From July 1995 through September 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Ford Foundation (Ford) operated a demonstration of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP). QOP offered intensive and comprehensive services to help at-risk youth graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary education or training. QOP was mainly an after-school program providing case management and mentoring, supplemental education, developmental activities, community service activities, supportive services, and financial incentives. These services were provided year-round for five years to enrollees who had not graduated from high school, and were designed to be comprehensive enough to address all barriers to success and to be intensive. To estimate QOP impacts on high school performance and graduation, postsecondary education or training, and risky behaviors, four surveys were conducted using a group of youth enrolled in QOP and a non-participating control group. The current document presents impacts on outcomes measured using data from the fourth survey. In addition to features of the QOP model, the impacts of the QOP demonstration are influenced by how well demonstration sites implemented the QOP model, how much they spent on the program, and the extent to which QOP enrollees participated in the program. It is noted that due to the overall comprehensiveness, intensity and complexity, sites generally did not meet enrollee needs for education or support services. It was also found that most enrollees attended fewer program activities than was stipulated by the participation goal. Primary objectives of QOP were to increase the likelihood of graduating from high school with a diploma, to increase engagement and persistence in postsecondary education, training, or military service, and to improve employment-related outcomes and earnings. Secondary objectives of the program included improving high school grades and achievement test scores, and reducing a broad range of targeted risky behaviors, including as binge drinking, illegal drug use, crime, and teen parenting. Impacts were found to vary significantly on a site-by-site basis but overall, it was found that QOP did not achieve its primary or secondary objectives, although that these shortfalls mask some suggestive evidence of promising effects for particular types of students, especially among younger enrollees. Eight appendixes are included: (A) Obtaining an Evaluation Sample and Conducting Random Assignment; (B) The Baseline Data; (C) Follow-Up Data from the Third Telephone Survey;(D) Outcomes and Subgroups; (E) Weighting, Impact Estimation, and Variance Estimation; (F) Sensitivity Analysis; (G) QOP and Control Group Means for Subgroups; and (H) QOP and Control Group Means for Sites.

"Contains brief summaries of 240 known completed social experiments. Each summary outlines the cost and time frame of the demonstration, the treatments tested, outcomes of interest, sample sizes and target population, research components, major findings, important methodological limitations and design issues encountered, and other relevant topics. In addition, very brief outlines of 21 experiments and one quasi experiment still in progress [as of April 2003] are also provided"--p. 3.

In the Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention, over fifty experts present the current landscape of intervention methods - from risk reduction to rethinking social norms - as they address some of the most prevalent forms of accidental and violent injury. - Overview chapters examine the social and economic scope of unintentional and violent injury today - Extensive literature review of specific intervention programs to prevent violence and injury - Special chapters on childhood injuries, alcohol-related accidents, and disasters - "Interventions in the Field" section offers solid guidelines for implementing and improving existing programs - Critical analysis of issues involved in delivering programs to wider audiences - Helpful appendices list relevant agencies and professional resources This dual focus on intervention and application makes the Handbook a bedrock text for professionals involved in delivering or managing prevention programs. Its what-works-now approach gives it particular utility in the graduate classroom, and researchers will benefit from the critical attention paid to knowledge gaps in the field. It is a major resource for any reader committed to reducing the number of incidents just waiting to happen.

Addressing an issue of burning interest to every taxpayer, a Heritage Foundation scholar brings objective analysis to bear as he responds to the important—and provocative—question posed by his book's title. Of course, the answer to that question will also help determine whether the American public should fear budget cuts to federal social programs. Readers, says author David B. Muhlhausen, can rest easy. As his book decisively demonstrates, scientifically rigorous national studies almost unanimously find that the federal government fails to solve social problems. To prove his point, Muhlhausen reports on large-scale evaluations of social programs for children, families, and workers, some advocated by Democrats, some by Republicans. But it isn't just the results that matter. It's the lesson to readers on how Americans can—and should—accurately assess government programs that cost hundreds of billions of dollars each year. At the book's core is an insistence that we move beyond anecdotal reasoning and often-partisan opinion to measure the effectiveness of social programs using objective analysis and scientific methods. At the very least, the results of such analysis will, like this book, provide a sound basis for much-needed public debate.

Published annually since 1985, the Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms of its conceptual and methodological rigor, and sets forth an agenda for future research intended to advance knowledge on the chosen topic. The Handbook focuses on twelve general areas that encompass the salient dimensions of scholarly and policy inquiries undertaken in the international higher education community. The series is fortunate to have attracted annual contributions from distinguished scholars throughout the world.