Is Pathways to Education an Effective Program? Proposed Program Evaluation of Ottawa-Ontario

Abstract

The goal of the Pathways to Education program is to break the vicious cycle of low education and poverty that exists in Canada, through providing low-income youth with academic, social, counseling, and financial supports to encourage and facilitate their graduation from high school and enrolment into post-secondary education (PSE). The evaluation of Pathways to Education is critical from both an equity and economic perspective. From an equity perspective Pathways aims to uphold democratic ideals of equality of opportunity. From an economic perspective, one of Canada’s key concerns is being able to be a competitive player in the global marketplace. For Canada to keep up economically in the innovation, information and technology age, Canada needs more individuals to graduate from PSE institutions. An excellent solution to the problem of how to encourage Canadians to graduate from PSE is to look to youth from underrepresented groups to fill these PSE ‘graduate gaps’ (HRSDC, 2001). If the government of Canada found that Pathways to Education is efficient at increasing PSE enrollment rates of individuals from underrepresented groups, national implementation could have tremendous positive results for Canada both socially and economically (HRSDC, 2001, Olaniyan et al. 2008). Due to positive reviews and widespread support, the Pathways to Education program has received the positive attention and funding necessary to expand across Canada. It is therefore necessary to determine whether resources should be invested in the program. This paper proposes an evaluation tool that can accurately measure the direct impact of Pathways to Education to determine whether it is being effective in Ottawa. By using this tool to identify whether the program is effective in Ottawa, it is possible to determine how it is effective and in what context the program is effective.