Alicia Sasser Modestino’s newly published paper, “School’s Out: How Summer Youth Employment Programs Impact Academic Outcomes,” was recently featured in an article in Commonwealth Magazine published on January 18, 2023.
Sasser Modestino’s new research (which was co-authored with Richard Paulsen and can be found in the journal Education Finance & Policy) suggests that high schoolers who participate in Boston-area summer jobs programs benefit from higher attendance and on-time graduation rates. As Sasser Modestino says in the Commonwealth article, “I could entitle this paper, ’90 percent of life is just showing up.'”
The study uses data from the Boston Youth Summer Employment Program (YSEP), which randomly awards students to positions via a lottery system, connected to academic outcomes measured via administrative school records. Sasser Modestino speaks favorably of the YSEP, which received increased funding from the former Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh in 2020, and again in 2021 from American Rescue Plan money.
Read the full Commonwealth Magazine article by Michael Jonas.
See Sasser Modestino and Paulsen’s paper in Education Finance & Policy (requires NU login credentials via NU Library)
