Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Site selection/inclusive characteristics
Drawing from a national population of 150 Educational Opportunity Centers (EOCs), the study team aims to recruit a sample of approximately 20 EOC grantees and 6,000 EOC participants. The study team aims to have a sample of EOCs that reflects their national diversity in two key dimensions: geographic region and host institution type.
Design
The Text Ed Demonstration Project is an individual-level random assignment study. At participating EOC sites, individual participants will be randomly assigned to either the treatment group (text messaging intervention) or the control group (“business as usual” EOC services without the text messaging intervention). The text messaging intervention will be limited to new EOC participants who have a high school diploma or equivalent and intend to enroll in college by fall 2020. EOC participants will enter the intervention on a rolling basis as they begin their engagement with the EOC.
Data collection will include participant intake forms, text messaging records from the messaging provider, student financial aid data from the Department of Education’s Office of Financial Student Aid, and enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse.