You are here
Building Bridges to Life after High School: Contemporary Career Academies and Student Outcomes (Update)
Career academies serve an increasingly wide range of students. This paper examines the contemporary profile of students entering career academies in a large, diverse school district and estimates causal effects of participation in one of the district’s well-regarded academies on a range of high school and college outcomes. Exploiting the lottery-based admissions process of this technology-focused academy, we find that academy enrollment increases the likelihood of high school graduation by about 8 percentage points and boosts rates of college enrollment for males but not females. Analysis of intermediate outcomes suggests that effects on attendance and industry-relevant certification at least partially mediate the overall high school graduation effect.
JEL Codes: I21, I25
WP 176 was revised in August 2018. It was originally released in January 2017.
Keywords: career academies, career and technical education, high school graduation, college enrollment
Citation: Steven Hemelt, Matthew Lenard, Colleen Paeplow (2018). Building Bridges to Life after High School: Contemporary Career Academies and Student Outcomes (Update). CALDER Working Paper No. 176
You May Also Be Interested In
Pledging to Do "Good”: An Early Commitment Pledge Program, College Scholarships, and High School Outcomes in Washington State
Dan Goldhaber, Mark C. Long, Trevor Gratz, Jordan Rooklyn
What Factors Predict Middle School Students Sign Up for Washington's College Bound Scholarship Program? A Mixed Methods Evaluation
Dan Goldhaber, Mark C. Long, Ann E. Person, Jordan Rooklyn
Raising the Bar for College Admission: North Carolina’s Increase in Minimum Math Course Requirements
Charles Clotfelter, Helen Ladd
See other working papers on:
Education Level: Higher education
Research Area: Connections between K-12, college and the workforce
Topic Area: College and career readiness