Mentoring and Schooling Decisions: Causal Evidence

Inequality of opportunity occurs when children of equal academic performance are sent to different-quality schools because their parents differ in socioeconomic status. We demonstrate that children from low–socioeconomic status (SES) families are significantly less likely to enter the academic track, even after conditioning on prior school performance. We then provide causal evidence that a low-intensity mentoring program can improve the education outcomes of low-SES children and reduce inequality of opportunity. Low-SES children randomly assigned to mentors for 1 year are 20% more likely to enter a high-track program. Mentorship affects both parents and children and has positive long-term implications for children’s educational trajectories. The effects are enduring and scalable.