About News Castleman Examines Behavioral Insights to Improve College Access in New Book Sep 21, 2015 Castleman Examines Behavioral Insights to Improve College Access in New Book Each year, many students fail to enroll in college, enroll in institutions where they are not positioned for success or drop out before earning a degree. These students often have the academic skills needed and have access to affordable college options, but still face barriers to success. Efforts to address these challenges have included changes in financial aid policy, increased availability of information and enhanced academic support. A new book edited by Ben Castleman, Saul Schwartz and Sandy Baum argues that these strategies can be improved dramatically by taking account of contemporary research on how students make choices. “The collected research in this volume shows that targeted, behaviorally-informed interventions offer policy makers a low-cost and scalable set of solutions to reduce long-standing inequalities in college access and success,” says Professor Castleman, who teaches education policy at the Curry School of Education and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. In Decision Making for Student Success: Behavioral Insights to Improve College Access and Persistence, scholars from the fields of behavioral economics, education and public policy explore contemporary research on decision-making and highlight behavioral insights that can improve postsecondary access and success. The book aims to provide scholars, researchers and higher education administrators with new perspectives and low-cost strategies for improving outcomes of underserved populations. Benjamin Castleman Ben Castleman is an associate professor of education and public policy at the Batten School and the founder and director of the Nudge4 Solutions Lab at UVA. His research focuses on policies to improve college access and success for low-income students. Several of his papers examine innovative strategies to deliver high-quality information about the college-going process to low-income students and their families, and to ease the process of students and families getting professional support when they need assistance Read full bio Related Content Benjamin Castleman Unfinished Business? Academic and Labor Market Profile of Adults With Substantial College Credits But No Degree Research Using data from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), this case provides the first detailed profile on the academic, employment, and earnings trajectories of the SCND population and how these compare with VCCS graduates. The scholars show that the share of SCND students who are academically ready to re-enroll and would benefit from doing so may be substantially lower than policy makers anticipate. Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Research With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults. Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement. Why aren’t more adults finishing community college? News Batten School professor Ben Castleman and colleagues explore programs enacted by states to increase enrollment in community colleges. Despite these efforts, numbers have been steadily declining for much of the 2010s. Is there a way to get adults back to community college? Stay Up To Date with the Latest Batten News and Events Subscribe
Benjamin Castleman Ben Castleman is an associate professor of education and public policy at the Batten School and the founder and director of the Nudge4 Solutions Lab at UVA. His research focuses on policies to improve college access and success for low-income students. Several of his papers examine innovative strategies to deliver high-quality information about the college-going process to low-income students and their families, and to ease the process of students and families getting professional support when they need assistance Read full bio
Unfinished Business? Academic and Labor Market Profile of Adults With Substantial College Credits But No Degree Research Using data from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), this case provides the first detailed profile on the academic, employment, and earnings trajectories of the SCND population and how these compare with VCCS graduates. The scholars show that the share of SCND students who are academically ready to re-enroll and would benefit from doing so may be substantially lower than policy makers anticipate.
Stacking the Deck for Employment Success: Labor Market Returns to Stackable Credentials Research With rapid technological transformations to the labor market along with COVID-19 related economic disruptions, many working adults return to college to obtain additional training or credentials. Using a comparative individual fixed effects strategy and an administrative panel dataset of enrollment and employment in Virginia, we provide the first causal estimates of credential “stacking” among working adults.
Batten Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching, Service, Research and Engagement News This academic year, Batten School professors won a slew of internal and external recognitions for excellence in teaching, service, research and engagement.
Why aren’t more adults finishing community college? News Batten School professor Ben Castleman and colleagues explore programs enacted by states to increase enrollment in community colleges. Despite these efforts, numbers have been steadily declining for much of the 2010s. Is there a way to get adults back to community college?