Online Educational Enhancement Program

The online educational enhancement program is a collaborative effort between the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice and the Crime Lab and Education Lab that seeks to test the effectiveness of an innovative online instructional model in fostering skills and motivation among youth detained in an Illinois correctional facility. The program seeks to increase positive youth outcomes in the areas of credit accrual and achievement in the facility, re-engagement in school post release and recidivism. The OEE initiative randomly assigned 600 detained youth in IDJJ Youth Centers to classrooms with or without access to computerized instruction; the Crime Lab and Education Lab are currently analyzing the effect of having received access to computerized instruction on academic outcomes, such as credit accrual and high school completion. Preliminary quantitative analysis shows positive impacts of engagement in the OEE program on total credit accrual.