From Access to Achievement: Expanding Advanced Learning Opportunities

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Federal, state, and local policies play a central role in shaping access to advanced learning opportunities and the development of human capital. This panel examines how policies across countries, states, and localities expand access to academic resources, how benefits are distributed across student groups, and whether these policies translate into sustained improvements in educational and economic outcomes. A central theme is that expanding access is necessary but not sufficient: policy design, targeting, and complementary supports are critical in determining whether increased access leads to equitable long-run success. 

The papers in this session focus on policies that expand access to academic resources at key points along the educational pipeline, from middle school through college entry. Despite a shared goal of improving outcomes, these policies vary in design, targeting, and implementation, leading to important differences in effectiveness and distributional impacts.

The first paper evaluates an automatic enrollment policy in a large urban school district that places students into advanced coursework based on test score thresholds. Using a regression discontinuity design, the study finds that the policy substantially increases access to advanced coursework and accelerates progression through the math pipeline. However, gains in longer-run persistence are uneven, with preliminary results suggesting larger effects for girls and White students than for boys and underrepresented minority students, highlighting the limits of access-only interventions.

The second paper examines the role of early mentorship in developing exceptional talent in mathematics. It shows that relatively modest investments in teacher-led clubs and competitions can identify and cultivate high-ability students, leading to long-term gains in educational attainment and participation in high-impact careers. The findings suggest that the supply of exceptional talent is more elastic than commonly assumed and can be expanded through targeted supports.

The third paper studies the effects of private tutoring centers using geocoded data on center openings. It finds that increased access to tutoring improves test scores, high school completion, and college outcomes, but that benefits are concentrated among higher-achieving and more advantaged students. These results highlight how market-based expansions in educational resources can amplify existing inequalities when take-up is uneven.

The fourth paper evaluates a bridge tutoring program for low-income students transitioning to selective universities in Peru using a randomized controlled trial. The program improves academic performance and persistence, with effects that persist over multiple years. The results demonstrate that targeted academic supports can complement access-oriented policies by addressing preparation gaps that otherwise limit student success.

Taken together, these papers show how public, private, and targeted interventions shape both access to opportunity and the distribution of educational gains. The findings reinforce that expanding access alone is not sufficient: policy design, targeting, and complementary supports play a central role in determining whether expanded access translates into sustained and equitable success. By examining diverse approaches across contexts, this panel offers new insights into how state and local policies can more effectively build human capital and reduce disparities in educational and economic outcomes.

Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Joshua Goodman, Boston University

Discussants

• Brian Aaron Jacob, University of Michigan

• Brianna Nicole Felegi, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Organizer

• Cameron Conrad, RAND Corporation

Individual Presentations

• Scaling Access and Excellence: Default Course Placements and Progression in Advanced Math - Presenting Author: Maranna Yoder, Indiana University

• Early Mentors for Exceptional Students - Presenting Author: Ian Hunter Calaway, DePaul University

• The Returns to Private Tutoring Centers - Presenting Author: Marty Haoyuan Chen, University of Maryland, College Park

• Beyond Admission: An Online Math Program and College Persistence Among Low-Income Students at Selective Universities - Presenting Author: Jostin Alfredo Kitmang, Harvard University