A reason to try harder? Community college “Promise” programs and student effort in high school

• In Event: 4203 - School Effects and Interventions: Causal Evidence

Abstract

Free community college “Promise” programs have proliferated in recent years, particularly in urban areas with large populations of low-income, academically-struggling students. Many such programs make eligibility contingent on meeting academic performance thresholds, but set thresholds low enough to be within reasonable reach of students with modest prior performance. But do such “low-bar” merit scholarship improve students’ effort and performance while in high school? I investigate impacts of one such program, the Milwaukee Technical College Promise, on students in Milwaukee Public Schools, exploiting aspects of program design to identify causal effects through a differences-in-differences strategy. Findings are paradoxical: the program appears to have modestly improved academic performance while undercutting attendance. I trace implications for future program design.

Author

• David B. Monaghan, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania