Project Activities
This project has two sequential studies: an exploratory study and an impact study. The exploratory study has three parts. First, through qualitative data collection, the researchers will produce a landscape analysis of all the CDOs available to students in BCPS and gain an understanding of how students learn of and access them. Second, the researchers will compare the availability of CDOs between two cohorts of students before and after a reorganization of BCPS high school entry requirements (which happened during the COVID pandemic in 2020–21). Third, the researchers will explore the link between participation in each CDO and later student outcomes. Using information from the exploratory study, the research team will collaborate with IES and the lead for the Extending the Reach of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network to identify the most suitable CDO as the focus of the impact study.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study will take place in Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore, MD.
Sample
For the landscape analysis part of the exploratory study, the researchers will conduct interviews with 150 faculty, staff, or administrators (3 to 5 per school) and focus groups with 300 students (6 to 10 per school) across the 30 schools in BCPS serving high school aged students. For the two quantitative parts of the exploratory study, the sample will include 40,000 high school students enrolled in BCPS between 2014 and 2025. The comparison analysis will look at CDO participation among rising grade 9 cohorts before versus after the 2020-21 school year (approximately 15,000 students). The analyses of the links between participation and outcomes will include approximately 25,000 high school students across grades 9 through 12 in the 2024-25 cohort.
The researchers will examine student participation in the following CDOs: CTE courses, work-based learning experiences, mentorship, and individual student learning plans.
Research design and methods
This project is composed of two sequential mixed methods studies: (1) an exploratory study examining the landscape of CDOs in BCPS and correlated outcomes and (2) an impact study to identify a causal relationship between a selected CDO and later outcomes, understand differences in CDO implementation, and highlight costs and cost effectiveness of the identified CDO. For both studies, the researchers will analyze both quantitative data from existing administrative data available from BERC as well as qualitative data collected through interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. In the exploratory study, researchers will first identify the landscape of existing CDOs in BCPS high schools through surveys and interviews with school counselors, teachers, and principals and running focus groups with students at a stratified random sample of public high schools. Using this information, they will identify CDOs in the administrative datasets and examine whether key student, school, and community factors influence participation rates. The researchers will use findings from this exploratory study, in conjunction with conversations with the broader CTE Research Network, to identify a specific CDO that will be an appropriate focus for an impact study. They will then design and conduct this impact study and related cost analysis.
Key measures
Exploratory quantitative analyses will focus on participation in CTE courses, work-based learning experiences, mentorship, and individual student learning plans and correlations of this participation with secondary and postsecondary (for example, dual credit enrollment) outcomes on high school and postsecondary outcomes. At the high school level, the researchers will focus on high school completion, core course grade point average (in English, mathematics, science, and social studies, etc.), SAT scores, attendance, suspension, and technical assessment participation and success. At the postsecondary level, the researchers will examine dual credit earned and postsecondary enrollment. They will also include key measures related to student (race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, ELL status, etc.), school (size, demographic makeup, program offerings, etc.), and community (neighborhood unemployment rates, neighborhood median income, etc.) contexts.
Data analytic strategy
For the landscape analysis, the research team will use a deductive approach to coding interview and focus group data and then will confirm and refine the associated codes in the administrative datasets. They will then compare patterns of participation within and across schools and by student subgroups and identify links to key outcomes using correlational approaches (for example, logistic and linear regression as well as school fixed effects). The data analytic strategy for the impact study is to be determined after the specific CDO and research design are selected.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
This project will produce both preliminary evidence of how students in Baltimore City Public Schools engage in and benefit from CDOs and evidence of the impact of one or more to-be-determined CDOs on student outcomes. The project will also produce information about the cost of the evaluated CDO(s), a final dataset to be shared, peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and additional dissemination products that reach stakeholders such as practitioners and policymakers.
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Additional project information
This project serves as a network research team for the Extending the Reach of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network, which conducts research, training, and dissemination to support CTE.
Related projects
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Davis, Marcia H.; Durham, Rachel E.; Mac Iver, Martha
Partner District: Baltimore City Public Schools
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
