Shifting Low-Income Students to Higher Quality Colleges

 Earnings inequality among college graduates has grown, and returns to a bachelor's degree (BA) vary substantially across colleges. This study experimentally evaluates a program that shifted high-achieving, low-income students into higher-quality colleges. Students randomly offered a guarantee of four years of tuition and fees at the University of Michigan were 21 percentage points more likely to enroll at a UM campus. The offer shifted students across colleges rather than into college: most compliers would otherwise have attended less-selective four-year colleges. 

HAIL increased four-year BA completion by 4 percentage points, but had no effect on attainment after six years. It substantially increased degree quality: students offered the scholarship were 12 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor's degree from a highly or most selective college. 

IV estimates indicate that students induced to attend a University of Michigan campus were 56 percentage points more likely to earn such a degree. The increase in college quality predicts earnings gains of 18 to 25 percent. Faster degree completion adds about another 1 percent to the present discounted value of lifetime earnings.

Leveraging Chatbot Outreach for Improved Course Performance

 This study provides pre-registered, experimental evidence on the use of non-generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to support students in large-enrollment undergraduate courses. 

The authors find the chatbot messaging increased students’ final grades and engagement with academic supports, such as tutoring. Treatment effects were generally consistent across student demographics, with the exception of treated women in a Microeconomics course, who earned final grades that were seven percentage points higher than women in the control group. 

This study provides evidence that integrating AI-enabled outreach and communication to students in their college courses can enhance student engagement, learning, and course performance.

Undergraduate students' understanding of the relative effectiveness of study methods

This study analyzes whether information frictions about the relative effectiveness of study methods distort students’ effort allocation. Standard models treat effort as a single input whose level, rather than composition, determines outcomes. The authors instead model effort as an allocation across methods with heterogeneous effectiveness. 

Combining panel surveys, administrative records, digital activity logs, and a randomized information intervention with over 2,000 undergraduates, the authors test whether imperfect information leads to effort misallocation and quantify consequences for performance. 

At baseline, students hold divergent beliefs, and many devote time to passive strategies such as rereading, despite evidence that active retrieval is more effective; these choices predict lower performance and larger self-assessment errors.

General feedback has little effect. Personalized feedback widens the perceived effectiveness gap between active and passive methods by 42 percent, shifts time toward effective practices, and raises exam scores by 0.05–0.08 standard deviations. 

A dynamic model with learning-by-doing and convex allocation costs shows that, for students with the weakest baseline beliefs, personalized feedback is equivalent to a 16.5 percent reduction in adoption costs. 

These results identify information frictions about multidimensional effort as a determinant of academic performance.

Federal pandemic aid to school districts: no effect on declines in test scores

The federal government appropriated $189.5 billion in pandemic aid to school districts through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund. This study evaluates their impact on schools with district poverty shares near 5%, where a threshold-driven increase in funds enables us to implement a difference-in-discontinuities design. Federal funds were passed on to residents through reductions in local revenue collections, including property taxes, and did not result in increased per-pupil expenditures by school districts. 

The authors find no evidence that additional funds mitigated the declines in test scores. They provide suggestive evidence that political engagement, especially from parents, increased in districts that qualified for additional funds. This combination of engagement and reduced taxation may explain the greater enrollment and faster reopening we observe in such districts. 

Social prescribing may help young people awaiting mental health care

 

Social prescribing, in which people are connected with arts and exercise activities and other sources of support, may help adolescents waiting for specialist mental health services by improving their resilience, behaviour and relationships with others, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

The study, published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, involved over 550 adolescents aged 11 to 18 who had been referred to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in England, comparing those who received bespoke social prescribing referrals while waiting for treatment with those who did not.

The research team found that young people who received social prescribing reported improvements in behaviour (including reductions in conduct difficulties), enhanced relationships with others, and increased resilience, including greater confidence in solving problems and higher self-esteem.

As of late 2024, over 350,000 children and young people were waiting for specialist mental health care in England, with average wait times of just under eight months.

Lead author Dr Daniel Hayes (UCL Behavioural Science & Heath) said: "Previous research from our team has shown that many young people and families find waiting for mental health services difficult and often feel they lack support during that period. Our new study suggests that social prescribing may provide a valuable source of support while young people are waiting, helping them strengthen relationships, build resilience and improve day-to-day functioning."

One of the young people in the trial who received social prescribing said: “I think one of the things that has changed is if my mum or someone at school like a teacher asked me about how I’m feeling, I think I’m a lot more open to discussing it. I wasn’t as much before [social prescribing].”  Another participant said their link worker “really helped me get back into social groups and social settings, so I was more comfortable around people”. A third young person said: “It felt like someone was listening, and [my social prescriber] always turned up and actually cared.”

Activities and resources that young people in the study were connected to by their link workers included karate clubs, art classes, Pokemon tournaments, book clubs and nature wandering clubs. Link workers also helped young people plan days out with friends.

Senior author, Professor Daisy Fancourt (UCL Behavioural Science & Heath), noted that the study did not find evidence of changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress over the six-month follow-up period, although this is partly expected. “Social prescribing should not be seen as a substitute for evidence-based psychological treatments. Instead, the findings suggest its value for young people on waiting lists for mental health services is in supporting day-to-day functioning and strengthening protective factors during this high-risk waiting period. Instead of merely ‘waiting’, young people and their families can engage in activities that may help them be more ‘treatment ready’ when they reach the end of the waiting list.”

Amanda Thompson, Children & Young People's Link Worker at Sunderland Counselling Service, said: “One of the aspects I value most about the social prescribing model is its person-centred approach. It focuses on what is important and meaningful to the young person, placing them at the heart of the process.

“I have seen firsthand how this approach gives young people the opportunity to take ownership of their own journey, while recognising and celebrating the achievements they make along the way. It also extends beyond the individual, often having a positive impact on the wider family unit by reducing pressures, strengthening relationships, and creating a more supportive home environment.

“Seeing a young person who may have previously struggled socially begin to engage in clubs or activities, develop hobbies, learn new skills, build friendships, and grow in confidence is incredibly rewarding. What may seem like small steps to others can represent significant achievements and personal progress for a young person.

“Looking back on a young person's journey and recognising how far they have come is one of the most fulfilling aspects of the role.”

The new study follows on from research earlier this year by members of the same team, published in Nature Health, which found that adults referred for social prescribing (including young people) gained “sizable” improvements in wellbeing in the months after initial referral.

That research looked at data from 19,627 people in the UK who had accessed social prescribing (either through a GP or through community referrals) and who had answered questions about their wellbeing. The team found consistent improvements across all the measures they assessed, including a 20% improvement in general mental wellbeing, alongside additional improvements in happiness, life satisfaction, anxiety levels and a sense of life being worthwhile.

In 2023, more than a million people in England alone were referred for social prescribing services by their GP.

The latest Wellbeing While Waiting study was carried out in partnership with 11 NHS child and adolescent mental health trusts in England. The work was funded by the Prudence Trust, with additional support from Wellcome and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The adult social prescribing study was funded by the ESRC, supported by the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) and utilised anonymised patient data from Access Elemental, a social prescribing software provider.

---

Journal

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

DOI

10.1007/s00787-026-03074-8 

A dedicated health course = modestly lower prevalence of adolescent substance use

 

Despite being largely preventable, adolescent substance use remains a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in the US. Recent increases in overdose deaths among youths highlight the urgency of identifying scalable, population-level prevention strategies.^1,2 Because adolescent substance use commonly involves alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis, population-level prevalence of these behaviors is central to prevention.^3,4

Schools represent a near-universal prevention platform. National data show variation in school mental health and substance use education,⁵ and evidence supports targeted approaches such as school-based screening and brief intervention and personality-targeted prevention programs.^6-8 Less is known about whether routine, policy-driven health education delivered through standard coursework is associated with population-level substance use. This gap is important because routine coursework is scalable and institutionalized.

California law requires schools to provide instruction on alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, and other drugs, but does not prescribe the course structure through which this instruction must be delivered. Districts and schools retain flexibility in whether required content is delivered through a dedicated, transcriptable health course or integrated into other coursework. This policy context creates an opportunity to evaluate whether sustained availability of a dedicated health course is associated with lower adolescent substance use prevalence.

The analytic sample in thii study included 1 942 640 student survey responses from 915 public high schools across 345 districts and 3499 school years; mean (SD) grade was 10.1 (1.0), and 942 180 responses (48.5%) were from female students. Sustained availability of a dedicated health course was associated with lower school year prevalence of vaping (−1.36 [95% CI, −2.15 to −0.57] percentage points), marijuana use (−1.22 [95% CI, −1.95 to −0.49] percentage points), alcohol use (−1.11 [95% CI, −1.91 to −0.30] percentage points), and binge drinking (−0.70 [95% CI, −1.17 to −0.24] percentage points). Estimates for drug use, prescription drug misuse, and cigarette smoking were smaller.

Complete study

Parents direct more threats toward school administrators than teachers

 

Study finds verbal aggression against school staff is prevalent but largely unreported

In K-12 schools across the country, administrators are tasked with keeping everyone safe. New research shows they may be the most in need of protection.

In a study published this week in Psychology of Violence, researchers surveyed school personnel prior to the onset of COVID-19, during the height of COVID restrictions and after most restrictions had been lifted, and their findings surprised them: Administrators were more likely than teachers or school mental health professionals to experience verbal and threatening aggression from parents. After restrictions lifted, 77% of administrators reported such experiences, nearly 3.5 times the rate reported by teachers.

The research was led by Eric Anderman, a professor of educational psychology and vice provost for regional campuses at The Ohio State University. He and colleagues have conducted a number of related studies as members of the American Psychological Association (APA)’s Task Force on Violence Against Teachers and School Personnel.

“We didn't fully expect such a pattern to emerge,” Anderman said. “A lot of us went in with an assumption, including me, that it would be mostly the teachers — they’re the ones who have the most direct contact with students every day.”

The data show that parental aggression against school personnel never went away, even during the height of COVID restrictions. When most schools switched to remote learning, 42% of administrators still reported experiencing verbal or threatening aggression from parents, and rates climbed even higher after schools reopened.

For Anderman, the issue is personal. As a high school teacher early in his career, he experienced a verbal threat from a student and didn’t feel supported by his school’s administration. “That always stuck with me,” he said. “Whenever I write about it, it resurfaces.”

Anderman’s research focuses primarily on academic motivation, which is how he became involved with the APA Task Force nearly two decades ago. Past research from the group found that 49% of teachers nationwide considered quitting or transferring jobs as the result of violence and threats made against them, and that violence against teachers is higher in schools that focus on grades and test scores than in schools that emphasize student learning. 

Although school personnel experience physical assaults, the new study focused on verbal aggression and threats, which a 2022 meta-analysis found to be more commonplace in schools. The researchers measured eight specific types, including obscene remarks or gestures, intimidation, identity-based slurs, verbal threats, bullying, public humiliation, cyberbullying and sexual harassment.

After pandemic restrictions were lifted, more than 1 in 4 teachers said a parent had publicly humiliated them, and more than 1 in 4 reported being cyberbullied. For administrators, more than 4 in 10 were verbally threatened, and around 1 in 5 reported being publicly humiliated or cyberbullied.

The scope of the problem becomes clearer when educators are given the opportunity to describe their experiences anonymously. In earlier research, the task force collected around 3,000 written accounts from teachers describing the worst incidents they had experienced.

“The stuff they told us — you can’t make this stuff up,” Anderman said. “People said things like, ‘Thank you for asking. Nobody ever asked.’ It was therapeutic for some of them.”

Despite how common these experiences are, Anderman describes them as a “silent epidemic” because there is currently no national system for tracking or reporting aggression against school personnel, and it receives little media attention. In addition, many educators don’t report incidents for fear of looking weak or incapable of managing their classrooms. This silence has consequences for the quality of education students receive and for the ongoing national teacher shortage.

There’s good news, though. The study found that maintaining positive relationships between parents and school personnel and providing support for teachers, administrators and mental health professionals at the school and community levels all help reduce parental aggression. School level factors, such as strong administrative support and effective disciplinary policies, were associated with less aggression at all three time points, and community-level factors, such as perceived district investment in education, also made a difference.

The researchers recommend implementing tiered systems of support for all school personnel — including classroom, school and community training — to foster a healthier, safer climate for everyone. The study also noted the importance of proactive and positive communication from school employees to parents. This resonated with Anderman, who still remembers the time his ninth-grade Spanish teacher called his mother — not to report a problem, but to say he was doing well in class. “It made my day,” he said. “But it’s the only time I ever remember it happening.”