2024

It takes a village (plus AI): A pilot study on AI-driven math tutoring

Researchers:
  • Ken Koedinger
Location:
Pennsylvania
Type:
  • Pilot project
Personalized Learning Squared (PLUS) is an ed-tech platform that uses a hybrid human-AI tutoring to support middle school students from historically low-income communities. Research shows that tutoring works to improve learning, especially among students who...

2023

Impact Evaluation of a High School Mentorship Program

Researchers:
Location:
Maryland
Type:
  • Full project
The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) has partnered with Thread of Baltimore, Maryland to evaluate their high school mentorship program, an intervention designed to assist underperforming students at risk of dropping out of school. Students...

Disentangling Sources of Bias: Evidence from Advanced Placement Course Recommendations

Researchers:
  • Carey Dimmitt
  • Dania Francis
  • Angela C. M. de Oliveira
Location:
United States of America
Type:
  • Full project
Individuals who earn degrees in STEM fields have better labor market outcomes on average. For some, a STEM education can be a pathway out of poverty, however; minoritized populations in the U.S. are less likely to earn degrees in STEM fields. In this project...

Learning by Creating Math Tutoring Videos (LCMTV)

Researchers:
  • Rohen Shah
Location:
Chicago, IL
Type:
  • Pilot project
Peer tutoring has a potential “double-dividend”: the tutors themselves may be learning from the process. I will pilot a new intervention, Learning by Creating Math Tutoring Videos (LCMTV), which aims to help middle and high school students learn math by...

Math FUNdations: A Pilot Study

Researchers:
  • Kalena Cortes
Location:
Texas
Type:
  • Pilot project
Parental engagement in a child’s learning is a key for academic success; however, especially for low-income families, there are several barriers to its frequency and effectiveness. We propose a small-scale randomized control trial (RCT) pilot of a new...

2022

Learning Curiosity

Researchers:
  • Ariel Kalil
  • Susan Mayer
Location:
Chicago, IL
Type:
  • Full project
We propose a RCT called Evaluating Learning Interactions (ELI) to examine the efficacy of two contrasting approaches to help low-income parents improve the school readiness skills of their 3-5 year-old children. ELI is a six-month text-based program delivered...

2021

Ensuring High Quality Assessments in the Baby’s First Years RCT

Location:
New York, New Orleans, Omaha, and the Twin Cities
Type:
  • Full project
In response to Covid-related complications, we request funding that will enable us to postpone for 12 months the collection of our capstone lab-based measurements of child functioning in the Baby’s First Years (BFY) RCT. BFY has randomly assigned 1,000 low...

Cash Transfers and Parent-Child Interaction

Researchers:
Location:
Oakland, CA
Type:
  • Pilot project
Differences in academic achievement between high and low socioeconomic status (SES) children arise at a very early age. Understanding the factors that give rise to these differences is essential for understanding the intergenerational transmission of poverty...

2020

Addressing Implicit Bias in Higher Education

Researchers:
Location:
Oregon
Type:
  • Full project
This study will evaluate the effects of faculty's implicit bias training on closing academic disparities by race and gender in higher education. Faculty, who play central roles in students' academics and careers, are well-positioned to address gaps in students...

Parent Engagement & Action for Kindergarten Success (PEAKS)

Researchers:
  • Ariel Kalil
  • Susan Mayer
Location:
Illinois
Type:
  • Pilot project
We propose a pilot of a new intervention, Parent Engagement and Action for Kindergarten Success (PEAKS), which aims to improve the school readiness of low-income children not enrolled in preschool. PEAKS will use behavioral tools designed to increase parent...

Understanding the Importance of Summer Learning in a Pandemic

Researchers:
  • Sean Corcoran
  • Chloe Gibbs
  • Sarah Kroeger
  • James Sullivan
Location:
New York, New York
Type:
  • Full project
This study seeks to better understand the role of individualized, virtual summer instruction in redressing learning losses resulting from the COVID-19 school closures. In particular, we are interested in the potential for virtual learning to combat the...

2019

Quantifying the Impact of Jobs for America's Graduates

Researchers:
Location:
South Bend, IN
Type:
  • Pilot project
What is the effect of completing the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) Multi-Year Dropout Prevention Program on low-income 11th to 12th graders’ academic and economic outcomes? The City of South Bend, in partnership with researchers from J-PAL and LEO, will...

Evaluation of Talking Points

Researchers:
  • Ariel Kalil
  • Susan Mayer
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
TalkingPoints is an interactive personalized messaging platform aimed at increasing communication between parents and teachers, increasing parents’ engagement in their children’s schooling and improving children’s executive functioning skill in grade 3...

2018

Improving and Sustaining Management Practices in Public Schools: Evidence from Puerto Rico

Researchers:
Location:
Puerto Rico
Type:
  • Full project
Improvements in management practices have been credited with generating stunning productivity improvement in the private sector. Although their adoption in the education sector has been slow, management-level interventions have been shown to lead to...

Increasing the Take-up of Cal Grant Awards Through Improved Notification Letter

Researchers:
  • Elizabeth Linos
  • Jesse Rothstein
Location:
California
Type:
  • Full project
Each year, over 150,000 California high school students receive letters notifying them that they qualify for Cal Grants, grant aid for college that is assigned based on family income and high school GPA. Less than two-thirds claim their awards. The California...

My Student's Team

Researchers:
  • Todd Rogers
Location:
Wake County (Raleigh), NC; Manchester, CT; Windsor, CT
Type:
  • Full project
Strong relationships with non-parental adults are associated with greater student success. Despite this, many children receive little educational support from adults in their families’ social networks – even from those with whom they have relationships. This...

Improving Educational Achievements through Better Sleep Habits

Researchers:
  • Osea Giuntella
  • Zack Goodman
  • Kelly Hyde
  • Silvia Saccardo
  • Sally Sadoff
Location:
Pittsburgh, PA
Type:
  • Full project
The proposed study investigates how technology-assisted behavioral interventions can help individuals improve their sleep habits in order to improve educational outcomes. In prior work, we find that incentives for meeting sleep goals increase sleep and also...

2017

An Experimental Evaluation of Philadelphia WorkReady

Researchers:
Location:
Philadelphia, PA
Type:
  • Full project
Sara Heller (University of Pennsylvania), the City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, and the Philadelphia Youth Network are conducting a randomized evaluation to evaluate the impact of WorkReady, a summer jobs program for disadvantaged youth. Recent evidence...

Impact Evaluation of Bridges to Success

Researchers:
Location:
Rochester, NY
Type:
  • Full project
More than 43 million people in the United States live in poverty. Poverty is particularly pervasive in the city of Rochester, NY where rates are more than twice the national average. The Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI), in partnership with the...

Improving Health and Learning Through Sports and Play: Understanding the Impact of the Work to Play Soccer Program for Chicago Students

Researchers:
Location:
Chicago, IL
Type:
  • Pilot project
The purpose of this research is to study the effects of Urban Initiatives’ Work to Play program, an out-ofschool- time program that primarily serves 3rd and 4th grade children. Our central research question is whether participation in this structured sports...

2016

GoSection8 (Informing and Nudging Families to Opportunity)

Researchers:
Location:
King County, WA
Type:
  • Full project
The neighborhoods in which children grow up can impact their earnings, education, and wellbeing, but many families who receive rental assistance in the United States through Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) do not move to neighborhoods that improve their children...

Big Word Club Evaluation

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Other
This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a classroom-based program intended to increase the vocabulary of preschool and primary school children. The program, called the Big Word Club (BWC), consists of videos, books and activities intended to help...

2015

Can (E)mail Improve the Effectiveness of BMI Reporting?

Researchers:
  • Douglas Almond
  • Amy Ellen Schwartz
Type:
  • Pilot project
How information is delivered is as important as its content. We consider how various delivery methods of body mass index (BMI) information to New York City (NYC) families can affect subsequent student outcomes, including daily school meal participation and...

Understanding the Potential of Summer Jobs Programs

Researchers:
Location:
Philadelphia, PA
Type:
  • Pilot project
Sara Heller (University of Pennsylvania), in collaboration with the Philadelphia Youth Network, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, is conducting a pilot study of WorkReady, a summer jobs program for...

Increasing the Reach of Promising Dropout Prevention Programs

Researchers:
Location:
United States
Type:
  • Full project
The inability to consistently deliver promising education interventions at large scale is an important contributing cause to inequality in the U.S. The research team applies insights from price theory and field-based randomized controlled trials to examine the...

2014

Stay the Course

Location:
Fort Worth, TX
Type:
  • Full project
This study will evaluate a community college intervention program that is currently being implemented with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design on a campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The program is designed to address the “life barriers” – as distinct from...

Improving academic outcomes for disadvantaged youth: a randomized experiment in Chicago

Researchers:
Location:
Chicago, IL
Type:
  • Full project
JPAL-NA affiliate Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago) is carrying out a large-scale RCT with the Chicago Public Schools and Match Education of Boston to test whether intensive, individuated instruction (two-on-one daily tutoring for an hour a day) can improve...

The (Null) Impact of Tax Credit Information on College Enrollment in Texas

Researchers:
Location:
Texas
Type:
  • Pilot project
Evidence suggests that informational and behavioral “nudges” which help individuals overcome procrastination or inattention can affect educational attainment, college enrollment, and student achievement. Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test...

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