From Start to Finish: Expanding Opportunity for a College Credential Through a City-Wide Coaching Program

• In Event: Education Interventions That Influence Student Success

Abstract

Earning a college degree is seen as crucial for future well-being. Despite an overall increase in college-going rates in recent decades, students from low-income backgrounds and racial/ethnic minority groups are less likely to attend, persist, and complete college than their peers. Success Boston Coaching provides one-on-one college transition coaching during the first two years of college to reduce social, academic, and logistical barriers to success in students’ transitions into college. Using a rigorous quasi-experimental design, this paper examines the effect of coaching—above and beyond the services students already receive—on persistence, academic achievement, and credential completion. The results estimate that coaching supports improve student outcomes along several important dimensions on the path to college completion.

Authors

• Tamara Wilder Linkow, Abt Associates Inc.

• Kelly Lack, Abt Associates Inc.

• Erin Bumgarner, Abt Associates Inc.

• Tori Morris, Abt Associates Inc.

• Austin Nichols, Abt Associates Inc.

• Beth Gamse, Independent Consultant