Early High School Interventions to Increase
Students' Access to Post-secondary Education:
Experimental Impacts from the Future to Discover
Project
Reuben Ford, PhD.
“From Research to Practice” Symposium, Ottawa 13-14 March 2013
The problem
 Increasing the number of youth who participate in postsecondary education is an economic imperative
(supporting economic growth as population ages)
 Post-secondary education (PSE) is also an effective
means to promote social inclusion and to reduce social
and health inequalities
 PSE access rates could be higher, particularly for young
people in key subgroups
 Lower rates of access could be due to
• Lack of information about careers and relative benefits
and costs of PSE or inadequate preparation/ability to
use information
• Anticipated unaffordability of PSE
It is rare to be able to identify a program that will
achieve a policy objective with certainty
Future to Discover tests two interventions
separately and in parallel
• EYH: Explore Your
Horizons
Enhanced early career
education in Grades
10, 11, and 12
• LA: Learning Accounts
Early guarantee of
$8,000 grant to pursue
PSE for lower-income
students
EYH (enhanced career education programs)
delivers workshops, magazines, Web site
EYH has six career education components:
20 workshops – 2 hours after school/evening sessions
1. Career Focusing (G10) – explores career and
education options matched to passions and interests
2. Lasting Gifts (G11) – helps parents to understand
career development and become “career allies”
3. Future in Focus (G12) – promotes strategies to
support students through transitions
4. Post-secondary Ambassadors (G10-G12) – connect
with PSE students to better understand career and
education planning
5. F2D Magazine (G10-G12) – 6 issues sent to home
6. Web site for EYH students only (G10-G12)
LA provides an early guarantee of student aid to
lower-income families
 New Brunswick families with below median income
(taken from both parents’ tax returns)
 Account grows over Grades 10-12
 Total $8,000 grant available
 Account closes at end of 3rd post-secondary year
 Early promise of aid: enter Grade 10 knowing grant
available
 No obligation to apply for loans
Random samples of Grade 9 students randomly
assigned: 4,400 in NB and 1,000 in MB
Grade 9
students in
51 schools
New Brunswick
Learning Accounts ineligible, and
Manitoba participants
New Brunswick
Learning Accounts eligible
Random
Assignment
Comparison
Group
Learning
Accounts
Random Assignment
Explore Your
Horizons + Learning
Accounts
Explore Your
Horizons
Explore Your
Horizons
Comparison
group
The interventions were implemented as intended:
some non-take up
Three key findings:
 Strong delivery
fidelity to both
program models.
 EYH participation
declined from
Grade 10 through
Grade 12.
 Survey in Grade 12
found low
awareness among
LA holders of their
status. Higher
among
Francophone
students.
Manitoba EYH FGF
Manitoba EYH LILE
Manitoba EYH ALL
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH only FGF
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH only LILE
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH only ALL
New Brunswick Francophone EYH only FGF
New Brunswick Francophone EYH only LILE
New Brunswick Francophone EYH only ALL
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH&LA FGF
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH&LA LILE
New Brunswick Anglophone EYH&LA ALL
New Brunswick Francophone EYH&LA FGF
New Brunswick Francophone EYH&LA LILE
New Brunswick Francophone EYH&LA ALL
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
% attended 16-20 sessions (76-100%) Average number of sessions attended as % of all sessions % attended any session
NB Anglophone students in lower-income families:
interventions increased demand for education
NB Francophone students in lower-income families:
interventions increased demand for education
Manitoba students: EYH had few impacts on
increasing demand for education
Take aways
 Interventions can make a difference on behaviour
• Youth can be sensitive to quite modest interventions to make
potentially major changes in their lives
 Interventions could have larger impacts if:
• Steps taken to increase awareness of Learning Accounts
• EYH sessions make better use of resources in the current
system
 Variations in impact should be expected from one population to
another
 Matching program to target groups as closely as possible would
increase cost efficiency of the program.
 Cannot ignore supply
Take aways
 Career Education (EYH) should remain an important element of
future interventions. Relying solely on fiscal incentives (LA) to
promote PSE access may lead to sub-optimal results.