Youth Employment

Ensuring that our nation's young people, particularly those at risk, complete high school and make the transition to productive careers is an important policy concern. We produced evidence on the effectiveness of alternative programs such as Job Corps, which saturates youth with education, training, and other services in a residential setting, and the Quantum Opportunity Program, an intensive intervention targeted toward youth with low grades in schools with high dropout rates. Other studies have examined ways to improve services for youth involved with the criminal justice system and efforts to link at-risk students with educational, mentoring, career, cultural, and financial supports, as well as postsecondary training. We are currently evaluating the summer youth employment programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.