BPA, partnering with Mathematica Policy Research and the Educational Testing Service, conducted a five-year evaluation of the Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP), a dropout prevention program funded in seven cities by the U. S. Department of Labor and the Ford Foundation.

The QOP evaluation documented the experience of 600 young QOP enrollees and 600 members of the control group. Both groups were chosen at the time they entered the ninth grade in schools with traditionally high dropout rates. Eligibility was based on individuals' academic performance placing them in the lower two-thirds of their eighth-grade class. Enrollees were offered an intensive program of mentoring; after-school tutoring; involvement in community service activities; computer-based instruction; summer jobs; expanding cultural horizons through visits to museums, theater, restaurants, and special events; and tours of college campuses. For every hour of participation, QOP enrollees earned both a cash stipend and a deposit in an accrual account to be used for college or approved training after they graduated from high school.

The evaluation included both an evaluation of program impacts and a structured process evaluation. For the impact study, evaluators interviewed and tested enrollees and control group members after four years. The evaluation determined whether positive outcomes such as increases in graduation and college enrollment, along with decreases in criminal activity, gang involvement, and teen parenting, can be detected and attributed to the program. The process study tracked students' degree of involvement in QOP activities and documented the characteristics of the program, staff, participants, and the community at seven sites. Evaluators gathered information to determine the factors contributing to or impeding the success of the program at each local site, including the extent to which each local program faithfully replicated the QOP model as intended.

BPA's role in the evaluation included leading the process evaluation and ongoing data collection, as well as participating in the random assignment process and monitoring the integrity of random assignment over time at each site.