September 2026 North America Newsletter
As the summer ends, administrators of Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) are taking stock and beginning to plan for next year. SYEPs, also known as summer jobs programs, are city-run programs that provide paid part-time jobs during the summer months to youth ages 14 to 24. Although SYEPs have been operating since the 1960s, the past decade has yielded a remarkable shift in our understanding of the impact these programs have on participating youth and their communities—leading many cities to scale up their programs.
J-PAL affiliated researchers have been major contributors to this shift—they have conducted impact evaluations across several cities, frequently grounded in multi-year partnerships with the administering agencies. Today, J-PAL North America is working closely with J-PAL affiliated researcher Alicia Sasser Modestino to build a community of practice that enables SYEP program administrators to engage in peer learning and build their capacity to leverage data and evidence to better serve youth. You can read about the significant role that research and evidence have played in the expansion of SYEPs over the past decade in our newest Evidence to Policy case study.
J-PAL North America strives not only to generate policy relevant research, but also to enable practitioners and policymakers to apply key findings from evidence and invest resources in scaling up programs that work. Earlier this month, I moderated our latest Evidence Matters webinar, where panelists, including Alicia Modestino and her counterpart Allison Vernerey, Executive Director of Boston’s Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity, discussed how research-practitioner partnerships can enable local governments to take existing evidence and build on it in new ways as a program grows. SYEPs are the latest example of our efforts to champion evidence as it moves from early research to adaptation and implementation in new contexts. This has long been a part of J-PAL North America’s work as we previously supported the scale-up of evidence-based tutoring, particularly during the learning disruptions precipitated by Covid-19, and are now exploring new ways to support the expansion of cognitive behavioral therapy.
To learn more about the SYEP Community of Practice and related opportunities, please reach out to [email protected]. If you're curious about the work of the Evidence to Scale team more broadly, you can contact me at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Kalila Jackson-Spieker
Senior Manager, Evidence to Scale (E2S) at J-PAL North America
New case study: How research catalyzed public investment in Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs)
Over the past decade, partnerships between researchers and city governments in Boston, Chicago, and New York City have generated one of the strongest evidence bases for youth workforce programs in the United States. A new case study in J-PAL’s Evidence to Policy series captures how research findings and sustained academic-practitioner partnerships have informed growing public investment in SYEPs as a core youth development and public safety policy tool across major US cities. Read the case study »
NEW RESEARCH RESULTS
Do employers value Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees?
CCB programs have emerged as a promising pathway to boost bachelor's degree attainment, yet little has been known about how employers value these credentials. A new J-PAL North America-funded resume audit study in the early childhood education field, conducted by J-PAL affiliated researcher Kalena Cortes (The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University) and co-authors, found that employers viewed CCB degrees similarly to traditional bachelor's and associate degrees. The findings suggest CCB programs may offer a viable alternative to traditional four-year institutions, but financial modeling conducted by the researchers also found that sticker-price comparisons may substantially overstate their affordability advantage. Read the full paper »
Celebrating this year’s Climate Action Learning Lab cohort
This spring, J-PAL North America welcomed the second cohort of the Climate Action Learning Lab, a program that supports US government agencies and nonprofit organizations in leveraging data and evaluation to advance effective climate action. Over four months, seventeen climate leaders representing four organizations received customized training and one-on-one strategy sessions. They also engaged with researchers in our network to identify priority research questions. The next phase of programming will focus on supporting participants as they design and launch randomized evaluations of their programs and join our Climate Community of Practice. Learn more »
FEATURED EVALUATION SUMMARY
E-mail reminders for prescription monitoring program usage among clinicians in the United States
Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs)—databases that track controlled substance prescriptions—can help clinicians make safer prescribing decisions for their patients, but are often underused. Researchers evaluated the impact of e-mail reminders on clinicians' engagement with PMPs and their prescribing behavior. They also investigated which email messaging was more effective—messages focused on legal requirements or those focused on the clinical benefits of PMPs. The e-mail reminders, particularly those focused on legal requirements, increased PMP usage but had no effect on prescribing behavior. Read more »
FEATURED RESEARCH RESOURCE
Pre-analysis plans
Pre-analysis plans can increase the credibility of research findings and reduce the risk of selectively reporting results by describing the expected analysis strategy before the intervention or data analysis begins. Our J-PAL research resource outlines why and how to write a pre-analysis plan, including an overview of available resources to help you write a strong one. Visit the resource »
FEATURED WEBINAR
J-PAL North America Homelessness Evaluation Resource Hub Launch Event
October 27 | 2:30–3:30pm ET
Register today »