There is widespread speculation and some evidence that grades and grading standards changed during the pandemic, making higher grades relatively easier to achieve. In this paper we use longitudinal data from students in Washington State to investigate middle and high school grades in math, science, and English pre- and post-pandemic. Our descriptive analysis of the data reveals that—in accordance with state guidance—almost no students received an F in the spring of 2020, and the share of students receiving A's jumped dramatically. While English and science grades returned to pre-pandemic levels in the years following the 2019/2020 school year, grades in math did not. To understand how well grades reflect objective measures of learning we regress test scores on student grades separately by subject and year and find that the strength of the relationship between grades and test scores has diminished over time in math. The diminishment of the signal value of grades may be a concern given that schools and families use grades as a signal of when students are ready to progress and when they might need more help.
When people lose their job, labor market programs help them get back to work. But administrative burdens can hinder enrollment in such programs. We report results from a mixed-method project to increase enrollment in employment services during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we interviewed jobseekers and frontline staff to uncover administrative burdens. Second we worked with staff to co-design a behavioral “nudge” intervention. Finally, in a large field experiment (N = 14,008), we evaluate the impact of this intervention on participation in employment services. We present two main findings. First, reducing administrative burden triples enrollment in the program within the first 30 days. Second, we test two motivational frames—one emphasizing social norms, another using checklist messaging. We find that message framing drives engagement with communications, such as email open rates and website click-throughs. However, framing generates no statistically significant difference in enrollment rates. Our results demonstrate the potential for applied behavioral science to improve implementation of labor market policy. We also contribute to current debates about the effectiveness of nudging to increase take-up of public services.
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