Figure 1. Estimated Effects of Self-affirmation Writing Exercises on Middle School Grade Point Average.

Source: Authors’ calculations; see Table A1 for specific references.

Notes: Symbols plot reported effect sizes for potentially stereotyped groups (African American and/or Hispanic students) for the first year of the self-affirmation intervention, and lines represent 95% confidence intervals (+/− 1.96 standard errors). Shapes represent distinct school or district contexts. For instance, Sherman et al. (2013) studies 1 and 2 were conducted in different schools in different states. Dee (2015) reports subgroup results from the same sample of Philadelphia-area schools. The dashed line represents the overall mean effect size (0.07), calculated by weighting individual estimates according to the inverse of their squared standard error. The impact estimates are lower in the large-scale replication studies (Dee 2015, Borman et al. 2016, and Current Study), but these differences could reflect heterogeneous effects across local context, research team, and implementation. This paper investigates two effects observed within the trial conducted in a single school district (represented by circles), for which context and procedures were consistent.