Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of...

Sourdun Boarding School for Disadvantaged Middle and High School Students in France

Reviewed

K-12 Education
Accurately reported
Credible positive finding

SSRN (October 2024) posted long-term RCT findings for Sourdun, a French “Boarding School of Excellence” for middle and high school students from disadvantaged communities. This high-quality RCT found a remarkable 14 percentage point decrease in the high school dropout rate and 16 percentage point increase in graduation from higher education, 9-12 years after study entry.

France ranks among the OECD countries with the lowest levels of intergenerational social mobility. To address this issue, the "Boarding School of Excellence" initiative aims to provide adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds with a supportive boarding school environment and improved learning conditions.  This paper presents the long-run results of a randomized controlled trial measuring the effects of one such boarding school. We show that it divides by two the proportion of high-school dropouts, and increases by 60% the proportion of higher-education graduates.  These large effects, obtained on adolescents, are comparable to those of celebrated preschool interventions. Effects are even higher among students who do not only speak French at home, referred to as minorities. The boarding school has large short-run effects on minorities' cognitive and socio-emotional scores. A decomposition shows that both effects predict minorities' large long-term effects.

Full Study Report

We have no suggested revisions to the published abstract.

No-Spin’s Study Overview

High-quality RCT of Sourdun – a French “Boarding School of Excellence” for middle and high school students from disadvantaged communities – finds large, long-term impacts: 14 percentage point decrease in the high school dropout rate and 16 percentage point increase in graduation from higher education, 9-12 years after study entry.

Program:

  • Sourdun opened in 2009 as the first French “Boarding School of Excellence,” aiming to improve social mobility for middle and high school students from low-income urban school districts with high proportions of immigrant families.
  • Sourdun features higher teacher-to-student ratios and smaller classes than regular schools, and its teachers are better educated and less experienced. Its cost per student is about twice that of regular schools (21,600 versus 10,700 euros per year), largely due to the program’s boarding component.

Study Design:

  • The study sample comprised 395 students entering grades 6-11, who were randomized by lottery to treatment (Sourdun admissions offer) versus control (schooling as usual). 88% of students assigned to the treatment group accepted the admissions offer and enrolled in Sourdun.
  • Based on careful review, this was a well-conducted RCT (e.g., baseline balance, low attrition, intent-to-treat analysis).

Findings:

  • The study found that the offer of admission to Sourdun decreased the high-school dropout rate by a statistically significant 14 percentage points, 9-10 years after the lottery (13% of treatment group students dropped out versus 27% of control students).
  • The admissions offer also increased the rate of graduation from higher education by a statistically significant 16 percentage points, 11-12 years after the lottery (43% of treatment group students graduated versus 27% of control students).

Comment:

  • The study’s main limitation is that it was conducted at a single school with a modest sample size. Replication RCTs at other Boarding Schools of Excellence would be desirable to hopefully confirm these promising findings and establish that they generalize to other sites.

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