Bridging the School-to-Work Divide: Interim Implementation and Impact Findings from New York City’s P-TECH 9-14 Schools

This is a distinguishing feature of the P-TECH 9-14 model: the partnership between a high school, a local community college, and one or more employer partners, all focused on preparing students 1The New York City Department of Education refers to the model as the “Grades 9-14 Schools” and the City University of New York refers to the model as the “9-14 Early College and Career” or “NYC P-TECH” mod. [...] The report provides evidence that the P-TECH 9-14 students in the study sample are achieving positive outcomes compared with a group of similar students in other schools and that the P-TECH 9-14 schools are, on average, setting students up to accomplish the milestones that the model is designed to help them achieve. [...] For these reasons, the groups are comparable, and differences in outcomes can be attributed to the P-TECH 9-14 program, and not to other factors or student characteristics.8 While the baseline equivalency of the analytic sample is important for understanding whether the program and comparison groups are, in fact, comparable, it is also important to know whether the sample of students admitted to t. [...] The students in the sample are literally those for whom the assignments were “in- tended.” The reason for this is that the ITT estimate is the experimental estimate in which groups can be assumed to be comparable because, on average, they look similar and were similar in motivation in wanting to attend these schools; the only difference is whether they won or lost the lottery. [...] With an average of 34 total credits earned by P-TECH 9-14 students by the end of the third year, these students are on track to earn 10 credits in their final year of school to reach the 44 credits re- quired to graduate, while the students in the comparison group, who have earned an average of 32 credits by the end of year three, will need to earn 12 credits in the fourth year of high school in o.