Dear Staff, Scholars, and Researchers,
Please join me this Wednesday, May 17th at 11 AM in welcoming Professor Jonathan Guryan for his guest seminar, entitled, “Not Too Late: Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth.”
Jonathan Guryan is Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and the Chair of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Dr. Guryan’s work spans various topics related to labor markets, education policy, and social interaction. His research interests include the causes and consequences of racial inequality, the development of skills and human capital in both early childhood and adolescence, the labor market for teachers, social interactions in the workplace, youth violence, and lottery gambling. In recent projects, he has investigated the effectiveness of an individualized, intensive math-instruction program, and the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy based interventions for at-risk youth.
The abstract of Dr. Guryan’s talk is below:
There is growing concern that improving the academic skills of children in poverty is too difficult and costly once they reach adolescence, and so policymakers should instead focus either on vocationally oriented instruction or else on early childhood education. Yet this conclusion may be premature given that so few previous interventions have targeted a key barrier to school success: “mismatch” between what schools deliver and the needs of youth, particularly those far behind grade level. We report on a randomized controlled trial of a school-based intervention that provides disadvantaged youth with intensive individualized academic instruction. The study sample consists of 2,718 male 9th and 10th graders in 12 public high schools on the south and west sides of Chicago, of whom 95% are either black or Hispanic and over 90% are free or reduced price lunch eligible. Participation increased math achievement test scores by 0.19 to 0.31 standard deviations (depending on how we standardize), increased math grades by 0.50 SD, and reduced course failures in math by one-half and also reduced failures in non-math courses.
I hope to see everyone there for what will no doubt be a productive and interesting discussion.
Eric