Project Activities
The overall project includes an initial, exploratory study which will inform the development of an impact study. In the initial exploratory study, the researchers will review Linked Learning, CTE, and work-based learning program materials and interview CTE district- and school-level staff to understand the landscape of career development opportunities and their availability across the district. Then, using school- and student-level administrative data, the researchers will quantitatively examine student access, participation, and outcomes for these opportunities overall, by school characteristics, and by industry sector. They will examine parity in participation and outcomes for students of color, female students, multilingual learners, special education students, students experiencing economic disadvantage, and students with low prior achievement overall and by industry sector. Finally, they will conduct focus groups with 12th graders to better understand how students experience the career development opportunities and the perceived value of these experiences. Based on the exploratory study findings, 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 project will take place in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which is the second largest public school district in the United States and includes both urban and suburban schools.
Sample
LAUSD has a diverse student body that is approximately 73 percent Hispanic or Latino; 10 percent White; 7 percent Black; and 6 percent Asian, Pacific Islander, or Filipino. Approximately 80 percent of LAUSD students are economically disadvantaged, 20 percent are multilingual learners, and 16 percent have a disability. LAUSD has 100 high schools and over 116,000 high school students.
This project will describe the primary career development opportunities (CDOs) offered to LAUSD high school students, including CTE course offerings, CTE and Linked Learning pathways as a subset of these offerings, and work-based learning opportunities that are offered within CTE and Linked Learning pathways. Linked Learning is an integrated, cohort-based career pathway model that is designed to combine college preparatory academics, rigorous technical training through CTE course sequences, work-based learning, and student supports.
Research design and methods
The overall project includes two sequential studies: an exploratory and an impact study. The researchers will first review district and state documents to understand the CTE, Linked Learning, and work-based learning offerings, processes for accessing them, and policy context. They will interview CTE district- and school-level staff to understand what opportunities are available to students across the district and the policies that determine how students participate in them (for example, by recommendation, application, or lottery). They will use school-level quantitative data to describe how the availability of CTE offerings and Linked Learning pathways varies by industry sector across the four regions of the district and by school characteristics such as region, size, urbanicity, and LAUSD's Student Equity Needs Index ranking. They will also use student participation data to examine the extent to which participation in each opportunity is equitably distributed for student subgroups, overall and by industry sector. Finally, researchers will quantitatively examine the relationship between student participation in each career development opportunity and key student outcomes. Using the results from this exploratory study, the researchers will co-design an impact study with IES and the network lead on one or more CDO and will also study the cost of this CDO.
Key measures
Student outcomes include attendance in the 12th grade, scores on the 11th grade Smarter Balanced English Language Arts and mathematics tests, high school graduation, workplace readiness badge attainment, industry-recognized credential attainment, completion of a college preparatory course sequence, and postsecondary enrollment.
Data analytic strategy
For the exploratory study part of the project, the researchers will engage in systematic coding of documents as well as interview and focus group data. They will summarize school-level data to describe the distribution of CTE offerings and Linked Learning pathways. The researchers will use hierarchical linear models to compare participation in each career development opportunity to the traditional high school experience with no CTE course taking, adjusting for student demographics, prior achievement, and key school characteristics. They will then conduct mediation analyses to examine whether either an increase in the number of CTE courses completed or work-based learning participation is associated with stronger outcomes for students participating in either Linked Learning pathways or CTE courses. They will then conduct moderation analyses to test whether any identified correlations between participation and desired outcomes differ by industry sector, school type, or for students from different backgrounds. For the impact study part of the project, the researchers will conduct appropriate quantitative analyses for causal impacts and a cost analysis of the evaluated factor(s).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
This project will produce both preliminary evidence of how students in LAUSD 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.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Caspary, Kyra
Partner District: Los Angeles Unified School District
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
