This week our research team released a new NBER working paper reporting results from our “at-scale” informational interventions for high school choice in New York City. You can read my co-author Sarah Cohodes’ Twitter summary here.
We fielded three interventions with different levels of customization and modalities (paper and digital) using a randomized controlled trial in 473 middle schools serving over 115,000 8th graders. The first intervention was a customized list of geographically proximate schools with strong graduation rates. The second intervention was access to a web/smartphone app we created: a “virtual guidance” counselor that created a personalized list of recommended schools. The third intervention was an introduction to the NYC SchoolFinder app that was rolled out by the NYCDOE in the first year of our study.
All of the tools -- except for the online version of our recommended school list -- improved application strategy and decreased application to low graduation rate schools. Better applications translated into a reduction in enrollment in low graduation rate high schools. Our team will continue to follow students in our study in the coming years to see whether better choices further translate into better long-run outcomes.