부산대학교 도서관

Academic support services such as coaching and mentoring programs have shown the most promise, but only when they are implemented in a very proactive manner--when they provide students with personalized follow-up and attention. Unfortunately, these programs are often expensive, making them hard to implement or scale at a regional or national level. This policy brief analyzes a relatively low-cost but targeted-group coaching program that has the potential to scale. This program was rolled out at a large public university in California starting in the year 2009. The program targeted first-year students most at risk of dropping out--those placed on academic probation during their first semester at university. A prior working paper also provided some of the first causal evidence that coaching and/or mentoring programs can lead to significant gains in the labor market. While we find that coaching had no overall effect on employment and wages, it does document substantial wage gains for men and lower-income students. These findings are timely and relevant, as policymakers and researchers aim to address the college "completion crisis" in the United States. [For the working paper, "Keep Me In, Coach: The Short- and Long-Term Effects of Targeted Academic Coaching. Upjohn Institute Working Paper 22-370," see ED623810.]