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 Schochet et al. (2001) study examined outcomes in the progressing in school and completing school domains.

Progressing in school. At the end of the 48-month follow-up period, Schochet et al. (2001) found no statistically significant difference between Job Corps and control group youth in their self-reported years of regular schooling completed. In addition, the effect size for this outcome was not large enough (at least 0.25) to be considered substantively important, according to the WWC criteria.

Completing school. Schochet et al. (2001) found that, among those who entered the program without a high school diploma or GED certificate, 43% of Job Corps students earned one by the end of the 48-month follow-up period, compared with 26% of control group students. This difference was both statistically significant and substantively important by WWC standards. Job Corps' effect on completion came entirely from its positive and statistically significant effect on the likelihood of receiving a GED certificate. Job Corps 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 WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).⁷