Preparing youth, primarily as they become high school graduates, to be ready to enter college and careers, has been a primary driving force in primary and secondary education for over 20 years. However, there lacks consistency in the definition and of the true idea of college and career readiness in the twenty-first century. Additionally, there is…

This study examined the program effectiveness of Health Rocks!, a youth substance use prevention program. Merging data from 128,544 youth participants in 21 states between 2009 and 2021, this study compared self-reported levels of knowledge, skills, and internal and external assets before and after the program. Youth reported significant increases…

We report on the process of planning, adapting, and implementing a brief, instrumental, school-based mentoring curriculum originally developed in the United States, in three cities in India. India has the world's largest population of young adults aged 10-24 years, a developmental period associated with heightened psychosocial stressors and the…

Despite an increase in special education enrollment, a stark gap in high school completion between students with and without disabilities persists. This study examined the impact of Unified Champion Schools (UCS), a Special Olympics program designed to foster social inclusion through three components--Unified Sports, Inclusive Youth Leadership,…

Background: The goal of the study was to develop and verify a pathway model (or theory of change) for STEM Scouts, an out-of-school time (OST), positive youth development program for elementary through high school-aged youth. Pathway models include connections between hypothesized activities to short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes. STEM Scouts is…

This study explores the "Youth Leadership Experience" (YLE), (pseudonym) an afterschool experiential learning and leadership program for 9th and 10th-grade high school students from the midlands area of Columbia, SC. The study aims to identify and document the experiential learning and leadership practices at "Youth Leadership…

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program for youth ages 16 to 18 who are experiencing difficulty in traditional high school. This report covers the program years 2018-2019 and is the fourth in a series of annual reports that RAND Corporation researchers have issued over the course of a research project…

There has been growing discontent between American school-based sports programs and those offered by youth sports clubs. Both institutions offer numerous benefits while likewise facing systematic challenges. However, there is a paucity of research focused on the pronounced conflict between school- and club-based sports programs in the United…

Despite their growing popularity, quantitative studies of school-based mentoring (SBM) programs for youth have showed considerable variation in mentoring benefits, including negative effects of mentoring. We investigated the initial 3 months of one school's SBM program, delivered by teachers and compulsory for all first- and second-year high…

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential, quasi-military program that serves young people ages 16 to 18 who are struggling to complete their high school credential. This is the ninth report in an annual series that RAND researchers have issued. The prior annual reports cover 2015 through 2022. Each annual report documents the…

Make a Difference (MAD) is a sustainability leadership program for high school students in Auckland, New Zealand. It offers a residential camp and follow-up activities. This article documents a participatory, utilization-focused evaluation of MAD, based on a Theory of Change approach. We ran workshops with MAD coordinators and students and…

Climate change is a timely topic and offers an overarching theme that can include a variety of STEM disciplines and technologies. In response to the pandemic, we developed and implemented an online science-based summer youth program in Climate Change Resiliency (CCR) for 11th and 12th graders in July 2020. Two sessions differing in content level…

This exploratory case study examines the National Youth Art Movement Against Gun Violence intervention launched in Chicago in 2017 that used public art and new media creation to engage youth in activism for gun violence prevention. Five African American and Latino youth artists participated in the program; the study focuses on three of the…

Black and Latino men pay a heavy price for the structural inequities they face, such as higher rates of poverty, incarceration, and unemployment. New York City's Young Men's Initiative, a combination of new programs and policy reforms, seeks to mitigate some of the effects of these inequitable conditions on young men of color. The educational…

Recent years have witnessed the worldwide growth of entrepreneurship education (EE) as entrepreneurship is regarded as the key driver of innovation and economic growth. Most extant studies on EE have focused on its impact on entrepreneurial intentions. However, the application of the same EE measurements for both adults and adolescents has long…