Seminars

(AEW webinar) Not Too Late: Nw Evidence from Chicago on Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth

Date 2021-01-26 (Tue)
Time 08:30 AM
Venue Conference Room B110
Speaker Professor Jonathan Guryan
Background Professor Guryan received his Ph.D. in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. He is currently a Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. His research fields are Education Policy, Poverty, Race and Inequality, Social Disparities and Health.
Abstract There is growing concern that improving the academic skills of children in poverty is too difficult and costly once they reach adolescence, and so policymakers should instead focus either on vocationally oriented instruction or else on early childhood education. Yet this conclusion might be premature given that so few previous interventions have targeted a key barrier to school success: “mismatch” between what schools deliver and the needs of youth, particularly those far behind grade level. The researchers report on a randomized controlled trial of a school-based intervention that provides disadvantaged youth with intensive individualized academic instruction. The study sample consists of 2,718 male ninth and tenth graders in 12 public high schools on the south and west sides of Chicago, of whom 95 percent are either black or Hispanic and more than 90 percent are free- or reduced-price lunch eligible. Participation increased math achievement test scores by 0.19 to 0.31 standard deviations (SD), depending on how the researchers standardize, increased math grades by 0.50 SD, and reduced course failures in math by one-half in addition to reducing failures in non math courses. While some questions remain, these impacts on a per-dollar basis-with a cost per participant of around $3,800, or $2,500 if delivered at larger scale-are as large as those of almost any other educational intervention whose effectiveness has been rigorously studied.

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