In this study, we examine the impact of a large-scale effort in California aimed at establishing career pathways and estimate its causal effects on community college enrollment. By leveraging a discontinuous assignment rule for awarding grant funds, we obtain credibly causal estimates of a $500 million initiative to expand career and technical education (CTE) pathways between K-12 districts and community colleges. The competitive grant application process used a standardized rubric, and those receiving a score above a predetermined threshold were awarded funding (i.e., treatment group) while those just below received no funding (i.e., control group), allowing for a regression discontinuity design. We found no overall enrollment increases at partner community colleges for successful grantees. However, there were suggestive enrollment increases of 13.5 percent to 14.8 percent in CTE health sector, which was the primary career sector targeted for expansion. Other targeted programs, such as manufacturing and information communication technology, saw no increases in postsecondary enrollment. The health sector enrollment increases were concentrated among female students, aligning with earlier findings by Bonilla (2020) on reduced high school dropout rates for females. These findings suggest that K-12 postsecondary partnerships may be a viable avenue for aligning enrollment with high-growth sectors.

Under waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government required states to identify schools where targeted subgroups of students have the lowest achievement and to implement reforms in these “Focus Schools.” In this study, we examine the Focus School reforms in the state of Kentucky. The reforms in this state are uniquely interesting for several reasons. One is that the state developed unusually explicit guidance for Focus Schools centered on a comprehensive school-planning process. Second, the state identified Focus Schools using a “super subgroup” measure that combined traditionally low-performing subgroups into an umbrella group. This design feature may have catalyzed broader whole-school reforms and attenuated the incentives to target reform efforts narrowly. Using regression discontinuity designs, we find that these reforms led to substantial improvements in school performance, raising math proficiency rates by 17 percent and reading proficiency rates by 9 percent.