Setting
The College and Career Readiness Expansion project (CCRE) was implemented in 16 high schools across seven districts. The participating schools and districts represented the geographic diversity of the Central Ohio area. Using National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) locale codes from the Common Core of Data, four (25%) were urban, nine (56%) were suburban, and three (19%) were rural.
Study sample
The authors did not report the percentage of students in the analysis sample by race, ethnicity, gender, or other demographic characteristics. Based on calculations made by the WWC using reported data, the analysis sample (for the school dropout outcome, the largest analytic sample size) included 62% of students classified as "economically disadvantaged" and 47.5% identified as a member of an underrepresented race or ethnicity.
Intervention Group
The College and Career Readiness Expansion (CCRE) Project is designed to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and who are prepared for enrollment and success in postsecondary education across comprehensive high schools in seven districts in the Central Ohio area. The CCRE model includes a suite of services—a regional governance structure, professional development and coaching for district and school staff, curriculum development and alignment, professional development for college faculty, student support activities, a district strategic implementation plan, leadership development, district-provided professional development, and creation of integrated 9-14 pathways with work-based learning—that are intended to support a school’s implementation of a whole-school reform model. These activities are expected to result in structural and instructional changes at the school level that are intended to lead to improved student outcomes. A primary emphasis of the program is on increasing the number of students who participate in college level courses while in high school.
Comparison Group
Schools in the comparison condition offered business-as-usual opportunities for students to earn college credits while enrolled in high school and did not receive any of the CCRE intervention components. These schools were also outside the service area of Columbus State Community College, one of the intervention's implementation partners.
Support for implementation
The following Key Components were included as implementation supports: 1) creation of a regional governance structure, 2) professional development and coaching for district and school staff, 3) curriculum development and alignment, 4) professional development for college faculty, 5) student support activities 6) creation of a strategic implementation plan, 7) leadership coaching for principals and selected administrative staff, 8) professional development for school staff, and 9) creation of integrated 9–14 pathways.