Panel Paper: Childhood Educational Interventions: Experimental Evidence On Postsecondary Outcomes

Thursday, November 8, 2012 : 3:20 PM
Hopkins (Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Steven W. Hemelt1, Kimberly B. Roth2 and William W. Eaton2, (1)University of Michigan, (2)Johns Hopkins University


In this paper we explore the long-run impacts of two randomized elementary school interventions – one curricular and one behavioral – on postsecondary attendance and degree completion. We match baseline data on a group of first grade students in the mid-1980s in Baltimore City Public schools to detailed college-going information from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). We first estimate impacts of both interventions on a variety of short-run outcomes. We then examine effects on long-run postsecondary outcomes, explore heterogeneity along enrollment and attainment margins by a variety of demographic student subgroups, and investigate the ability of different types of short-run effects to predict observed long-run outcomes. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our main findings.