Evaluation of the Early Start to Emancipation Preparation Tutoring Program, Los Angeles County, California: Final Report

This report presents findings from a rigorous evaluation of the Early Start to Emancipation Preparation (ESTEP)-Tutoring Program in Los Angeles. ESTEP-Tutoring provides up to 50 hours of remedial one-on-one tutoring in reading and math to foster youths ages 14 to 15 who are one to three years behind grade level in either reading or math. The tutoring is provided in the youth's home by tutors who are typically local college students. Other program staff guide the tutors and assess the youths. Another implicit goal of the program is to build an ongoing mentoring relationship between the youth and the tutor. The authors examine its implementation and its impact on the youths it serves using a rigorous random-assignment method with a two-year follow-up. Outcomes evaluated align closely with the program's primary goals of improving reading and math skills and empowering youths to use other educational resources. The program had no impacts on educational outcomes. No statistically significant differences were observed between the ESTEP and control groups in any of the outcomes at the second follow-up. This report divides into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the Chafee legislation and the evaluation purpose, as well as describe site selection for the evaluation along with research questions for the study. It also reviews the research design and methodology for both the impact and process studies. Chapter 2 describes the ESTEP-Tutoring Program using information obtained as part of the process study component of the evaluation. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the evaluation's implementation, including a discussion of service take-up, sample development, and a description of the sample. Results of the evaluation's impact study are presented in chapter 4. A discussion of process study findings that shed light on the impact findings is also presented in chapter 4. Lastly, chapter 5 provides a discussion of the findings of the evaluation and how it relates to the broader field of independent living programs. Appended to this document are: (1) Evaluation Methodology and Challenges; (2) Los Angeles County Context; (3) ESTEP-Tutoring Staff Roles and Responsibilities; and (4) Impact Study--Methodology and Additional Data. (Contains 37 tables and 2 figures.) [Contributing authors to this report include: Matthew Stagner and Michael Pergamit. This report was prepared for the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by The Urban Institute, Chapin Hall Center for Children, and the National Opinion Research Center.]