High school value-added and college outcomes

This paper analyzes the relationship between high school value-added and college performance, which contributes to the literature on (1) the relationship between value-added and adult outcomes and (2) the importance of high schools. One standard deviation increase in high school value-added is associated with an increase in the probability of graduating from college by 4?6 percentage points and final GPA by 0.04?0.08 points on a 4.0 scale, depending on controls for student, high school, geographic, university, and major selection effects. The associations are largest for male students and Black students. Most of the association with GPA occurs in early semesters.