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This study includes individuals who applied to participate in an Urban Alliance program in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD, during the 2011–12 or 2012–13 school years. Applicants, who were rising high school seniors with enough credits earned to allow for an early-release schedule to participate in an internship placement, were assigned to intervention and comparison groups. Across cohorts and sites, 700 individuals were assigned to the intervention group and 362 to the comparison group. The authors conducted an intent-to-treat analysis and an analysis of the effect of treatment on the treated. (The latter uses instrumental variables and is not eligible for review.) Impacts were estimated using administrative data from study schools, the National Student Clearinghouse, and the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and survey data. The study team attempted to collect survey data for all students in the comparison group and a random subset of students in the intervention group, about 15 (Wave 1) and 27 (Wave 2) months after students' predicted graduation date, or about 24 and 36 months after random assignment.
The intervention was studied from 2011 to 2015. The authors estimated impacts at one and two years after the expected high school graduation for each cohort of Urban Alliance applicants.
Funding for the study was provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund.
Students were drawn from neighborhoods that were considered to be economically distressed and underemployed and were residents of those neighborhoods classified as at risk of becoming disconnected youth. Most study participants were African American (89 percent), and 65 percent were female. The average age was between 17 and 18 years old. All participants were rising high school seniors, and 75 percent reported they had prior work experience before applying to the Urban Alliance program. About 77 percent lived in a household where at least one adult was employed, and 27 percent lived with both their mother and father.
Urban Alliance
Urban Alliance was founded in 1996. The internship program has been part of the Urban Alliance's core programs since its founding. Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC are the two oldest internship sites.
Urban Alliance is a program for students in their final year of high school. The program starts with a prework training stage, lasting three to six weeks, in which participants receive training on general job skills and soft skills. After this initial phase, participants begin paid internships (in many cases subsidized by Urban Alliance). Most internships occur in office settings, though some were in banks, hotels, schools, and day cares. Participants attend internships from Monday through Thursday after school throughout the school year, with continued training on Fridays after school. Internships continue through the summer after students' senior year of high school. (During the summer, participants work for a full day from Monday through Thursday, with half-day trainings on Fridays.) Participants also receive coaching and mentorship through the program—from an Urban Alliance staff member and a worker at their job site—and can receive access to clothing appropriate for the workplace and financial incentives for participation in activities. Finally, participants can receive continued mentoring, access to a resource room, job search assistance, and connections to paid internships after the program.
The comparison group did not receive any Urban Alliance services.
None.
A typical participant enrolls in the Urban Alliance High School Internship Program early in his or her senior year of high school. He or she completes three to six weeks of training before being placed in an internship for the remainder of the school year and the following summer. Participants end their participation in Urban Alliance with a final presentation in July, at the end of the program year. Alumni services are available after completion of the program.
Internship sites and philanthropic foundations.
This study examined the Urban Alliance High School Internship Program in Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC. In Baltimore, Urban Alliance has a formal partnership with area schools, whereas in DC, school partnerships are more informal. Across cities, internships typically occurred in office settings, though some were in banks, hotels, schools, and day cares.
Job skills, Savings