The EdRedesign Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education Tuesday announced new co-sponsored research that shows providing students born into low-income families with personalized supports, whether in the form of academic, social, housing, or health assistance, significantly raises test scores, boosts high school graduation rates, and improves adult earnings.
Authored by Benjamin Goldman, assistant professor of economics and public policy at Cornell University, a research principal at Opportunity Insights, and a former Linda G. Hammett Ory Fellow and current research affiliate at EdRedesign; and Jamie Gracie, a former Linda G. Hammett Ory Fellow and current postdoctoral fellow with EdRedesign and an affiliate of Opportunity Insights, the working paper titled, “When Resources Meet Relationships: The Returns to Personalized Supports for Low-Income Students,” evaluates Communities In Schools (CIS), a program that places a “site coordinator” in high-poverty schools to connect students with both in-school supports (such as tutoring and mentoring) and out-of-school resources (including nutrition assistance, housing supports, and health services), tailored to their individual needs.
Key findings from the study include that Communities In Schools’ individualized student supports:
Yields a return on investment. Three years of CIS exposure — an investment by CIS of about $3,000 per student — is estimated to increase lifetime earnings by more than $75,000 ($36,000 in present day value).
Raises standardized test scores. Three years of access to CIS increases high-risk students’ math test scores by 0.18 (.11 unscaled) standard deviations.
Produces substantial gains in high school graduation and college enrollment. Three years of CIS exposure raises high school graduation rates for students by 5.2 percent and two-year college enrollment by 9.1 percent.
Advances economic mobility. The authors project that three years of CIS exposure increases earnings at age 27 by 4.3 percent annually.
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