Ready for College? Examining the Effectiveness of Targeted Interventions in High School

Kentucky’s Targeted Interventions (TI) program is a statewide intervention intended to prepare non-college-ready high school students for college-level coursework. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we find that TI reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial courses by 8 to 10 percentage points in math. These effects are similar or stronger among students who are eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, students with remediation needs in multiple subjects, and students in lower performing schools. TI also increases the likelihood that students enroll in and pass college math before the end of the first year in 4-year universities by 4 percentage points and by 9 percentage points among free/reduced-price lunch eligible students. However, we do not find evidence of TI affecting credit accumulation or persistence.