Working Paper: NBER ID: w27897
Authors: Christopher Avery; Benjamin L. Castleman; Michael Hurwitz; Bridget T. Long; Lindsay C. Page
Abstract: We investigate the efficacy of text messaging campaigns to remind students about and support them with key steps in the college search, application, selection and transition process. First, in collaboration with the College Board and uAspire, both national non-profit organizations, we implemented text-message based outreach and advising to students in over 700 US high schools that primarily serve large shares of low-income students. Second, we collaborated with several school districts in the state of Texas to implement a school-based version of the intervention. In the national sample, treatment students received outreach approximately once per month from uAspire counselors, whereas in the Texas sample, treatment students received outreach once every one to two weeks from their high school counselors. In both samples, outreach began in Spring 2015 and continued through September 2016. We tested these interventions with concurrent cluster randomized control trials with randomization at the school level. In contrast to the national version of the intervention, which tended to produce null effects, the school-based intervention yielded positive and significant impacts on several college-going steps and on college enrollment for certain subgroups. We discuss key differences between the two versions of the intervention that may have contributed to these divergent results.
Keywords: text messaging; college enrollment; low-income students; randomized controlled trials
JEL Codes: I21; I22; I23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Collaboration with local entities (O36) | Effectiveness of interventions (I24) |
| Context and delivery of the intervention (C90) | College enrollment outcomes (I23) |
| Text messaging interventions (L96) | College enrollment (Texas schools study) (I23) |
| Text messaging interventions (L96) | College enrollment (national study) (I23) |
| Text messaging interventions (L96) | FAFSA submission and completion rates (national study) (I22) |
| Text messaging interventions (L96) | FAFSA filing rates (Texas schools study) (I22) |
| Personalized outreach (C91) | College enrollment (Texas schools study) (I23) |