The ChalleNGe model grew out of a project by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s that sought to develop new approaches for out-of-school youth. The project's final report concluded that aspects of the military structure could be beneficial for disadvantaged youth. The report also concluded that the…

High school dropouts face daunting odds of success in a labor market that increasingly rewards education and skills. This report presents very early results from a rigorous, independent evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive residential program that aims to "reclaim the lives" of young people ages 16 to 18…

The "National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program" is a residential education and training program designed for youth ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out of or been expelled from high school. During the 22-week residential period, participants are offered GED preparation classes and other program services intended to promote positive youth…

The study examined whether participating in the "National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program", a quasi-military residential/mentoring program for dropouts, improved the educational and other outcomes of at-risk youth. The study analyzed data on about 1,000 16- to 18-year-old high school dropouts enrolled in 10 ChalleNGe programs throughout…

This study empirically explores the comparability of traditional survey-based retention research methodology with an alternative approach that relies on data commonly available in institutional student databases. Drawing on Tinto's [Tinto, V. (1993). "Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition" (2nd Ed.), The University…

This report presents an independent evaluation of E. Lang's I Have a Dream (IHAD) model intervention for disadvantaged youth as it has been implemented in three schools in the Greater Washington (District of Columbia) area. Sixty IHAD participants are randomly selected as they enter sixth or seventh grade for higher education tuition guarantees…

The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) was heralded as a major overhaul of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. Five years after passage of JTPA, the answer to the question of whether it has indeed managed to remedy CETA's shortcomings appears to be an unequivocal maybe. Although the JTPA has been praised by numerous…

This volume contains four interim reports of the Career Intern Program (CIP) replication portion of the Alternative Education Demonstration operated by Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America and evaluated by the National Institute of Education. (The CIP is an alternative high school serving dropouts and students at a high risk of…

The Youth Work Skills (YWS) program was developed to help economically disadvantaged, out-of-school, high school-aged youth with reading abilities at or below the fifth-grade level become job ready. In 1992-93, YWS served 236 participants at 7 sites throughout New York (two sites each in Brooklyn and Buffalo and sites in the Bronx, Rochester, and…

A study compared the Career Intern Program (CIP) with five other alternative youth programs. (The CIP is an alternative high school designed to enable disadvantaged dropouts or potential dropouts to earn regular high school diplomas, to prepare them for meaningful employment or postsecondary education, and to facilitate their transition from…