Evaluation Report Brief

Urban Alliance High School Internship 

Program

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service March 2017

nationalservice.gov/research 1 

What are the goals of the program? 

Schools in high-poverty areas often lack sufficient resources 

and offer inadequate instruction; moreover, because of family, 

neighborhood, and peer environment factors, low-income 

children attending these schools have difficulty taking 

advantage of the educational opportunities that do exist. In 

Washington, DC, where the program is headquartered (and 

where the cost of living is high), 27 percent of children under 

age 18 live below the federal poverty level. In Baltimore, MD, 

the share of children in poverty is even higher, at 34 percent.

Urban Alliance (UA) supports at-risk youth in these 

communities through its High School Internship Program, which provides job skills training, mentoring, and 

work experience to high school seniors. The program serves youth before they become disconnected from 

school and work, with the goal of helping them successfully transition to higher education or employment 

after graduation.

Program At-a-Glance

CNCS Program: Social Innovation Fund

Intervention: Urban Alliance High School Internship 

Program 

Subgrantee: Urban Alliance Foundation

Intermediary: Venture Philanthropy Partners 

Focus Area: Youth Development

Focus Population: High school seniors

Communities Served: Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD

What was the purpose of evaluation?

Urban Institute began evaluating Urban Alliance’s High School 

Internship Program in 2011 and finished reporting in 2017. The 

evaluation was designed to assess impacts on hard and soft skills

comfort, college enrollment/persistence, employment rates, and 

earnings. Program applicants were randomly assigned to study 

conditions at baseline (2 treatment participants for every 1 

control—1,062 youth total), and educational and employment 

outcomes were measured via youth surveys and National 

Student Clearinghouse data at one and two years after 

graduation. 

Evaluation At-a-Glance

Evaluation Designs: Randomized controlled trial (RCT) 

impact evaluation and process evaluation

Study Population: High school seniors

Independent Evaluator: Urban Institute 

This Evaluation’s Level of Evidence*: Strong 

*SIF and AmeriCorps currently use different definitions of levels of evidence.

What did we learn from the evaluation?

As a subgrantee of the Social Innovation Fund’s Venture Philanthropy Partners, Urban Alliance engaged an 

independent evaluator to evaluate their high school internship program. The impact study produced the 

following key findings:

• For the full sample, participation significantly increased: 

o Comfort with applying for aid—filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and 

applying for other scholarships

o Soft skill development—including professionalism, timeliness, etc.
Evaluation Report Brief

Urban Alliance High School Internship 

Program

2 

• For the full sample, participation did not have any statistically 

significant impacts on taking the SAT, taking the ACT, the 

probability of graduating high school, the probability of applying 

to college, goal setting, time management, college attendance, 

college persistence, employment, wages, or savings.

• For males, participation significantly increased the probability of: 

o Graduating high school—by 4 percentage points for males 

offered the program (p<.10). 

o Attending college—by 12 percentage points for males 

offered the program (p<.05) and 23 percentage points for 

males who completed the program (p<.05). 

o Attending a four-year college—by 10 percentage points for males offered the program (p<.05) 

and 23 percentage points for males who completed the program (p<.10)

o Attaining a two-year degree or being enrolled in their third year—by 10 percentage points for 

males offered the program (p<.05) and by 21 percentage points for males who completed the 

program (p<.10). 

• The effects of participation also seemed to vary based on the youth’s GPA:

o Low GPA UA youth were more likely to persist in college—the program increased the

probability of attaining a 2-year degree or being enrolled in a third year by 8 percentage points

for those offered the program (p <.10) or by 39 percentage points for those participating (p.<05). 

o Middle GPA UA youth were more likely to attend a four-year college—by 9 percentage points 

for those offered the program (p<.10) and 18 percentage points for those completing it one year 

post-program (p<.10). 

o High GPA UA youth were more likely to attend a two-year college—by 9 percentage points 

for those offered the program (p<.10) and 18 percentage points for those completing it (p<.10). 

How is Urban Alliance using the evaluation experience and findings to improve?

Evaluation results suggested that a sizeable share (31 percent) of treatment youth did not go to college and 

there were no significant program impacts on employment, wages, or savings overall for subgroups of 

participants. As such, the program will be considering providing additional supports to youth who are not 

going to college by facilitating job attainment and offering additional alumni services. Additionally, since the 

start of the evaluation, Urban Alliance has expanded their program services to two new locations (Northern 

Virginia and Chicago, IL); all four sites are included in an expanded evaluation of the program, funded by a 

grant from the US Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund that is currently underway. 

The content of this brief was drawn from the full evaluation report submitted to CNCS by the grantee/subgrantee. The section of the brief that 

discusses evaluation use includes contribution of the grantee/subgrantee. All original content from the report is attributable to its authors.

To access the full evaluation report and learn more about CNCS, please visit nationalservice.gov/research.

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), 

combines public and private resources to grow the impact of innovative, community-based solutions that have 

compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the United States. 

The SIF invests in three priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development.

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service

nationalservice.gov/research

March 2017