We examine whether the El Dorado Promise, a guaranteed college scholarship program for students in the El Dorado School District (EDSD), affected elementary and middle school achievement using a quasi-experimental matching design. We first match the EDSD with similar districts to create a pool of potential comparison students then match students on prior achievement and demographics. The Promise leads to an estimated 0.11 standard deviation gain in math achievement; this effect is statistically significant and practically meaningful. Results are similar from district-level synthetic control and difference-in-differences analyses. We find larger effects on students with above-average prior achievement. We are unable to construct an appropriate comparison group to estimate the impact of the Promise on literacy achievement.

Promise programs are place-based scholarships, generally tied to a city or school district, offering near-universal access to all living in the “place.” While Promise programs share some characteristics with other scholarship programs, they’re unique because they seek to change communities and schools. Underlying such promise programs is the belief that having access to a guaranteed college scholarship will encourage students to remain in schools, encourage families to remain in a community, and change how educators work with students. This article focuses on the El Dorado Promise in El Dorado, Ark., which began in 2007. From analyzing student data and interviewing educators, the authors learned that the Promise did lead to several changes in the district: enrollment increased; student learning improved; discussions of college permeated the district from kindergarten onward; expectations for all students rose; and enrollment in advanced coursework increased for all students.

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