Working Paper: NBER ID: w27661
Authors: Jonathan Guryan; Sandra Christenson; Ashley Cureton; Ijun Lai; Jens Ludwig; Catherine Schwarz; Emma Shirey; Mary Clair Turner
Abstract: In response to budget problems, many urban school systems reduced resources for getting students to come to school, like truancy officers. Chicago, for instance, went from 150 truancy officers down to, in 1991, a total of zero. Is that a good idea? We explore here the effects of increased support by a pro-social adult, or “social capital,” delivered through a structured student monitoring and mentoring program called Check & Connect (C&C). We carried out a large-scale randomized controlled trial with C&C in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to students in grades 1-8. Program participation decreased absences in grades 5-7 by 4.2 days, or 22.9 percent, but with no detectable effects on students in grades 1-4. We also did not find statistically significant effects on learning outcomes such as test scores or GPA, or any detectable spillovers to other students within the schools where the program was administered. The modest impacts per dollar spent, compared to previous evidence on either low-cost "nudges" or relatively intensive, higher-cost interventions, raise the possibility that, for very disadvantaged students, there may be decreasing but then increasing returns to program intensity for the problem of student disengagement.
Keywords: mentoring; school attendance; academic outcomes; truancy prevention; Check & Connect
JEL Codes: I20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| mentorship relationship (Y80) | program's effectiveness (C87) |
| Check & Connect (CC) mentoring program (I24) | reduced absences among middle school students (I21) |
| Check & Connect (CC) mentoring program (I24) | improved attendance (I24) |
| Check & Connect (CC) mentoring program (I24) | no significant effects on academic outcomes (I24) |