Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of Career and Technical Education (CTE) at Windham School District (WSD) on employment outcomes.
- The study was a nonexperimental design that compared the employment outcomes of inmates who completed a course and earned an industry certification, those who completed a course but did not earn an industry certification, and those who did not complete a course. Using administrative data, the author conducted statistical tests to compare outcomes between the groups.
- The study found that participants who completed a CTE course and received an industry certification while incarcerated had the highest likelihood of employment one year after release compared to those without certifications or course completions.
- This study receives a low evidence rating. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to Career and Technical Education (CTE) at Windham School District; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Career and Technical Education (CTE) at Windham School District (WSD)
Features of the Intervention
Launched in 1969, the Windham School District (WSD) operates within 100 Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities across the state. WSD is funded and operated independent of the state’s correctional agency. For inmates who express an interest in education, staff evaluate their age, release date, needs, and incoming educational level as well as program capacity to prioritize placement in the WSD. Younger inmates and those with low education are prioritized. The Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs at WSD are based on local labor market demands, technology, and established industry standards. The CTE programs are led by industry-certified teachers and directed towards credentialing. However, actual service delivery can vary from site to site based on local wardens' support of the program.
Features of the Study
The study used a nonexperimental design to compare employment outcomes of inmates enrolled in the WSD. The study examined outcomes for three groups of inmates: 1) those who completed a CTE course and earned an industry certification; 2) those who completed a CTE course but did not earn an industry certification (received a certificate of course completion); and 3) those who did not complete a CTE course. The study used administrative data collected by the WSD Department of Operational Support regarding post-release outcomes and educational engagement while incarcerated. The sample included 105,647 individuals who were released from custody between 2011 and 2013 and had employment data available. The average age of the inmates was between 32 and 33 years old and the average education level was equivalent to 6th grade as measured by the Test of Adult Basic Education. The author used statistical tests to compare employment outcomes between the three groups.
Findings
Employment
- The study found that participating in a CTE program at WSD was significantly related to a higher likelihood of employment within the first year of release, with individuals who earned an industry certification having the highest odds of employment.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The author did not report whether demographic differences between the groups were significant and did not account for other factors that could have affected the difference between the treatment and comparison groups, such gender, race/ethnicity, or pre-incarceration levels of employment as required by the protocol. These preexisting differences between the groups—and not the CTE programs—could explain the observed differences in outcomes. Therefore, the study is not eligible for a moderate causal evidence rating, the highest rating available for nonexperimental designs.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of casual evidence presented in this report is low because the author did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to CTE programming at WSD; other factors are likely to have contributed.