01
They earn more, for years
About 11% more a year — roughly $2,000 — for the eight years after high school. Around $17,000 in total, and closer to $30,000 for young men.
MDRC, 2008. Places given by lottery.
The work this is about
What the research says
What an academy actually does
Everything below is something researchers found by following real students. Each one names the study. Nothing here is about our students — these are results from academies elsewhere.
Three things before you read
Places given by lottery means more students applied than there were seats, so names were drawn at random. That is what makes a study worth quoting: the two groups were alike to begin with, so a difference afterwards is down to the program and not to who chose to sign up.
Points means the gap out of 100. Going from 80 out of 100 to 83 is three points.
Read the pay findings carefully. Several of them are strongest for young men, and we have said so on each one. Where California has looked at young women it keeps finding something different, and that has a page of its own.
At school
Finished high school on time
no academyacademy
After school
Average pay each year, first eight years
no academyacademy
about $2,000 more, every year
We work
What the research shows an academy does
02
It happened again in another state
Connecticut technical high schools: 32% higher pay and 10 points more likely to graduate, for young men.
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2023. Compared students who scored just above the entry cutoff with those just below it — two groups who are alike in almost every way.
03
The money is still there in their twenties
33% ahead at age 23 and older, for young men — so it is not just a head start from going to work while friends were at college.
Same Connecticut study, which found little evidence of an effect for female students.
04
Fewer drop out
In California, school districts that won state grants for career pathways saw dropout fall 23%, most of all for young women.
Economics of Education Review, 2020.
05
More finish high school
3 points more likely to graduate — and almost 8 points for students who arrived behind.
SRI International, nine California districts.
06
More finish a college degree
5 points more likely to hold an associate degree — a two-year college degree — seven years on. Among young men, 13% against 3%.
MDRC, 2023. Places given by lottery.
07
They get better jobs, not just jobs
Significantly more likely to have health insurance and paid vacation, and to have got the job through a working professional they met in high school.
SRI International, one year after graduation.
08
They finish with a real credential
29 points more likely to earn or expect an industry certification, and 21 points more likely to get real work experience while still at school.
MDRC, 2024. Places given by lottery.
09
They earn more credits along the way
Nearly 9 more credits — and more than 15 for students who started behind.
SRI International.
10
It helps the students who arrive behind, most
Every study that looks finds this. College readiness rose 13 points for students who were both low-income and struggling, and 12 points for young women.
MDRC, 2024.
And it keeps adding up
The extra pay did not fade. It added up.
all students, total
young men, total
$0k
$10k
$20k
$30k
12345678
years after high school
~$17,000extra earnings over eight years, all students
~$30,000extra earnings over eight years, young men
And the part that costs us to say
An academy will not make your child a better student.What changes is what happens after.
Grades and graduation come out close to the same, and every careful study agrees. The state publishes better-sounding numbers — “95% graduate on time” and the like. Four of them were on this website until we went looking for where they came from and could not find a source. So we took them down.
Pay figures are as researchers measured them, in 2006 dollars for the earliest study; yearly totals are worked out from the percentages published. When the 2028 and 2032 results arrive, they go on this page either way.
Read it yourself
Methods, certainty, and what each study does not show.