A National Study of the Upward Bound Program: Analysis, Major Findings and Implications.

This paper concerns a national evaluation study of the upward Bound (UB) Program conducted for the U.S. Office of Education by the Research Triangle Institute. It presents the major results of the study with attention to methodological considerations of analysis. Two sets of analyses are discussed: (1) a set designed to examine the effectiveness of the UB program nationally, and (2) a set designed to examine differential UB project effectiveness. The national impact findings are quite consistent in support of the central theme that for student outcomes relating to postsecondary school entry, there are strong positive relationships with UB participation; but for outcomes related to high school academic success or continuation no consistent relationships to UB participation exist. These findings suggest that the impact of the UB program on student participants is primarily in the area of facilitating entry into education beyond high school. Given a national program impact, findings related to differential project effectiveness do not reveal any systematic program treatments that are related to differential project success. Rather, the relative success of individual projects seems more related to the characteristics of students recruited than to functional or structural characteristics of the projects. (Author)