Measures

Our key dependent variable is a time-varying measure of the number of educational credits a participant has earned. This measure was calculated by recording the number of credits completed at the end of each fall, spring, and summer semester in each year. We tracked cumulative totals in this measure over time as a function of the number of months the participant had been in the ACHIEVEability program.

We included a set of control variables measured at the intake survey for each participant: highest education degree earned; gender; number of children; employment status; age; year of entry; and measures of health and well-being including depressive symptoms, chronically homeless, drug or alcohol problems, domestic violence, criminal background, and private health insurance. ACHIEVEability coaches also evaluated the education, financial, personal development, and parenting conditions of the family at the time of intake and at subsequent quarterly assessments. They assigned the family a “continuum score” from 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating greater well-being on that indicator. The education continuum score ranges from 0 (no GED or high school diploma, cannot pass aptitude test, and limited reading/writing skills) to 100 (has 4-year degree). The financial continuum score ranges from 0 (welfare only source of income, poor financial management skills, no savings, outstanding debt) to 100 (has stable job with no cash assistance, savings of at least $1,000, no outstanding debt). The personal development continuum score ranges from 0 (poor home management skills, poor diet, limited social support, addiction) to 100 (plan in place for permanent housing, maintaining sobriety, healthy relationships, practices preventive health care, excellent home management skills). And finally, the parenting continuum score ranges from 0 (parent is unaware of children’s skill levels, children lack proper diet and hygiene, not receiving medical care, lack of parental monitoring, potential for neglect or abuse) to 100 (children earning a B average or better in school, appropriate parental monitoring and support, and adequate nutritional and medical care).

We also constructed several measures of block group characteristics from the census and crime data linked to each participant’s address. First, to measure social isolation, we included a measure of the percentage of residents age 25 or older who had at least a bachelor's degree. Lower values on this measure indicate greater isolation from highly educated neighbors. To measure economic resources, we included a measure of the block group poverty rate, or the percentage of families with incomes below the federal poverty line. As a proxy for the physical environment, we included a measure of the vacancy rate—the percentage of housing units that were vacant or abandoned. And finally, as a measure of social disorganization and crime, we included measures of the violent crime rate and the property crime rate for each block group. The violent crime rate measured the number of Part 1 crimes against persons—homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault—per 10,000 residents. The property crime rate measured the number of Part 1 crimes against property—burglary and theft—per 10,000 residents.