Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Accelerating Opportunity (AO) is a career pathways initiative designed to help low-skilled adults, particularly those without high school credentials, succeed in career and technical education at community and technical colleges. AO is an effort to scale the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model, developed in Washington State, to additional states. AO is funded by a consortium of foundations and administered by Jobs for the Future.

In the AO initiative, students co-enrolled in adult education and technical career pathways in high-demand, high-wage industries receive support through coaching and team teaching – where basic skills and technical instructors jointly provided content in the classroom. The evaluation, led by the Urban Institute and the George Washington University, involves four states – Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana – with at least eight colleges in each state participating for at least three years. In all, 54 colleges in these states were part of the evaluation, which includes an implementation study, a quasi-experimental impact analysis, and a cost-benefit analysis. This presentation will share the results of the final report of the impacts of AO participation on students’ education and labor market outcomes.

Utilizing state education and earnings records, the research team conducted propensity score matching to assess the impacts of AO on participating students relative to students who did not have the opportunity to enroll in AO. Estimates are produced by state and recruitment source (i.e., adult education, developmental education, or career and technical education). Outcomes of interest are credits earned, academic credentials earned, persistence in postsecondary education, employment, and earnings. Overall, the impacts on credential attainment were positive even as students took fewer credits, which suggests acceleration. The labor market impacts are generally positive but mixed. The research team will present a dynamic and data-driven story about the relationship between implementation context and program results, which allows the field to draw critical contextualized lessons about the effectiveness of integrated career pathway programs in affecting student and worker outcomes in the age of WIOA.