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Education Policy Speaker Series – Sarah Cohodes
September 16, 2022 @ 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EDT
ABSTRACT
The federal government and many individual organizations have invested in programs to support diversity in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) pipeline, including STEM summer programs for high school students, but there is little rigorous evidence of their efficacy. We fielded a randomized controlled trial to study a suite of such programs targeted to underrepresented high school students at an elite, technical institution. The STEM summer programs differ in their length (one week, six weeks, or six months) and modality (on-site or online). Students offered seats in the STEM summer programs are more likely to enroll in, persist through, and graduate from college, with gains in institutional quality coming from both the host institution and other elite universities. The programs also increase the likelihood that students graduate with a degree in a STEM field, with the most intensive program increasing four-year graduation with a STEM degree attainment by 33 percent. The shift to STEM degrees increases potential earnings by 2 to 6 percent. Program-induced gains in college quality fully account for the gains in graduation, but gains in STEM degree attainment are larger than predicted based on institutional differences.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Cohodes is an associate professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a co-editor at the Journal of Public Economics.
Her research uses quantitative causal inference methods to evaluate policies and programs that are intended to increase access to high-quality education. She is particularly interested in how young people and their families make choices about education and how school and college quality interact with those decisions.
HOW TO JOIN
In person: 133F Erickson Hall
or
Via Zoom: https://msu.zoom.us/j/92851352626; password: EPSS