Project Summary:
Evaluation of the Wallin Scholars Program
CoLab Awards its First Impact Evaluation Grant to Study a Comprehensive Post-Secondary Education Support Program for Low-Income Students
After a successful planning period, CoLab at the Constellation Fund awarded its first longitudinal impact evaluation grant to MDRC to conduct a rigorous seven-year evaluation of poverty-fighting impacts of providing comprehensive support to low-income students to persist in and complete post-secondary education and start meaningful careers. The project is set up for additional follow-up beyond the initial seven-year grant period to eventually capture long-term economic outcomes.
Partners
MDRC
CoLab funded MDRC to lead the randomized controlled trial (RCT) to estimate the causal effects of participating in the Wallin Scholars Program on postsecondary education outcomes, long-term career pathways, and social and economic mobility.
MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the lives of people with low incomes through high-quality research and evidence. MDRC has led several prominent impact evaluations across the country supporting post-secondary education access, completion, and success. Colleen Sommo, Senior Fellow, leads MDRC’s research team for this project.
What they will do
The Wallin Scholars Program, implemented by Wallin Education Partners, is a financial aid, advising, and career pathways program for college students who all belong to low-income households, most of whom are students of color. The Wallin Scholars Program includes two pathways: (1) a two-year year scholarship for students heading to partner community colleges in the Twin Cities, and (2) a four-year scholarship for students planning to enroll at 4-year institutions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota, and any Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The Wallin Scholars Program has three main components:
- Financial aid for college-related expenses
- Individualized academic advising and social-emotional support
- Expanded access to career opportunities
MDRC’s team will enroll approximately 1,600 high school seniors across two cohorts in the Fall of 2025 and 2026. To evaluate the causal effects of the program on students’ short- and long-term outcomes, researchers will randomly assign participants to one of two groups: a program group with an offer to receive the Wallin Scholars Program or a standard treatment comparison group that will not receive Wallin’s support and will instead navigate a typical college experience with their institution’s standard services. The study will follow these students over the next 4-5 years to assess how being offered a place in the Wallin Scholars Program affects student outcomes.
Because far more eligible students apply to the program every year than can be supported by existing resources, random assignment provides a fairer means for distributing spaces while enabling evidence-building and learning.
The team will also conduct a mixed-methods process evaluation to understand program implementation, measure dosage and fidelity to the model, identify operational lessons for Wallin and the education field, and use these learnings to elevate student experiences along the way.
Grant type:
- Short-term outcomes and impact evaluation
Focus area:
- Career pathways strategies
population:
- K-12 students and young adults (college students)
When it will happen
The seven-year outcomes study began in October 2024 with the launch of the Wallin Scholars Program application and recruitment process, which included obtaining consent for participation in the study. We expect that the research funded under this grant period will follow students through the spring semester of 2030 (the predicted graduation of the second cohort), with the potential for CoLab to fund longer-term follow-up thereafter.
Why it matters
This study will contribute to and build on an emerging body of evidence on college completion and student success from impact evaluations. It will add value by producing actionable evidence on the effectiveness of an intensive, comprehensive, and scalable approach to improving low-income students’ post-secondary education access, success, and career pathways.
Moreover, the effects of such programs are rarely measured beyond college completion and other relatively short-term outcomes. This study will track the impact of program support on students for years beyond their participation, providing a unique opportunity to assess whether and how short-term outcomes—such as college enrollment and completion—translate into long-term improvements in employment, income, upward mobility, and even the outcomes of their children.
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Project Summary
Planning an Evaluation of the Wallin Scholars Program
CoLab at the Constellation Fund awarded its first evaluation planning grant to MDRC to prepare a rigorous evaluation of the…