Career

Upward Bound is one of the largest and longest-running federal programs designed to help disadvantaged students prepare for, enter, and succeed in college. This report is the last in a series of study reports from the Upward Bound evaluation. Data collected included surveys, high school and post-secondary transcripts, and data on Upward Bound participation. Results indicated that Upward Bound increased the likelihood of earning a post-secondary certificate or license from a vocational school.

This 4-year longitudinal study evaluates the experiences of high school graduates enrolled in tech prep programs in eight regions across the nation. The study reports on their demographics, college readiness risk indicators, vocational interests, and performance as a function of graduation requirements at their high schools. The researchers reported no differences between participants and non-participants of tech prep programs with regard to college enrollment rates and percentage of students completing a degree or certificate. 

This paper reports preliminary findings from the evaluation of the New York State Education Department’s Model Transition Program grants to sixty local education agencies aimed to improve post-secondary outcomes for youth with disabilities. Data were collected for more than 16,000 participants. This part of the evaluation aimed to describe the types of services provided and characteristics of the program participants. Results indicated that most of the students targeted by the program were male and enrolled in 11th and 12th grades.

This report analyzes the effect of vocational education on high school students’ academic effort and graduation rates. International cross-section data showed that nations (e.g. graduation rates from upper secondary school in Europe, Australia and North America and the correlation with enrollment in career-tech programs) that enroll a large portion of high school students in vocational programs have higher attendance rates and high school completion rates.

This paper focuses on strategies for creating postsecondary pathways for high school dropouts in order to close the skills gap as well as connect the talents of these youth to postsecondary skills and credentials. The paper argues that in order to improve educational and economical outcomes for high school dropouts, there must be alignment of secondary, postsecondary, workforce, and adult education systems and several actions must be taken.

This fact sheet discusses the importance of aligning workforce data and how that data can inform educational and economic development policy. Aligning education, employment, and workforce data also allows stakeholders to answer a variety of questions such as: What educational experience do children need to successfully pursue their desired careers and do the courses a student takes correlate to his or her later employment and earnings?