Building College and Career Pathways for High School Students: Youth CareerConnect, Technical Report for the Impact Study

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $107 million in four-year grants to 24 applicants to the Youth CareerConnect (YCC) program, a high school–based program aimed at improving the college and career readiness of young adults. The YCC program was designed to provide students with a rigorous program that included a career focus in a high-growth H-1B industry, employer partnerships and engagement, integrated academic and career curricula, work-based learning and exposure to the world of work, individualized career and academic counseling, small learning communities, and professional development. At the same time that it awarded YCC grants, the Employment and Training Administration of DOL contracted with Mathematica and its partner, Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct a rigorous evaluation of the YCC program. Rigorously evaluating the effects of the YCC program on student outcomes required that multiple technical pieces be put in place, from selecting districts to participate in the evaluation to collecting and processing high-quality data and measuring impacts to conducting rigorous analysis to estimate impacts. This report provides details of these processes.