Traditionally colleges have relied on standalone non-credit-bearing developmental education (DE) to support students academically and ensure readiness for college-level courses. As emerging evidence has raised concerns about the effectiveness of DE courses, colleges and states have been experimenting with approaches that place students into credit-bearing coursework more quickly. To better understand which types of students might be most likely to benefit from being placed into college-level math coursework, this study examines heterogeneity in the causal effects of placement into college-level courses using a regression discontinuity design and administrative data from the state of Texas. We focus on student characteristics that are related to academic preparation or might signal a student’s likelihood of success or need for additional support and might therefore be factors considered for placement into college-level courses under “holistic advising” or “multiple measures” initiatives. We find heterogeneity in outcomes for many of the measures we examined. Students who declared an academic major designation, had bachelor’s degree aspirations, tested below college readiness on multiple subjects, were designated as Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and/or were economically disadvantaged status were more likely to benefit from placement into college-level math. Part-time enrollment or being over the age of 21 were associated with reduced benefits from placement into college-level math. We do not find any heterogeneity in outcomes for our high school achievement measure, three or more years of math taken in high school.

传统上，大学依靠独立的非学分发展教育（DE）来支持学生的学业，并确保他们为大学课程做好准备。随着越来越多的证据引起人们对远程教育课程有效性的担忧，各大学和州都在尝试使学生更快地进入学分课程的方法。为了更好地了解哪些类型的学生可能最有可能受益于大学数学课程的学习，本研究使用回归不连续性设计和来自州状况的管理数据，考察了大学课程的因果效应中的异质性。得克萨斯州。我们专注于与学业准备相关的学生特征，或可能预示学生成功的可能性或需要额外支持的学生特征，因此可能是考虑根据“整体建议”或“多项措施”倡议进入大学课程的因素。我们发现，我们所检查的许多指标在结果方面存在异质性。宣布获得学术专业称号，具有学士学位抱负，在多门学科上低于大学预科程度的学生，被指定为有限英语水平（LEP），和/或处于经济劣势地位的学生更可能受益于进入大学水平的数学。非全日制入学或超过21岁的学生都可能会因为进入大学级数学而获得的收益减少。