Launched in 2009 by the James Irvine Foundation, the California Linked Learning District Initiative has helped open career pathways to many non-traditional students in the state — including English learners, special education students, and students with low prior academic achievement, an evaluation of the initiative finds. The study, Taking Stock of the California Linked Learning District Initiative: Fifth-Year Evaluation Report (144 pages, PDF) also found  that gains from the initiative varied across the nine districts, with the only consistent trends involving disproportionately low female enrollment in engineering career pathways and disproportionately high female enrollment in health sciences pathways. Prepared by SRI International, the report found that students in certified pathway programs accumulated more credits on average through eleventh grade than their peers in traditional programs, were more likely to remain enrolled through the twelfth grade, and were more likely to be on track as of the end of tenth grade to complete California's suggested pre-college requirements by the time they graduate. In addition, efforts to improve curriculum and instruction appear to be paying off, the report notes, with a greater percentage of twelfth-grade participants in the initiative saying they had been exposed to more rigorous, integrated, and relevant instruction than their peers in non-Linked Learning districts.