Youth CareerConnect: Building College and Career Pathways for High School Students, Impact Findings

The YCC program aimed to strengthen America’s talent pipeline by enhancing students’ high school experience to put them on a pathway to complete postsecondary education and occupational skills training, obtain industry-recognized credentials, and secure an unsubsidized job in middle- to high skilled H-1B occupations and industries.

The YCC impact study assessed short-term student outcomes with two rigorous components—a quasi-experimental design (QED) in 16 school districts and a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in four school districts that were also in the QED. It answered the overarching research question: What is the impact of the YCC program on critical milestones and momentum points that can be achieved in high school and are associated with education and employment success? The study focused on milestones and momentum points that students could achieve during high school—which represent outcomes in this study (because data collection ended in 2018, when most students in the sample were 16 or 17 years old.)

The impact study drew information from three data sources---tracking system, school records, and surveys.

1. Participant Tracking System---captured the characteristics of all YCC participants as well as the services and activities they received. It allowed for the identification of YCC participants for the QED and ensured that students in the RCT control group did not receive services funded by the YCC program.
2. School Records---obtained in spring 2018 used for both the QED and RCT included data two to three years before and two to four years after students could have entered the YCC program.
3. Surveys---completed by 279 treatment and 157 control group students in three of the four RCT school districts included baseline information from 98% of the students and 100% of their parents and follow-up surveys from 81% of students. These surveys provided a richer set of outcomes than were available in school records.

(This report is 90 pages long.)

The researchers provide answers to three broad research questions as follows:

1. What is the impact of YCC on school attendance, credit accumulation, proficiency in English language arts, and algebra progression?

• YCC produced a small increase in school attendance and credit accumulation.
• YCC may have benefited a student’s postsecondary preparation by improving proficiency in English language arts.
• No evidence exists that YCC had an effect on students completing algebra coursework.

2. Does the impact of the YCC vary by (1) key student characteristics, (2) program experiences, or (3) cohort?

• No consistent pattern emerged across student subgroups based on their prior academic achievement and low-income status.
• Impacts tended to be larger for those who received an internship, had mentor, or completed IDPs compared to those who did not.
• The pattern of results suggests that YCC might have had a larger impact for the students starting the YCC in the later years than those starting in the early years on accumulated credits, proficiency in English language arts, and algebra progression, though not on school attendance.

3. What appears to be the impact of YCC on high school graduation, staying in school, school engagement and satisfaction, positive behavior at school, postsecondary credits earned during high school, educational expectations and knowledge, work-readiness skills, paid work experiences, and reduced substance abuse?

• The QED showed that YCC did not lead to impacts on high school graduation for the students with an on-time high school graduation.

The RCT produced results in these three areas:

• Similar percentages of treatment and control group students reported several high school behaviors, such as participating in a school-sponsored activity & believing grades are very important. Also, reported similar experiences with substance abuse
• Postsecondary preparation. Similar percentages of treatment and control group students reported expecting to receive a two-year college degree or above and a vocational certificate; taking dual-enrollment courses while in high school; and understanding what courses they needed to take to attend a four-year college.
• Employment readiness. Similar percentages of treatment and control group students reported earning a degree, certificate, or license at school that would help them get a job or earning a badge for a specific skill, or taking courses at school that led to an industry-recognized credential.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2019
• Author(s): N. Maxwell, J. Bellotti, P. Schochet, P. Burkander, E. Whitesell, E. Dillon, H. Inanc
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies