How does the Pathways Clearinghouse estimate the effects of an intervention?
For the Pathways Clearinghouse, the effects shown are the estimated changes in the percent of low-income adults who are employed, average annual earnings, average annual public benefits received, and percent of low-income adults with any education and training credential. The Pathways Clearinghouse takes each effect and estimates comparable effects in 2018 dollars and percentages by calculating the average impact of the intervention in standard deviation units (Hedges’ g effect sizes) across outcomes and studies and comparing that average to the distributions of outcomes for adults with low earnings potential in the 2019 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The impacts in standard deviation units are also combined into domain average effects by taking the average across studies and outcomes, giving more weight to studies with larger sample sizes. These averages are then also converted into 2018 dollars and percentages.