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Intervention: JOBSTART

Effectiveness


Findings

The WWC review of interventions for dropout prevention addresses student outcomes in three domains: staying in school, progressing in school, and completing school. The JOBSTART study by Cave et al. examined outcomes in the completing school domain.

Completing school. The study showed a statistically significant difference between JOBSTART and control group youth on the likelihood of receiving a high school diploma or GED certificate. Four years after random assignment, 42% of JOBSTART youth had earned a high school diploma or GED certificate, compared with 29% of control group youth. This positive effect on completion came entirely from JOBSTART’s positive and statistically significant effect on receiving a GED certificate. JOBSTART was found to have a small, but statistically significant, negative effect on the likelihood of earning a high school diploma.6

Rating of effectiveness

The WWC rates the effects of an intervention in a given outcome domain as: positive, potentially positive, mixed, no discernible effects, potentially negative, or negative. The rating of effectiveness takes into account four factors: the quality of the research design, the statistical significance of the findings, the size of the difference between participants in the intervention and the comparison conditions, and the consistency in findings across studies (see the PDF File WWC Intervention Rating Scheme (112 KB)).7

6 As in other WWC dropout prevention reviews, the combined effect of JOBSTART on receiving a high school diploma or GED certificate was used to determine the effectiveness rating. These results are in Appendix A3. The separate effects of JOBSTART on receiving a high school diploma or GED certificate are in Appendix A4.2. At the end of the follow-up period, the percentage of youth who earned a high school diploma was small for both JOBSTART and control group youth, 4.4% and 7.5% respectively.
7 The level of statistical significance was reported by the study authors or, where necessary, calculated by the WWC to correct for clustering within classrooms or schools and for multiple comparisons. For an explanation, see the WWC Tutorial on Mismatch. For the formulas the WWC used to calculate the statistical significance, see Technical Details of WWC-Conducted Computations. For Cave et al. (1993), no corrections for clustering or multiple comparisons were needed.