Improving Labor Market Prospects for Youth: Evidence from Career Academies

A Forum — October 3, 2003

Background

Career academies, small, schools-within-a-school organized around career theme, have been in existence for more than 30 years. Career academies provide students with interpersonal support, link academic curriculum with career-related courses, and foster career awareness through school partnerships with employers. Today, approximately 25 percent of high schools in the U.S. have a career academy.

MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social policy research organization is moving into the final stages of a 10-year longitudinal random assignment evaluation of this approach. At this American Youth Policy Forum, panelists discussed MDRC's findings, the context of the study, and implications for policy.

Forum Summary

James Kemple, Senior Fellow at MDRC discussed the goal of his organization's research on career academies: to evaluate the impact on academic and nonacademic outcomes, and to provide policymakers and educators with reliable evidence about the intervention's impact on student success in high school and transition to further education and the labor market. Researchers analyzed data from over 1,700 high school students who participated in the academies in the early 1990s. Some results were very positive: students reported a higher level of interpersonal support from teachers and peers, as well as a higher level of exposure to career awareness activities, work-based learning, and career-technical courses. Particularly noteworthy for policymakers and practitioners was the finding that the academy experience had the greatest benefits for the most at-risk students. At the same time, however, career academies had relatively high attrition rates, curriculum integration and internships were of uneven quality, and there was little to no impact on academic outcomes.

The research also examined longer-term outcomes for students who participated in career academies in the past and compared outcomes for these students with those from control groups. Overall, the results for past participants were more positive than those of non-participants. For instance, those who participated experienced more positive labor market outcomes such as employment rates and earnings than their peers who had not participated in the academies. Interestingly, the positive effects of the academies on labor market outcomes were greatest for young men considered to be at high or medium risk of disengaging from the labor force.

Kemple considered some of the potential implications of the research. First, it demonstrates the feasibility, challenges, and benefits of using random assignment field studies, an underused but essential method for evaluating the outcomes of educational programs. Second, the positive effects of career academies for at-risk students and young males suggest that an increased investment in career-related experiences for these students during the high school years can improve their postsecondary labor market prospects.

Harry Holzer, a professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University who has conducted extensive research on the labor market problems of low-wage workers and other disadvantaged groups, provided forum participants with some context for the MDRC study. Holzer's own data show there has been a disturbing 20-year decline in employment rates for less educated White, Hispanic, and Black men ages 16 to 24 who are not enrolled in school and who have a high school diploma or less. This decline is even starker for young Black men, a group whose employment rates were already well below those of White and Hispanic males. These trends show that, increasingly, young men have been disengaging from the labor market; unfortunately, this trend toward disengagement is likely to continue over the next 20 years.

At the same time that young men are disengaging from the labor market, there are and will continue to be employers who can't find employees to fill available positions. How, then, can we better engage young men in the labor market and help them fill these positions? There is widespread belief that nothing will work; however, Holzer argued, "this is just plain wrong," as the study by MDRC shows. Second chance programs (programs that provide dropout youth with a second chance to receive education and job training after leaving high school), work, but we need earlier interventions to reach young men before they disengage from school and the workforce, said Holzer. He continued that we need to give them real skills that they can use and help them build relationships with employers. In order to do this, we need to know what works. Prior to the MDRC study, there were no rigorous random assignment studies and, consequently, no strong evidence to provide guidance about effective interventions. This study is the first of its kind and it shows the strong, positive impact of intervention programs for youth. Now that we know career academies are an effective intervention, we need to establish more of these programs to be able to serve the many at-risk youth across the U.S., Holzer added.

Holzer also recommended that we gather evidence about other early intervention programs that may share some characteristics with career academies. Policymakers must also realize that the disengagement of young men from the workforce is a serious problem not currently being addressed in policy. Finally, it is currently the case that most education policy focuses on improving academic outcomes for students, but researchers and policymakers need to broaden their attention and realize the importance of non-academic, non-cognitive educational goals as well.

John Ferrandino, President of the National Academy Foundation, a leading intermediary organization and model for developing and sustaining career academies throughout the country, also addressed MDRC's findings. He asked the audience to consider why programs such career academics are successful. Traditionally, he said, the high school curriculum has been designed around the assumption that all students are motivated by an intrinsic love of learning, however, not all students are. We have all asked ourselves, for example, "What do we need to know this for?" We know, Ferrandino said, that anything that makes schooling more relevant to kids will improve engagement; career academies focus on a theme that young people choose themselves and which they believe is relevant to their future.

When programs are thematically organized, this also "changes the focus from the curriculum to the child." However, it is a serious mistake to think that career academies, because they do include a focus on career education and are relevant to youth, provide them with a dumbed-down curriculum. Students in these programs are still given access to a rigorous academic curriculum; it is merely connected to students' interests. Ferrandino said that there are several policy implications that flow from MDRC's findings: the need to change the belief that the classical curriculum is the only model for schooling, involving business and industry in education (while avoiding a narrow curricular focus on that prepares youth for particular jobs), and garnering further support for career academies now that we know they are an effective intervention that positively engages students.

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