One half of the students are selected by lottery. The lottery losers for the most part attend their local area high school. Among other findings, the project concluded that career magnet graduates were more likely to have declared a college major and earned more college credits when they went to college than their counterparts from area comprehensive high schools with no career focus or exposure. These magnet students were, on average, employed more months after graduation and earned significantly more college credits. This is a school that admits many students who traditionally are not headed for college.
Admission is determined by lottery and the school has no cafeteria, no library and no gym.
See Stern et al. 1995 for a review of the research. However, much of this research focuses on employment in general rather than specifically designed work experiences and internships, and is therefore not relevant to the issues addressed in this paper. National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California.