Not Too Late: Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth

This report was published by Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research.

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS REPORT:

There is growing concern that improving the academic skills of children in poverty is too difficult and costly once they reach adolescence, and so policymakers should instead focus either on vocationally oriented instruction or else on early childhood education. Yet this conclusion might be premature given that so few previous interventions have targeted a key barrier to school success: ‘œmismatch’ between what schools deliver and the needs of youth, particularly those far behind grade level.

The researchers report on a randomized controlled trial of a school-based intervention that provides disadvantaged youth with intensive individualized academic instruction. Participation increased math achievement test scores and reduced course failures in math by one-half in addition to reducing failures in non math courses. While some questions remain, these impacts on a per-dollar basis, with a cost per participant of around $3,800, or $2,500 if delivered at larger scale, are as large as those of almost any other educational intervention whose effectiveness has been rigorously studied.

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