A newer version of this project is available. See below for other available versions.

MDRC's The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trials Restricted Access File (THE-RCT RAF)

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) John Diamond, MDRC; Michael J. Weiss, MDRC; Colin Hill, MDRC; Austin Slaughter, MDRC; Stanley Dai, MDRC

Version:  View help for Version V1

Version Title:  View help for Version Title ASAP Westchester only

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Data 11/24/2025 01:29:PM
  Documentation 11/24/2025 01:38:PM

Project Citation: 

Diamond, John, Weiss, Michael J., Hill, Colin, Slaughter, Austin, and Dai, Stanley. MDRC’s The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trials Restricted Access File (THE-RCT RAF). Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-11-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/E240388V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary NOTE: At this time, the version of the RAF posted here only includes data for a single study, ASAP Westchester. The full RAF will be posted here shortly. In the meantime, you may access the full RAF on the main ICPSR repository here: MDRC's The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trials Restricted Access File (THE-RCT RAF), United States, 2003-2024

The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trial (THE-RCT) study aims to capitalize on existing data from postsecondary education RCTs to foster substantive and methodological scholarship and encourage teaching and learning opportunities. The cornerstone of THE-RCT is a restricted access file (RAF). This version contains individual-participant data from more than 30 of MDRC's higher education RCTs covering over 50 institutions and over 50,000 students. The data were originally collected as part of different randomized controlled trial evaluations of a variety of higher education interventions. The data were collected for different student samples, at different times, and in different locations for each study.

The data were collected from four data sources:
  1. Baseline: Baseline student demographic data (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, etc.) were gathered, either via a survey administered to students upon joining the study (but prior to random assignment) or from study colleges' administrative records;
  2. College Transcript: Student transcript data (e.g., enrollment, credits attempted, credits earned, GPA) were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies;
  3. College Credential Attainment: Student credential attainment data were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies;
  4. National Student Clearinghouse: Student enrollment and credential attainment data were provided by the National Student Clearinghouse via their StudentTracker database. This includes enrollment and credential attainment data at colleges beyond the colleges where the study took place.

The RAF contains student-level data, including baseline demographics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity), outcomes (e.g., enrollment, credits earned, credentials), an indicator of experimental group (e.g., program or control group), and study variables (e.g., a variable that allows users to link to the RCT-level database).
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Arnold Ventures; United States Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (R305A190161)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms academic achievement; academic degrees; academic guidance counseling; community colleges; high school students; high school graduates; high schools; higher education; postsecondary education; remedial education; student financial aid; student retention; college students
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2003 – 2024
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2003 – 2024
Universe:  View help for Universe US college students
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; experimental data; survey data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes For additional information on the Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trial study, please visit the MDRC website.

Methodology

Response Rate:  View help for Response Rate Outcome data were collected for nearly all students in each RCT. Typically, fewer than 1 percent of students who were randomly assigned were "dropped" from an RCT due to, for example, a student withdrawing their consent to collect outcome data. See the RCT-Level Database for the number of students randomly assigned in each RCT and the number of students in the analytic sample, and see the Codebook and User's Guide for details on missing data.
Sampling:  View help for Sampling Sampling varies by RCT, see the RCT-Level Database for more information.
Data Source:  View help for Data Source The data were collected from four data sources:
  1. Baseline: Baseline student demographic data (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, etc.) were gathered, either via a survey administered to students upon joining the study (but prior to random assignment) or from study colleges' administrative records;
  2. College Transcript: Student transcript data (e.g., enrollment, credits attempted, credits earned, GPA) were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies;
  3. College Credential Attainment: Student credential attainment data were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies;
  4. National Student Clearinghouse: Student enrollment and credential attainment data were provided by the National Student Clearinghouse via their StudentTracker database. This includes enrollment and credential attainment data at colleges beyond the colleges where the study took place.
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) on-site questionnaire; record abstracts; web-based survey
Scales:  View help for Scales Various scales were used. See the Codebook for details.
Weights:  View help for Weights The dataset includes a variable that indicates each student's probability of being assigned to the program group (special care needs to be taken in multi-arm trials). This variable can be used to create weights to account for differences in the probability of assignment to the program both within and between studies.
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation School, Student
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit College campus

Related Publications

Request Information

This material is sensitive in nature and is available as restricted data through ICPSR. Users are required to apply for access, will be required to pay a fee, and will experience a wait time before access is given. The material will be distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR does not check or process the material.

Published Versions

V3 [2025-12-03]

V1 [2025-11-25]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.