Career Academies: Additional Evidence of Positive Student Outcomes

Abstract

We examine career academy student outcomes for 18 cohorts of entering students enrolled in a total of 8 schools in 5 major urban school districts across the United States. We focus on student attendance, grades, and graduation status, using a propensity weighting technique to adjust for selection into the career academy. Compared to what would have been expected of the same students in the general academic programs of the same schools, career academy students had higher 1st-year grade point averages, higher 1st-year attendance, and higher rates of 4-year graduation in a majority of the implementation schools.