Heterogeneity in Educational Intervention Fadeout and Long-run Mechanisms: Three Analyses of Block-Level Impact Patterns

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium presents three studies focusing on the long-term impacts of educational interventions on children’s cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. Each study applies meta-analytic methods to multi-site randomized controlled trials, estimating treatment effects within “blocks” (e.g., site, classroom, school) and uses meta-analytic techniques to synthesize post-test and follow-up effects. This approach reflects an emerging strategy in program evaluation, utilizing within-study heterogeneity to examine impact persistence and cross-domain transfer. Two studies explore how impacts on cognitive and social-emotional outcomes may co-develop; the third investigates sources of heterogeneity in impact persistence. By leveraging intervention-induced variation and meta-analytic techniques, we introduce a novel quasi-experimental approach to examining skill building. Together, these studies advance understanding of how interventions unfold across developmental domains and periods.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research on Evaluation

Chair

• Emma Hart, Boston College

Papers

• Re-Examining the Head Start Impact Study: Impact Persistence and the Counterfactual Condition - Caroline Botvin, Columbia University; Emma Hart, Boston College; Drew Bailey, University of California - Irvine; Tyler Watts, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Using Experimental Variation to Examine the Co-Development of Cognitive and Social-emotional Skills in Early Childhood - Emma Hart, Boston College; Caroline Botvin, Columbia University; Drew Bailey, University of California - Irvine; Tyler Watts, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Exploring Cognitive and Social-Emotional Impact Patterns in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Math Tutoring - Siling Guo, University of California - Irvine; Sarah R. Powell, University of Texas at Austin; Emma Hart, Boston College; Caroline Botvin, Columbia University; Xin Lin, University of Macau; Tyler Watts, Teachers College, Columbia University; Drew Bailey, University of California - Irvine

Session Organizer

• Siling Guo, University of California - Irvine

Discussant

• Vivian Wong, University of Virginia