Building bridges to life after high school: Contemporary career academies and student outcomes

469 first-time ninth graders

Wake County, North Carolina; students entering a single technology-focused career academy inside a large district high school, cohorts entering 2009-10 through 2012-13.

Lottery-based admission used as an instrument. By the letter of METHODOLOGY's hierarchy a lottery-based natural experiment is grade A; it is recorded as B here, and the deviation is deliberate: this is ONE academy in ONE school with n = 469, exactly the small-study configuration the effect-size discipline says to discount, and +8pp is the kind of point estimate that shrinks in larger samples. External validity is a single technology academy, not career academies in general. No earnings outcomes. Read at abstract depth.

Academy enrolment raised the likelihood of high-school graduation by about 8 percentage points. It raised college enrolment for males but not females — the same gender split as the Connecticut RD and the MDRC randomised trial. Mediation analysis attributes part of the graduation effect to improved attendance and to earning industry-relevant certifications.

Low. Admission by lottery among applicants.

The +8pp graduation effect sits between Dougherty's +7-10pp (Massachusetts) and Brunner et al.'s +10pp (Connecticut), and the male-only college-enrolment pattern matches Brunner et al. Three independent teams, three states, three designs, the same sign and near-identical magnitude on graduation.