New Chance. Final Report on a Comprehensive Program for Young Mothers in Poverty and Their Children.

Findings

Completing school outcomes—Statistically significant positive effect found for the domain

Outcome measure	Comparison	Period	Sample	Intervention mean	Comparison mean	Significant?	Improvement     index	Evidence tier
Earned a high school diploma or GED certificate within 42 months of random assignment (%)	New Chance vs. Business as usual	42 months after random assignment	Full sample; 2,079 students	51.90	43.80	Yes	8

Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.

Study Details

Setting

The study was conducted in 16 sites in 10 states: California (Chula Vista, Inglewood, San Jose), Colorado (Denver), Florida (Jacksonville), Illinois (Chicago Heights), Kentucky (Lexington), Michigan (Detroit), Minnesota (Minneapolis), New York (Bronx, Harlem), Oregon (Portland, Salem), and Pennsylvania (Allentown, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh). Most host organizations were either education institutions (adult schools, community colleges, secondary schools) or community service organizations.

Study sample

To be eligible for New Chance, women had to meet several criteria: (1) be 16 to 22 years old, (2) lack a high school diploma or GED certificate, (3) receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), and (4) not be pregnant at program entry. The sites were offered some flexibility in these eligibility rules; 25% of their participants could be either: (1) women who were high school graduates but read below a ninth-grade level or (2) non-AFDC recipients who were deemed economically disadvantaged by another accepted standard. Among those in the analysis sample, 6% had a high school diploma or GED certificate at random assignment; 5% were not receiving AFDC at this point. New Chance served a disadvantaged group of young mothers. Only 30% read at a tenth-grade level or above. The majority (63%) had not been employed in the previous 12 months. Almost 4 in 10 had left school before their first pregnancy. More than one in four were at high risk of clinical depression according to their self-reported prevalence of depressive symptoms. Their average age at study entry was 19. About half the sample was African-American, and about one in four was Hispanic. From 1989 to 1991, 2,322 eligible young mothers were randomly assigned—1,553 to New Chance and 769 to the control group. The analyses summarized in this report are based on data collected on the 42-month follow-up survey; 1,401 New Chance mothers and 678 control group mothers responded to this survey, resulting in response rates of 90% and 88% respectively. Among those who responded to the 42-month follow-up survey, the study authors compared program and control group members on more than 50 baseline characteristics. These included their ethnicity, marital status, number of children, highest grade completed, education aspirations, employment history, reading ability, mental health status, contraceptive use, and family background. On almost all these measures there was no statistically significant difference between the research groups at the .05 level of significance. Two exceptions were the education of the sample member’s father (with program group members slightly less likely to have a father with a high school degree) and the number of pregnancies at baseline (with program group members slightly more likely to have had only one pregnancy prior to program entry). The study authors controlled for these and other baseline characteristics when estimating program impacts.

Intervention Group

New Chance had wide-ranging goals for improving the lives of young mothers on welfare. The program aimed to foster women’s personal and economic development by increasing their employment potential, as well as their life and parenting skills. The services were broad, from GED preparation to family planning, with the intention of decreasing the likelihood of long-term poverty among participants and improving outcomes for their children. The focus of the program was education and training, with additional services provided to improve parenting and life skills. The local programs were small, serving about 40 participants at a time. Case managers were available to monitor and assist participants in their progress through the program. Although their caseloads were supposed to be no larger than 25 participants, case managers at more than half the sites exceeded this level at some point (Quint, Bos, & Polit,1997). The programs also offered free child care, usually on site. Women were allowed to remain in the program for 18 months, with case managers providing up to 12 additional months of follow-up beyond this point. New Chance services had two phases. The first phase focused on education and personal development. Participants were expected to attend classes from 9am to 3pm, five days a week. The education components, which lasted two to three hours a day, included GED preparation, career exploration, and pre-employment skills training. Life skills could include instruction on health education and family planning, communication skills, budgeting, and child development. For some of these components, such as communication skills, assertiveness, and problem solving, the program used the Life Skills and Opportunities (LSO) curriculum, which was adapted specifically for the demonstration. Services in Phase I could be offered for the five months or until a participant received her GED certificate. In the second phase of New Chance the emphasis was on occupational preparation. Participants could engage in vocational training, paid or unpaid internships, and job placement. College attendance was not a formal component of the New Chance model, but some sites encouraged participants to enroll. Most of the Phase II activities occurred off site and were offered through other agencies. Even so, participants still received child care and case management services through the local programs. According to study authors, participants often had difficulty making the transition from Phase I to Phase II (Quint, Bos, & Polit, 1997). Staff reported that many participants were motivated to receive a GED certificate but did not have specific goals for acquiring job skills. About 85% of women assigned to New Chance attended some adult education activities. But fewer than a third participated in occupational skills training and only 20% participated in an internship. Women who did attain their GED certificate typically dropped out of the program rather than move on to Phase II.

Comparison Group

Control group members were not eligible to participate in New Chance. They were given a list of other community programs and services and were free to participate in these or any other services available in the community. Based on responses to follow-up surveys, many of the control group members participated in adult education and literacy programs. During the 42-month follow-up period, 86% reported that they participated in an education program, job skills training, or job club (Quint, Bos, & Polit, 1997).

Outcome descriptions

One relevant outcome from the New Chance study is included in this summary and used for rating purposes: receiving a high school diploma or GED certificate within 42 months of random assignment. (For more detailed description of outcome measures, see Appendix A2.) The study also examined the program’s effects on college credits, trade certification, reading scores, living arrangements, fertility, mental and physical health, employment, earnings, AFDC receipt, and child outcomes. These outcomes, however, do not fall within the three domains examined by the WWC’s review of dropout prevention interventions (staying in school, progressing in school, and completing school). So, they are not included in this report.

Support for implementation

To be selected as a New Chance site, sites were required to have experience providing services to adolescent parents in at least two of the following four areas: education, employment-related services, health and personal development, and services for participants’ children (Quint, Fink, & Rowser, 1991). Therefore, all sites had some experience delivering some of the services offered by New Chance; however, no site previously had delivered all of the major New Chance components. MDRC hosted a “kick-off” conference for sites, followed by a two-and-a-half day training on the Life Skills and Opportunities curriculum for staff expected to teach life skills to participants. MDRC also sponsored an all-site conference with sessions on case management, job development, and family planning. In addition to the training, MDRC provided regular on-site technical assistance, visiting sites every four to six weeks (Quint, Fink, & Rowser, 1991).

Additional Sources