The Disparate Impacts of Academic Probation
Abstract:
Academic probation is a policy affecting 10 to 20 percent of all first-year U.S. college students. This paper provides evidence on the role of academic probation in widening socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment. Our setting is a large public university in California, where first-year students are placed on academic probation if their GPA falls below a 2.0. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that being marginally placed on academic probation has no significant impact on first-year GPA, but does significantly increase low-income students’ first year dropout rate. Low-income students are also 22.8 percentage points less likely to graduate within 6 years. High-income students are largely unaffected by academic probation placement. We next examine whether an alternative academic probation policy can limit these negative effects. Later cohorts at this university are placed on academic probation and required to participate in a success program if their GPA is below a 2.0. We find that both low- and high-income students do not experience a deterioration in their first-year dropout or graduation rates, and significantly improve their GPA as a result of this alternative policy. Our findings highlight that while universal academic probation widens socioeconomic gaps in degree completion, combining probation with academic supports can counteract these effects.
Organized by: Sam Norris
