Education Topics

• Research Methods and Reviews
• Teacher Quality and Compensation
• Value-Added Methods
• Curricula and Computers in the Classroom
• Charter Schools and School Choice
• College Access
• Career-Focused Education
• At-Risk Youth
• School Leadership
• After-School Initiatives
• Academic and Nonacademic Competencies
• Clients

Roads to Success

During the critical years of adolescence, young adults need help exploring college and career possibilities, developing education plans, and understanding their own role in achieving success. The Roads to Success program was launched in early 2005 to help forge connections between students' school experiences and their aspirations for adulthood, as an ongoing part of the middle and high school program. The program is targeted to high-poverty urban and rural schools, which typically have high dropout rates and low postsecondary education rates.

Mathematica conducted a rigorous random assignment evaluation of Roads to Success measuring the following student outcomes:

• Educational and career aspirations and plans
• Planning skills
• Attendance rates

Two dozen rural schools participated in the evaluation. The schools were matched based on demographic and academic similarities, with half randomly assigned to begin the program with their seventh graders during 2007-2008, and the other half during 2008-2009. Baseline surveys were administered in fall 2007 to several thousand treatment and control group students and repeated at the end of eighth grade. In addition, we collected administrative data over the course of the treatment and control group students’ middle school enrollment.

Publications

"Roads to Success: Estimated Impacts of an Education and Career Planning Program During Middle School" (April 2010)
"Rigorous Evaluation of Roads to Success: Design Report" (May 2009)