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Curbing Adult Student Attrition: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Raj Chande

    (University of Bristol)

  • Michael Luca

    (Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit)

  • Michael Sanders

    (Harvard Kennedy School of Government)

  • Xian-Zhi Soon

    (Behavioural Insights Team)

  • Oana Borcan

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Netta Barak Corren

    (Harvard Law School)

  • Elizabeth Linos

    (Harvard Kennedy School of Government)

  • Elspeth Kirkman

    (Behavioural Insights Team)

  • Sean Robinson

    (Behavioural Insights Team)

Abstract

Roughly 20% of adults in the OECD lack basic numeracy and literacy skills. In the UK, many colleges offer fully government subsidized adult education programs to improve these skills. Constructing a unique dataset consisting of weekly attendance records for 1179 students, we find that approximately 25% of learners stop attending these programs in the first ten weeks and that average attendance rates deteriorate by 20% in that time. We implement a large?scale field experiment in which we send encouraging text messages to students. Our initial results show that these simple text messages reduce the proportion of students that stop attending by 36% and lead to a 7% increase in average attendance relative to the control group. The effects on attendance rates persist through the three weeks of available data following the initial intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Raj Chande & Michael Luca & Michael Sanders & Xian-Zhi Soon & Oana Borcan & Netta Barak Corren & Elizabeth Linos & Elspeth Kirkman & Sean Robinson, 2015. "Curbing Adult Student Attrition: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-065, Harvard Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:15-065
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hengchen Dai & Katherine L. Milkman & Jason Riis, 2014. "The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2563-2582, October.
    2. Castleman, Benjamin L. & Page, Lindsay C., 2015. "Summer nudging: Can personalized text messages and peer mentor outreach increase college going among low-income high school graduates?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 144-160.
    3. Milkman, Katherine L. & Beshears, John Leonard & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David I. & Madrian, Brigitte, 2011. "Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates," Scholarly Articles 8057976, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Eric Bettinger & Rachel Baker, 2011. "The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring," NBER Working Papers 16881, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Eric P. Bettinger & Bridget Terry Long & Philip Oreopoulos & Lisa Sanbonmatsu, 2012. "The Role of Application Assistance and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block Fafsa Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1205-1242.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Maya Haran Rosen & Orly Sade, 2022. "The Disparate Effect of Nudges on Minority Groups," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(3), pages 605-643.

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