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Empowering Adolescents to Transform Schools: Lessons from a Behavioral Targeting
Sule Alan
Elif Kubilay
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)
Abstract
We test the effectiveness of a behavioral program grounded in the idea that status
granting and self-persuasion might yield a robust behavioral change in disadvantaged
adolescents. We enlist socially connected senior middle school students with high emotional
intelligence as “student-teachers” and entrust them with delivering a curriculum
to their junior peers. The program empowers student-teachers, leading them to improve
their social environment. It reduces disciplinary incidents and anti-social behavior
among student-teachers and their friendship networks. The intervention significantly
enhances the likelihood of admission to selective high schools for student-teachers,
offering a cost-effective way to help disadvantaged adolescents escape neighborhood
disadvantages.