Take Two! SAT Retaking and College Enrollment Gaps

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goodman, Joshua; Gurantz, Oded; Smith, Jonathan
• 署名单位: Harvard University; University of Missouri System; University of Missouri Columbia; University System of Georgia; Georgia State University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170503
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 115-158
• 关键词: Behavioral economics; regression; returns; QUALITY; POLICY; time

摘要

Only half of SAT-takers retake the exam, with even lower retake rates among low-income students and underrepresented minority (URM) students. We exploit discontinuous jumps in retake probabilities at multiples of 100, driven by left-digit bias, to estimate retaking's causal effects. Retaking substantially improves SAT scores and increases four-year college enrollment rates, particularly for low-income and URM students. Eliminating disparities in retake rates could close up to 10 percent of the income-based gap and up to 7 percent of the race-based gap in four-year college enrollment rates of high school graduates.