Technical Resources for Career Academies: Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, Educational Attainment, and Transitions to Adulthood

These are the technical resources for the report, "Career Academies: Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, Educational Attainment, and Transitions to Adulthood." Established more than 30 years ago, Career Academies have become a widely used high school reform initiative that aims to keep students engaged in school and prepare them for successful transitions to postsecondary education and employment. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies are organized as small learning communities, combine academic and technical curricula around a career theme, and establish partnerships with local employers to provide work-based learning opportunities. There are estimated to be more than 2,500 Career Academies operating around the country. Since 1993, MDRC has been conducting a rigorous evaluation of the Career Academy approach that uses a random assignment research design in a diverse group of nine high schools across the United States. Contents included in this document: (1) Survey Response Rates, Sample Characteristics, and Analysis Issues; (2) Comparison of Academy and Non-Academy Students with National Data; (3) Impacts for the Full Sample; (4) Impacts for Gender Subgroups; and (5) Impacts for Risk Subgroups. [An additional funder to the report is the Citigroup Foundation. For the full report, see ED631371.]