Working Paper: NBER ID: w26386
Authors: Thomas Dee; Emily Penner
Abstract: The My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Challenge developed by President Obama supports communities that promote civic initiatives designed to improve the educational and economic opportunities specifically for young men of color. In Oakland, California, the MBK educational initiative features the African American Male Achievement (AAMA) program. The AAMA focuses on regularly scheduled classes exclusively for Black, male students and taught by Black, male teachers who focus on social-emotional training, African-American history, culturally relevant pedagogy, and academic supports. In this study, we present quasi-experimental evidence on the dropout effects of the AAMA by leveraging its staggered scale-up across high schools in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). We find that AAMA availability led to a significant reduction in the number of Black males who dropped out as well as smaller reductions among Black females, particularly in 9th grade.
Keywords: My Brother's Keeper; AAMA; Educational Support; Dropout Rates; Black Males; Targeted Universalism
JEL Codes: I20; I24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| AAMA access (Y20) | reduced dropout rates among black male students (I24) |
| AAMA access (Y20) | increased one-year school persistence rate (I21) |
| AAMA access (Y20) | decreased dropout counts among black males (I21) |
| AAMA access (Y20) | increased implied rate of on-time high school completion (I21) |
| AAMA access (Y20) | smaller reductions in dropout counts among black females (I24) |