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Abstract
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Before
We evaluate the impact of an intervention aimed at informing high school guidance counselors of the advantages of the Economics degree. Our outcomes of interest are student take-up of the economics major and subsequent labor market outcomes. We focus on Texas high schools that tend to send a high number of students to Texas A&M University. We randomly select high schools to receive an invitation to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M in early September. The workshop, targeted at guidance counselors, will provide information on the advantages to majoring in economics. Counselors at other randomly selected high schools will receive standard information materials via mail, and a third set of schools will act as a control group.
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After
We evaluate the impact of an intervention aimed at informing high school guidance counselors of the advantages of the Economics degree. Our outcomes of interest are student take-up of the economics major and subsequent labor market outcomes. We focus on Texas high schools that tend to send a high number of students to Texas A&M University. We randomly select high schools to receive an invitation to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M in early September 2019. The workshop, targeted at guidance counselors, provided information on the advantages to majoring in economics. In Fall 2020, counselors at other randomly selected high schools received an invitation to participate in an online informational workshop. A third set of schools acts as a control group.
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Trial End Date
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Before
September 30, 2024
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After
September 30, 2026
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Last Published
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Before
June 29, 2019 05:06 PM
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After
October 05, 2022 11:29 AM
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Intervention (Public)
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Before
We randomly select high schools in Texas to receive an invitation to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M in early September. The workshop, targeted at guidance counselors, will provide information on the advantages to majoring in economics. Counselors at other randomly selected high schools will receive standard information materials via mail, and a third set of schools will act as a control group.
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After
We randomly select high schools in Texas to receive an invitation to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M in early September 2019. The workshop, targeted at guidance counselors, provided information on the advantages to majoring in economics. Counselors at other randomly selected high schools were initially planned to receive standard information materials via mail, and a third set of schools acted as a control group.
We modified the design in early 2020 (when COVID-19 hit). Instead of sending information materials to the second group of schools, we decided to invite the second group of schools to participate in an online counselor workshop held via zoom in Fall 2020. In Summer 2022, we decided to conduct a second round of treatment for the schools originally assigned to the in-person counselor workshop. We invited the schools who were originally invited but did not participate in the 2019 workshop to participate in a Fall 2022 workshop, scheduled for October 21, 2022.
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Intervention End Date
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Before
November 29, 2019
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After
October 21, 2022
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
The primary short-term outcome is the decision to major in economics.
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After
The primary short-term outcome is the decision to major in economics.
We look at this decision when students apply to college, when they enroll and when they graduate.
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Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
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After
The interest in the economics major is first stated in the application to Texas A&M University. We analyze application and admission data. We then look at course and majoring data for the students who decided to enroll at Texas A&M.
We conduct heterogeneity analysis by ability, as measured by students' Math SAT scores.
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
We are working with a sample of 234 high schools in Texas who have been sending the largest number of students to Texas A&M University in the past 5 years. Of them, we have randomly selected 60 schools to be part of a "Workshop" treatment group (T1). These schools will receive an invitation by email to send a high school counselor to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M on September 6, 2019. The workshop aims to inform guidance and college counselors of the advantages to majoring in Economics.
We have randomly selected an additional 57 schools to be part of our "Information only" treatment group (T2). The remaining 117 schools will be in the control group. The "information only group" will receive materials (e.g. flyers and leaflets) displaying the same information. The control group will not be contacted in any ways.
We aim to track students enrolled at Texas A&M the following academic years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023) and coming from treatment and control schools, to test whether the interventions had an impact on the take-up of the economics major. We also plan to use restricted-use administrative data (e.g., data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center) to identify the impact of the treatments on take-up at other universities and, ultimately, on labor market outcomes.
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After
We are working with a sample of 234 high schools in Texas who have been sending the largest number of students to Texas A&M University in the past 5 years. Of them, we have randomly selected 60 schools to be part of a "Workshop" treatment group (T1). These schools will receive an invitation by email to send a high school counselor to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M on September 6, 2019. The workshop aims to inform guidance and college counselors of the advantages to majoring in Economics.
We have randomly selected an additional 57 schools to be part of our "Information only" treatment group (T2). The remaining 117 schools will be in the control group. The "information only group" will receive materials (e.g. flyers and leaflets) displaying the same information. The control group will not be contacted in any ways.
We aim to track students enrolled at Texas A&M the following academic years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023) and coming from treatment and control schools, to test whether the interventions had an impact on the take-up of the economics major. We also plan to use restricted-use administrative data (e.g., data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center) to identify the impact of the treatments on take-up at other universities and, ultimately, on labor market outcomes.
*2022 Update: Changes in the Design*
In late Summer 2019, we decided to increase the number of Workshop schools to 120 by randomly selecting 60 schools previously assigned to the Control group. This was in response to a lower than expected (planned) participation rate from the schools invited to the Workshop. In Spring 2020, we decided not to implement the "information only" treatment and instead invite the T2 schools to participate in an online workshop held via zoom in Fall 2020. In Summer 2022, we decided to conduct a new Counselor Workshop with the T1 schools that were invited but did not participate in the 2019 Counselor Workshop. The 2022 workshop is scheduled for October 21, 2022.
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Randomization Unit
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Before
We randomized schools into three groups: Control, Workshop treatment group (T1) and Information treatment group (T2).
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After
We randomized schools into three groups: Control, Workshop treatment group (T1) and Information treatment group (T2).
The randomization was later modified to increase the number of Workshop schools. Half of the schools originally in the Control group were randomly selected to be part of the Workshop treatment group.
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Was the treatment clustered?
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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Planned Number of Observations
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Before
While the randomization is done at the school level, we are interested in the impact of the intervention on student-level outcomes. We will first investigate the majoring decisions of Texas A&M students coming from the 234 sampled schools. Since each school sends on average 22 students to Texas A&M per year, we will be working with approximately 5200 students per year.
Our student sample will be substantially larger when we'll obtain data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center, which will allow us to examine majoring decisions and labor market outcomes for all students who graduated from the samples schools in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
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After
While the randomization is done at the school level, we are interested in the impact of the intervention on student-level outcomes. We will first investigate the majoring decisions of Texas A&M students coming from the 234 sampled schools. Since each school sends on average 22 students to Texas A&M per year, we will be working with approximately 5200 students per year.
Our student sample will be substantially larger when we will obtain data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center, which will allow us to examine majoring decisions and labor market outcomes for all students who graduated from the sampled schools in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. We may be able to also get data from earlier graduation years.
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
Control: 117 schools
T1: 60 schools
T2: 56 schools
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After
Control: 117 schools
T1: 60 schools
T2: 56 schools
*Modified Design
Control: 57 schools
T1: 120 schools
T2: 57 schools
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Keyword(s)
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Before
Education
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After
Education
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Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
We have identified a total of 234 high schools in Texas who have been sending the largest number of students to Texas A&M University in the past 5 years. Of them, we have randomly selected 60 schools to be part of our "Workshop" treatment group (T1). We have randomly selected 57 schools to be part of our "Information only" treatment group (T2). The remaining 117 schools will be in the control group. The T1 schools will receive an invitation by email to send a high school counselor to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M on September 6, 2019. The invitation specifies that the aim of the workshop is "to inform guidance and college counselors of the advantages to majoring in Economics" and that "speakers will include Academic Advisors, current ECON graduate and undergraduate students, ECON faculty and staff, College of Liberal Arts and other Texas A&M personnel." All expenses will be covered. The "information only group" will receive materials (e.g. flyers and leaflets) displaying the same information. The control group will not be contacted in any ways.
We aim to track students enrolled at Texas A&M the following academic years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023) and coming from treatment and control schools, to test whether the interventions had an impact on the take-up of the economics major. We also plan to use restricted-use administrative data (e.g., data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center) to identify the impact of the treatments on take-up at other universities and, ultimately, on labor market outcomes.
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After
We have identified a total of 234 high schools in Texas who have been sending the largest number of students to Texas A&M University in the past 5 years. Of them, we have randomly selected 60 schools to be part of our "Workshop" treatment group (T1). We have randomly selected 57 schools to be part of our "Information only" treatment group (T2). The remaining 117 schools will be in the control group. The T1 schools will receive an invitation by email to send a high school counselor to participate in a workshop at Texas A&M on September 6, 2019. The invitation specifies that the aim of the workshop is "to inform guidance and college counselors of the advantages to majoring in Economics" and that "speakers will include Academic Advisors, current ECON graduate and undergraduate students, ECON faculty and staff, College of Liberal Arts and other Texas A&M personnel." All expenses will be covered. The "information only group" will receive materials (e.g. flyers and leaflets) displaying the same information. The control group will not be contacted in any ways.
We aim to track students enrolled at Texas A&M the following academic years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023) and coming from treatment and control schools, to test whether the interventions had an impact on the take-up of the economics major. We also plan to use restricted-use administrative data (e.g., data from the University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center) to identify the impact of the treatments on take-up at other universities and, ultimately, on labor market outcomes.
Following this pre-registration, due to low (planned) participation rate among the "Workshop" schools (T1), we decided to increase the number of the T1 schools to 120, by randomly selecting an additional 60 schools from the original Control group. In Summer 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we decided to further modify the design by holding an online counselor workshop in Fall 2020, with the schools originally selected for the "information only" (T2) treatment. In Summer 2022, we decided to hold a new workshop in Fall 2020, inviting the T1 schools that did not participate in the 2019 counselor workshop. Therefore the modified design is as follows:
- In-person Workshop (T1): 120 schools;
- Online Workshop (T2): 57 schools;
- Control Schools (C): 57 schools
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Did you obtain IRB approval for this study?
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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Building on Existing Work
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Before
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After
No
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