 Do learning communities increase first year college retention? Evidence from a randomized control trialTarek Azzam, Michael Bates and David Fairris Economics of Education Review, 2022, vol. 89, issue C Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the impact of a learning community on first-year college retention at a four-year public research university using a randomized control trial (RCT) for those students who opt into the experiment. Intent-to-treat and local-average-treatment-effect estimates reveal no discernable programmatic effects. We also generate estimates of program impact using observational techniques and find estimated impacts that are positive, large and statistically significant. We explore a variety of selection processes to better understand the differences between the RCT and observational estimates and to reflect on the generalizability of the RCT results for various other populations of interest. Non-random selection into the experimental sample accounts for the major difference in the two estimates and also cautions against generalizing the RCT result for populations outside the experiment. Keywords: Higher education; Experimental design; Generalizability; Selection on unobserved variables (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:89:y:2022:i:c:s0272775722000553 DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2022.102279 Access Statistics for this article Economics of Education Review is currently edited by E. Cohn More articles in Economics of Education Review from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.