{"id":391,"date":"2015-01-18T18:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T18:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neurecall.com\/blog\/?p=391"},"modified":"2025-05-30T13:28:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:28:53","slug":"simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/01\/18\/upshot\/helping-the-poor-in-higher-education-the-power-of-a-simple-nudge.html\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Times<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> article, Susan Dynarski discusses why <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">students from low-income families are significantly less likely to receive a college degree compared to their high-income counterparts. Numerous attempts to close this gap in the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">US <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">education system include dramatic education reforms, such as the introduction of the Common Core curriculum and the elimination of teacher <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tenures.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an effective solution does not always necessitate extensive amounts of financial support or large systemic changes, as proven by Benjamin L. Castleman and Lindsay C. Page. During their time as graduate students at Harvard, Castleman and Page designed a text message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to high school students, reminding them of college deadlines. The results were clear: 7% more students enrolled in college in the group that received the text messages compared to those who did not, a large increase in the world of education. At only USD $7 per student, the program proved highly <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">effective.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"1015\" data-id=\"1934\" src=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-700x1015.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1934\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-700x1015.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-250x362.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-768x1113.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-1060x1536.jpg 1060w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-1413x2048.jpg 1413w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-120x174.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg 1766w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@asterfolio?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Asterfolio<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/person-holding-black-iphone-4-PjoJga8EovQ?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similar<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> applications of this idea were tested on parents with young children, by sending them messages providing tips on how to read to their children. The children of parents who received the messages \u201cwere more likely to know the alphabet and the sounds of letters.\u201d Similar positive results were found when the messages were used to improve homework completion rates. Each program only cost a few dollars per <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">family &#8211; a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">small price for a high reward. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a New York Times article, Susan Dynarski discusses why American students from low-income families are significantly less likely to receive a college degree compared to their high-income counterparts. Numerous attempts to close this gap in the US education system include dramatic education reforms, such as the introduction of the Common Core curriculum and the&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-university"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Syngli - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-18T18:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-30T13:28:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1766\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melissa Yu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melissa Yu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\",\"name\":\"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-18T18:00:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-30T13:28:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b53fbc10e8c7b7ece55ed6cdc557a\"},\"description\":\"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1766,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Syngli - Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b53fbc10e8c7b7ece55ed6cdc557a\",\"name\":\"Melissa Yu\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e714ac97cb650ab338c9b0fd73615c5fcf0e161fea8dd6509af8c968ebbc9ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e714ac97cb650ab338c9b0fd73615c5fcf0e161fea8dd6509af8c968ebbc9ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Melissa Yu\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/author\/melissa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog","description":"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog","og_description":"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/","og_site_name":"Syngli - Blog","article_published_time":"2015-01-18T18:00:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-30T13:28:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1766,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Melissa Yu","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Melissa Yu","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/","name":"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities - Syngli - Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-18T18:00:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-30T13:28:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b53fbc10e8c7b7ece55ed6cdc557a"},"description":"Castleman and Page designed a message-based program that involved sending personalized messages to students, reminding them of college deadlines...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/asterfolio-PjoJga8EovQ-unsplash-scaled.jpg","width":1766,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/simple-solution-helps-close-economic-gap-universities\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Simple solution helps close economic gap in universities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/","name":"Syngli - Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b53fbc10e8c7b7ece55ed6cdc557a","name":"Melissa Yu","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e714ac97cb650ab338c9b0fd73615c5fcf0e161fea8dd6509af8c968ebbc9ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e714ac97cb650ab338c9b0fd73615c5fcf0e161fea8dd6509af8c968ebbc9ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Melissa Yu"},"url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/author\/melissa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1936,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/1936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}