WWC Review of the Report &quot;The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring&quot;
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2012-08-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Coaching (Performance),College Students,Mentors,Academic Persistence,Enrollment,Graduation,Program Effectiveness,Educational Research

The study featured in this What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Quick Review examined whether &quot;InsideTrack&quot;, a personalized student coaching service for college students, increased rates of staying in and graduating from college. The study analyzed data on about 13,500 students who were enrolled in one of eight higher education institutions during the 2003-04 and 2007-08 academic years. These institutions provided lists of students for &quot;InsideTrack&quot; to include in the study. &quot;InsideTrack&quot; created lotteries that randomly assigned groups of students either to receive coaching services from &quot;InsideTrack&quot; or to serve as the comparison group. Students were moved between groups after random assignment in 10 of the 17 lotteries. The authors presented two sets of analyses: one based on the subset of seven well-executed lotteries (where students were not moved between groups after random assignment) and the other based on the full set of 17 lotteries. For the seven well-executed lotteries, the study found that students assigned to receive &quot;InsideTrack&quot; were significantly more likely than students in the comparison group to remain enrolled at their institutions. Six months after random assignment, 81% of students in the intervention group were still enrolled, compared to 77% of students in the comparison group. After 12 months, 66% and 51% of the intervention and comparison groups, respectively, were enrolled, and 44% and 37% were enrolled after 18 months. There was no significant difference in enrollment rates after 24 months. There was also no significant difference in completion rates within four years, a result based on a subset of three well-executed lotteries. For all 17 lotteries, the study found that students assigned to receive &quot;InsideTrack&quot; were significantly more likely to remain enrolled at their institutions than students in the comparison group. Six months after random assignment, 63% of students in the intervention group were still enrolled, compared with 58% of those in the comparison group. After 12 months, enrollment was 49% and 44%, respectively. After 18 months, the numbers were 33% and 29%, and after 24 months, they were 28% and 24%. The study did not examine completion rates within four years for all lotteries. The research on the subset of seven well-executed lotteries described in this report meets WWC evidence standards without reservations. The research for all lotteries described in this report meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. Appended are: (1) Study details; (2) Outcome measures for each domain; (3) Study findings for each domain; and (4) Supplemental findings by domain. A glossary of terms is included. (Contains 1 endnote.) [The following study is the focus of this &quot;Quick Review&quot;: &quot;The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring. NBER Working Paper No. 16881&quot; (ED517379).]