Postsecondary Education

Top Tier Updated: Oct 27, 2021

Bottom Line

Multi-site randomized controlled trial shows sizable increase in bachelor’s degree attainment.

Top Tier Updated: Jul 14, 2025

Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and Accelerate, Complete, Engage (ACE)

Randomized controlled trials show a sizable increase in college graduation rates.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Nov 21, 2017

InsideTrack College Coaching

Randomized controlled trial shows an increase in college persistence and likelihood of college graduation.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Sep 25, 2020

H&R Block College Financial Aid Application Assistance

Multi-site randomized controlled trial shows a sizable increase in college attendance and possible modest effect on college completion.

Top Tier

Programs shown in well-conducted RCTs, carried out in typical community settings, to produce sizable, sustained effects on important outcomes. Top Tier evidence includes a requirement for replication – specifically, the demonstration of such effects in two or more RCTs conducted in different implementation sites, or, alternatively, in one large multi-site RCT. Such evidence provides confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original studies.
Near Top Tier

Programs shown to meet almost all elements of the Top Tier standard, and which only need one additional step to qualify. This category primarily includes programs that meet all elements of the Top Tier standard in a single study site, but need a replication RCT to confirm the initial findings and establish that they generalize to other sites. This is best viewed as tentative evidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original study.
Suggestive Tier

Programs that have been evaluated in one or more well-conducted RCTs (or studies that closely approximate random assignment) and found to produce sizable positive effects, but whose evidence is limited by only short-term follow-up, effects that fall short of statistical significance, or other factors. Such evidence suggests the program may be an especially strong candidate for further research, but does not yet provide confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented in new settings.