The Impact of Counseling and Mathematics Remedial Programs on the Academic Achievement of Higher Education Students in Chile

We evaluated the impact of 2 developmental programs aimed at improving the academic achievements of students in a Chilean higher education institution. Both evaluations had quasi-experimental designs. The impact of counseling programs on students' dropout rates was first evaluated using propensity score matching. Then the impact of mathematics remedial courses on students' final grades in mathematics was estimated using regression discontinuity and propensity score matching. The results show that students who participated in these programs had better academic results than those with similar characteristics who did not take part.