Search and Filter
Student supports
Unpacking Treatment Effect Heterogeneity in a Large-Scale Dropout-Prevention Experiment
Tags: High schools, Student supportsTimely high school completion is a critical step in successful transitions to post-secondary schooling and the labor market. This randomized controlled trial, deployed in two urban, disadvantaged school districts, tests the effectiveness of a mature and comprehensive student-support program on… more →
“A Ragtag Team of Like[-Minded] Individuals Who Are Willing to Help”: The Implementation and Evolution of Student Support Services at Community Colleges with Promise Programs
Tags: Higher education, Student supportsAs promise programs have become increasingly popular at community colleges, these institutions have either created or repurposed student services for their promise students, in addition to covering their tuition and fees. Using a multiple case study design, we interviewed 32 community college… more →
The Effect of Retention Threat on Student Learning Gains: Evidence from Ohio
Grade retention policies create incentives for students to make adequate progress ahead of evaluation. The threat of retention thus has the potential to affect all students’ academic outcomes, increasing achievement especially among students with test scores near the retention policy’s threshold… more →
“Does it fit in a box we can check off?” The interpretive work of identifying doubled-up homeless students
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceIdentifying doubled-up homeless students is crucial to securing their educational rights and understanding the extent of housing insecurity among school-aged children. Drawing on a survey and focus groups conducted with NYC district and school staff, we introduce interpretive work as a central… more →
School-Based Support Staff and Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from North Carolina
Topics: Student Well-BeingIn this paper, I investigate the causal impact of school-based support staff on student absences and chronic absenteeism using the introduction of the Child and Family Support Team (CFST) program in North Carolina. Introduced during the 2006/07 school year, the CFST program funded two-person… more →
Success Begets Success: The Dynamic Treatment Effects of Financial Aid Tournaments
Financial aid programs in higher education vary widely in design, including how aid is structured and the timing of provision. This paper studies the impact of financial aid provided as a repeated tournament and its dynamic treatment effects. Pooling administrative data that captures 32% of all… more →
The Effect of School-Based Health Centers on Adolescent Mental Health and Behavior
Topics: Student Well-BeingAdolescent mental health has experienced significant declines in the past decade, yet take-up of mental health services has remained low among adolescents. This paper examines whether localized access to mental health services has meaningful impacts on adolescent mental health and behavior. I… more →
Homelessness and Student Outcomes by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and School Level
Topics: Student Well-BeingA substantial number of U.S. students experience homelessness, yet our understanding of how homelessness shapes student outcomes is limited. We use seven years of longitudinal data on Indiana students in kindergarten through eighth grade, including more than 40,000 students who experienced… more →
The Politics of Administrative Ease: Public Access to Local Special Education Information
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWhat political and administrative resources contribute to the realization of rights in the United States? We examine this puzzle in the context of rights to education for students with disabilities by measuring the administrative ease of accessing local special education information: the extent… more →
Title I and IDEA as Complementary Federal Responses: Distinguishing Opportunity-Mediated and Opportunity-Independent Underachievement
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTitle I and IDEA are complementary federal responses to different sources of low achievement. Title I targets opportunity-mediated underachievement, while IDEA targets persistent underachievement for which deficits in ordinary educational opportunity are not the primary explanation. A simple… more →
The Expansion of Alternative Schools: Impact of Schools Targeting Lower Performing Students
Despite rising high school graduation rates in the US, a substantial portion of students do not obtain a high school degree. Alternative schools have emerged as a potential solution offering opportunities for credit recovery and flexible scheduling. Using variation in the timing and proximity of… more →
Unpacking the Long-Term Impact of Holistic Supports for Community College Students
Tags: Higher education, Student supportsThis paper presents longer-term findings from a randomized controlled trial of One Million Degrees (OMD), a comprehensive support program for community college students in the Chicago metro area that provides financial, academic, personal, and professional assistance. Results from an initial… more →
Sustaining AI-Enabled Student Support: A Four-Year Implementation and Impact Study
Topics: Student Well-BeingAI-enabled chatbots are increasingly used to support student success, yet evidence on their long-term sustainability and impacts remains limited. We examine the implementation of an AI-enabled text-messaging chatbot at a large, urban public university. Drawing on system observation, discussions… more →
The Causal Effects of Federal Work-Study Offers on College Enrollment and Program Participation
Tags: Higher education, Student supportsFederal Work-Study (FWS) is a distinctive type of financial aid, originally intended to both reduce financial constraints and improve access to career-relevant job opportunities. Prior research on FWS has primarily focused on post-enrollment, post-program-participation outcomes, leaving… more →
Fast Track to Success? A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Condensed Course Formats at Tennessee Community Colleges
Kaylee T. Matheny, Madison Dell, Gus Gluek, Rachel Baker, Eric Bettinger, Alex Monday, Hidahis Mesa.As colleges face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes, one solution gaining traction is the adoption of condensed courses (i.e., shortened academic terms). We employ quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of enrolling in a condensed course on course- and student-level… more →
Beyond the One-Teacher Model: Experimental Evidence on Using Embedded Paraprofessionals as Personalized Instructors
Topics: Student LearningUsing embedded paraprofessionals to provide personalized instruction is a promising model for differentiating instruction within the classroom. This study examines two randomized controlled trials of paraprofessional-led tutoring in early-grade math and literacy. However, intent-to-treat (ITT)… more →
Behind the Scenes: Faculty-Staff Collaboration in a Student Success Effort
Interventions to improve postsecondary student success often involve supports that are external to the college classroom, although there is growing evidence that faculty involvement in interventions can improve student outcomes. This paper explores the challenges that arise when faculty and… more →
The impact of increasing school resources on peer victimization: Evidence from targeted funding on low-income families in Chile
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWhile a large body of literature has examined the impact of school spending on academic outcomes, far less is known about its effect on students’ socioemotional development and school experiences. This study contributes to narrowing this gap by evaluating the impact of a nationwide school… more →
Comparative Cost Analyses of Community College Student Success Initiatives
Limited resources hinder community college completion. Even with strategies shown to improve outcomes, decisionmakers still ask: What does it cost? Can we afford it? I present the first comparative cost analyses of six student success initiatives: basic needs supports, college/career success… more →
Reclassifying English Learners
Topics: Student LearningMost English learners (ELs) eventually gain sufficient English proficiency to be reclassified and receive instruction without linguistic supports. Though well-identified, prior regression discontinuity estimates for the effect of reclassification are estimated too imprecisely to detect policy-… more →