Causal theory

After School Program has different outcomes including the fact that it improves the grades of the beneficiaries.

Causal theory : After School causes Improved grades

Attend After School programs causes one to improve, their grades. Socioeconomic, Location and ability to learn need to be controlled for. I also included background and improved mental health. I included background because it determines the socioeconomic conditions of one. Socioeconomic will determine if one attend after school programs. In fact, students from under resources family will be more likely to attend the program. Also, students from privilege socioeconomic condition are more likely to perform better at school. In addition, location determines also if one will attend or not due to the distance. Students from rich neighborhood will be more likely to have good grades than those from lower income neighborhood. Finally, attending After school programs can improve students’ mental health because they are participating in activity they like and are in a safe environment. Improved mental health as a result would lead to improvement of grades.

The frontdoor paths are:

• After School - Improved mental health - Improved grades

• After School - Improved grades

The backdoor paths are:

• AfterSchool < - Location - > Improved grades

• AfterSchool < - Ability to learn - > Improved grades

• AfterSchool < - Socioeconomic - > Improved grades

According to our DAG, the variables we need to be controlled for / adjusted to close the backdoors are background/socioecomomic, Location, and Ability to learn. We can use a statistical method to perform this adjustment.