Improving Education and Employment for Disadvantaged Young Men: Proven and Promising Strategies

Abstract

Low high school graduation rates and sharply declining employment rates among disadvantaged youth have led to an increasing number of youths who are disconnected from both school and work. What programs and policies might prevent these disconnections and improve educational and employment outcomes, particularly among young men? The authors review the evidence base on youth development policies for adolescents and young teens; programs seeking to improve educational attainment and employment for in-school youths; and programs that try to “reconnect” those who are out of school and frequently out of work, including public employment programs. The authors identify a number of programmatic strategies that are promising or even proven, based on rigorous evaluations, for disadvantaged youths with different circumstances and conclude that policy efforts need to promote a range of approaches to engage and reconnect youths, along with ongoing evaluation efforts to improve our understanding of what works, including which program components, for whom.