Document Tag: randomized controlled trial

Experimental estimates of college coaching on postsecondary re-enrollment (2024)

College attendance has increased significantly over the last few decades, but dropout rates remain high, with fewer than half of all adults ultimately obtaining a postsecondary credential. This project investigates whether one-on-one college coaching improves college attendance and completion outcomes for former low- and middle-income income state aid recipients who attended college but left prior to earning a degree. We conducted a randomized control trial with approximately 8,000 former students in their early- to mid-20s. Half of participants assigned to the treatment group were offered the opportunity to receive coaching services from InsideTrack, with all communication done remotely via phone or video. Intent-to-treat analyses based on assignment to coaching shows no impacts on college enrollment and we can rule out effects larger than a two-percentage point (5%) increase in subsequent Fall enrollment.

Empirical Benchmarks for Planning and Interpreting Causal Effects of Community College Interventions (2023)

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are an increasingly common research design for evaluating the effectiveness of community college (CC) interventions. However, when planning an RCT evaluation of a CC intervention, there is limited empirical information about what sized effects an intervention might reasonably achieve, which can lead to under- or over-powered studies. Relatedly, when interpreting results from an evaluation of a CC intervention, there is limited empirical information to contextualize the magnitude of an effect estimate relative to what sized effects have been observed in past evaluations. We provide empirical benchmarks to help with the planning and interpretation of community college evaluations. To do so, we present findings across well-executed RCTs of 39 CC interventions that are part of a unique dataset known as The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trials (THE-RCT). The analyses include 21,163–65,604 students (depending on outcome and semester) enrolled in 44 institutions. Outcomes include enrollment, credits earned, and credential attainment. Effect size distributions are presented by outcome and semester. For example, across the interventions examined, the mean effect on cumulative credits earned after three semesters is 1.14 credits. Effects around 0.16 credits are at the 25th percentile of the distribution. Effects around 1.69 credits are at the 75th percentile of the distribution. This work begins to provide empirical benchmarks for planning and interpreting effects of CC evaluations.