Benchmarks for Success: Expected Short- and Long-Term Outcomes of National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Participants

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edwards, Kathryn A.

Language:

English

Other Title:

Benchmarks for Success

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. RAND Corporation 2020

Summary:

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program for youths ages 16 to 18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. The objective of this research was to provide sites with a set of population benchmarks of individual outcomes with which to compare their cadets. The author develops these benchmarks using data from large public datasets and examining individuals who were similar to cadets. Rather than establish a control group and follow members over time, as is done in a randomized controlled trial, she instead devised a set of population averages that site directors can use as a reasonable comparison to their ChalleNGe participants at any time. The population averages are based on the outcomes of high school dropouts, high school dropouts who earned high school–equivalent credentials, and high school graduates who did not attend two- or four-year colleges. These groups represent the spectrum of selection from which cadets are pulled. The analysis compares these three groups around the time dropouts typically leave school and in the years following. Comparisons at these points can be thought of as at enrollment in ChalleNGe (the preprogram period) and after ChalleNGe is completed (the postprogram period), respectively. Site directors can use this report to compare their cadets to the typical teen who left high school without graduating and use key differences to help tailor their sites.