Career Academies show no discernible effects on staying in school: about 10% of academy students dropped out before the end of grade 12 versus about 12% of comparison students (effect size 0.14, not statistically significant or substantively important).¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i0 Students enrolled in Career Academies were no more likely than comparison students to drop out by the end of twelfth grade; the printed effect size of 0.14 was neither statistically significant nor substantively important. → staying-1

Evidence¶

staying-1¶

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2015, September). Dropout Prevention intervention report: Career Academies. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/70

q3 · i0 · review · r3

The WWC review reports the staying in school domain finding from the Kemple & Snipes (2000) randomized controlled trial, with 1,454 students in nine schools. Dropout was 10.1% for the intervention group versus 12.4% for the comparison group; the effect size of 0.14 (improvement index +6, p > .10) fell below the substantively important threshold, yielding a rating of no discernible effects.

"About 10% of the students enrolled in Career Academies had dropped out of high school before the end of grade 12, compared to about 12% of students in the comparison group. The effect size of 0.14 was not statistically significant or substantively important."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Career Academies show no discernible effects on progressing in school: academy students accrued no more course credits than comparison students by the end of twelfth grade (effect size 0.09, not statistically significant or substantively important). — related
• Career Academies have potentially positive effects on completing school: about 96% of academy students earned a diploma or GED within 8 years of expected graduation versus about 94% of comparison students (effect size 0.27, not statistically significant but substantively important). — related
• The evidence base for Career Academies in dropout prevention rests on a single randomized controlled trial in which students were randomly assigned to academy enrollment, a waitlist, or a comparison group across nine sites. — a broader claim this one bears on
• Academy graduates report feeling more empowered and staying on the job longer — related
• MDRC's experimental career academies evaluation found males earned as much as 17% more than peers for 8 years after high school, alongside attendance, course-taking, and on-time-credit gains — related