This practice guide provides school educators and administrators with four evidence-based recommendations for reducing dropout rates in middle and high schools and improving high school graduation rates. Each recommendation provides specific, actionable strategies; examples of how to implement the recommended practices in schools; advice on how to overcome potential obstacles; and a description of the supporting evidence.

Access to higher education remains a challenge for many students who face academic and informational barriers to college entry.

Geared toward educators, administrators, and policymakers, this guide provides recommendations that focus on reducing high school dropout rates.

Dana Center Mathematics Pathways offers multiple math pathways aligned to programs of study, accelerated enrollment in credit-bearing college math courses, integrated student supports, and math instruction that incorporates evidence-based curricula and pedagogy.

ASAP is a three-year program that is designed to remove barriers to college success and completion for students seeking associate degrees. ASAP offers students financial, academic, and personal supports. ASAP students are required to enroll full time and are encouraged to take any required developmental education courses in the first semester.

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a nationwide network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. KIPP schools are usually established under state charter school laws and KIPP is America’s largest network of charter schools. KIPP Aims to prepare poor and minority students to succeed in a college preparatory curriculum. It provides training for principals and offers them greater autonomy over budget and hiring decisions. KIPP schools provide about 60% more instructional time than traditional public schools—through a longer school day and additional instructional days on Saturdays and in the summer.

Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses and earn college credits while still attending high school. Such programs, also referred to as dual credit or early college programs, are designed to boost college access and degree attainment, especially for students typically underrepresented in higher education. Dual enrollment programs support college credit accumulation and degree attainment via at least three mechanisms. First, allowing high school students to experience college-level courses helps them prepare for the social and academic requirements of college while having the additional supports available to high school students; this may reduce the need for developmental coursework. Second, students who accumulate college credits early and consistently are more likely to attain a college degree. Third, many dual enrollment programs offer discounted or free tuition, which reduces the overall cost of college and may increase the number of low socioeconomic status students who can attend and complete college.

Test preparation programs—sometimes referred to as test coaching programs—have been implemented with the goal of increasing student scores on college entrance tests. They generally (a) familiarize students with the format of the test; (b) introduce general test-taking strategies (e.g., get a good night’s sleep); (c) introduce specific testtaking strategies (e.g., whether the test penalizes incorrect answers, and what this means for whether or not one should guess an answer if it is not known); and (d) specific drills (e.g., practice factoring polynomial expressions). The programs can be delivered in person or online, and in whole class settings, in small groups, and individually.

First year experience courses, often referred to as college success courses or freshman seminars, are courses for first-year students in 2-year and 4-year colleges. The general goals of first year experience courses are to support the academic performance, social development, persistence, and degree completion of college students. Additionally, first year experience courses often aim to increase students’ sense of campus community and connection to their institutions, while giving students the opportunity to interact with faculty and peers.

Linked learning communities in postsecondary education are programs defined by having social and curricular linkages that provide undergraduate students with intentional integration of the themes and concepts that they are learning. Linked learning communities are based on the theory that active learning in a community-based setting can improve academic outcomes by increasing social and academic integration. Linked learning communities tend to have a shared intellectual theme with a linked or integrated curriculum and a community or common cohort of learners.

The Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is a grant-funded group at Carnegie Mellon University, offering innovative online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach. The aim of the program is to create high-quality courses and contribute original research to improve learning and transform higher education.

InsideTrack© Coaching provides proactive, personalized coaching to help students identify and overcome both academic and non-academic barriers to college persistence and graduation. InsideTrack© partners with universities to deliver its coaching to students through phone, video, email, text, and mobile apps.

FLIGHT is a program based on partnership of a private non-profit (Taking Stock in Children) and local educational agencies with the goal of increasing the extent to which low-income students with academic promise are prepared for, enrolled in, and successful in college. Specifically, FLIGHT provides school-based mentoring, college prep, and wrap-around services for at-risk students who show potential to be successful in postsecondary education endeavors.

The summer counseling intervention was intended to reduce what study authors call the summer “melt,” a phenomenon in which students have been accepted to college but fail to matriculate. These summer counseling services, delivered during the months between high school graduation and college enrollment, involve outreach by college counselors or peer mentors via text messaging campaigns, e-mail, phone, in-person meetings, instant messaging, or social media. These intervention services provide college-intending individuals with information about tasks required for college enrollment, such as taking placement tests, arranging for housing, acquiring medical insurance, obtaining financial aid, and registering for courses. Summer counseling was also provided to help students overcome unanticipated financial, informational, and socio-emotional barriers that prevent college enrollment.

Green Dot Public Schools is a nonprofit organization that operates more than 20 public charter middle and high schools in California, Tennessee, and Washington. The Green Dot Public Schools are regulated and monitored by the local school district, but operate outside of the district’s direct control. The Green Dot Public Schools model emphasizes high quality teaching, strong school leadership, a curriculum that prepares students for college, and partnerships with the community. Any student may enroll in a Green Dot Public School if there is space available. Many Green Dot Public Schools operate with unionized teachers and staff. Several of the Green Dot Public Schools were chartered in existing public schools which were performing below district or community expectations. Funding for Green Dot Public Schools operations comes through public federal, state, and local finances, while some transformations of existing district-run schools into charter schools have been funded partly by private foundations.

Summer bridge programs are designed to ease the transition to college and support postsecondary success by providing students with the academic skills and social resources needed to succeed in a college environment. These programs occur in the summer “bridge” period between high school and college. Although the content of summer bridge programs can vary across institutions and by the population served, they typically last 2–4 weeks and involve (a) an in-depth orientation to college life and resources, (b) academic advising, (c) training in skills necessary for college success (e.g., time management and study skills), and/or (d) accelerated academic coursework.

Career Academies are school-within-school programs operating in high schools. Students in Career Academies take both career-related and academic courses and acquire work experience through partnerships with local employers.

Check & Connect is a dropout prevention strategy that relies on close monitoring of school performance, mentoring, case management, and other supports. The program has two main components: “Check” and “Connect.” The Check component is designed to continually assess student engagement through close monitoring of student performance and progress indicators. The Connect component involves program staff giving individualized attention to students, in partnership with school personnel, family members, and community service providers. Students enrolled in Check & Connect are assigned a “monitor” who regularly reviews their performance (in particular, whether students are having attendance, behavior, or academic problems) and intervenes when problems are identified. The monitor also advocates for students, coordinates services, provides ongoing feedback and encouragement, and emphasizes the importance of staying in school.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program is a residential education and training program designed for youth ages 16–18 who have dropped out of or been expelled from high school. During a 22-week residential period, participants are offered GED (General Educational Development) preparation classes and other program services intended to promote positive youth development, such as leadership, job skills, and service to the community. The residential period is quasi-military (youth live in barracks, wear uniforms, and experience military-style discipline), but there are no requirements for military service. After the residential period, trainees participate in a 1-year structured mentoring program. Trainees select their own mentors. After selection, mentors are screened and trained by the program.

Accelerated middle schools are self-contained academic programs designed to help middle school students who are behind grade level catch up with their peers. The program aims to ensure students stay in school and graduate by encouraging them to begin high school with other students their age. The programs serve students who are one to two years behind grade level, giving students the opportunity to cover an additional year of curriculum over 1–2 years in the program. Accelerated middle schools can be structured as separate schools or as schools within a traditional middle school.

Job Corps, a federally funded education and job training program for economically disadvantaged youth, offers remedial education, GED (General Educational Development) preparation, vocational training, job placement assistance, and other supports. Job Corps participants typically reside in a Job Corps center while enrolled in the program and can remain in the program for up to 2 years.

JOBSTART is an alternative education and training program designed to improve the economic prospects of young, disadvantaged high school dropouts by increasing educational attainment and developing occupational skills. The program has four main components: (1) basic academic skills instruction with a focus on GED (General Educational Development) preparation, (2) occupational skills training, (3) training-related support services (such as transportation assistance and child care), and (4) job placement assistance. Participants receive at least 200 hours of basic education and 500 hours of occupational training.

New Chance, a program for young welfare mothers who have dropped out of school, aims to improve both their employment potential and their parenting skills. Participants take GED (General Educational Development) preparation classes and complete a parenting and life skills curriculum. Once they complete this first phase of the program, they can receive occupational training and job placement assistance from New Chance, which also offers case management and child care.

High School Redirection is an alternative high school program for youth considered at risk of dropping out. The program emphasizes basic skills development (with a particular focus on reading skills) and offers limited extra-curricular activities. The schools operate in economically disadvantaged areas and serve students who have dropped out in the past, who are teen parents, who have poor test scores, or who are over-age for their grade. To foster a sense of community, the schools are small, and teachers are encouraged to act as mentors as well as instructors.

Twelve Together is a 1-year peer support and mentoring program for middle and early high school students that offers weekly after-school discussion groups led by trained volunteer adult facilitators. Each peer discussion group consists of about 12 participants who are a mix of students at high- and low-risk of academic failure. Group discussions are based on topics of student interest, usually focusing on personal, family, and social issues. The program also offers homework assistance, trips to college campuses, and an annual weekend retreat.

Financial incentives for teen parents are components of state welfare programs intended to encourage enrollment, attendance, and completion of high school as a means of increasing employment and earnings and reducing welfare dependence. The incentives take the form of bonuses and sanctions to the welfare grant related to school enrollment, performance, and completion. The programs typically provide case management and social services to supplement financial incentives.

Talent Search aims to help low-income and first-generation college students (those whose parents do not have 4-year college degrees) complete high school and gain access to college through a combination of services designed to improve academic achievement and increase access to financial aid. Services include test taking and study skills assistance, academic advising, tutoring, career development, college campus visits, and financial aid application assistance.

ALAS (Spanish for “wings”) is an intervention for middle and high school students that is designed to address student, school, family, and community factors that affect dropping out. Each student is assigned a counselor/mentor who monitors attendance, behavior, and academic achievement. The counselor/mentor provides feedback and coordinates interventions and resources to students, families, and teachers. Counselors/mentors also serve as advocates for students and intervene when problems are identified. Students are trained in problem-solving, self-control, and assertiveness skills. Parents are trained in parent-child problem solving, how to participate in school activities, and how to contact teachers and school administrators to address issues.

First year experience courses for students in developmental education are designed to ease the transition to college for the large numbers of students in need of developmental (or remedial) education. The aim of these courses is to support the academic performance, social development, persistence, and degree completion of postsecondary students with developmental needs. Although first year experience courses vary in terms of content and focus, most are designed to introduce students to campus resources, provide training in time management and study skills, and address student development issues; for students in developmental courses, the courses are often linked with or taken concurrently with developmental courses.

Developmental summer bridge programs are designed to reduce the need for developmental education in college by providing students with accelerated developmental instruction. These programs occur in the summer “bridge” period between high school and college and typically incorporate accelerated developmental instruction with college preparation training.

Talent Development Middle Grades Program (TDMG) is a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small ”learning communities” of 200–300 students who attend classes in distinct areas of the school and stay together throughout their time in middle school. In addition to structural changes, schools adopting the program purchase one or more curricula that are intended to be developmentally appropriate and to engage students with culturally relevant content. For students who are behind in reading and math, the program provides additional periods devoted to these subjects that include group activities and computer-based lessons. To improve implementation, each school is assigned a team of “curriculum coaches” trained by the developer to work with school staff on a weekly basis to implement the program. In addition, teachers are offered professional development training, including monthly sessions designed to familiarize them with the program and demonstrate effective instructional approaches.

Check & Connect is a dropout prevention strategy that relies on close monitoring of school performance, mentoring, case management, and other supports. The program has two main components: “Check” and “Connect.” The Check component is designed to continually assess student engagement through close monitoring of student performance and progress indicators. The Connect component involves program staff giving individualized attention to students, in partnership with school personnel, family members, and community service providers. Students enrolled in Check & Connect are assigned a “monitor” who regularly reviews their performance (in particular, whether students are having attendance, behavior, or academic problems) and intervenes when problems are identified. The monitor also advocates for students, coordinates services, provides ongoing feedback and encouragement, and emphasizes the importance of staying in school.

Service and Conservation Corps engages young adults in full-time community service, job training, and educational activities. The program serves youth who are typically between the ages of 17 and 26 and who have dropped out of school, been involved with the criminal justice system, or face other barriers to success. Participants are organized into small crews that carry out environmental and energy conservation, urban infrastructure improvement, and other service projects intended to benefit local communities. These crews are guided by adult leaders who serve as mentors and role models. All participants receive educational training, in addition to a variety of job training and support services. Youth who have dropped out of school receive classroom training to secure a GED (General Educational Development) or high school diploma. Participants receive a living allowance while in the program. Those who complete the program are usually eligible for post-program educational stipends or small cash awards.

Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) is a summer employment, academic remediation, and life skills program intended to reduce school dropout rates by addressing summer learning loss and preventing teen parenthood. The program serves low-income 14- and 15-year-olds who have tested below grade level in either reading or math. The program is integrated into the federal summer jobs program and is offered as sessions of 6–8 weeks in two consecutive summers. It includes part-time summer work at minimum wage, a daily reading and math curriculum, and “life skills and opportunities” classes that focus on topics such as sexual behavior, drug use, careers, and community involvement.

Talent Development Middle Grades Program (TDMG) is a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small ”learning communities” of 200–300 students who attend classes in distinct areas of the school and stay together throughout their time in middle school. In addition to structural changes, schools adopting the program purchase one or more curricula that are intended to be developmentally appropriate and to engage students with culturally relevant content. For students who are behind in reading and math, the program provides additional periods devoted to these subjects that include group activities and computer-based lessons. To improve implementation, each school is assigned a team of “curriculum coaches” trained by the developer to work with school staff on a weekly basis to implement the program. In addition, teachers are offered professional development training, including monthly sessions designed to familiarize them with the program and demonstrate effective instructional approaches.

Middle College High Schools are alternative high schools located on college campuses that aim to help at-risk students complete high school and encourage them to attend college. The schools offer a project-centered, interdisciplinary curriculum with an emphasis on team teaching, individualized attention, and development of critical thinking skills. Students are also offered support services, including specialized counseling, peer support, and career experience opportunities.

First Things First is a reform model intended to transform elementary, middle, and high schools serving significant proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Its three main components are: (1) “small learning communities” of students and teachers; (2) a family and student advocate system that pairs staff members and students to monitor and support progress, and that serves as a bridge between the school and family; and (3) instructional improvements to make classroom teaching more rigorous and engaging and more closely aligned with state standards and assessments.

Project “Graduation Really Achieves Dreams” (GRAD) is an initiative for students in economically disadvantaged communities that aims to reduce dropping out and increase rates of college enrollment and graduation by increasing reading and math skills, improving behavior in school, and providing a service safety net. At the high school level, Project GRAD provides 4-year college scholarships and summer institutes to promote attending and completing high school. Project GRAD also provides services in the elementary and middle schools that feed into the participating high schools.

The Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP) is an intensive and comprehensive program for high school-aged youth that offers case management, mentoring, tutoring, and other education and support services. The program also offers financial incentives for participation in program activities. Participants enter QOP in grade 9 and can receive services for 4–5 years, even if they drop out of school or move to another district.

Talent Development High Schools is a school reform model for restructuring large high schools with persistent attendance and discipline problems, poor student achievement, and high dropout rates. The model includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small “learning communities”—including ninth-grade academies for first-year students and career academies for students in upper grades—to reduce student isolation and anonymity. It also emphasizes high academic standards and provides all students with a college preparatory academic sequence.

This report presents the findings from an independent evaluation conducted by WestEd on the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC). Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the ERWC is a grade 11 and grade 12 English language arts (ELA) curriculum developed by the California State University. The independent evaluation includes an evaluation of the fidelity of implementation of the curriculum and an impact evaluation that took place during the 2020/21 school year. The fidelity of implementation evaluation found that a high percentage of teachers participated in the professional learning with fidelity but that few teachers taught the full curriculum with fidelity, and these results were due to many factors, including time constraints and shifts in instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The grade 11 impact evaluation found that assignment to the ERWC had a positive and statistically significant impact on student achievement as measured by the Non-Performance Task Interim Comprehensive Assessment; however, no statistically significant impact was detected among the students who took the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment. In the grade 12 impact evaluation, there was no statistically significant difference in achievement between students who had enrolled in the ERWC and students who had enrolled in the comparison English course. Further evaluation of the ERWC in a non-pandemic year during which schooling takes place in person is recommended.

This is the first study to provide experimental evidence of the impact of corequisite remediation for students underprepared in reading and writing. We examine the short-term impacts of three different approaches to corequisite remediation that were implemented at five large urban community colleges in Texas, and we explore whether corequisites have differential impacts on students with different characteristics. Results from three first-time-in-college cohorts indicate that corequisite remediation increased the probability of completing a first college-level English course within one year by 24 percentage points and within two years by 18 percentage points. The impacts were positive for all three of the corequisite models examined and for traditionally underrepresented groups, including Hispanic students, first-generation college students, and students whose first language is not English. We saw modest positive impacts on the accumulation of college credits but no effect on persistence in college.

This paper presents new estimates of the effects of the City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) model, evaluated using a randomized controlled trial first in New York and later through a replication in Ohio. It describes longer-term effects of CUNY ASAP in New York, showing that the program's effects on associate's degree receipt persisted through eight years and likely represent a permanent increase in degree receipt. The paper also offers an analysis from the pooled study samples in New York and Ohio. The findings indicate that the program has consistent effects on degree receipt across different states but also for somewhat different levels of service contrast, such as the number of additional advising visits.

The New York City P-TECH Grades 9-14 schools represent an education model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems as a way to improve outcomes in both domains. The distinguishing feature of the P-TECH 9-14 model, as it is referred to in this report, is a partnership between a high school, a local community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both college and careers -- not one or the other -- within a six-year timeframe. Education and workforce development are traditionally seen as separate spheres of influence with multiple transition points that students have been left to navigate largely on their own (for example, high school to postsecondary, and postsecondary to the workforce). P-TECH 9-14 is designed to seamlessly assist student navigation of those points -- supporting student success and mitigating the potential for students to fall through the cracks. P-TECH 9-14 schools collaborate with local colleges to provide students with an opportunity to earn a high school diploma (within four years) followed by a cost-free, industry-recognized associate's degree. During the six-year program, employer partners support P-TECH 9-14 schools by providing students with work-based learning experiences such as internships, mentoring, and job shadowing. By design, the P-TECH 9-14 model offers students the opportunity to participate in focused and accelerated high school pathways, early college, and career-focused activities. This study offers initial impact and implementation findings from the first rigorous evaluation of the model, evaluating the first seven P-TECH 9-14 schools that opened in New York City. The study leverages the random lottery process created by the New York City High School Admissions System to identify impacts. The majority of the students in the sample who participated in the admissions lotteries were academically below proficiency in both math and English language arts (ELA) prior to entering high school. [This report was written with Fernando Medina. For the executive summary, see ED605313.]

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED604350.]

Postsecondary education is widely seen as a necessity in the modern economy, yet among low and middle-income families, college enrollment rates are dismayingly low -- and graduation rates are even lower. College Promise programs, which cover local students' college tuition and fees, are one strategy states and municipalities use to help. But traditionally, these programs look only to expand college access, not to address college success. Detroit's Promise program was designed to encourage college attendance among some of the nation's most underserved students, those in Detroit, Michigan. The next step was to help students succeed once they enrolled in college. To do so, MDRC and the Detroit Promise partnered to create the Detroit Promise Path, an evidence-based student services program. This report presents findings from MDRC's randomized controlled trial evaluation of the Detroit Promise Path. About two-thirds of eligible students were randomly assigned to be offered the new program, while the rest were assigned to a control group who receives the Promise scholarship alone, and thus does not meet with coaches or receive incentives. Comparing the two groups' outcomes over time provides a reliable estimate of the effects of the Detroit Promise Path. The findings in this report include the following: (1) The program has a positive effect on students' persistence in school, full-time enrollment, and credit accumulation; (2) Although it is too early to reach a conclusion about effects in the second year of the study, the early findings are encouraging; and (3) Participation rates were high among enrolled students, and students reported positive experiences in the program, especially in their relationships with their coaches. It is clear that Detroit Promise Path is having a positive effect on students in the first two years. This evaluation shows that building student support services into Promise scholarships can have a meaningful effect on students' academic progress. [Additional funding for this report was provided by the Michigan Education Excellence foundation.]

This is the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Funded with a validation grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program and carried out by researchers at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), this evaluation used random assignment of ninth-grade students to BARR and control conditions to estimate the impacts of the BARR model after one year. The evaluation also assessed the fidelity of implementation of BARR in the eleven study schools and identified barriers to and facilitators of successful implementation. The evaluation focused on several teacher- and student-level outcomes. The teacher outcomes included measures of teacher collaboration, and use of data, among others. The academic outcomes included course failure, students' grade point average (GPA), and performance on the Northwest Evaluation Association's (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized reading and mathematics assessments. Student-reported experiences included measures of supportive relationships, perceptions of teachers' expectations of them, student engagement, and others. In addition to these outcomes, the report includes impact estimates for attendance, suspensions, and persistence into 10th grade. [This report was written with Brenna O'Brien, Cheryl Graczewski, So Jung Park, Feng Liu, Ethan Adelman-Sil, Lynn Hu.]

Building on a previous randomized experiment of the impact of Early Colleges (ECs) (Berger et al., 2013), this follow-up study assessed longer-term impacts of ECs on students' postsecondary outcomes 6 years after expected high school graduation. It also explored the extent to which students' high school experiences mediate EC impacts. Specifically, this study addressed three research questions: (1) Did EC students have better postsecondary outcomes (i.e., college enrollment and degree attainment) than control students? (2) Did the impacts of ECs vary by student background characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, low-income status, and prior mathematics and English language arts [ELA] achievement)? and (3) Were the impacts of ECs mediated by students' high school experiences (i.e., college credit accrual during high school, instructional rigor, college-going culture, and student supports)? To answer these questions for the follow-up study, the authors analyzed 4 more years of postsecondary outcome data from the StudentTracker Service at the National Student Clearinghouse for students participating in the EC admission lotteries that were the basis of the previous impact study. They also analyzed data on student background characteristics from administrative records and data on high school experiences from a student survey administered in the previous impact study 5 or 6 years after students entered the ninth grade. [To view the earlier report, "Early College, Early Success: Early College High School Initiative Impact Study," see ED577243.]

Colleges throughout the United States are evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies used to decide whether to place students into college-level or developmental education courses. Developmental, or remedial, courses are designed to develop the reading, writing, or math skills of students deemed underprepared for college-level courses, a determination usually made through standardized placement tests. However, increasing numbers of colleges are using multiple measures to place students, including additional types of placement tests, high school transcripts, and evaluations of student motivation. The current study was developed to add to the understanding about the implementation, cost, and efficacy of an multiple measures assessment (MMA) system using locally determined rules. As part of a randomized controlled trial, the study team evaluated MMA programs and interviewed and observed staff at five colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin; it also wrote a short case study about one Wisconsin college. The five colleges in the random assignment study targeted all students taking placement tests in the months before the fall 2018 semester. In the four colleges included in the current analysis, 5,282 students participated in the study; of these, 3,677 were tested for English, and 4,487 were tested for math. The findings suggest that while implementation (especially automation) was not easy, it was possible; and using the new MMA systems became much easier once they were established.

Analyses of literacy and numeracy levels worldwide by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggest that the U.S. population has one of the lowest numeracy levels among developed nations. Sixty-four percent of American adults are unable to use math and interpret math problems that most higher-level jobs require, and a full 30 percent can perform only basic mathematical computations such as arithmetic or solve simple one-step operations such as counting. These findings reveal the critical need to improve American adults' math skills. Even in the U.S. educational context, many people continue to struggle with learning math, and college preparatory math classes, also known as developmental or remedial math, present a particular challenge. This report presents the findings of a study of a popular math pathways innovation, the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP, formerly the New Mathways Project). It examines the effects of the implementation of the DCMP's curricular models, which entail changes in both math content and instructional methods in developmental education and college-level courses while also accelerating developmental students' progress into college-level math. Using a randomized controlled trial, this evaluation examines how four Texas community colleges implemented the DCMP at their institutions in developmental and college-level classrooms and looks at the differences in instruction between these courses and colleges' standard math courses. Additionally, the study analyzes the impact of the DCMP on students' academic outcomes for up to four semesters and compares the costs of the initiative with colleges' standard course pathways. Following an introduction in chapter one, the remainder of the report is divided into five chapters. Chapter 2 discusses in more detail the DCMP model and expectations for its implementation. Chapter 3 discusses the implementation of the DCMP at the four colleges, and the fidelity and contrast between the DCMP and the colleges' standard math courses. Chapter 4 analyzes the DCMP's impact on students' outcomes. Chapter 5 examines the costs of the DCMP. Finally, Chapter 6 provides concluding thoughts and recommendations for next steps in research and practice. [For the Executive Summary, see ED600651.]

Many incoming college students are referred to remedial programs in math or English based on scores they earn on standardized placement tests. Yet research shows that some students assigned to remediation based on test scores would likely succeed in a college-level course in the same subject area without first taking a remedial course if given that opportunity. Research also suggests that other measures of student skills and performance, and in particular high school grade point average (GPA), may be useful in assessing college readiness. The Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) is conducting a random assignment study of a multiple measures placement system based on data analytics to determine whether it yields placement determinations that lead to better student outcomes than a system based on test scores alone. Seven community colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system are participating in the study. The alternative placement system evaluated uses data on prior students to weight multiple measures--including both placement test scores and high school GPAs--in predictive algorithms developed at each college that are then used to place incoming students into remedial or college-level courses. Over 13,000 incoming students who arrived at these colleges in the fall 2016, spring 2017, and fall 2017 terms were randomly assigned to be placed using either the status quo placement system (the control group) or the alternative placement system (the program group). The three cohorts of students will be tracked through the fall 2018 term, resulting in the collection of three to five semesters of outcomes data, depending on the cohort. This interim report, the first of two, examines implementation of the alternative placement system at the colleges and presents results on first-term impacts for 4,729 students in the fall 2016 cohort. The initial results are promising. The final report, to be released in 2019, will examine a range of student outcomes for all three cohorts, including completion of introductory college-level courses, persistence, and the accumulation of college credits over the long term. [This report was written with Dan Cullinan.]

Many students who enter community college are deemed underprepared for college-level courses and are referred to developmental (remedial) education courses to build their math, reading, or writing skills. These students often struggle in developmental courses and in college more broadly. To help them, the City University of New York (CUNY) developed CUNY Start. CUNY Start targets incoming students who are assessed as needing remediation in math, reading, and writing. The program delays college matriculation (enrollment in a degree program) for one semester and provides intensive instruction in math, reading, and writing during that semester with a prescribed instructional approach. It also provides advising, tutoring, and a weekly seminar that teaches students skills they need to succeed in college. This report is an evaluation of the program. Findings in this report include: (1) CUNY Start was implemented as it was designed, and the contrast between the program and the colleges' standard courses and services was substantial; (2) During the first semester in the study, program group students made substantially more progress through developmental education than control group students; effects were especially large in math. In contrast, during that same semester, control group students earned more college credits than program group students, as predicted by CUNY Start's designers; and (3) During the second semester, program group students enrolled at CUNY colleges (that is, participated in CUNY Start or enrolled in any non-CUNY Start courses as matriculated students) at a higher rate than control group students. Seven appendices are included.

While the United States has made strides in increasing college access among low-income students, college completion has remained low. Graduation rates are particularly low at the nation's community colleges, which enroll a disproportionate percentage of low-income and nontraditional college students. Seeking to address this problem, in 2014 three community colleges in Ohio -- Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College -- undertook a new strategy to help more of their lowest-performing students succeed academically. The highly successful Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) developed by the City University of New York (CUNY) provided a model. ASAP is a comprehensive program that provides students with up to three years of financial and academic support and other support services to address multiple barriers to student success, with the goal of helping more students graduate within three years. This brief presents two-year impact, implementation, and cost findings for the pooled, full study sample in the ASAP Ohio demonstration. The findings show that students in the program group clearly outperformed the control group with respect to persistence in school, credit accumulation, and graduation. Graduation rates more than doubled: 19 percent of the program group earned a degree or credential after two years compared with 8 percent of the control group. The brief also presents some findings from analyses of the programs' implementation and costs. [This report was written with Sean Blake and Erick Alonzo.]

This report presents the findings from an efficacy trial and process evaluation of the Parent Engagement Programme (PEP). The PEP was a school-level intervention designed to improve pupil outcomes by engaging parents in their children's learning. The programme was developed collaboratively by research teams from the University of Bristol and Harvard University and was delivered between September 2014 and July 2015. The study was conducted by the Centre for Effective Education, Queen's University Belfast between February 2014 and February 2016. The trial involved 15,697 students in Years 7, 9, and 11 from 36 English secondary schools, with schools sending an average of 30 texts to each parent over the period of the trial. The developers of the intervention managed its delivery to ensure optimal implementation. It was a cluster randomised controlled trial with randomisation at the Key Stage level, designed to determine the impact of the intervention on the academic outcomes of students in English, maths, and science, and the impact on absenteeism. A process evaluation used focus groups, telephone surveys, interviews, and an online survey to provide data on implementation and to capture the perceptions and experiences of participating parents, pupils, and teachers. Key conclusions include: (1) Children who had the intervention experienced about one month of additional progress in maths compared to other children. This positive result is unlikely to have occurred by chance; (2) Children who had the intervention had reduced absenteeism compared to other children. This positive result is unlikely to have occurred by chance; (3) Children who had the intervention appeared to experience about one month of additional progress in English compared to other children. However, analysis suggests that this finding might have been affected by bias introduced by missing data, so evaluators cannot reliably draw this conclusion. There is no evidence to suggest that the intervention had an impact on science attainment; (4) Schools embraced the programme and liked its immediacy and low cost. Many respondents felt that the presence of a dedicated coordinator would be valuable to monitor the accuracy and frequency of texts. Schools should consider whether they would be able to provide this additional resource; and (5) The vast majority of parents were accepting of the programme, including the content, frequency, and timing of texts. [Note: The post-reporting appendix was added in June 2017.]

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included.

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included. [This paper was published in the "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1135800)]

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through a lottery process with outcomes for students who were not accepted through the lottery and enrolled in high school elsewhere. Results show that treatment students attained significantly more college credits while in high school, and graduated from high school, enrolled in postsecondary education, and received postsecondary credentials at higher rates. Results for subgroups are included. [This paper was published in the "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1135800)]

For most students from low- or moderate-income families, successfully completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a crucial gateway on the path to college access. However, FAFSA filing and income verification tasks pose substantial barriers to college access for low-income students. In this paper, the authors report on a pair of interventions that utilize automated, text-based outreach to: (1) provide students and families with customized information about the importance of and their status on completing the FAFSA; (2) simplify information for students and families about how to complete the FAFSA; and (3) connect students and families to personalized counseling assistance to complete the FAFSA as well as the subsequent verification process, if selected. Data from the study points to the benefit of text-based outreach as a low-cost and readily scalable strategy for improving student completion of important college-going milestones, such as timely FAFSA filing. Tables and figures are appended.

Young people have been hit especially hard by changes in the labor market over the past decades. Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds increased the most of any age group during the recent recession, and remains more than double that among older adults. The unemployment rate is especially high for young people without high school diplomas. YouthBuild is one program that attempts to help this group, serving over 10,000 of them each year at over 250 organizations nationwide. Each organization provides construction-related or other vocational training, educational services, counseling, and leadership-development opportunities to low-income young people ages 16 to 24 who did not complete high school. YouthBuild is being evaluated using a randomized controlled trial, in which eligible young people at participating programs were assigned either to a program group, invited to enroll in YouthBuild, or to a control group, referred to other services in the community. The evaluation includes 75 programs across the country funded by the U.S. Department of Labor or the Corporation for National and Community Service and nearly 4,000 young people who enrolled in the study between 2011 and 2013. This report, the second in the evaluation, presents the program's effects on young people through two and a half years. About 75 percent of the young people assigned to the program group participated in YouthBuild, and about half of these participants reported that they graduated from the program within 12 months. YouthBuild led to a number of positive effects on young people, most consistently in the area of education and training. Main findings include: (1) YouthBuild increased participation in education and training, even though a high percentage of the young people in the control group also sought out and participated in education and training. Overall, participants rated their experiences in YouthBuild favorably, although some program components were rated more highly than others; (2) YouthBuild increased the rate at which participants earned high school equivalency credentials, enrolled in college, and participated in vocational training; (3) YouthBuild led to a small increase in wages and earnings at 30 months; (4) YouthBuild increased civic engagement, particularly volunteering, but had few effects on other measures of youth development or attitudes; and (5) YouthBuild had few effects on involvement in the criminal justice system. The program's interim effects on education and training are encouraging. A later report, measuring effects through four years, will examine whether these interim effects lead to longer-term gains in work and earnings. The following are appended: (1) Site Selection, Random Assignment, the Analysis Model, and Previous Evaluations; (2) Response Analyses for the 12- and 30-Month Surveys; (3) Survey Responses About YouthBuild Experiences and Service Receipt at 30 Months; and (4) Survey-Based Impacts and Subgroup Impacts at 12 Months and Selected Impacts Per Participant.

Many college students never take, or do not pass, required remedial mathematics courses theorized to increase college-level performance. Some colleges and states are therefore instituting policies allowing students to take college-level courses without first taking remedial courses. However, no experiments have compared the effectiveness of these approaches, and other data are mixed. We randomly assigned 907 students to (a) remedial elementary algebra, (b) that course with workshops, or (c) college-level statistics with workshops (corequisite remediation). Students assigned to statistics passed at a rate 16 percentage points higher than those assigned to algebra (p < 0.001), and subsequently accumulated more credits. A majority of enrolled statistics students passed. Policies allowing students to take college-level instead of remedial quantitative courses can increase student success.

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

College graduation rates often lag behind college attendance rates. One theory as to why students do not complete college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have. We present evidence from a randomized experiment which tests the effectiveness of individualized student coaching. Over the course of two separate school years, InsideTrack, a student coaching service, provided coaching to students attending public, private, and proprietary universities. Most of the participating students were nontraditional college students enrolled in degree programs. The participating universities and InsideTrack randomly assigned students to be coached. The coach contacted students regularly to develop a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long-term goals, and to support them in building skills, including time management, self-advocacy, and study skills. Students who were randomly assigned to a coach were more likely to persist during the treatment period and were more likely to be attending the university 1 year after the coaching had ended. Coaching also proved a more cost-effective method of achieving retention and completion gains when compared with previously studied interventions such as increased financial aid.

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry and success among low-income students, considerable gaps by socioeconomic status remain. To date, policymakers have overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students' transition to college, yet recent research documents high rates of summer attrition from the college pipeline among college-intending high school graduates, a phenomenon we refer to as "summer melt." We report on two randomized trials investigating efforts to mitigate summer melt. Offering college-intending graduates two to three hours of summer support increased enrollment by 3 percentage points overall, and by 8 to 12 percentage points among low-income students, at a cost of $100 to $200 per student. Further, summer support has lasting impacts on persistence several semesters into college.

Online instruction is quickly gaining in importance in U.S. higher education, but little rigorous evidence exists as to its effect on student learning. We measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical interactive learning online statistics course by randomly assigning students on six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format (with machine-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week) or a traditional format (as it is usually offered by their campus, typically with about three hours of face-to-face instruction each week). We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same—that students in the hybrid format are not harmed by this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. We also conduct speculative cost simulations and find that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses has the potential to significantly reduce instructor compensation costs in the long run. C 2013 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry and success among low-income students, considerable gaps by socioeconomic status remain. To date, policymakers have overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students' transition to college, yet recent research documents high rates of summer attrition from the college pipeline among college-intending high school graduates, a phenomenon we refer to as "summer melt." We report on two randomized trials investigating efforts to mitigate summer melt. Offering college-intending graduates two to three hours of summer support increased enrollment by 3 percentage points overall, and by 8 to 12 percentage points among low-income students, at a cost of $100 to $200 per student. Further, summer support has lasting impacts on persistence several semesters into college.

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in high school. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer all students an opportunity to earn an associate's degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor's degree during high school at no or low cost to the students. The underlying assumption is that engaging underrepresented students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit will motivate them and increase their access to additional postsecondary education and credentials after high school. Since 2002, more than 240 Early Colleges have opened nationwide. This study focused on the impact of Early Colleges. It addressed two questions: (1) Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?; and (2) Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)? To answer these questions, the authors conducted a lottery-based randomized experiment, taking advantage of the fact that some Early Colleges used lotteries in their admissions processes. By comparing the outcomes for students who participated in admissions lotteries and were offered enrollment with the outcomes for students who participated in the lotteries but were not offered enrollment, they can draw causal conclusions about the impact of Early Colleges. The primary student outcomes for this study were high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment. The authors also examined students' high school and college experiences. Data on student background characteristics and high school outcomes came from administrative records from schools, districts, and states; data on college outcomes came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC); and data on high school and college experiences and intermediate outcomes such as college credit accrual came from a student survey. The authors assessed the impact of Early Colleges on these outcomes for a sample of 10 Early Colleges that did the following: (1) Enrolled students in grades 9-12 and had high school graduates in the study years (2005-2011); (2) Used lotteries as part of the admission processes in at least one of the study cohorts (students who entered ninth grade in 2005-06, 2006-07, or 2007-08); and (3) Retained the lottery records. Eight of the 10 Early Colleges in the study were included in the student survey. The overall study sample included 2,458 students and the survey sample included 1,294 students. The study extended through three years past high school.

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in high school. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer all students an opportunity to earn an associate's degree or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor's degree during high school at no or low cost to the students. The underlying assumption is that engaging underrepresented students in a rigorous high school curriculum tied to the incentive of earning college credit will motivate them and increase their access to additional postsecondary education and credentials after high school. Since 2002, more than 240 Early Colleges have opened nationwide. This study focused on the impact of Early Colleges. It addressed two questions: (1) Do Early College students have better outcomes than they would have had at other high schools?; and (2) Does the impact of Early Colleges vary by student background characteristics (e.g., gender and family income)? To answer these questions, the authors conducted a lottery-based randomized experiment, taking advantage of the fact that some Early Colleges used lotteries in their admissions processes. By comparing the outcomes for students who participated in admissions lotteries and were offered enrollment with the outcomes for students who participated in the lotteries but were not offered enrollment, they can draw causal conclusions about the impact of Early Colleges. The primary student outcomes for this study were high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment. The authors also examined students' high school and college experiences. Data on student background characteristics and high school outcomes came from administrative records from schools, districts, and states; data on college outcomes came from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC); and data on high school and college experiences and intermediate outcomes such as college credit accrual came from a student survey. The authors assessed the impact of Early Colleges on these outcomes for a sample of 10 Early Colleges that did the following: (1) Enrolled students in grades 9-12 and had high school graduates in the study years (2005-2011); (2) Used lotteries as part of the admission processes in at least one of the study cohorts (students who entered ninth grade in 2005-06, 2006-07, or 2007-08); and (3) Retained the lottery records. Eight of the 10 Early Colleges in the study were included in the student survey. The overall study sample included 2,458 students and the survey sample included 1,294 students. The study extended through three years past high school.

In 2002, New York City embarked on an ambitious and wide-ranging series of education reforms. At the heart of its high school reforms were three interrelated changes: the institution of a district wide high school choice process for all rising ninth-graders, the closure of 31 large, failing high schools with an average graduation rate of 40 percent, and the opening of more than 200 new small high schools. Over half of the new small schools created between the fall of 2002 and the fall of 2008 were intended to serve students in some of the district's most disadvantaged communities and are located mainly in neighborhoods where large, failing high schools had been closed. MDRC has previously released two reports on these "small schools of choice," or SSCs (so called because they are small, are academically nonselective, and were created to provide a realistic choice for students with widely varying academic backgrounds). Those reports found marked increases in progress toward graduation and in graduation rates for the cohorts of students who entered SSCs in the falls of 2005 and 2006. The second report also found that the increase in graduation rates applied to every student subgroup examined, and that SSC graduation effects were sustained even after five years from the time sample members entered high school. This report updates those previous findings with results from a third cohort of students, those who entered ninth grade in the fall of 2007. In addition, for the first time it includes a look inside these schools through the eyes of principals and teachers, as reported in interviews and focus groups held at the 25 SSCs with the strongest evidence of effectiveness. In brief, the report's findings are: (1) SSCs in New York City continue to markedly increase high school graduation rates for large numbers of disadvantaged students of color, even as graduation rates are rising at the schools with which SSCs are compared; (2) The best evidence that exists indicates that SSCs may increase graduation rates for two new subgroups for which findings were not previously available: special education students and English language learners. However, given the still-limited sample sizes for these subgroups, the evidence will not be definitive until more student cohorts can be added to the analysis; and (3) Principals and teachers at the 25 SSCs with the strongest evidence of effectiveness strongly believe that academic rigor and personal relationships with students contribute to the effectiveness of their schools. They also believe that these attributes derive from their schools' small organizational structures and from their committed, knowledgeable, hardworking, and adaptable teachers. Appended are: (1) Sample, Data, and Analysis; (2) Estimated Effects of Winning a Student's First SSC Lottery; (3) 2008 Requirements for Proposals to Create New SSCs Specified by the New York City Department of Education; and (4) Documentation for Interviews and Focus Groups.

This policy brief presents results from a random assignment evaluation of the City University of New York's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). An ambitious and promising endeavor, ASAP provides a comprehensive array of services and supports to help community college students graduate and to help them graduate sooner. The evaluation targeted low-income students who needed one or two developmental (remedial) courses. ASAP requires students to enroll full time and provides block-scheduled classes, comprehensive advisement, tutoring, career services, a tuition waiver, free monthly MetroCards for use on public transportation, and free use of textbooks for up to three years. After two years, compared with regular college services, ASAP increased the number of credits students earned as well as their persistence in college. Most notably, the program boosted two-year graduation rates substantially--by 66 percent. A future report will present the program's effects after three years.

In 2006, the National Center for Postsecondary Research, of which is MDRC is a partner, launched a demonstration of one-semester learning community programs at six colleges; five of these programs focused on developmental education. This is the final report from the project and includes findings from analyses that pool data across these five programs as well as the results for developmental education students at a sixth program at Kingsborough Community College, operated earlier under the Opening Doors demonstration. Across the six programs, almost 7,000 students were randomly assigned, about half into 174 learning communities, and tracked for three semesters. Key findings suggest that when compared with business as usual, one-semester learning communities in developmental education, on average, lead to: (1) A modest (half-credit) estimated impact on credits earned in the targeted subject (English or mathematics) but no impact on credits earned outside the targeted subject; (2) A modest (half-credit) estimated impact on total credits earned; and (3) No impact on persistence in college. The developmental education students in the Kingsborough program, which had some different features from the other five programs, including enhanced support services, showed somewhat larger results than the other sites in credits earned in the targeted subject. An MDRC report on the overall Kingsborough learning communities program, which served "both" developmental and college-ready students, shows a positive impact on degree attainment after six years. The graduation effect was driven primarily by students who had placed into college-level English, although there is also evidence that the program had a positive impact on long-term outcomes for students with the greatest developmental needs in English. Together, these evaluations suggest that, while most typical one-semester learning communities for developmental education students are not likely to lead to large effects on students' outcomes, a program with additional supports can have longer-term impacts for developmental students. Appended are: (1) Impact Analyses; (2) Supplementary Exhibits for Chapter 3; (3) Instructor Survey Details; (4) Cost Details; and (5) Supplementary Table for Chapter 5. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 25 tables, 10 figures and 2 boxes.) [This paper was written with Jedediah Teres and Kelley Fong. For "The Effects of Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Education: A Synthesis of Findings from Six Community Colleges. Executive Summary," see ED533826.]

High school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a 3 minute video about the benefits of post secondary education (PSE) and invited to try out a financial-aid calculator. Most students' perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns, lower concerns about costs, and expressed greater likelihood of PSE attainment. The two online surveys are appended.

Early college high schools are a new and rapidly spreading model that merges the high school and college experiences and that is designed to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. This article presents results from a federally funded experimental study of the impact of the early college model on Grade 9 outcomes. Results show that, as compared to control group students, a statistically significant and substantively higher proportion of treatment group students are taking core college preparatory courses and succeeding in them. Students in the treatment group also have statistically significantly higher attendance and lower suspension rates than students in the control group. (Contains 10 footnotes, 5 tables and 1 figure.)

This report summarizes the findings from a national evaluation of mentoring programs funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program. The impact evaluation used an experimental design in which students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Thirty-two purposively selected School Mentoring Programs and 2,573 students took part in the evaluation, which estimated the impact of the programs over one school year on a range of student outcomes. The evaluation also describes the characteristics of the program and the mentors, and provides information about program delivery. The Student Mentoring Program is designed to fund grantees to enable them to provide mentoring to at-risk students in grades 4-8. The ultimate goal of the program is to improve student academic and behavioral outcomes through the guidance and encouragement of a volunteer mentor. Seventeen total impacts in the domains of academic achievement/engagement, interpersonal relationships/personal responsibility, and high-risk/delinquent behavior were measured. The main finding of the Impact Study was that there were no statistically significant impacts of the Student Mentoring Program for the sample as a whole on this array of student outcomes. However, there was some scattered evidence that impacts were heterogeneous across types of students. In particular, impacts on girls were statistically significantly different from impacts on boys for two self-reported scales: Scholastic Efficacy and School Bonding, and Pro-social Behaviors. For boys, the impact on Prosocial Behaviors was negative and statistically significant. For girls, the impact on Scholastic Efficacy and School Bonding was positive and statistically significant. The impact on truancy was negative and statistically significant for students below age 12. There were negative associations between program supervision of mentors and site-level impacts on three of the seventeen individual outcome measures: Pro-social Behaviors, grades in math and social studies, and a positive relationship with the outcome of school-reported delinquency. The report also presented results demonstrating that the Student Mentoring Program represented a fairly low level of intensity in terms of service: although grantees, on average, adhered to the general intents of the legislation and program guidance, they were simultaneously constrained by the limits of the school calendar and the population from which to draw mentors. Thirty-five percent of the control group students reported receiving mentoring either from the program or elsewhere in the community; this finding, coupled with the fact that not all treatment group students met with a mentor, reduced the treatment contrast and may have led to some dilution of the impacts on students compared to expectations. Seven appendices are included; (1) Sampling Design and Methodology; (2) Survey Instruments; (3) Construction of Student Outcome Measures; (4) Impact Analysis Results on Original Student Survey Scales and Measures; (5) Sensitivity Tests; (6) Standard Errors and Confidence Intervals of Main Effects; and (7) Site-Level Predictors and Impacts. (Contains 109 footnotes and 122 exhibits.) ["Impact Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program. Final Report" was written with the assistance of Christine Dyous, Michelle Klausner, Nancy McGarry, Rachel Luck and William Rhodes.]

Community colleges, which tend to be more accessible and affordable than other postsecondary institutions, are a critical resource for low-income people striving to improve their prospects in the labor market and in life. Yet nearly half of students who begin at community colleges leave school before receiving a credential. Research by MDRC and others suggests that many community college students want to earn a degree but are overwhelmed by the competing demands of work, family, and school. Institutional barriers, such as poorly tailored instruction, insufficient financial aid, or inadequate advising, may also impede their academic progress. In 2003, MDRC launched the Opening Doors demonstration project to study the effects of innovative programs designed to help students stay in school and succeed. Six colleges in four states are taking part in the demonstration. This report presents early findings from Louisiana Opening Doors, an enhanced financial aid program targeting low-income parents at two community colleges in the New Orleans area: Delgado Community College and Louisiana Technical College-West Jefferson. This program was designed to help students with their expenses and provide an incentive to make good academic progress. Students randomly assigned to Opening Doors were offered a $1,000 scholarship for each of two semesters, in addition to the regular financial aid they qualified for, if they enrolled at least half time and earned at least a C average. They also received enhanced counseling. Students in a control group received only regular financial aid and the counseling available to all students. The early findings in Louisiana are compelling and suggest that a performance-based scholarship can indeed have a positive effect on persistence and academic achievement among a student population that faces multiple barriers to completing college. The students in Opening Doors were more likely to enroll in college full time, passed more courses, earned more course credits, and had higher rates of persistence. (Contains 30 endnotes, 3 tables, and 1 figure.) [The opening Doors Project was also funded by MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health; MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood.]

Career Academies offer high schools--particularly those in urban communities that struggle to keep students in school and to prepare them for post-secondary education and employment opportunities--a systematic approach to addressing a range of challenges. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies have three distinguishing features: (1) they are organized as small learning communities to create a more supportive, personalized learning environment; (2) they combine academic and career and technical curricula around a career theme to enrich teaching and learning; and (3) they establish partnerships with local employers to provide career awareness and work-based learning opportunities for students. There are estimated to be more than 2,500 Career Academies across the country, operating either as a single program or as multiple programs within a larger high school. This report examines the impact that Career Academies have had on the educational attainment and post-secondary labor market experiences of young people through the four years following their scheduled graduation from high school. It is based on survey data collected from 1,458 young people in the Career Academies Evaluation study sample (about 85 percent of whom are either Hispanic or African-American). Findings included: (1) the Career Academies substantially improved the labor market prospects of young men, a group that has experienced a severe decline in real earnings in recent years; (2) the Career Academies had no significant impacts (positive or negative) on the labor market outcomes for young women; (3) Overall, the Career Academies served as viable pathways to a range of post-secondary education opportunities, but they do not appear to have been more effective than options available to the non-Academy group; and (4) The positive labor market impacts were concentrated among Academy group members who were at high or medium risk of dropping out of high school when they entered the programs. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college. (Contains 10 exhibits.) [Report written with Judith Scott-Clayton. Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

Career Academies offer high schools--particularly those in urban communities that struggle to keep students in school and to prepare them for post-secondary education and employment opportunities--a systematic approach to addressing a range of challenges. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies have three distinguishing features: (1) they are organized as small learning communities to create a more supportive, personalized learning environment; (2) they combine academic and career and technical curricula around a career theme to enrich teaching and learning; and (3) they establish partnerships with local employers to provide career awareness and work-based learning opportunities for students. There are estimated to be more than 2,500 Career Academies across the country, operating either as a single program or as multiple programs within a larger high school. This report examines the impact that Career Academies have had on the educational attainment and post-secondary labor market experiences of young people through the four years following their scheduled graduation from high school. It is based on survey data collected from 1,458 young people in the Career Academies Evaluation study sample (about 85 percent of whom are either Hispanic or African-American). Findings included: (1) the Career Academies substantially improved the labor market prospects of young men, a group that has experienced a severe decline in real earnings in recent years; (2) the Career Academies had no significant impacts (positive or negative) on the labor market outcomes for young women; (3) Overall, the Career Academies served as viable pathways to a range of post-secondary education opportunities, but they do not appear to have been more effective than options available to the non-Academy group; and (4) The positive labor market impacts were concentrated among Academy group members who were at high or medium risk of dropping out of high school when they entered the programs. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college. (Contains 10 exhibits.) [Report written with Judith Scott-Clayton. Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

The College and Career Readiness Expansion project was a five-year, federally funded effort to implement early college strategies in comprehensive high schools. This report presents the results from a quasi-experimental impact study of the project and a mixed methods examination of its implementation. Results showed that the program increased the percentage of students on-track for college in 9th and 10th grade and expanded the number of students taking dual enrollment courses, although there was no positive impact on college credits earned in high school. The implementation study found that schools were created a more future-oriented culture.

This study examined participation in accelerated college credit programs dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement courses in Rhode Island high schools to understand their effects on educational attainment in the 2013/14 grade 9 cohort. The state, which has funded and promoted these opportunities for students to earn college credit during high school over the past five years, sought evidence of the programs' effects on participants' high school graduation rates, postsecondary enrollment rates, and enrollment rates in developmental education courses in college. The study found that male, economically disadvantaged, and racial/ethnic minority students were underrepresented in accelerated college credit programs. Participation in these programs had positive effects on students' rates of high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment. Among students in the cohort who enrolled in Rhode Island public colleges, participation was associated with lower rates of developmental education course enrollment in the first year of college. The effects of participating in an accelerated college credit program were similar for economically disadvantaged students and for their peers. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED612888. For the appendices, see ED612890.]

Education leaders in Nebraska and South Dakota partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Central to examine how completing a sequence of career and technical education (CTE) courses in high school affects students' rates of on-time high school graduation and their rates of postsecondary education enrollment and completion within two and five years. The study found that CTE concentrators (students who complete a sequence of CTE courses aligned to a specific career field such as manufacturing or education and training) were 7 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to graduate from high school on time and 10 percentage points more likely to enroll in any type of postsecondary education within two years of their expected high school graduation year. The study also found that CTE concentrators were 3 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to earn a postsecondary award, such as a professional certificate, diploma, or associate's or bachelor's degree, within five years of their expected high school graduation year. CTE concentrators were 4 percentage points more likely than non-CTE concentrators to obtain up to an associate's degree as their highest postsecondary award within five years of their expected high school graduation year but 1 percentage point less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree or higher. [For the appendixes, see ED612631; for the study brief, see ED612632; for the study snapshot, see ED612633.]

In Indiana and Minnesota the state education agency, state higher education agency, and the state workforce agency have collaborated to develop career and technical education courses intended to improve high school students' college and career readiness. These agencies partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest to examine whether high school graduates in each state who completed a large number of career and technical education courses in a single career-oriented program of study (concentrators) had different college and workforce outcomes from graduates who completed fewer (samplers) or no career and technical education courses (nonparticipants). The study found that in the 2012/13-2017/18 graduation cohorts, male graduates were more likely to be concentrators than female graduates, and graduates who received special education services were more likely to be concentrators than those who did not receive services. Graduates who were not proficient in reading in grade 8 also were more likely to become concentrators than those who were proficient. Graduates who attended urban and suburban schools were more likely than students who attended town and rural schools to be nonparticipants. Concentrators were less likely than samplers and nonparticipants with similar characteristics to enroll in college, but the differences reflect mainly enrollment in four-year colleges. Concentrators were more likely to enroll in two-year colleges. Concentrators also were less likely than similar samplers and nonparticipants to complete a bachelor's degree within four to six years. Finally, compared with similar samplers and nonparticipants, concentrators were employed at higher rates in the first five years after high school and had higher earnings. [For the study brief, see ED613045; for the study snapshot, see ED613046; and for the appendixes, see ED613050.]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program and to derive estimates of program costs. We used the Coarsened Exact Matching approach to match AVID students with non-AVID students on 40 baseline characteristics. After matching, we estimated group differences in high-school graduation and college enrollment. We used the ingredients method to estimate program costs and calculated cost-effectiveness ratios by the duration of participation. Findings indicate that students who complete at least one AVID elective have higher high school graduation and college enrollment rates than comparable non-AVID students. We discuss how AVID compares to other college outreach programs in terms of costs and effects.

With the launch of the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) in 2014, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) has increased its focus on the implementation of a holistic strategy of education reform to address the social consequences of poverty as a means to improving student outcomes. NYC-CS is a strategy to organize resources in schools and share leadership among stakeholders so that academics, health and wellness, youth development, and family engagement are integrated into the fabric of each school. New York City is implementing this strategy at a scale unmatched nationally. In this study, the authors assessed the impact of the NYC-CS through the 2017-2018 school year. The authors assessed the effects along seven outcome domains and explored the extent to which there is heterogeneity in programmatic impact based on student- and school-level characteristics. The authors leveraged innovative quasi-experimental methodology to determine whether students in the community schools are performing better than they would be had their schools not been designated as Community Schools. The findings of this report will contribute to the emerging evidence base on the efficacy of the community school strategy and will be useful for other school district- and state-level policymakers interested in developing or refining similar interventions that support students' and communities' academic, social, and emotional well-being. [The research described in this report was prepared for the New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity).]

Although several studies have documented the effects of statewide private school choice programs on student test scores, this report is the first to examine the effects of one of these programs on college enrollment and graduation. Using data from the Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarship program, we find that low-income Florida students who attended private schools using an FTC scholarship enrolled in and graduated from Florida colleges at a higher rate than their public school counterparts. [Additional support for this study was provided by the Bill and Susan Oberndorf Foundation and Kate and Bill Duhamel.]

Since their inception in 1992, the number of charter schools has grown to more than 6,800 nationally, serving nearly three million students. Various studies have examined charter schools' impacts on test scores, and a few have begun to examine longer-term outcomes including graduation and college attendance. This paper is the first to estimate charter schools' effects on earnings in adulthood, alongside effects on educational attainment. Using data from Florida, we first confirm previous research (Booker et al., 2011) that students attending charter high schools are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college. We then examine two longer-term outcomes not previously studied in research on charter schools--college persistence and earnings. We find that students attending charter high schools are more likely to persist in college, and that in their mid-20s they experience higher earnings.

In Fall 2010, the Niswonger Foundation received a five-year validation grant from the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to create the Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium of 29 high schools and five colleges. This report evaluates the Consortium's impact on student outcomes during each of the four years of program implementation. The findings from the confirmatory impact analyses indicate that students in Consortium schools had higher ACT scores, were more likely to participate in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, score a 3 or higher on an AP exam, enroll in college, and persist in college than students in matched comparison schools. Also, about half of all program components scored 2.0 or higher on a 3-point scale, indicating moderate fidelity of implementation. This report contains the results submitted to the National Evaluation of i3 (NEi3), which determines the overall impact of the federal investment in the i3 program. Appended to the report are: (1) Criteria for the NEi3 Evaluation; (2) Technical Information on Propensity Score Matching and Statistical Models; and (3) Supplemental Tables.

KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. Prior studies (see Tuttle et al. 2013) have consistently found that attending a KIPP middle school positively affects student achievement, but few have addressed longer-term outcomes and no rigorous research exists on impacts of KIPP schools at levels other than middle school. In this first high-quality study to rigorously examine the impacts of the network of KIPP public charter schools at all elementary and secondary grade levels, Mathematica found that KIPP schools have positive impacts on student achievement, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels. In addition, the study found positive impacts on student achievement for new entrants to the KIPP network in high school. For students continuing from a KIPP middle school, KIPP high schools' impacts on student achievement are not statistically significant, on average (in comparison to students who did not have the option to attend a KIPP high school and instead attended a mix of other non-KIPP charter, private, and traditional public high schools). Among these continuing students, KIPP high schools have positive impacts on several aspects of college preparation, including more discussions about college, increased likelihood of applying to college, and more advanced coursetaking. This report provides detailed findings and also includes the following appendices: (1) List of KIPP Schools In Network; (2) Detail on Survey Outcomes; (3) Cumulative Middle and High School Results; (4) Detailed Analytic Methods: Elementary School (Lottery-Based Analyses); (5) Detailed Analytic Methods: Middle School (Lottery-Based Analyses); (6) Understanding the Effects of KIPP As It Scales Mathematica Policy Research; (7) Detailed Analytic Methods: Middle School (Matched-Student Analyses); (8) Detailed Analytic Methods: High School (Matched-Student Analyses); (9) Detailed Analytic Methods: High School (Matched-School Analyses); and (10) Detailed Tables For What Works Clearinghouse Review. [For the executive summary, see ED560080; for the focus brief, see ED560043.]

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as one strategy to support teachers' and students' transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts. This report provides an early look at the implementation of LDC in sixth-grade Advanced Reading classes in a large Florida district, and the effectiveness of the intervention in this setting. The study found that teachers understood LDC and implemented it with fidelity and that curriculum modules were well crafted. Teachers also generally reported positive attitudes about the effectiveness of LDC and its usefulness as a tool for teaching CCSS skills. Although implementation results were highly positive, quasi-experimental analyses employing matched control group and regression discontinuity designs found no evidence of an impact of LDC on student performance on state reading or district writing assessments. Furthermore, students generally performed at basic levels on assessments designed to align with the intervention, suggesting the challenge of meeting CCSS expectations. Exploratory analyses suggest that LDC may have been most effective for higher achieving students. However understandable, the findings thus suggest that, in the absence of additional scaffolding and supports for low-achieving students, LDC may be gap enhancing. Two appendices are included: (1) LDC Instruments and Rubrics; and (2) Summary Report: Developing an Assignment Measure to Assess Quality of LDC Modules (Abby Reisman, Joan Herman, Rebecca Luskin, and Scott Epstein).

This study presents findings from three cohorts of students--the classes of 2003, 2004, and 2005, in the School District of Philadelphia--that were admitted to the district's career and technical education (CTE) schools through a randomized lottery process. This study takes advantage of this so-called "'natural experiment' to compare high school academic outcomes for" lottery applicants who were admitted with those for students who did not receive an acceptance. Results find that CTE students had significantly better outcomes in terms of graduation rates, credit accumulation, and the successful completion of the college preparatory mathematics sequence algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. Results for other outcomes such as the completion of science and foreign language course sequences, overall grade point average, and mathematics and reading comprehension achievement, were inconsistent across cohorts and statistical tests, neither favoring nor against students accepted to CTE schools.

Despite the growing popularity of dual-credit courses as a college readiness strategy, numerous reviews of the literature have noted a number of important limitations of the research on the effects of dual-credit on student postsecondary outcomes. This study addressed these gaps in the literature by estimating the impact of dual-credit courses on postsecondary access, first-to-second year persistence, and eventual college attainment, and overcame many of the methodological limitations of previous studies. The study utilized a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS), allowing us to track an entire cohort of students through their transition into postsecondary statewide. Propensity score matching was used in order to reduce the self-selection bias associated with high achieving students being more likely to take dual-credit courses. We explored how the number of dual-credit courses students complete and the subject of the courses influences their impact. We also compared the effects of dual-credit to alternative advanced courses. Our results suggest that dual-credit is a promising strategy for increasing the likelihood of students accessing, persisting through, and completing a degree in postsecondary, and is possibly even more impactful than advanced coursework. However, significant variation in the benefit of dual-credit exists.

For this study, the authors designed an experiment to test whether some high-achieving, low-income students would change their behavior if they knew more about colleges and, more importantly, whether a cost-effective way to help such students realize their full array of college opportunities can be implemented. This was done by randomly assigning interventions that provide different types of information to roughly 18,000 students, including 3,000 students who serve as controls. The most comprehensive form of the intervention, which is called the Expanding College Opportunities-Comprehensive (ECO-C) Intervention, combined application guidance, semicustomized information about the net cost of attending different colleges, and no-paperwork application fee waivers. Expanding College Opportunities Project was designed to to test several hypotheses about why most high-achieving, low-income students do not apply to and attend selective colleges. The application guidance component of ECO-C provides the kind of advice that an expert college counselor would give a high-achieving student. An expert counselor would advise such a student to apply to eight or more colleges, including a combination of "safety," "match," and "reach" colleges. The authors call this group of colleges that are within an appropriate range for a given student's achievement "peer" colleges. Using random assignment of thousands of students, the authors successfully demonstrated that a low-cost, fully scalable intervention can help many high-achieving, low-income students recognize their full array of college opportunities.

This study contributes to the body of research that is attempting to uncover what student characteristics and university programs and policies are predictive of student persistence and graduation. Loss of student enrollments through attrition prior to graduation and low graduation rates have significant negative consequences for universities and the attempt to better understand how to mitigate this attrition is an important priority for both researchers and university administrators and policymakers. This study differs from previous research in that it both provides a new theoretical framework for understanding possible causes of student attrition and by advancing methods and quality of the data used in the study of predictors of attrition. A theoretical framework informed by radical alterity (Keesing, 1974), Turner's liminal theory (1967, 1969, 1974), Keefer's domain theory (2006) and assimilation contrast theory (Meyers-Levy & Sternthal, 1993; Warner 2007) are used to test the hypothesis that the likelihood of persisting and attaining a baccalaureate degree are related to, in part, freshman seminar participation and high core curriculum completion rates. Specifically, this study examines the effects that freshman seminar and core completion ratios have on both freshman to sophomore persistence and degree completion at a US, Master's Large, Western, public university. Multi-level logistic regression is used to provide a measure of the likelihood of persisting when controlling for the clustering effects of major choice and year of initial enrollment. Survival analysis will allow for the examination of the probable hazard of dropout over time based on first-term academic events. Results indicate that core curriculum completion ratios in the areas of English, mathematics, and science play key roles in both freshmen to sophomore persistence. Furthermore, socially oriented freshmen seminar programming is central to increased retention rates for specific student populations. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

States and school districts are searching for strategies to raise the college and career readiness of high school graduates--imperative in an era when postsecondary credentials are the key to good jobs, better pay, and stronger economies. The creation and implementation of higher graduation standards aligned to college and career expectations is the most visible and emblematic effort by states to ensure students are prepared to succeed after high school, but it is far from the only one. A policy strategy of increasing interest is the practice of providing students with the opportunity to take college courses while in high school, known as dual enrollment. The premise of dual enrollment is that high school students can enhance their chances for college success if they better understand what it takes to succeed in college: they do this by actually experiencing real college coursework, often earning "dual credit" for both high school and college. New research, conducted in Texas by Jobs for the Future (JFF), points to the effectiveness of dual enrollment as a strategy for improving postsecondary success. This study focused on the academic outcomes of 32,908 Texas students from the high school graduating class of 2004. Like some of these studies, the authors' research used rigorous quasi-experimental methods to control for factors other than dual enrollment that could explain student success by comparing dual enrollees to non-dual enrollees who are otherwise closely matched academically and socially. JFF's methodological approach, known as a propensity score matching model, enabled the authors to account for student background characteristics to the highest degree possible short of a randomized study. This greatly increases the certainty that the better college outcomes found for dual enrollment participants are due t o the effects of the dual enrollment courses they completed. Appended are: (1) Propensity Score Model; (2) Cohort, Treatment, and Control Group, by Region; (3) Educational Attainment of Treatment and Control Groups; (4) Test Scores by Treatment and Control Groups; (5) Odds Ratios for College Access Model; (6) Odds Ratios for College Completion Model; and (7) Dual-credit Study Methodology. (Contains 2 figures, 7 tables, and 15 endnotes.)

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CRESST conducted a multi-year evaluation of a major school reform project at Alain Leroy Locke High School, historically one of California's lowest performing secondary schools. Beginning in 2007, Locke High School transitioned into a set of smaller, Green Dot Charter High Schools, subsequently referred to as Green Dot Locke (GDL) in this report. Based on 9th grade students who entered GDL in 2007 and 2008 respectively, CRESST used a range of student outcomes to monitor progress of the GDL transformation. The CRESST evaluation, employing a strong quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, found statistically significant, positive effects for the GDL transformation including improved achievement, school persistence, and completion of college preparatory courses. Appended are: (1) Demographic Characteristics and Achievement of the Freshmen at GDL and LAUSD; (2) Cohort Specific Descriptives; and (3) General Descriptives. (Contains 17 figures, 43 tables and 6 footnotes.)

Over the last decade, New York City has been the site of a systemwide high school reform effort that is unprecedented in its scope and pace. Since 2002, the school district has closed more than 20 failing high schools, opened more than 200 new secondary schools, and implemented a centralized high school admission process in which approximately 80,000 students a year indicate their school preferences from a wide-ranging choice of programs. At the heart of these reforms lie the new schools that in this report are called "small schools of choice" (SSCs)--small, academically nonselective, public high schools that were opened between 2002 and 2008. Serving approximately 100 students per grade in grades 9 through 12 and open to students at all levels of academic achievement, the SSCs in this study were created to serve the district's most disadvantaged and historically underserved students. Prior to the 2002-2003 school year, these students would have had little option but to enroll in one of the city's large, zoned high schools when they made the transition from eighth to ninth grade. Many of the large schools were low-performing, with graduation rates below 50 percent. This report presents encouraging findings from an unusually large and rigorous study, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of the effects of SSCs on students' academic achievement in high school. SSCs have a substantial positive impact on the transition into high school during ninth grade, according to data using all four cohorts: (1) SSC enrollees were 10.8 percentage points more likely than the students who enrolled in other schools to earn 10 or more credits during their first year--73.1 percent compared with 62.3 percent; (2) SSC enrollees were 7.8 percentage points less likely to fail more than one core subject (39 percent compared with 46.8 percent); (3) Combining these two indicators, 58.5 percent of SSC enrollees were on track to graduate in four years compared with 48.5 percent of their counterparts who attended a different type of school--a 10 percentage point difference; and (4) During the first year of high school, SSC enrollees earn almost one full credit more (0.9 credit) toward graduation than do their control group counterparts. These positive effects on the transition into high school during ninth grade were seen among nearly all subgroups as defined by students' academic proficiency, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender. For all students, second- and third-year follow-up data indicate that these effects are sustained and/or increased as they continue through high school. For the "first" cohort of students (the only cohort for whom there are four years of follow-up data), the evidence indicates that SSC improvements in students' academic progress and school engagement during the early years of high school translate into higher rates of on-time graduation after four years: (1) SSCs increase overall graduation rates by 6.8 percentage points, from 61.9 percent for students who attend schools other than SSCs to 68.7 percent for SSC enrollees; (2) A majority of the SSC effect on graduation rates reflects an increase in receipt of New York State Regents diplomas. For this type of diploma, students must pass a series of Regents examinations with a score of 65 points or above and pass all of their required courses; and (3) SSCs increase the proportion of students (by 5.3 percentage points) who passed the English Regents with a score of 75 points or higher, the threshold for exempting incoming students at the City University of New York from remedial courses. They did not have an effect on math Regents exams. (Contains 2 tables and 4 footnotes.) [For the full report, "Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates," see ED511106.]

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) was developed by the community and technical colleges in Washington State to increase the rate at which adult basic skills students enter and succeed in postsecondary occupational education and training. Under the I-BEST model, basic skills instructors and career-technical faculty jointly design and teach college-level occupational courses for adult basic skills students. The model challenges the conventional notion that basic skills instruction should be completed by students prior to starting college-level courses and offers the potential to accelerate the transition of adult basic skills students into college programs. This Brief presents findings from a CCRC study that investigated the outcomes of students who participated in the program. The study compared, over a two-year tracking period, the educational outcomes of I-BEST students with those of other basic skills students, including non-I-BEST basic skills students who enrolled in at least one workforce course during the period of enrollment examined in the study. The analyses controlled for observed differences in background characteristics and enrollment patterns of students in the sample. Data was examined for more than 31,000 basic skills students, including nearly 900 I-BEST participants. Findings indicate that students participating in I-BEST achieved better educational outcomes than did those nonparticipating basic skills students who also enrolled in at least one workforce course in the same academic year. Using regression analysis, I-BEST students were found to be more likely than Non-I-BEST Workforce students to continue into credit-bearing coursework and to earn credits that count toward a college credential. They were more likely to persist into the second year, to earn educational awards, and to show point gains in basic skills testing. (Contains 1 table.) [For the full report, "Educational Outcomes of I-BEST, Washington State Community and Technical College System's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Program: Findings from a Multivariate Analysis. CCRC Working Paper No. 16," see ED505331.]

In 1997 a medium-size Midwestern public university in the U.S. initiated a first year experience program. The program is designed to infuse added curricular and extracurricular components into core courses in an effort to integrate students into the university community. This article examined the FYE impact on grade point average (GPA) and retention after 1 year for the fall 2006 cohort of entering students. The findings suggest no positive FYE effect on retention, but on average FYE students earned higher GPAs than non-FYE students. Reducing the sample to include only courses identified as goal compatible FYE courses yielded a positive effect on retention and also accentuated the GPA differential. The estimated positive FYE impact on retention was larger for below average students (especially females) and smaller for above average students.

The New York City P-TECH Grades 9-14 schools represent an education model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems as a way to improve outcomes in both domains. The distinguishing feature of the P-TECH 9-14 model, as it is referred to in this report, is a partnership between a high school, a local community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both college and careers -- not one or the other -- within a six-year timeframe. Education and workforce development are traditionally seen as separate spheres of influence with multiple transition points that students have been left to navigate largely on their own (for example, high school to postsecondary, and postsecondary to the workforce). P-TECH 9-14 is designed to seamlessly assist student navigation of those points -- supporting student success and mitigating the potential for students to fall through the cracks. P-TECH 9-14 schools collaborate with local colleges to provide students with an opportunity to earn a high school diploma (within four years) followed by a cost-free, industry-recognized associate's degree. During the six-year program, employer partners support P-TECH 9-14 schools by providing students with work-based learning experiences such as internships, mentoring, and job shadowing. By design, the P-TECH 9-14 model offers students the opportunity to participate in focused and accelerated high school pathways, early college, and career-focused activities. This study offers initial impact and implementation findings from the first rigorous evaluation of the model, evaluating the first seven P-TECH 9-14 schools that opened in New York City. The study leverages the random lottery process created by the New York City High School Admissions System to identify impacts. The majority of the students in the sample who participated in the admissions lotteries were academically below proficiency in both math and English language arts (ELA) prior to entering high school. [This report was written with Fernando Medina. For the executive summary, see ED605313.]

The National Math + Science Initiative's (NMSI's) College Readiness Program (CRP) is an established program whose goal is to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in high schools to improve students' readiness for college. It provides teacher, student, and school supports to promote high school students' success in mathematics, science, and English Advanced Placement (AP) courses, with a focus on students who are traditionally underrepresented in the targeted AP courses. Through a federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) validation grant awarded to NMSI in 2011, CRP was implemented in a total of 58 high schools in two states--Colorado and Indiana--beginning in the 2012-13 school year. American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an independent evaluation of the impacts of CRP on students' AP outcomes in these schools for the three cohorts of schools that adopted the program in sequential years, using a comparative interrupted time series (CITS) design that matched comparison schools to program schools in the two states. Overall, schools implementing CRP demonstrated significantly larger increases in the share of students taking and passing AP tests in targeted areas relative to comparison schools in each of the three cohorts of schools, and the gains in CRP schools were sustained over time. Fidelity of program implementation was evaluated using a fidelity matrix approach required as part of the National Evaluation of the i3 program, which showed that not all elements of the program were implemented with high fidelity. Teachers and students were not always able to attend all meetings, and schools did not always meet negotiated enrollment targets. Teacher survey data indicated that teachers found the professional development activities provided by CRP to be the most helpful support they received under CRP, and students reported that the tutoring and special study sessions were the most helpful. Although the program provided financial incentives to both teachers and students that were tied to student performance on AP tests, these incentives were considered the least important element of the program by both teachers and students

The Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) was developed by California State University (CSU) faculty and high school educators to improve the academic literacy of high school seniors, thereby reducing the need for students to enroll in remedial English courses upon entering college. This report, produced by Innovation Studies at WestEd, presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the ERWC funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The study sample for the evaluation included more than 5,000 12th grade students in 24 high schools across nine California school districts in the 2013/14 school year. The authors of the report found that the ERWC has a statistically significant positive impact on student achievement. Results from an analysis of implementation fidelity are also presented, along with qualitative findings based on survey data from study participants. Appendixes include: (1) Statistical Power for Impact Estimates; (2) Data Collection Instruments to Measure Fidelity of Implementation; and (3) Rubric for Calculating Fidelity of Implementation for Each Component of the Expository Reading and Writing Course.

This paper uses qualitative and quantitative data to compare the outcomes of students at Chabot College who participated in an accelerated, one-semester developmental English course and their peers who participated in a two-semester sequence. The sample included first-time students who entered college between summer 1999 and fall 2010; students were tracked for up to five years. Propensity score matching and regression analyses show that participation in the accelerated course was positively associated with a range of positive short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes, including entry-level college English completion, credit accumulation, grade point average, transfer to a four-year institution, and certificate and degree attainment. To better understand the quantitative findings, the authors draw on data from interviews with faculty, administrators, and staff; student focus groups; and classroom observations. The authors posit that the benefits of an accelerated course structure are amplified at Chabot College by a developmental English curriculum that is well aligned with college-level English and that develops critical academic literacy skills.

Many students start college intending to pursue a career in the biosciences, but too many abandon this goal because they struggle in introductory biology. Interventions have been developed to close achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and women, but no prior research has attempted to close the gap for first-generation students, a population that accounts for nearly a 5th of college students. We report a values affirmation intervention conducted with 798 U.S. students (154 first-generation) in an introductory biology course for majors. For first-generation students, values affirmation significantly improved final course grades and retention in the 2nd course in the biology sequence, as well as overall grade point average for the semester. This brief intervention narrowed the achievement gap between first-generation and continuing-generation students for course grades by 50% and increased retention in a critical gateway course by 20%. Our results suggest that educators can expand the pipeline for first-generation students to continue studying in the biosciences with psychological interventions.

Nationwide, close to 40 million adults lack a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) credential. About a quarter of high school freshmen do not graduate in four years, and while many high school dropouts eventually do attend GED preparation classes, too few ever pass the GED exam or go on to college. Students with only a high school diploma already face long odds of success in a labor market that increasingly prizes specialized training and college education; for GED holders, the chances are even worse. MDRC partnered with LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) to launch a small but rigorous study of its GED Bridge to Health and Business program, which aims to prepare students not only to pass the GED exam, but also to continue on to college and training programs. The results are highly encouraging: Bridge students were far more likely to complete the class, pass the GED exam, and enroll in college than students in a more traditional GED preparation class. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 11 notes.)

This study makes use of detailed student-level data from eight cohorts of first-year students at Northwestern University to investigate the relative effects of tenure track/tenured versus non-tenure line faculty on student learning. We focus on classes taken during a student's first term at Northwestern, and employ a unique identification strategy in which we control for both student-level fixed effects and next-class-taken fixed effects to measure the degree to which non-tenure line faculty contribute more or less to lasting student learning than do other faculty. We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure line professors in their introductory courses. These differences are present across a wide variety of subject areas, and are particularly pronounced for Northwestern's average students and less-qualified students.

Dual enrollment in high school is viewed by many as one mechanism for widening college admission and completion of low-income students. However, little evidence demonstrates that these students discretely benefit from dual enrollment and whether these programs narrow attainment gaps vis-a-vis students from middle-class or affluent family backgrounds. Using the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 ("N"= 8,800), I find significant benefits in boosting rates of college degree attainment for low-income students while holding weaker effects for peers from more affluent backgrounds. These results remain even with analyses from newer data of college freshman of 2004. I conduct sensitivity analyses and find that these results are robust to relatively large unobserved confounders. However, expanding dual enrollment programs would modestly reduce gaps in degree attainment. (Contains 1 note and 4 tables.)

Aimed at low-income families in six of New York City's highest-poverty communities, Family Rewards ties cash rewards to a pre-specified set of activities and outcomes thought to be critical to families' short- and long-term success in the areas of children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment. The purpose of this project is to experimentally evaluate the effects of this three-year innovative holistic conditional cash transfer (CCT) initiative. This paper presents initial findings from an ongoing and comprehensive evaluation of Family Rewards. It examines the program's implementation in the field and families' responses to it during the first two of its three years of operations, and early findings on the program's impacts on children's educational processes and outcomes. More specifically, this paper addresses the following questions: (1) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on family income, poverty, and financial hardship?; (2) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on use of health care and health insurance?; (3) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on parents' employment and educational attainment?; and (4) What are the effects of ONYC-Family Rewards on children's educational outcomes? Overall, this study shows that, despite an extraordinarily rapid start-up, the program was operating largely as intended by its second year. Although many families struggled with the complexity of the program, most were substantially engaged with it and received a large amount of money for meeting the conditions it established. Specifically, nearly all families (98 percent) earned at least some rewards in both program years, with payments averaging more than $6,000 during the first two program years combined. The program reduced current poverty and hardship; increased savings; increased families' continuous use of health insurance coverage and increased their receipt of medical care; and increased employment in jobs that are not covered by the unemployment insurance (UI) system but reduced employment in UI-covered jobs. The program has had mixed success in improving children's academic performance specifically. Contrary to expectations, Family Rewards did not affect school attendance or annual standardized test scores in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) for either group of youngest children, but did lead to notable gains for a group of more academically prepared high school students. The program also had important effects on several key proposed mediators of the intervention. However, these effects vary by parents with different age groups of children. Appended are: (1) References; and (2) Tables and Figures. (Contains 2 tables.)

This ex post facto study evaluated Achieving a College Education (ACE) Plus program, a credit-based transition program between a high school district and a community college. Achieving a College Education Plus is an early outreach program. It is designed to aid at-risk students in graduating from high school and making a smooth transition to higher education, while taking college courses and earning college credit. The authors examined the efficacy of Achieving a College Education Plus with respect to retention rates, graduation rates, and rate of transfer to colleges. Sixty high school students who had participated in Achieving a College Education Plus were matched to a sample of 60 non-Achieving a College Education Plus students. Archival records, postgraduate survey, and school district transcript information comprised three sources of data for this study. Using a series of logistic regression analyses to assess data and provide adequate controls for prior academic achievement, the authors determined that there were no differences in the findings with respect to gender, ethnicity, and language spoken in the home. However, statistically significant differences were found in favor of the Achieving a College Education Plus program with regard to student retention, graduation, and college enrollment. With an increasing emphasis on college readiness and student retention, this study is timely and contributes empirical data and findings to the community college literature. (Contains 4 tables.)

Young people who drop out of high school face long odds of success in a labor market that increasingly values education and skills. This report presents interim results from a rigorous, ongoing evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, which aims to "reclaim the lives of at-risk youth" who have dropped out of high school. ChalleNGe is an intensive residential program that currently operates in more than half the states. More than 90,000 young people have completed the program since it was launched in the early 1990s. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is conducting the evaluation in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. Several private foundations and the U.S. Department of Defense are funding the evaluation. The 17-month ChalleNGe program is divided into three phases: Pre-ChalleNGe, a demanding two- week orientation and assessment period; a 20-week Residential Phase built around eight core components designed to promote positive youth development; and a one-year Postresidential Phase featuring a structured mentoring program. During the first two phases, participants live at the program site, often on a military base. The environment is "quasi-military," though there are no requirements for military service. The evaluation uses a random assignment design. Because there were more qualified applicants than slots, a lottery-like process was used to decide which applicants were admitted to the program. The young people who were admitted (the program group) are being compared over time with those who were not admitted (the control group); any significant differences that emerge between the groups can be attributed to ChalleNGe. About 3,000 young people entered the study in 10 ChalleNGe programs in 2005-2006. Key findings from the survey include: (1) The program group was much more likely than the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate (GED) and to have earned college credits; (2) At the time of the survey, program group members were somewhat more likely to be engaged in productive activities; (3) Young people in the two groups were equally likely to have been arrested in the year prior to the survey, but the program group was less likely to have been convicted of a crime or to have engaged in certain delinquent acts; and (4) There were few differences between groups in measures of physical or mental health. These interim results are impressive, but longer-term follow-up will be critical to understanding the full story of the program's effects. Results from a 36-month survey should be available by late 2010. Appendices include: (1) Analysis of Survey Response Bias; (2) Supplementary Tables on Delinquency and Criminal Activity; (3) Supplementary Tables Analyses on Life-Coping, Leadership, and Group Skills; (4) Items and Factor Loadings for Civic Engagement Scales; and (5) Supplementary Subgroup Tables. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 40 tables, 1 figure, and 3 boxes.) [For the executive summary, see ED514661.]

There are many approaches to solving the problem of underrepresentation of some racial and ethnic groups and women in scientific and technical disciplines. Here, the authors evaluate the association of a summer bridge program with the graduation rate of underrepresented minority (URM) students at a selective technical university. They demonstrate that this 5-week program prior to the fall of the 1st year contains elements reported as vital for successful student retention. Using multivariable survival analysis, they show that for URM students entering as fall-semester freshmen, relative to their nonparticipating peers, participation in this accelerated summer bridge program is associated with higher likelihood of graduation. The longitudinal panel data include more than 2,200 URM students. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

An experimental research design was used to examine the effectiveness of a targeted, long-term intervention to promote school completion and reduce dropout among urban high school students with emotional or behavioral disabilities. African American (67%) males (82%) composed a large portion of the sample. This intervention study was a replication of an empirically supported model referred to as check & connect. Study participants included 144 ninth graders, randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. The majority of youth were followed for 4 years, with a subsample followed for 5 years. Program outcomes included lower rates of dropout and mobility, higher rates of persistent attendance and enrollment status in school, and more comprehensive transition plans.

Although Oregon has made recent gains in its overall high school graduation rate, 21?percent of public school students entering grade?9 in 2014 did not graduate within four years, by 2018. To improve graduation rates, Oregon voters approved Ballot Measure 98 in 2016 to fund dropout prevention and college and career readiness initiatives in high schools. Many districts used the funding to adopt an early indicator and intervention system (EIIS) to identify students who are not on track to graduate on time by monitoring related indicators, such as chronic absenteeism, disciplinary infractions, course progression, and academic performance, through a frequently updated data system. Districts can tailor the system by setting their own on-track thresholds for each indicator to identify students at risk of not graduating on time, assigning those students to interventions, and monitoring student response to the interventions. This study took advantage of the additional funding being offered to districts across the state to look at first-year effects on chronic absenteeism, disciplinary infractions, course progression, and academic performance by comparing the outcomes in 65 districts that adopted an EIIS to the outcomes in a set of similar districts that used the additional funding for other dropout prevention or college and career readiness initiatives. The study offers insight into the effectiveness of early efforts to scale up EIISs, a popular school-level intervention. EIIS adoption appears to have reduced the percentage of students who were chronically absent by 3.9?percentage points but does not appear to have had positive effects on the three other student outcomes during the first year: the percentage of students with disciplinary infractions, the percentage of grade?10 students who had acquired enough credits by the end of grade?9 to be considered on track for on-time graduation, or the percentage of grade?11 students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards on state math and English language arts tests. The findings offer the Oregon Department of Education information on the early effects of its efforts to promote EIIS across Oregon. The findings can also be used by other state and district education leaders to inform their considerations to scale up EIIS or other similar programs. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED614631. For the appendixes, see ED614632.]

We provide theory and evidence about how the design of college financial aid programs affects a variety of high school, college, and life outcomes. The evidence comes from an eight-year randomized trial where 2,587 high school ninth graders received a $12,000 merit-based grant offer. During high school, the program increased their college expectations and non-merit effort but had no effect on merit-related effort (e.g., GPA). After high school, the program increased graduation from two-year colleges only, apparently because of the free college design/framing in only that sector. But we see no effects on incarceration or teen pregnancy. Overall, the results suggest that free college affects student outcomes in ways similar to what advocates of free college suggest and making aid commitments early, well before college starts, increases some forms of high school effort. But we see no evidence that merit requirements are effective. Both the standard human capital model and behavioral economics are required to explain these results.

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly funded vouchers to moderate- and low-income students in low-performing public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP expanded statewide in 2012. Drawing upon the random lotteries that placed students in LSP schools, we estimate the causal impact of using an LSP voucher to enroll in a private school on student achievement on the state accountability assessments in math, English Language Arts, and science over a four-year period, as well as on the likelihood of enrolling in college. The results from our primary analytic sample indicate substantial negative achievement impacts, especially in math, that diminish after the first year but persist after four years. In contrast, when considering the likelihood of students entering college, we observe no statistically significant difference between scholarship users and their control counterparts.

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual-credit advanced algebra course alters students' subsequent high school math course-taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual-credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four-year universities instead of two-year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Get the Picture?! in improving the overall college/career readiness of 900 students with disabilities in each of the nine participating treatment high schools in nine rural, high poverty Kentucky school districts after four years of implementation. This quasi-experimental study followed the 9th grade cohort of students with disabilities in the nine treatment and 18 matched control schools over four school years, 2015-16 through 2018-19. Through the development of self-determination skills, the goal of the intervention was to increase the number of students with disabilities who achieved the state standard for College and/or Career Readiness by meeting established benchmarks on State/National assessments and/or completion of a recognized industry certification in each of the nine participating schools. For the confirmatory analyses, there were two outcome variables in two different outcome domains: (a) Transition Ready, a binary "Yes"/"No" variable [Transition Readiness domain], and (b) the cumulative number of in-school suspensions (a continuous variable) [Self-management behaviors domain]. For the confirmatory analyses, outcome data were examined using two-level Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) (for Cumulative In-School Suspensions) and Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models (HGLM) (for Transition Ready) to account for the nested structure of the data (i.e., students nested within schools). Overall, after four years of implementation, Get the Picture?! was able to demonstrate a statistically significant positive impact on the Transition Readiness of participating 9th grade cohort students compared to controls. Treatment students had statistically significantly higher odds of being Transition Ready, and were more than twice as likely to achieve Transition Readiness status compared to control students. However, while the confirmatory study showed the intervention was also able to reduce the total number of in-school suspensions for treatment students relative to controls, the outcome was indeterminate (i.e., not statistically significant). The following are appended: (a) Kentucky Department of Education Revised Transition Readiness Standards, and (b) Fidelity of Implementation Final Report.

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED604350.]

We conduct the first long-term experimental evaluation of a need-based financial aid program, the privately funded Wisconsin Scholars Grant. Over multiple cohorts, the program failed to increase degree completion and graduate school enrollment up to 10 years after matriculation. The program did reduce time-to-degree for some students and modestly increased the number of STEM degrees earned. The lack of robust effects raises important questions about the conditions necessary for financial aid to benefit students.

In this report, we present the results of a long-term tracking study that follows 1,177 students who applied to enter 1 of 13 oversubscribed KIPP middle schools through a 5th or 6th grade admissions lottery in 2008 or 2009. Those students are now old enough to have attended college for at least two years. This study uses a randomized controlled trial design to ensure that students who were offered admission to a KIPP middle school (the treatment group) are similar on average to students who did not receive an offer of admission (the control group) on both observable characteristics, such as prior test scores, and unobservable characteristics, such as levels of motivation and parental support.

Community colleges are a large sector of postsecondary education. In 2016-2017, the United States had nearly 1,000 public 2-year postsecondary institutions (community colleges), serving almost nine million students, representing 39% of all undergraduates. The majority of entering community college students require developmental (or remedial) math. Success rates in the developmental math course sequence and college more broadly are discouragingly low. Policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike are eagerly searching for reforms to improve success rates, but there is a dearth of causal evidence on the effectiveness of most proposed reforms. We sought to answer the following question: what effect does a modularized, computer-assisted, self-paced approach to developmental math (compared with a more "traditional" direct-instruction course alternative) have on students' likelihood of completing the developmental math course sequence? Findings from a randomized controlled trial (n=1,403) are presented. The program was well implemented; however, we did not find evidence that this approach was superior to the "traditional" math class. Although these results are disappointing, they are important because modularization and self-paced computer-assisted instruction are popular reforms. [This article was published in "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness" (EJ1229042).]

Building on previous research showing how well ninth-grade student behaviors predict on-time high school graduation, this experimental study investigates the impact of a ninth-grade intervention on student attendance and course passing. The study, conducted in 41 geographically and demographically diverse high schools within a single state, evaluates the effects of placing a half-time staff member in high schools to implement the Early Warning Intervention (EWI) Team model designed to monitor ninth-grade early warning indicators and provide timely interventions. Analyses based on the prespecified student outcomes of attendance rate and percentage of ninth-grade course credits earned indicated no statistically significant impact of the intervention. On secondary outcome variables, results indicated that students in treatment schools were significantly less likely than control school students to be chronically absent. The difference between treatment and control school students on dichotomous measures of course failure were not statistically significant. The widespread dissemination of research and best practices related to early warning systems and ninth-grade interventions likely accounted for low levels of contrast between treatment and control school practices and outcomes.

As the New York City economy becomes increasingly reliant on workers who have some postsecondary education or training in a specialized field, there is a growing need for local policymakers and educators to identify the most efficient ways to prepare high school students to take on these "middle-skill jobs." These needs are particularly acute in the transportation and manufacturing industries. To address these needs, the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Department of Education (DOE) created Scholars at Work (SAW), a program available to an eligible subset of New York City high school students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. The goal of the SAW program is to expose students to career opportunities, to provide them with real-life work experience alongside adults, and to develop their workplace skills. This report presents findings from the RAND Corporation's evaluation of the SAW program. The evaluation has two components: an implementation study that examines and describes SAW's activities and processes, to understand the extent to which those are functioning as the designers and implementers of the program expect, and an outcomes study, which analyzes how SAW participants are faring in the labor market compared to comparable NYC public school graduates. [This report was supported by the New York City's Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity.]

As the New York City economy becomes increasingly reliant on workers who have some postsecondary education or training in a specialized field, there is a growing need for local policymakers and educators to identify the most efficient ways to prepare high school students to take on these "middle-skill jobs." These needs are particularly acute in the transportation and manufacturing industries. To address these needs, the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Department of Education (DOE) created Scholars at Work (SAW), a program available to an eligible subset of New York City high school students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. The goal of the SAW program is to expose students to career opportunities, to provide them with real-life work experience alongside adults, and to develop their workplace skills. This report presents findings from the RAND Corporation's evaluation of the SAW program. The evaluation has two components: an implementation study that examines and describes SAW's activities and processes, to understand the extent to which those are functioning as the designers and implementers of the program expect, and an outcomes study, which analyzes how SAW participants are faring in the labor market compared to comparable NYC public school graduates. [This report was supported by the New York City's Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity.]

Pre-college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing evidence on these programs often uses within-school randomization where spillovers and alternative supports may confound estimates. We provide the first evidence on a whole school intervention resulting from a school-level randomized controlled trial in the United States. The college access program we study uses a near-peer model where a recent college graduate works at the school assisting students in the application and enrollment process. Pooled results across the first three years of program implementation find no significant impacts on overall college enrollment. However, subgroup analyses reveal positive, significant effects among the groups most targeted by the intervention: Hispanic and low-income students. Most of the impact comes through increasing two-year college enrollment, but this appears to be new entrants rather than inducing students to move from four-year to two-year colleges. The observed positive effects for these subgroups attenuate over time. We attribute this drop in the estimated impact to departures in fidelity of the experiment. Even among the cohorts for which we find positive enrollment impacts, we find no significant impacts on college persistence. [For the grantee submission, see ED594418.]

Low-income students, even those with strong academic credentials, are unlikely to attend a highly selective college. With a field experiment, we test an intervention to increase enrollment of low-income students at the highly selective University of Michigan. We contact students (as well as their parents and principals) with an encouragement to apply and a promise of four years of free tuition and fees upon admission. Materials emphasize that this offer is not contingent on completing aid applications (e.g., the FAFSA or PROFILE). Treated students were more than twice as likely to apply to (67 percent vs. 26 percent) and enroll at (27 percent vs. 12 percent) the University of Michigan. There was no diversion from schools as (or more) selective as UM. The enrollment effect of 15 percentage points (pp) comprises students who would otherwise attend a less selective, four-year college (7 pp), a community college (4 pp), or no college (4 pp). Effects persist through two years of follow-up. The intervention closed by half the income gaps in college choice among Michigan's high-achieving students. We conclude that an encouragement to apply, paired with a promise of aid, when communicated to students and influential adults, can substantially close income gaps in college choices.

As originally conceptualized, Early Colleges were small schools focused purposefully on college readiness for all students. Frequently located on college campuses, Early Colleges targeted students who might face challenges in postsecondary education, including students who were the first in their family to go to college, economically disadvantaged students, English Language Learners (ELL), or students who are members of racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in college. The Early College Expansion Partnership (ECEP) is among the first large-scale effort to apply Early College strategies into comprehensive high schools. Supported by a $15 million grant from U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program, the ECEP was designed to increase the number of students graduating from high school prepared for enrollment and success in postsecondary education. The project sought to blend high school and college by applying strategies from the successful Early College high school model to 14 middle schools, 12 high schools, and two 6th-12th-grade schools in three districts in two states: Colorado and Texas. ECEP implemented an adapted version of the Early College High School Model. The program provided a set of services that supported implementation of a whole-school reform model emphasizing the creation of a college-preparatory school environment. A primary emphasis of the program was increasing the number of students who participated in college-credit-bearing courses while in high school. This report describes the approach used to assess student impacts and to track changes over time; uses survey and site visit data to describe key changes that have been made at the district and school levels; presents the impact estimates for the core student-level outcomes; places the findings in context and discusses the broader implications of this work; and summarizes the overall findings. [For the companion report, "Implementation Supports of the Early College Expansion Partnership," see ED618696.]

Senior year of high school can be a pivotal time in a young person's life. For some, it is the last step on the path to college and work. For others, finding stable employment or attending university after high school is far from guaranteed. Urban Alliance, headquartered in Washington, DC, helps students at risk of becoming disconnected from work or school transition to higher education or employment after high school. Through its High School Internship Program, it offers participating high school seniors training, an internship, and mentoring to help them succeed. The Urban Institute recently completed an evaluation of the program in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. Using an experimental design, the study revealed several key findings approximately two years after high school.

Although high school graduation rates are rising--the national rate was 82 percent during the 2013/14 school year (U.S. Department of Education, 2015)--dropping out remains a persistent problem in the Midwest and nationally. Many schools now use early warning systems to identify students who are at risk of not graduating, with the goal of intervening early to help students get back on track for on-time graduation. Although research has guided decisions about the types of data and indicators used to flag students as being at risk, little is known about the impact of early warning systems on students and schools--and in particular, whether these systems do help get students back on track. This study, designed in collaboration with the REL Midwest Dropout Prevention Research Alliance, examined the impact and implementation of one early warning system--the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS)--on student and school outcomes. To assess the impact of EWIMS on student and school outcomes, 73 high schools in three Midwest Region states were randomly assigned to implement EWIMS during the 2014/15 school year (37 EWIMS schools) or to continue their usual practices for identifying and supporting students at risk of not graduating on time and to delay implementation of EWIMS until the following school year (36 control schools). The study included 37,671 students in their first or second year of high school, with 18,634 students in EWIMS schools and 19,037 students in control schools. EWIMS and control schools and students were similar on all background characteristics prior to random assignment. The study examined the impacts of EWIMS on indicators of student risk and on student progress in school after the first year of EWIMS adoption. The study found that EWIMS reduced the percentage of students with risk indicators related to chronic absence and course failure but not related to low GPAs or suspension: (1) The percentage of students who were chronically absent (missed 10 percent or more of instructional time) was lower in EWIMS schools (10 percent) than in control schools (14 percent); this 4 percentage point difference was statistically significant; and (2) The percentage of students who failed one or more courses was lower in EWIMS schools (21 percent) than in control schools (26 percent); this 5 percentage point difference was statistically significant; (3) The percentage of students who had a low GPA (2.0 or lower) was 17 percent in EWIMS schools and 19 percent in control schools; this difference was not statistically significant. However, sensitivity analyses that used continuous GPA data instead of the binary risk indicator showed that, on average, GPAs were higher in EWIMS schools (2.98) than in control schools (2.87); this difference was statistically significant; and (4) The percentage of students who were suspended once or more was 9 percent in both EWIMS and control schools; there was no statistically significant difference. EWIMS did not have an impact on student progress in school. That is, there was not a statistically significant difference between EWIMS and control schools in the percentage of students who earned insufficient credits to be on track to graduate within four years (14 percent in both). At the school level, EWIMS did not have a detectable impact on school data culture, that is, the ways in which schools use data to make decisions and identify students in need of additional support. In nearly all participating schools, overall implementation of the EWIMS seven-step process was low, and implementation was challenging. Nevertheless, EWIMS schools were more likely than control schools to report using an early warning system and having a dedicated team to identify and support at-risk students, but EWIMS schools did not differ from control schools in the frequency of data review or the number and type of interventions offered. This report provides rigorous initial evidence that even with limited implementation during the first year of adoption, using a comprehensive early warning system can reduce the percentage of students who are chronically absent or who fail one or more courses. These short-term results are promising because chronic absence and course failure in grades 9 and 10 are two key indicators that students are off track for on-time graduation. However, because the past research linking indicators to on-time graduation is correlational, it is not yet known if improving these indicators leads to improving on-time graduation rates. Also, EWIMS did not have a detectable impact on other measured indicators that are related to students' likelihood of on-time graduation, including low GPAs, suspensions, and earning insufficient credits. Future research is needed to better understand the mechanisms through which EWIMS had an impact on chronic absence and course failure and why EWIMS did not affect other outcomes. In particular, studies could focus on identifying which staff actions and student experiences lead to improved student outcomes. Studies should also examine whether schools achieve improved overall implementation in subsequent years and whether (and how) the observed impacts fade, grow larger, or extend to other risk indicators (low GPAs and suspensions); to intermediate outcomes (including student persistence and progress in school); and to long-term outcomes (including dropout and on-time graduation rates). The following are appended: (1) Planned implementation of the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System; (2) Recruitment, random assignment, and study sample; (3) Data collection and analytic methods; (4) Detailed findings and supplementary analyses; and (5) Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.

Students who fail algebra are significantly less likely to graduate on time, and algebra failure rates are consistently high in urban districts. Identifying effective credit recovery strategies is critical for getting students back on track. Online courses are now widely used for credit recovery, yet there is no rigorous evidence about the relative efficacy of online versus face-to-face credit recovery courses. To address this gap, this study randomly assigned 1,224 ninth graders who failed algebra in 17 Chicago public high schools to take an online or face-to-face algebra credit recovery course. Compared to students in face-to-face credit recovery, students in online credit recovery reported that the course was more difficult, were less likely to recover credit, and scored lower on an algebra posttest. There were no statistically significant differences by condition on any outcomes measured during the second year of high school (standardized mathematics test and algebra subtest scores, likelihood of passing subsequent math classes, cumulative math credits, or on-track rates). The benefits and challenges of online learning for credit recovery are discussed in light of the findings to date.

Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural components: (1) a designated separate space within the high school, (2) a ninth-grade administrator who oversees the academy, (3) a faculty assigned to teach only ninth-grade students, and (4) teachers organized into interdisciplinary teams that have both students and a planning period in common. The theory of action behind NGAs is that when these components are employed together, they interact to create a more personalized learning environment where ninth-grade students feel less anonymous and more individually supported. This, in turn, should help students succeed in school and stay on track to high school graduation. NGAs have shown promising results when employed as part of a whole-school reform model, but in these cases schools have received external support from a developer to create and sustain them. A growing number of schools and districts have been experimenting with NGAs on their own, but the little research that exists on their effectiveness is limited to anecdotal accounts. This study, which is based on a quasi-experimental research design, examines the effect of NGAs on students' progress toward graduation, their academic achievement, and their behavior in several school districts in Florida. The sample for this study includes 27 high schools that created NGAs between 2001-2002 and 2006-2007, along with 16 comparison high schools that serve ninth-grade students with similar characteristics as students in the NGA schools. As context for understanding the impact findings, this study also looks at the extent to which the key features of the NGA model were implemented in the NGA schools in the study and how this differs from the structures and supports in the comparison schools. The key finding is that the NGAs in this study do not appear to have improved students' academic or behavioral outcomes (credit earning, state test scores, course marks, attendance, suspensions, or expulsions). The findings also suggest that it can be difficult for schools to fully implement the components of the NGA model without expert assistance: Three years after their creation, only half the NGAs in the study had all four structural components of the model in place. Nationally, school districts continue to create NGAs, and recent efforts to implement them have incorporated various enhancements that are intended to strengthen and improve their implementation, but little is known about their effectiveness. Because students' experience in ninth grade is an important predictor of their future success, these efforts to create and improve NGAs should be examined in future studies. Appended are: (1) Technical Information; and (2) Beyond the Sunshine State: Ninth Grade Academies in Other School Districts. ["Helping Students Make the Transition into High School: The Effect of Ninth Grade Academies on Students' Academic and Behavioral Outcomes" was written with Janet Quint.]

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

Diplomas Now is a partnership of three national organizations--Talent Development Secondary, City Year, and Communities In Schools--collaborating in an effort to transform urban secondary schools so that fewer students drop out and more graduate ready for postsecondary education and work. With the goal of a continuous system of support through secondary school, the Diplomas Now model seeks to help more students graduate by improving their attendance, behavior, and course performance, particularly in English/language arts and math, during the middle grades and high school. Acting as a representative for the partnership, Johns Hopkins University, home to Talent Development Secondary, was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) validation grant by the U.S. Department of Education in 2010 to support the expansion of Diplomas Now from a few schools to more than 30 middle and high schools in more than 10 school districts. The grant funds also support a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the Diplomas Now model, led by MDRC. This report discusses the early impacts of the Diplomas Now model on student and school outcomes at the end of the first and second years of model implementation. It focuses in particular on students during sixth and ninth grades, critical transition years into middle and high school. Accordingly, this report presents the "first-year" impacts of a "multiyear" program. In total, 62 high-needs schools (33 middle schools and 29 high schools) from 11 large urban school districts across the country were recruited to participate in the study starting in either the 2011-2012 or the 2012-2013 school year. Thirty-two of the participating secondary schools were randomly assigned to implement the Diplomas Now model (DN schools), and 30 were assigned to continue with "business as usual" (non-DN schools), either maintaining their existing practices and structures or pursuing other types of school reform. This third report focuses on the early impacts of Diplomas Now on students' attendance, behavior, and course performance measures (the ABC outcomes), separately and in combination, during their first year in middle school or high school over the course of the first two years that the model was implemented in participating schools. Does the implementation of Diplomas Now have an impact on how many students are on a path to high school graduation by the end of their first year of middle school or high school? During that first year, what difference does Diplomas Now make for attendance rates, suspensions and expulsions, and successful course completion? This report also discusses the impact of Diplomas Now on possible precursors to the ABC outcomes, such as the climate of the school, support from parents and the community, and students' attitudes and relationships. Two appendices are included: (1) Samples, Analytic Methods, and Early Outcome Measures; and (2) Supplemental ABC Outcome Findings. [For "Laying Tracks to Graduation: The First Year of Implementing Diplomas Now," see ED546638. For "Moving down the Track: Changing School Practices during the Second Year of Diplomas Now," see ED558491.]

Community college students often lack an academic plan to guide their choices of coursework to achieve their educational goals, in part because counseling departments typically lack the capacity to advise students at scale. This randomized controlled trial tests the impact of guaranteed access to one of two alternative counseling sessions (group workshops or one-on-one counseling), each of which was combined with targeted "nudging." Outcome measures included scheduling and attending the counseling session, completing an academic plan, and re-enrolling in the following semester. Evidence suggests that both variations on the intervention increase academic plan completion rates by over 20 percentage points compared to a control group that did not receive guaranteed access to a counseling session or the automated nudges. Exploratory evidence suggests that when combined with nudging, the guarantee of workshop counseling is as effective as the guarantee of one-on-one counseling in causing students to schedule and attend academic planning appointments. The following are appended: (1) Study background and intervention characteristics; (2) Study data sources, design and analysis; (3) Supplemental tables; and (4) Descriptions of MySite, Sherpa, and My Academic Plan systems.

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

A report released in April 2013 by Benjamin L Castleman of Harvard University and Lindsay C. Page of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University examines the implications of two forms of interventions during the summer between high school and the first year of college on college enrollment. "Summer Nudging: Can Personalized Text Messages and Peer Mentor Outreach Increase College Going Among Low-Income High School Graduates?" details findings that text message reminders and peer mentor outreach programs can be an effective way to mitigate summer attrition. The report details two large-scale randomized trials done in collaboration with three educational agencies: the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD), uAspire (a Boston-based nonprofit organization focused on college affordability), and Mastery Charter Schools (a network of charter schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Castleman and Page reveal the positive impact these low-cost initiatives can have on college enrollment within low-income communities during an increasingly technological era.

Too many students drop out and never earn their high school diploma. For students at risk of dropping out, academic, social, and other supports may help. "Communities In Schools" seeks to organize and provide these supports to at-risk students in the nation's poorest-performing schools, including through "case-managed" services. This report, the first of two from a random assignment evaluation of "Communities In Schools" case management, focuses primarily on the implementation of case management in 28 secondary schools during the 2012-2013 school year. The report also includes interim one-year findings about case management's impact on student outcomes. The report concludes with suggestions for improvement for "Communities In Schools" based mainly on the implementation findings. The next report will present two-year impact findings and more about the implementation of case management in the 2013-2014 school year. Appended to the report are: (1) Statistical Model and Statistical Power; and (2) Sample and Response Analysis.

We present the results of three large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) carried out in Chicago, testing interventions to reduce crime and dropout by changing the decision-making of economically disadvantaged youth. We study a program called Becoming a Man (BAM), developed by the non-profit Youth Guidance, in two RCTs implemented in 2009-10 and 2013-15. In the two studies participation in the program reduced total arrests during the intervention period by 28-35%, reduced violent-crime arrests by 45-50%, improved school engagement, and in the first study where we have follow-up data, increased graduation rates by 12-19%. The third RCT tested a program with partially overlapping components carried out in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC), which reduced readmission rates to the facility by 21%. These large behavioral responses combined with modest program costs imply benefit-cost ratios for these interventions from 5-to-1 up to 30-to-1 or more. Our data on mechanisms are not ideal, but we find no positive evidence that these effects are due to changes in emotional intelligence or social skills, self-control or "grit," or a generic mentoring effect. We find suggestive support for the hypothesis that the programs work by helping youth slow down and reflect on whether their automatic thoughts and behaviors are well suited to the situation they are in, or whether the situation could be construed differently. [A full list of sponsors of this project can be found on the NBER web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w21178.ack.]

The authors investigated the impact of a manualized high school transition program, the Peer Group Connection (PGC) program, on the graduation rate at a low-income, Mid-Atlantic high school. The program utilized 12th-grade student peer leaders to create a supportive environment for incoming ninth-grade students. Results of a randomized control trial demonstrated that male students who participated in the program during Grade 9 were significantly more likely to graduate from high school within 4 years than male students in the control group (81% vs. 63%). Findings suggest that peers can be effective in delivering a school-based, social emotional learning intervention and that it is possible to intervene in Grade 9 to influence the probability of high school graduation.

Improving the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth remains a top policy priority in the United States, although identifying successful interventions for adolescents--particularly males--has proven challenging. This paper reports results from a large randomized controlled trial of an intervention for disadvantaged male youth grades 7-10 from high-crime Chicago neighborhoods. The intervention was delivered by two local non-profits and included regular interactions with a pro-social adult, after-school programming, and--perhaps the most novel ingredient--in-school programming designed to reduce common judgment and decision-making problems related to automatic behavior and biased beliefs, or what psychologists call cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We randomly assigned 2,740 youth to programming or to a control group; about half those offered programming participated, with the average participant attending 13 sessions. Program participation reduced violent-crime arrests during the program year by 8.1 per 100 youth (a 44 percent reduction). It also generated sustained gains in schooling outcomes equal to 0.14 standard deviations during the program year and 0.19 standard deviations during the follow-up year, which we estimate could lead to higher graduation rates of 3-10 percentage points (7-22 percent). Depending on how one monetizes the social costs of crime, the benefit-cost ratio may be as high as 30:1 from reductions in criminal activity alone. [A full list of sponsors of this project can be found on NBER's web site: http://www.nber.org/papers/w19014.ack.]

In the first study, using a randomized experiment to measure the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment, Matthew Chingos and Paul Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, examine the college-going behavior through 2011 of students who participated in a voucher experiment as elementary school students in the late 1990s. They find no overall impacts on college enrollment but do find large, statistically significant positive impacts on the college going of African-American students who participated in the study. Their estimates indicate that using a voucher to attend private school increased the overall college enrollment rate among African Americans by 24 percent. The original data for the analysis come from an experimental evaluation of the privately funded New York School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program, which in the spring of 1997 offered three-year scholarships worth up to a maximum of $1,400 annually to as many as 1,000 low-income families. Chingos and Peterson obtained student information that allowed them to identify over 99 percent of the students who participated in the original experiment so that their college enrollment status could be ascertained by means of the college enrollment database maintained by the National Student Clearinghouse for institutions of higher education that serve 96 percent of all students in the United States. In addition to finding impacts on overall college-going for African Americans, the authors report significant increases in full-time college attendance, enrollment in private four-year colleges, and enrollment in selective four-year colleges for this group of students. Observational and Quasi-Experimental Research are appended. (Contains 7 tables and 19 endnotes.)

Charter schools--public schools of choice that are operated autonomously, outside the direct control of local school districts--have become more prevalent over the past two decades. There is no consensus about whether, on average, charter schools are doing better or worse than conventional public schools at promoting the achievement of their students. Nonetheless, one research finding is clear: Effects vary widely among different charter schools. Many educators, policymakers, and funders are interested in ways to identify and replicate successful charter schools and help other public schools adopt effective charter school practices. Charter-school management organizations (CMOs), which establish and operate multiple charter schools, represent one prominent attempt to bring high performance to scale. The National Study of CMO Effectiveness aims to fill the gap in systematic evidence about CMOs, providing the first rigorous nationwide examination of CMOs' effects on students' achievement and attainment. The study includes an examination of the relationships between the practices of individual CMOs and their effects on student achievement, with the aim of providing useful guidance to the field. This updated edition of the report provides key findings from the study on CMO practices, impacts, and the relationships between them. A forthcoming report will explore promising practices in greater depth. This study uses multiple data sources to describe CMOs, assess their impacts on students, and identify practices associated with positive impacts in order to address the following research questions: (1) How quickly are CMOs growing? Which students and areas do they serve and what resources do they use? What are the practices and structures of CMOs? What state policies and other factors appear to influence the location and growth of CMOs?; (2) What are the impacts of CMOs on student outcomes and to what extent do these impacts vary across CMOs?; and (3) Which CMO practices and structures are positively associated with impacts? To examine eligible CMOs and address the research questions, the authors conducted a survey of CMO central office staff, surveys of CMO principals and principals in nearby conventional public schools, a survey of CMO teachers, and site visits to 10 CMOs and 20 schools. In addition, they collected and analyzed school records with data on student characteristics and outcomes (including test scores), and they examined CMO financial records and business plans. Findings include: (1) Comprehensive behavior policies are positively associated with student impacts; (2) Intensive teacher coaching is positively associated with student impacts; (3) CMOs using TFA and teaching fellow teachers have higher impacts, but other staffing decisions are not associated with impacts; (4) CMOs categorized as "data-driven" and "time on task" have larger impacts, on average, than two other categories of CMOs; and (5) Tightness of CMO management is weakly associated with impacts. As is often the case in studies of this kind, some of the interesting findings raise other important questions. The following questions are discussed in this report: (1) To what extent do CMOs produce positive effects on longer term student outcomes?; (2) What explains why some CMOs have negative impacts on test scores?; (3) Which promising strategies should CMOs implement and how should they implement them?; (5) To what extent do CMOs add value compared to independent charter schools?; (6) Are new CMOs using the same strategies and producing the same impacts as more established CMOs?; and (7) What other factors might contribute to CMO impacts? Appended are: (1) Construction and Analysis of Measures Used in Chapter III; (2) Experimental Impacts; (3) Validation of Impact Estimation Approach; (4) Methodology for Estimating CMO and School- Level Impacts on Achievement in Middle- Schools; (5) Baseline Equivalence; (6) Method for Dealing with Grade Repetition; (7) Methodology and Results for CMO Impacts on High School Achievement and Attainment; (8) Impacts on Middle School Test Scores by CMO, Year, and Subject; (9) Comparing CMO and Independent Charter Impacts; (10) Subgroup Impacts; (11) Multiple Comparison Adjustments for Impact Analyses; (12) Methods for Correlating Impacts and CMO Characteristics; and (13) Correlational Analysis Results. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 56 tables and 49 figures.) [This document was commissioned by NewSchools Venture Fund and written with assistance from Michael Barna, Emily Caffery, Hanley Chiang, John Deke, Melissa Dugger, Emma Ernst, Alena Davidoff-Gore, Eric Grau, Thomas Decker, Mason DeCamillis, Philip Gleason, Amanda Hakanson, Jane Nelson, Antoniya Owens, Julie Redline, Davin Reed, Chris Rodger, Margaret Sullivan, Christina Tuttle, Justin Vigeant, Tiffany Waits, and Clare Wolfendale. For an earlier edition of this report, "The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness. Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts," see ED526951.]

The summer after high school graduation is a largely unexamined stage of college access among underrepresented populations in higher education. Yet two recent studies revealed that anywhere from 10% to 40% of low-income students who have been accepted to college and signaled their intent to enroll reconsider where, and even whether, to matriculate in the months after graduation. This experimental study investigates the effect of providing college counseling to low-income students during the summer. We randomly assigned students at 7 innovative high schools to receive proactive outreach from high school counselors. The treatment focused on addressing financial and information barriers students faced. Results show that providing college counseling to low-income students during the summer months leads to substantial improvements in both the rate and quality of college enrollment. Students in the treatment group were 14 percentage points more likely to enroll immediately in college and 19 percentage points more likely to keep the postsecondary plans they developed during senior year. Policy recommendations include strategies for high schools and/or colleges to provide effective support during the post-high school summer. (Contains 2 tables and 17 footnotes.)

Improving the success of academically underprepared students who are in need of developmental (or remedial) education is a key challenge facing community colleges today. Many of these students enter college with little awareness of these institutions' expectations or a clear model for how to make effective decisions about their academic careers. To help students address these challenges, a number of colleges across the country have looked to success courses (also called study skills, student development, or new student orientation courses). This report analyzes a success course for developmental education students at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and its impact on students' psychosocial skills and behaviors and academic achievement. After joining Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count in 2004, a national organization designed to mentor colleges through an institutionwide, student success-oriented improvement process, Guilford chose to offer a revised version of its student success course to developmental education students, aimed at improving psychosocial awareness and academic achievement. Modeled on Skip Downing's "On Course" philosophy and curriculum, it placed an intensive focus on changing students' behaviors and attitudes, including increasing their awareness of their and others' emotions, understanding their own learning styles, improving time management skills, and recognizing their responsibility for their own learning. Guilford hoped that these changes in students' personal habits and behaviors might help them take better control of their academic lives, which would ultimately result in gains in achievement. This study employed random assignment methodology to examine the impact of Guilford's success course. The key findings presented in this report are: (1) Guilford's implementation of its student success course stayed true to the "On Course" philosophy, with a strong emphasis on improving students skills and habits; (2) Challenges emerged during the study in maintaining instructors' enthusiasm for teaching the course; (3) The course had a positive impact on students' self-management, interdependence, self-awareness, interest in lifelong learning, emotional intelligence, and engagement in college among students with low levels of these attributes; and (4) But the gains in efficacy did not lead to meaningful effects on students' academic achievement during the program semester or in postprogram semesters. Despite the absence of an overall effect, the program did have positive effects on the first cohort of students enrolled in the study, with students demonstrating improved grades, retention in college, and credits earned. The results of this study reveal that improvements in students' attitudes and behaviors may not necessarily translate easily into better academic outcomes, though the strength of program implementation may play an important role in these effects. Additionally, the program's limited effects suggest that community colleges should look to more comprehensive ways of improving developmental education students' academic achievement, including reforms in developmental education instruction. Appended are: (1) Technical Appendix; (2) Sensitivity Analysis; and (3) Survey Outcomes by Cohort. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 13 tables and 3 boxes.) [For "Keeping Students on Course: An Impact Study of a Student Success Course at Guilford Technical Community College. Executive Summary," see ED531181.]

Across the United States, community colleges offer millions of students an open-access, low-cost postsecondary education. However, of the students who enroll in community college hoping to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year institution, only about half achieve their goal within six years. For students who enter college needing developmental (remedial) education in reading, writing, or math, this rate is even lower. Learning communities, in which cohorts of students enroll in two or more linked courses together, are often employed to improve these students' success. In addition to linking courses, learning communities often incorporate other components, such as faculty collaboration, shared assignments and curricula, and connections to student support services. Merced College in California and The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) each developed learning communities designed to boost the academic success of their developmental English students. These colleges are two of the six in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's (NCPR) Learning Communities Demonstration, in which random assignment evaluations are being used to determine the impacts of learning communities on student success. At Merced, learning communities linked developmental English courses with a variety of other courses at the developmental and college levels. At CCBC, learning communities linked developmental English with a range of college-level courses and a weekly one-hour Master Learner session designed to support curricular integration and student learning. The key findings presented in this report are: (1) Both Merced and CCBC implemented relatively advanced learning communities. A strong cohort experience was provided to students, and other aspects of the learning communities model were implemented with variation at each college. On average, the colleges succeeded in providing program group students with an experience that was substantially different from the experience of their control group counterparts; (2) At Merced, learning communities students attempted and earned significantly more developmental English credits than students in the control group during the program semester. At the end of the subsequent semester, they had passed significantly more English courses than their control group counterparts; (3) At CCBC, there were no meaningful impacts on students' credit attempts or progress in developmental English; and (4) On average, neither college's learning communities program had an impact on college registration in the postprogram semester, or on cumulative credits earned. NCPR has now presented findings from all six colleges in the demonstration. They show that when one-semester learning communities have impacts, they tend to be concentrated in the semester in which students are enrolled in the program. The evidence to date suggests that one-semester learning communities programs by themselves are typically not sufficient to boost reenrollment or increase credit accumulation. However, this is not the final report on the demonstration; in 2012, NCPR will release a report that synthesizes the findings across all of the colleges studied and includes an additional semester of student follow-up at each college. Supplementary table and figures are appended. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 11 tables, 9 figures and 1 box.) [This paper was written with Amanda Grossman. References for the executive summary are included. For "Learning Communities for Students in Developmental English: Impact Studies at Merced College and the Community College of Baltimore County. Executive Summary," see ED529250.]

The passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which extended need-based financial assistance to the general population for the first time, has improved college access for American students, but more work remains to be done to improve college success. According to government statistics, in 2006, about one in six students had earned a degree or certificate three years after beginning their postsecondary education at a two-year institution. Low-income students are particularly at risk of not persisting to complete a certificate or degree--often because of competing priorities, financial pressures, and inadequate preparation for college. Among low-income students, older students have added barriers to postsecondary success. Students in their twenties and thirties often have outside additional obligations such as work and child-care responsibilities. The federal and state grant aid available to adult learners is often not enough to cover education-related costs, such as tuition, books and supplies, transportation, and basic living expenses. Moreover, adult learners in need of developmental education have even greater barriers to academic success, not least among them the extra cost of developmental courses. One promising way to overcome some of these barriers is to offer such students a performance-based scholarship--a need-based grant, contingent on meeting academic benchmarks. The scholarships are designed to help put more money in the hands of low-income students and to provide an incentive for making academic progress. A prior MDRC study of performance-based scholarships as part of Opening Doors Louisiana found that such scholarships could have large impacts on persistence, grades, and credit accumulation. This report presents findings from a random assignment study of performance-based scholarships at two colleges in New York City: the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and Hostos Community College, both part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. The program in New York City is part of MDRC's national Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration, launched in 2008 to evaluate whether such scholarships are an effective way to improve academic outcomes among low-income college students. While some of the other programs in the PBS Demonstration (as well as the original Opening Doors study in Louisiana) made the scholarship contingent on students' receiving services such as advising or tutoring, the study in New York was intended to test a bare-bones, scholarship-only program. Appended are: (1) Select Characteristics of Sample Members at Baseline, by Research Group; and (2) Additional Impact Tables. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 12 tables, 5 figures and 4 boxes.)

Across the country, a growing number of recent high school graduates are participating in summer bridge programs. These programs provide accelerated and focused learning opportunities in order to help students acquire the knowledge and skills needed for college success. The state of Texas has given particular attention to summer programs as a way to increase students' college readiness. During the past several years, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has provided support to colleges establishing developmental summer bridge programs offering intensive remedial instruction in math, reading, and/or writing, along with an introduction to college. In contrast with traditional developmental education course sequences, which may span several semesters, the summer bridge programs were designed to help underprepared students build competencies over the course of several weeks before entering college. While THECB funding for summer bridge programs has diminished, this type of program model remains popular in Texas and across the country. Nevertheless, little rigorous empirical research has been conducted on the effectiveness of summer bridge programs. To address this gap in the research, in 2009 the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) launched an evaluation of summer bridge programs at eight sites in Texas to assess whether they reduce the need for developmental coursework upon fall matriculation and improve student outcomes in college. The evaluation employed an experimental design to measure the effects of the programs on college enrollment and success. This Brief presents the impact findings of the study, revealing whether the opportunity to participate in a summer bridge program influenced academic outcomes during the two years following participation. The primary outcomes tracked in this study were persistence, accumulation of credits, and progression through the developmental sequence and into students' first college-level math, reading, and writing courses. [This report was written with Evan Weissman, Jedediah Teres, and Matthew Zeidenberg. This Brief is based on a National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) report titled "Bridging the Gap: An Impact Study of Eight Developmental Summer Bridge Programs in Texas." To access this report, see ED533824.]

Queensborough Community College and Houston Community College are two large, urban institutions that offer learning communities for their developmental math students, with the goals of accelerating students' progress through the math sequence and of helping them to perform better in college and ultimately earn degrees or certificates. They are two of six colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's Learning Communities Demonstration, in which random assignment evaluations are being used to determine the effects of learning communities. At Queensborough, classes in all levels of developmental math were linked primarily with college-level classes, and at Houston, the lowest level of developmental math was linked with the college's student success class, designed to prepare students for the demands of college. A total of 1,034 students at Queensborough and 1,273 students at Houston entered the study between 2007 and 2009. The key findings presented in this report are: (1) Both Queensborough and Houston began by implementing a basic model of a one-semester developmental math learning community; (2) Learning community students attempted and passed their developmental math class at higher rates at both colleges; (3) In the semesters following students' participation in the program, impacts on developmental math progress were far less evident; and (4) On average, neither college's learning communities program had an impact on persistence in college or cumulative credits earned. With these results, a pattern is beginning to emerge in the experimental research on learning communities: Linked classes can have an impact on students' achievement during the program semester, but this effect diminishes over time. However, a fuller understanding will be gained as findings are released from the remaining three colleges in the demonstration. A final project synthesis report, including further follow-up, will be published 2012. Supplementary tables are appended. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 31 tables, 6 figures and 1 box.) [This paper was written with Rashida Welbeck. For the executive summary, see ED516652.]

Over the last four decades, community colleges have played an increasingly important role in higher education. Today, community colleges enroll more than one in every three undergraduates nationally. Unfortunately, among students who enroll in community colleges with the intent to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year institution, only 51 percent achieve that goal within six years. Many postsecondary institutions operate "learning communities" to improve low rates of success. Basic learning communities simply co-enroll a cohort of students into two classes together. This report presents results from a rigorous random assignment study of a basic learning community program at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Bay, Florida. Hillsborough is one of six community colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's Learning Communities Demonstration. The demonstration's focus is on determining whether learning communities are an effective strategy for helping students who need developmental education. Appended are: (1) Impact Analyses; (2) Sensitivity Analyses; and (3) Assessment of Syllabi. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 14 tables, 2 boxes and 3 figures.) [This paper was written with the assistance of Jed Teres and Emily Schneider.]

High school dropouts face daunting odds of success in a labor market that increasingly rewards education and skills. This report presents very early results from a rigorous, independent evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive residential program that aims to "reclaim the lives" of young people ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out of school. ChalleNGe currently operates in more than half the states. About 75,000 young people have completed the program since the early 1990s. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is conducting the evaluation, along with the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. The 17-month ChalleNGe program is divided into three phases: Pre-ChalleNGe, which is a two-week orientation and assessment period; a 20-week Residential Phase built around eight core components designed to promote positive youth development; and a one-year Postresidential Phase featuring a structured mentoring program. During the first two phases, participants in the program live at the program site, often on a military base. The environment is described as "quasi-military," though there are no requirements for military service. The evaluation uses a random assignment research design. Because there were more qualified applicants than slots, a lottery-like process was used to decide which applicants were admitted to the program. The young people who were admitted (the program group) are being compared over time with those who were not admitted (the control group); any significant differences that emerge between the groups can be attributed to ChalleNGe. About 3,000 young people entered the study in 10 ChalleNGe programs in 2005-2006. Early results find that the program group was much more likely than the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate (GED). The program group was more likely than the control group to be working and attending college; members of the control group were more likely to have returned to high school. The program group reported better health and higher levels of self-efficacy and were less likely to have been arrested. It is too early to draw any conclusions about the long-term effects of ChalleNGe. Nevertheless, the early results suggest that partway through their ChalleNGe experience, young people in the program group are better positioned to move forward in their transition to adulthood. Results from an 18-month survey will be available in late 2009. This report divides into four chapters. Following an Introduction, Chapter 2 describes the young people who are participating in the study and the ChalleNGe staff. Chapter 3, based largely on visits to the programs, describes how ChalleNGe operates in the participating sites. Sections focus on how participants are recruited and enrolled, the Pre-ChalleNGe Phase, the Residential Phase and the eight core components, and the Postresidential Phase and the mentoring program. Chapter 4 uses data from the ChalleNGe management information system to describe the extent to which program group members participated in ChalleNGe, and also draws from the nine-month survey to present some very early evidence about the program's effects on education, employment, and health outcomes. (Contains 13 tables and 4 figures.) [Additional funding for this report was provided by the MCJ Foundation. For the Executive Summary, see ED504644.]

This last report from Mathematica's evaluation of Upward Bound analyzes data from the final round of survey and transcript data collection as well as administrative records from the National Student Clearinghouse and the federal Student Financial Aid files. It provides the first estimates of the effects of Upward Bound on postsecondary completion. The report also updates previous estimates of the program's effects on postsecondary enrollment and receipt of financial aid. Except for a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of earning a postsecondary certificate or license from a vocational school, the report finds no detectable effects on postsecondary outcomes, including enrollment, financial aid application or receipt, or the completion of bachelor's or associates degrees. In addition to these results, the report includes the findings from extensive subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Nine appendices are included: (1) Sample Design, Unit Nonresponse, and Weights; (2) Data Collection and Outcome Measures; (3) Sensitivity Analyses Pertaining to the Measurement of Outcomes; (4) Sample Sizes and Weighted Standard Deviations for all Outcome Variables; (5) Estimation of Impacts and Standard Errors; (6) Methods used to Estimate the Effects of Additional Upward Bound Participation; (7) Sensitivity Analyses Pertaining to Sample Weighting; (8) Other Supplemental Service Programs; and (9) Additional Subgroup Tables. (Contains 17 tables, 1 figure and 32 footnotes.)

MDRC launched the Opening Doors demonstration to test four distinct interventions that were designed to help more students persist in community college and accomplish their academic and personal goals. This report describes the impacts of a performance-based scholarship program with a counseling component on academic success and persistence among low-income parents. Students who participated in the program, which was operated at two New Orleans-area colleges as part of MDRC's multisite Opening Doors demonstration, were more likely to stay in school, get higher grades, and earn more credits. Key findings from this report include the following: (1) The Opening Doors program encouraged more students to register for college; (2) The program increased persistence; (3) The program increased the number of credits that students earned; and (4) The program had positive impacts on a range of social and psychological outcomes. (Contains 30 tables, 11 figures, and 2 boxes.) [Additional funding was provided by The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood, The Kresge Foundation, The Sandler Foundation, and The Starr Foundation.]

This article describes EXCEL, a program that encourages youth underrepresented in higher education to enroll in higher education, specifically at the sponsoring university. Eighty-three eighth grade students with GPA of B and above and standardized test scores at grade level or above were randomly assigned to the program or to a control group. The program guaranteed a scholarship to the sponsoring university and provided enrichment activities throughout high school. Program students were more likely to enroll at the sponsoring university than were control students. However, program and control students enrolled in higher education at rates that did not differ significantly. No differences were detected in self-esteem or high school GPA. Program students desired more education than control students. The results suggest that scholarship incentive and support programs that target average to above average achieving students in the eighth grade may not raise the overall number of aspiring minority youth attending college, but may be useful to specific universities to raise their minority enrollment.

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, nearly 4 in 10 fourth graders read below the basic level. These literacy problems get worse as students advance through school and are exposed to progressively more complex concepts and courses. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of four remedial reading programs in improving the reading skills of 3rd and 5th graders, whether the impacts of the programs vary across students with difference baseline characteristics, and to what extent can this instruction close the reading gap and bring struggling readers within the normal range--relative to the instruction normally provided by their schools. The study took place in elementary schools in 27 districts of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit outside Pittsburgh, PA during the 2003-04 school year. Within each of 50 schools, 3rd and 5th grade students were identified as struggling readers by their teachers. These students were tested and were eligible for the study if they scored at or below the 30th percentile on a word-level reading test and at or above the 5th percentile on a vocabulary test. The final sample contains a total of 742 students. There are 335 3rd graders ? 208 treatment and 127 control students. There are 407 5th graders ? 228 treatment and 179 control students. Four existing programs were used: Spell Read P.A.T., Corrective Reading, Wilson Reading, and Failure Free Reading. Corrective Reading and Wilson Reading were modified to focus only on word-level skills. Spell Read P.A.T. and Failure Free Reading were intended to focus equally on word-level skills and reading comprehension/vocabulary. Teachers received 70 hours of professional development and support during the year. Instruction was delivered in small groups of 3 students, 5 days a week, for a total of 90 hours. Seven measures of reading skill were administered at the beginning and end of the school year to assess student progress: Word Attack, Word Identification Comprehension (Woodcock Reading Mastery Test); Phonemic Decoding Efficiency and Sight Word Efficiency (Test of Word Reading Efficiency); Oral Reading Fluency (Edformation); and Passage Comprehension (Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation). After one year of instruction, there were significant impacts on phonemic decoding, word reading accuracy and fluency, and comprehension for 3rd graders, but not for 5th graders. For third graders in the reading programs, the gap in word attach skills between struggling readers and average readers was reduced by about two-thirds. It was found that reading skills of 3rd graders can be significantly improved through instruction in word-level skills, but not the reading skills of 5th graders. The following are appended: (1) Details of Study Design and Implementation; (2) Data Collection; (3) Weighting Adjustment and Missing Data; (4) Details of Statistical Methods; (5) Intervention Impacts on Spelling and Calculation; (6) Instructional Group Clustering; (7) Parent Survey; (8) Teacher Survey and Behavioral Rating Forms; (9) Instructional Group Clustering; (10) Videotape Coding Guidelines for Each Reading Program; (11) Supporting Tables; (12) Sample Test Items; (13) Impact Estimate Standard Errors and P-Values; (14) Association between Instructional Group Heterogeneity and The Outcome; (15) Teacher Rating Form; (16) School Survey; and (17) Scientific Advisory Board. [This report was produced by the Corporation for the Advancement of Policy Evaluation. Additional support provided by the Barksdale Reading Institute, and the Haan Foundation for Children.]

This report describes the effects of Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) on student progress at three high schools in Houston (the initiative's original site) and at high schools in two other school districts (Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia). MDRC--a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization--conducted a third-party evaluation to determine the effects of Project GRAD by comparing the changes in student outcomes at Project GRAD schools with changes at similar, non-Project GRAD schools in the same districts. (A companion report discusses findings for Project GRAD elementary schools.) In general, Project GRAD student outcomes are tracked from the implementation of the first components of the model at each site until the 2002-2003 school year. The key findings of this report are: At Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, the initiative's flagship school, Project GRAD had a statistically significant positive impact on the proportion of students who completed a core academic curriculum on time--that is, received an average grade of 75 out of 100 in their core courses; earned four credits in English, three in math, two in science, and two in social students; and graduated from high school within four years. As Project GRAD expanded into two other Houston high schools, these positive effects on students' academic preparation were not evident. Student outcomes at the newer Project GRAD high schools improved, but generally this progress was matched by progress at the comparison high schools. Improvements in graduation rates at the three Project GRAD Houston high schools were generally matched by improvements in graduation rates at the comparison schools. Looking at early indicators of student success, the initial Project GRAD high schools in Columbus and Atlanta showed improvements in attendance and promotion to tenth grade that appear to have outpaced improvements at the comparison schools, although the differences are only sometimes statistically significant. The following are appended: (1) The Impacts on High School Graduation among All Ninth-Grade Students in Houston; (2) High School Achievement in Houston: Was There Shifting of the Pool of Test-Takers?; and (3) Selecting Comparison Schools. (Contains 3 boxes, 6 tables, and 20 figures.) [Additional supplemental funding for this document was provided by the Lucent Technologies Foundation; and Project GRAD USA.]

In low-performing public high schools in U.S. cities, high proportions of students drop out, students who stay in school typically do not succeed academically, and efforts to make substantial reforms often meet with little success. The Talent Development High School model is a comprehensive school reform initiative that has been developed to address these challenges. Targeting some of the most troubled schools in the country, the model seeks to raise the expectations of teachers and students and to prepare all students for postsecondary education and employment. MDRC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit education and social policy research organization, conducted an independent, third-party evaluation of Talent Development. This rigorous evaluation focuses on the first five high schools to begin using the model in the School District of Philadelphia. The evaluation follows 20 cohorts of ninth-grade students for up to four years of high school using a comparative interrupted time series research design. Appended are: (1) Tables for First-Time Ninth-Grade Students; and (2) Tables for Repeating Ninth-Grade Students. (Contains 16 tables, 9 figures, and 3 boxes.)[Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by Starr Foundation.]

Policymakers have long been concerned about the disparities in college attendance between more and less advantaged groups of students. Upward Bound is one of the largest and longest running federal programs designed to help economically disadvantaged students prepare for, enter and succeed in college. Since December 1991, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., (MPR) has been conducting the national evaluation of Upward Bound for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The evaluation has focused on program implementation issues and the effects of the program on student outcomes. The "impact study" is designed to measure the impacts or effects of regular Upward Bound on student outcomes, and it is based on a longitudinal evaluation in which eligible applicants from a nationally representative sample of projects were randomly assigned to Upward Bound or to a control group. The results in this document are based on the national evaluation's third follow-up data collection, which was completed in 2000. Because the entire sample of students was beyond high school age by that time, the report includes updated findings on the effects of Upward Bound on high school outcomes. In addition, based on data covering the first few years after sample members left high school, the report addresses the following research questions: (1) What effect does Upward Bound have on students' postsecondary experiences? (2) Who benefits most from Upward Bound? and (3) What is the association between staying in Upward Bound and student outcomes? Findings in this report suggest that for the average student, Upward Bound: (1) increased the number of high school math credits earned by participants; (2) did not affect other measures of high school academic preparation; (3) may have increased enrollment at four-year institutions; and (4) did not affect enrollment at postsecondary institutions more generally when all types of postsecondary institutions are considered. Appended are: (1) Sample Design Unit Nonresponse and Weights; (2) Baseline Characteristics of the Treatment and Control Groups, Third Follow-Up Survey Respondents; (3) Program Effects and Standard Errors; (4) The Effect of Upward Bound on High School Outcomes by Selected Subgroups; (5) The Effect of Upward Bound on College Engagement by Selected Subgroups; (6) Methods Used to Estimate the Effects of Additional Upward Bound Participation; (7) Weighted Standard Deviations for All Outcome Variables; (8) Data Collection; and (9) Sample Sizes and Standard Errors for Reported Impact Estimates. (Contains 29 tables and 3 figures.)

Policymakers have long been concerned about the disparities in college attendance between more and less advantaged groups of students. Upward Bound is one of the largest and longest running federal programs designed to help economically disadvantaged students prepare for, enter and succeed in college. Since December 1991, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., (MPR) has been conducting the national evaluation of Upward Bound for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The evaluation has focused on program implementation issues and the effects of the program on student outcomes. The "impact study" is designed to measure the impacts or effects of regular Upward Bound on student outcomes, and it is based on a longitudinal evaluation in which eligible applicants from a nationally representative sample of projects were randomly assigned to Upward Bound or to a control group. The results in this document are based on the national evaluation's third follow-up data collection, which was completed in 2000. Because the entire sample of students was beyond high school age by that time, the report includes updated findings on the effects of Upward Bound on high school outcomes. In addition, based on data covering the first few years after sample members left high school, the report addresses the following research questions: (1) What effect does Upward Bound have on students' postsecondary experiences? (2) Who benefits most from Upward Bound? and (3) What is the association between staying in Upward Bound and student outcomes? Findings in this report suggest that for the average student, Upward Bound: (1) increased the number of high school math credits earned by participants; (2) did not affect other measures of high school academic preparation; (3) may have increased enrollment at four-year institutions; and (4) did not affect enrollment at postsecondary institutions more generally when all types of postsecondary institutions are considered. Appended are: (1) Sample Design Unit Nonresponse and Weights; (2) Baseline Characteristics of the Treatment and Control Groups, Third Follow-Up Survey Respondents; (3) Program Effects and Standard Errors; (4) The Effect of Upward Bound on High School Outcomes by Selected Subgroups; (5) The Effect of Upward Bound on College Engagement by Selected Subgroups; (6) Methods Used to Estimate the Effects of Additional Upward Bound Participation; (7) Weighted Standard Deviations for All Outcome Variables; (8) Data Collection; and (9) Sample Sizes and Standard Errors for Reported Impact Estimates. (Contains 29 tables and 3 figures.)