This study evaluates the Youth Development Program (YDP), a component of the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA). We examine whether the YDP reduced dropout rates among youth in secondary schools in seven school districts in the impoverished Mississippi River Delta in southeast Arkansas. Initially, the program seems to have an impact. Students…

This evaluation report is a description of an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for non English speaking disadvantaged students whose ability to read and write in their native tongue or English was not adequate to permit school success. The program was funded under the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I. The purpose of the program…