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).¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q3·i1small
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i1 Students enrolled in Career Academies were more likely to earn a high school diploma or GED within 8 years of expected graduation, with a printed effect size of 0.27 that was not statistically significant but was substantively important. → completing-1
Evidence¶
completing-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 · i1 · review · r3
The WWC review reports the completing school domain finding from the Kemple & Willner (2008) 8-year follow-up of the randomized controlled trial, with 1,428 students in nine schools. The intervention group earned a diploma or GED at "about 96%" versus about 94% for the comparison group; the effect size of 0.27 (improvement index +11, p > .10) was not statistically significant but met the WWC substantively important threshold.
"About 96% of the students enrolled in Career Academies earned a high school diploma or GED certificate within 8 years of their expected high school graduation date, compared to about 94% of students in the comparison group. The effect size of 0.27 was not statistically significant but was 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 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). — related
- High School Redirection has potentially positive effects on progressing in school, driven by a significant credit-accumulation advantage in Stockton — related
- High School Redirection shows no discernible effects on completing school (diploma or GED receipt) — related
- Job Corps has potentially positive effects on completing school: more youth without credentials earned a diploma or GED — related
- In the Cincinnati trial, High School Redirection had a small, statistically significant positive effect on receiving a high school diploma but not on the combined diploma-or-GED outcome — related
- The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program has potentially positive effects on completing school for at-risk youth, with 61% of the program group reporting a diploma or GED versus 36% of controls 21 months after random assignment — related
- Job Corps' completion effect came entirely from GED receipt, with a small statistically significant negative effect on earning a high school diploma — related
- JOBSTART's completion gain came entirely from GED receipt, with a small significant negative effect on earning a high school diploma — related
- JOBSTART increased the likelihood that disadvantaged high school dropouts earned a high school diploma or GED certificate within 48 months of random assignment — 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. — 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
- Job Corps substantially increased time spent in education and training relative to the control group during the 48-month follow-up — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
career-academies-potentially-positive-completing-school |
title |
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). |
description |
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... |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2015 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-09 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — completing-1 |
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