ERIC Number: EJ1218000
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0276-8739
EISSN: N/A
College Guidance for All: A Randomized Experiment in Pre-College Advising
Bettinger, Eric P.; Evans, Brent J.
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, v38 n3 p579-599 Sum 2019
Pre-college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing evidence on these programs often uses within-school randomization where spillovers and alternative supports may confound estimates. We provide the first evidence on a whole school intervention resulting from a school-level randomized controlled trial in the United States. The college access program we study uses a near-peer model where a recent college graduate works at the school assisting students in the application and enrollment process. Pooled results across the first three years of program implementation find no significant impacts on overall college enrollment. However, subgroup analyses reveal positive, significant effects among the groups most targeted by the intervention: Hispanic and low-income students. Most of the impact comes through increasing two-year college enrollment, but this appears to be new entrants rather than inducing students to move from four-year to two-year colleges. The observed positive effects for these subgroups attenuate over time. We attribute this drop in the estimated impact to departures in fidelity of the experiment. Even among the cohorts for which we find positive enrollment impacts, we find no significant impacts on college persistence. [For the grantee submission, see ED594418.]
Descriptors: Academic Advising, Disadvantaged Schools, High School Students, College Attendance, Program Descriptions, Disproportionate Representation, College Admission, Student Financial Aid, Intervention, Access to Education, College Graduates, College Applicants, Hispanic American Students, Low Income, Academic Persistence, Correlation, Two Year Colleges, Comparative Analysis
Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2429/WileyCDA
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
What Works Clearinghouse Reviewed: Meets Evidence Standards with Reservations
WWC Study Page: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Study/88766