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Between the critical ages of 16 and 24, many low-income youth are at risk of becoming disconnected from school and the labor market. Previous research suggests that more than 30 percent of high school dropouts in this age range are unemployed, partly because they lack postsecondary credentials, labor market experience, and other forms of human capital. Low-income and minority youth who obtain a high school degree and enroll in college are less likely than their peers to complete their degree, often lacking the guidance and resources needed to succeed in postsecondary education. Interventions that improve academic outcomes or connect youth with the labor market could potentially improve outcomes for these “opportunity youth.” However, many such programs have been shown to be ineffective in improving long-term employment outcomes. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funded the Opportunities Youth (Opportunities) project to develop, pilot, and evaluate innovative interventions that aim to improve long-term employment outcomes for opportunity youth or those at risk of being disconnected from education or the labor market. DOL and the evaluation team selected Baltimore and Boston as pilot sites. Based on a review of the evidence and the feedback of an expert panel, the team identified three key features of promising programs for opportunity youth: 1) a caring adult to assist students in overcoming barriers to program participation, to provide guidance in setting academic and employment goals, and to provide connections to the labor market, 2) opportunities for education and job training that lead to degrees and certification, and 3) contextualized learning, in which basic academic skills, general workplace skills, and specific technical job skills are presented in a classroom context that provides job training. The report describes the challenges faced in implementing a rigorous random assignment evaluation. Researchers were unable to implement a random assignment evaluation in Baltimore because there were not enough eligible youth to comprise a control group. In this report, researchers describe the outcomes of program participants in Baltimore based on phone interviews with them. In Boston, they implemented random assignment of an offer to the program. They report regression analyses that compare those who received the program and those that did not. They were also able to implement random assignment in Boston of one element of the toolkit. They report the results of those regression analyses comparing the control and treatment groups.

Research Gaps

• We did not have sufficient data to examine the effects of Getting Connected on employment outcomes. We found that the majority of Getting Connected students completed a resume and had an interview with an employer. The students who were in the program for longer were more likely to complete these activities. We could not systematically examine employment outcomes because of lack of regularly collected data in the Opportunity Youth Tracking and Information System (OTIS), due to the structure of the program. A systematic survey, implemented to a selected control and comparison group or lengthening the project to allow for collection of administrative data could shed light on the employment outcomes. (page 40)

Citation

Koball, H., Dodkowitz, A., Schlecht, C., Guiltinan, S. (2016). Urban Institute. Opportunities Youth Demonstration and Evaluation: Outcomes Evaluation - Findings from Pilot Sites in Baltimore and Boston. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.