When we looked at our data a year later, we were encouraged by our results: despite a small sample of 40 students, we found that students offered an ISA enrolled at a higher rate compared with control group students (91 percent versus 76 percent), and that ISA students were significantly more likely to persist in the program (92 percent versus 65 percent). Finally, we found that students selected for ISA access made faster progress toward their bachelor’s degree relative to the control group. (You can find a full write-up of our study, methodology, and results here.)
Given constraints of sample and time, we view these outcomes as directional and suggestive, not definitive. For Rivet School specifically, however, these results reinforce our conviction that an ISA financing option is something that students want and benefit from. And we’ll be paying attention to longer-term outcomes in our ISA group—involving program completion, job placement, and post-program earnings.
We also hope that the spirit of this work carries beyond Rivet School, and reminds us that while theoretical debate can be healthy, we shouldn’t neglect the value of empirical inquiry. We’re looking to research initiatives like Financing the Future at JFF to help ensure that a decade down the line, when scholars and policymakers are heatedly debating the role of ISAs in student finance, they’ll do so armed with the facts.
Eli Bildner is the co-founder and co-executive director of Rivet School. Ben Castleman served as an outside evaluator of the organization’s Pay it Forward randomized controlled trial.