Project Activities
The research project contains two interconnected components. The first component, which will be led by MDRC, will focus on exploring the implementation of the core elements of career-connect learning that are embedded in the three Student Pathways initiatives. The second component, which will be led by the Research Alliance, builds on the first by examining the rates at which students participate and persist in activities associated with each of core elements of career-connected learning. As part of this work, the researchers will develop a measure of student durable career-connected skills (e.g., computational thinking, digital fluency, financial literacy) and will focus on equity through the lens of relationships between student characteristics and participation and persistence in these activities. Through these components, the researchers aim to explore the extent to which equitable access, participation, and enhancements to key outcomes are moderated by students' characteristics and mediated by program implementation fidelity, dosage, and quality.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The study will take place in New York city.
Sample
The study sample includes 140 New York City public schools (NYCPS), out of the 450 NYCPS high schools that are currently implementing at least one of three new CTE Student Pathways initiatives. The average population of students enrolled in these schools is 50 percent Latinx and 35 percent Black. Eighty percent of students are free and reduced-price lunch eligible, 17 percent are English language learners (ELLs), and 22 percent have a special education designation. All of these student characteristics are higher than the citywide averages. The study sample will reflect the demographics of the sampled schools.
Intervention
The NYCPS Student Pathways initiatives are designed to (1) provide college and career advising, (2) provide enhanced CTE course sequences, (3) expand durable skills (e.g., computational thinking, digital fluency, and financial literacy), (4) accelerate postsecondary success through early college experiences, and (5) build postsecondary pathways by offering meaningful, high-quality work-based learning experiences.
Research design and methods
The researchers will use a mixed methods design, drawing on field-based interviews and focus groups, document analysis, surveys, and administrative records. Using data from school and central office interviews, school leader surveys, teacher surveys following professional learning conferences, and internal NYCPS program data, they will document the characteristics and quality of each program's career exploration and advising strategies, CTE course sequences, dual enrollment courses, and work-based learning activities. During this phase, they will pay special attention to determining schools' fidelity to the plans that each school develops for implementation and of the quality of the components as implemented. In addition, they will identify key factors that may facilitate or serve as barriers to high quality implementation. Then, they will use administrative records to assess student access to and participation in the key elements of the three programs (i.e., career exploration and advising, CTE course taking, dual enrollment, and work-based learning). To understand these patterns, they will focus on cohorts of ninth graders and calculate the proportion of students who engage in each of these activities as they reach the grades in which the opportunities became available to them. Descriptively, they will also examine variation in participation by disaggregating the measures by students' race/ethnicity, gender, ELL services, and special education needs, as well as by indictors of poverty. In addition, the research team is creating an instrument to assess durable career-connected skills including career readiness, computational thinking, digital fluency, and financial literacy.
Control condition
Due to the nature of this exploratory research, there is no control condition or counterfactual setting.
Key measures
The key measures include an assessment of traditional measures of student engagement and education performance. Engagement measures include attendance rates and staying on track to graduation (such as earning sufficient course and Regents exam credits each year to meet diploma requirements). Performance measures include grade point averages, credit accumulation, completing dual credit and advanced course work, obtaining a Regents diploma, and earning CTE-certified diploma, licensing credentials or other honors. The researchers will also incorporate data from the durable skills measure they develop and data on program implementation fidelity and dosage.
Data analytic strategy
The researchers will use various analytic strategies to identify relationships among student characteristics, measures of implementation, student participation in pathways activities, and high school outcomes. For example, they will use multivariate, multi-level regression analyses to explore implementation factors that may be associated with student participation and dosage and possible associations with college and career readiness. They will run separate analyses for each measure and grade. All models will account for the nesting of students within schools and grade levels.
Products and publications
Products: Project results will provide preliminary information about the implementation of NYCPS CTE Student Pathways initiatives and insights into potential equity issues associated with access to pathways opportunities and skills acquisition. The researchers will complete a final dataset to be shared, peer-reviewed publications and presentations, and provide additional dissemination products that reach education stakeholders such as practitioners and policymakers.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Rosen, Rachel
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.