place in an academic option that is either more selective or more aligned with their preferences."
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