Assistance in the 11th Hour: Experimental Interventions to Mitigate Summer Attrition Among College-Intending High School Graduates

Benjamin Castleman

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry among low-income students, substantial inequalities remain. Policy makers have largely overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students? transition to college. Following graduation, however, students encounter a range of financial and informational barriers to college enrollment, yet no longer have access to high school counselors, have not engaged with supports at their college, and may come from families with little college experience. Recent research documents surprisingly high rates of summer attrition among students who intended to enroll in college as of graduation, with particularly pronounced attrition among low-income students. In my dissertation I will evaluate two large-scale randomized trials I designed to investigate the role of technology and the value of high school-university partnerships in mitigating summer attrition and helping students enroll and succeed in college.

About Benjamin Castleman

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