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Pub Date: |
2013-02-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Evaluative |
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Descriptors:
Educational Planning; College Credits; Developmental Studies Programs; Career Exploration; Community Colleges; Two Year College Students; Remedial Instruction; Mathematics Instruction; College Mathematics; Enrollment Rate; Academic Persistence; Academic Achievement; Outcomes of Education; Observation; Semi Structured Interviews; Holistic Approach; Program Evaluation
Abstract:
Originally designed for students who test into at least two levels of developmental education in a particular subject area, FastStart is a compressed course program model launched in 2005 at the Community College of Denver (CCD). The program combines multiple semester-length courses into a single intensive semester, while providing case management, career exploration, and educational planning services. This report discusses the development of FastStart, its program features, and student perspectives, and it presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the FastStart math program. The authors find that participation is associated with higher rates of enrolling in and passing college-level math courses but not with increased persistence or with increased accumulation of college-level credits. The analysis suggests that FastStart makes it possible for students to complete the developmental math sequence and required gatekeeper math course more quickly than would otherwise be possible, without harming other long-term academic outcomes. The report also analyzes pedagogical features of FastStart drawn from classroom observations and interviews. (Contains 11 figures, 5 tables, and 18 footnotes.)
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Pub Date: |
2013-01-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Research |
Peer Reviewed: |
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Descriptors:
Academic Standards; State Standards; Student Participation; Career Academies; Careers; Education Work Relationship; Career Exploration; School Districts; Institutional Mission; Career Readiness; College Readiness; Capacity Building; Internship Programs; Student Surveys; Outcomes of Education; Pilot Projects
Abstract:
The phrase "preparing students for college and career" has become so ubiquitous that it has become almost a mantra in educators' discourse in recent years. Whether mentioned in the Common Core State Standards, in the mission statements of high schools, or in political campaigns, improving the college and career readiness of young people is a concept that few can disagree with. Much attention has focused on how to prepare students "academically" for life after high school. But "readiness" also means having the knowledge and skills to make informed choices about careers and postsecondary education options and--once graduated--to successfully navigate both worlds. High schools are expected to teach these skills and knowledge but are rarely given the guidance or tools to do so. With a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education, MDRC and its project partner Bloom Associates developed and piloted a program to help schools build or strengthen their college and career exploration programs. Called "Exploring Career and College Options (ECCO)," the program was designed specifically for career academies but can be adapted to fit many educational settings. "Career academies" are schools within schools that enroll up to several hundred students. They are organized by a career theme, such as health sciences or media arts. Besides regular high school courses, career academy students enroll in a sequence of career-technical courses centering on the theme area. Finally, students participate in internships and other experiences in workplaces--which is often called "work-based learning"--to reinforce the connections between what they learn in the classroom and their future careers. An earlier random assignment study of career academies conducted by MDRC demonstrated the effectiveness of the model. Over the years, as the number of career academies grew, the parallel pressure to ensure that all students meet high academic standards inadvertently crowded out time for career exploration activities--the very activities that nonexperimental evidence from the MDRC study suggests may have played an instrumental role in causing the large increases in earnings that career academy participants experienced over the eight-year period following high school graduation. Career academies typically cite a lack of time, skills, and resources as the reason for not offering such activities to all of their students. ECCO is a capacity-building program to help career academies offer opportunities to students to learn about their workplace and postsecondary options through four core components: (1) a series of one-hour in-class lessons; (2) visits to local work sites; (3) visits to college campuses; and (4) a six-week internship offered to all students in the summer before or during their senior year. The curriculum includes guidance for educators on how to arrange and manage students' out-of-school experiences as well as guides for partnering employers. This report summarizes findings from a three-year study of the implementation of the ECCO program. ECCO was launched in 18 career academies in six school districts in three states: (1) California; (2) Florida; and (3) Georgia. The purposes of the study are to document the experiences of these schools in adopting the program and to assess the extent to which, when given support and resources, programs like ECCO can be fully implemented. The study also collected descriptive data to assess the promise of the program to improve student participation in career and college exploration activities and to improve their awareness of postsecondary options. Appended are: (1) Data Sources and Survey Response Analysis; (2) Additional Findings About Implementation; and (3) Additional Analyses of Student Outcomes and Methodological Explanations. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 38 tables, 12 figures, and 6 boxes.) [This report was written with Marie-Andree Somers.]
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Pub Date: |
2012-11-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
Career Development; Career Exploration; Personality Traits; Self Concept Measures; Story Telling; Interest Inventories; Career Counseling; Vocational Interests; Structured Interviews
Abstract:
In the field of career development, there is an acknowledged relationship between career assessment and career counseling. Traditional career assessment and more recent narrative approaches to career counseling are perceived as having an uneasy relationship because of their different philosophical bases. A sustainable future story for the field could be constructed that is guided by the complementarities of both. This article considers this potential complementarity and describes a qualitative Integrative Structured Interview (ISI) Process to construct stories about Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS). Narrative career counseling and the story telling approach are the foundation of a qualitative ISI process based on story crafting questions to demonstrate the complementarity of career assessment and story telling. (Contains 2 tables.)
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Pub Date: |
2012-10-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
Field Trips; Rural Areas; Distance Education; Career Exploration; Program Evaluation; Scientists; Science Careers; Student Attitudes; Middle School Students; Science Education
Abstract:
Physical field trips to scientists' work places have been shown to enhance student perceptions of science, scientists and science careers. Although virtual field trips (VFTs) have emerged as viable alternatives (or supplements) to traditional physical fieldtrips, little is known about the potential of virtual field trips to provide the same or similar science career exploration advantages as physical field trips. The overarching goal of this paper is to describe a VFT, zipTrips[TM], designed to provide middle school students, especially those in resource limited rural areas, with access to university scientists. Using zipTrips as a case example, the paper identifies and describes some of the core characteristics and elements of high quality authentic VFTs that foster student-scientist interactions. In addition, the paper uses program evaluation data to examine the impact of zipTrips on student perceptions of scientists.
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Pub Date: |
2012-12-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
Astronomy; Computation; Scientific Concepts; Cooperation; Motion; Career Exploration; Science Careers; Science Interests; Scientists; Foreign Countries; Social Networks; High School Students; College Students
Abstract:
In the spirit of historic astronomical endeavors, we invited school groups across the globe to collaborate in a solar distance measurement using the rare June 5/6th transit of Venus. In total, we recruited 19 school groups spread over 6 continents and 10 countries to participate in our Hetu'u Global Network. Applying the methods of French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, we used individual second and third Venus-Sun contact times to calculate the distance to the Sun. Ten of the sites in our network had amiable weather; 8 of which measured second contact and 5 of which measured third contact leading to consistent solar distance measurements of 152 [plus or minus] 30 million km and 163 [plus or minus] 30 million km, respectively. The distance to the Sun at the time of the transit was 152.25 million km; therefore, our measurements are also consistent within 1[sigma] of the known value. The goal of our international school group network was to inspire the next generation of scientists using the excitement and accessibility of a rare astronomical event. In the process, we connected hundreds of participating students representing a diverse, multicultural group with differing political, economic, and racial backgrounds. (Contains 7 figures and 1 table.)
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