Raising the Bar: Impacts and Implementation of the New Heights Program for Expectant and Parenting Teens in Washington, dc

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P A
F
Positive
Adolescent
Futures
Study 
OAH Evaluation Report
Raising the Bar: Impacts and Implementation of the 
New Heights Program for Expectant and Parenting 
Teens in Washington, DC
April 2017
ADOLESCENT
HEALTH
OFFICE OF

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Purpose statement:
This report shares the findings from an impact and implementation study of New 
Heights, a DC Public Schools program that provides a multi-faceted approach for supporting parenting 
students’ educational attainment. This report demonstrates how the program made a significant impact 
on academic outcomes related to the program logic model, such as school attendance and credit 
accumulation, and a marginal impact on a more distal outcome of graduation. The report provides an in-
depth description of the program model, and presents student and staff perceptions of its success.
April 2017
Recommended citation:
Subuhi Asheer, Paul Burkander, John Deke, Julie Worthington, Susan Zief. “Raising the Bar: Impacts and 
Implementation of the New Heights Program for Expectant and Parenting Teens in Washington, DC.” 
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health, April 2017.
Prepared for OAH under contract number: HHSP233201450026A
Authored by:
Subuhi Asheer
Paul Burkander
John Deke
Julie Worthington
Susan Zief
Mathematica Policy Research

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RAISING THE BAR: IMPACTS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW HEIGHTS PROGRAM
 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Many organizations and people contributed in significant ways to this evaluation of the New 
Heights program. First, we acknowledge the invaluable support and guidance from the Office of 
Adolescent Health (OAH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We especially 
thank Amy Farb, the OAH project officer for the broader Positive Adolescent Futures study. We 
also thank Nicole Bennett and Alexandra Warner for their assistance throughout this evaluation 
effort. 
A very special thanks goes to Diana Bruce, Adia Burns, and Ilene Sparber of the New 
Heights program in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for opening their program 
to evaluation. Without hesitation, they allowed our study team to closely examine program 
operations and helped us gather the data. We also thank the team of dedicated and talented 
school-based coordinators who have made the program and its evaluation a success. The 
remarkable young mothers who work tirelessly as parents and students, and who also 
volunteered their time and energy to share their experiences and perspectives for this study, also 
deserve our tremendous gratitude. We hope that this report does justice to their many 
contributions. 
This evaluation relied upon administrative data from three separate sources: DCPS, DC 
Department of Health (DC DOH), and DC Department of Human Services (DC DHS). We thank 
the staff at these agencies who supported our acquisition and understanding of the data files and 
constructs: Jasmine Illa and Kelly Linker at DCPS; Fern Johnson-Clarke, Monica Roundtree, and 
Rowena Samala at DC DOH; and Darrel Carson and John Kramer at DC DHS. 
At Mathematica Policy Research, we thank Alyson Burnett, Valerie Caplan, Giulianna Di 
Lauro, Alice Gao, Emily Weaver, and Sara Woodruff for supporting the data collected through 
school visits. Sam McCormick, Chris Rodger, and Clare Wolfendale contributed their 
programming and administrative data management expertise, and Tom Cook, Ken Fortson, and 
Brian Goesling provided helpful comments on our analysis plan and report. Deidre Sheean and 
Brigitte Tran created the report graphics, Jennifer Brown and John Kennedy edited the final 
report, and Stephanie Barna and Margaret Hallisey produced it. 
Subuhi Asheer 
Paul Burkander 
John Deke 
Julie Worthington 
Susan Zief 
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