Career & College Clubs and the College-Going Behavior of Youth from High-Poverty Middle Schools

Chrys Dougherty, PhD, and Ty M. Cruce, PhDCareer & College Clubs and the College-Going Behavior of Youth from High-Poverty Middle SchoolssACT.orgRESEARCH REPORT 2018 – 4 ABOUT THE AUTHORSSUMMARYSO WHAT?NOW WHAT?This study is a baseline analysis of the effectiveness of a middle school intervention, Career & College Clubs, in increasing the eventual college enrollment of 8th-grade students who had access to the program through their schools during the program’s second year of implementation. The program provides training sessions about college and career options, high school courses needed to prepare for college, and the college application and financial aid process. Enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse were used to compare the eventual college-going rates of 8th graders in program schools with those of a comparison group of 8th-grade students in non-program schools within the same districts. After applying inverse propensity weights to make the program and comparison samples comparable on program selection criteria and other observable characteristics, we did not find a statistically significant difference between college enrollment rates of students in program schools and those of students in non-program schools. Future research can assess the impact of the program on the college-going behavior of more recent student cohorts as the program has matured.In this study, we used 2014-15 enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse to compare the college-going rates of 8th graders in schools with the Career & College Clubs program in the 2009-10 school year with those of a comparison group of 8th-grade students in non-program schools in the same districts that year. After applying inverse propensity weights to make the program and comparison samples comparable on the program selection criteria and other observable measures, we did not find a statistically significant difference between the college enrollment rates of students in program schools and those of students in non-program schools. The study limitations mentioned in our discussion point the way to further research that could be conducted on this program in order to have a better means of determining its effectiveness. First, data should be collected on how the program is implemented in the schools—how many students attend each of the trainings, the extent to which teachers deliver or modify the curriculum recommended by the program, and the types of outreach students conduct with their peers. Second, short-term pre- and post-program outcome indicators should be collected not only from students in the program, but also from their peers to gauge the extent of the participants’ influence on their peers’ career and college plans and expectations. Third, data needs to be collected on high school program participation and outcomes for students in both program and non-program schools to gauge whether high schools appear to be: 1) reinforcing the effects of the program, 2) allowing those effects to fade out, or 3)compensating for those effects by providing extra interventions for students from non-program schools who, perhaps, show a greater need for academic and non-academicsupport. Expanded data collection and research programs would enable educatorsnot only to get a better fix on the program’s ultimate impact, but also to improve theprogram based on feedback from short-term indicators.The discussion also points toreasons why the program may demonstrate greater effectiveness in future years. Forexample, the program is moving in the direction of a model that provides direct trainingto a higher percentage of students at each grade level. Even in the absence of trainingeveryone, the program’s curriculum has focused more extensively in recent years ontraining participants to inform and influence their peers.Chrys Dougherty, PhDChrys serves as Program Director, Division of Strategic Planning and Funding with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He contributed to this publication in his former role as a principal research scientist at ACT.Ty M. Cruce, PhDTy is a principal research scientist in Validity and Efficacy Research at ACT.Copyright® 2018 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved | R1716 Table of Contents THE CAREER & COLLEGE CLUBS PROGRAM 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 2 IMPORTANCE OF INTERVENTION IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 2 PREVIOUS REPORTS ON CAREER & COLLEGE CLUBS 2 METHODS 3 STUDY DESIGN 3 DATA AND SAMPLES 5 OUTCOMES AND ANALYSIS 6 RESULTS 7 DISCUSSION 13 LIMITATIONS 13 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 14 Abstract This study is a baseline analysis of the effectiveness of a middle school intervention, Career & College Clubs, in increasing the eventual college enrollment of 8th-grade students who had access to the program through their schools during the program’s second year of implementation. The program provides training sessions about college and career options, high school courses needed to prepare for college, and the college ap