June 12, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Current-Generation Youth Programs: What Works, What Doesn’t, and at What Cost?, by Megan K. Beckett, provides the results of research conducted by the RAND Corporation and sponsored by Growth & Justice, a think tank in St. Paul. Comparing out-of-school programs for children and youths ages 5 to 18, the report discusses the costs and benefits of each. Several programs, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Quantum Opportunity Program, and Casastart, have significant positive effects on participants’ behavior: raising educational attainment, preventing drug use and criminal activities, and delaying pregnancy, for example. Other programs have negative effects, however. The report also discusses how policy makers should evaluate these programs to determine which receive support.
Publisher: RAND, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, Calif. 90407; (877) 584-8642; fax (412) 802-4981; order@rand.org; http://www.rand.org; 32 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.
