Data and Code for "Beyond Teachers: Estimating Individual School Counselors' Effects on Educational Attainment"

This repository includes the code needed to replicate all tables and figures in the paper "Beyond Teachers: Estimating Individual School Counselors' Effects on Educational Attainment". It includes the non-confidential data needed for replication, but additional confidential data must be obtained to fully replicate the analyses.<br><br>The paper estimates counselors' causal effects using quasi-random assignment policies in Massachusetts. It shows that counselors vary substantially in their effectiveness at increasing high school graduation and college attendance, selectivity, and persistence. Counselor effects on educational attainment are similar in magnitude to teacher effects, but they flow through improved information and assistance more than cognitive or non-cognitive skill development. Counselor effectiveness is most important for low-income and low-achieving students, so improving access to effective counseling may be a promising way to increase educational attainment and close socioeconomic gaps in education.