The Connect STEM Mentoring Program aims to provide professional and career connections to women in STEM. As a product of an ADVANCE grant funded by the National Science Foundation, this program strives to promote advancement for women in STEM. As a male-dominated field, women in STEM commonly face barriers to advancement opportunities which can…

The California State University (CSU) Project Rebound is a re-entry program that provides educational, social, financial, and case management to formerly incarcerated college students with the goal of helping them become successful post-incarceration and post-graduation. This exploratory study examines successful career-building strategies…

The purpose of this formative program evaluation of a military-to-civilian transition program at a university sought to evaluate participant perceptions of the program. The evaluation focused on the perceptions of program effectiveness after one year of program participation. Because the program was in its first year, it was appropriate to examine…

Purpose: This study aims to present the evaluation of a competency-based online professional development training program, PhD Progression, tied to a digital badge system, created to support PhD students across fields. Design/methodology/approach: This study took place at Boston University, a large, nonprofit, Carnegie Classified R1…

Student satisfaction is a key performance indicator in evaluating any degree program's performance. In light of the vast difference between online and traditional degree programs, factors that may significantly affect student satisfaction and thus contribute to the success of online degree programs still need to be explored. Previous literature on…

Students from rural Appalachian regions often face increased career development barriers within university spaces. As part of an NSF-funded program, we provided diverse, structured supports for a group of STEM majors from rural Appalachian backgrounds. We utilized narrative inquiry to interview 10 Program participants, which allowed us to explore…

The New York City P-TECH 9-14 schools are an educational model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems to improve outcomes across domains. The distinguishing feature of the model is a partnership among a high school, a community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both…

The New York City P-TECH 9-14 schools are an educational model that ties together the secondary, higher education, and workforce systems to improve outcomes across domains. The distinguishing feature of the model is a partnership among a high school, a community college, and one or more employer partners that focuses on preparing students for both…

In 2015, Abt Associates received a grant from the Institutes for Education Sciences (IES) for a five-year "Development and Innovation" study of PTC. The purposes of the study were to gauge progress in implementing PTC and to develop and test improvements where needed. Fein et al. (2020) summarize the IES study's approach and findings. A…

With increasing evidence highlighting the link between psychological factors such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and optimism on employability outcomes, this paper reports an evaluation of a unique student experience initiative called 'Life Design' developed to support the professional and personal development of undergraduate students. First year…

In this article, the authors describe how college transition programs and campuses can go about creating and curating a major and career ecology to support at-promise students and their major and career success. They review literature about the systemic barriers and lack of institutional support for at-promise students as it relates to their major…

For more than four decades, the United States has used the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program as a foreign policy tool to pursue its geopolitical interests. The program, which consists of training foreign military personnel at American institutions, aims to strengthen alliances and regional stability, while advancing…

Systemic inequalities in higher education have contributed to lower retention and completion rates among low-income, first generation, and racially/ethnically minoritized students, who we refer to as "at-promise" students. In response, educators have implemented comprehensive college transition programs that offer students holistic…

Many prior studies have explored average differences in initial levels of teaching effectiveness among graduates from different teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and the features of preparation that predict these differences. We focus on another important dimension of effectiveness--how graduates from different TPPs improve over time. Examining…

This case study describes a small randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing alternative strategies for monitoring and supporting academic achievement in Year Up's Professional Training Corps (PTC) program. Year Up is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing economically disadvantaged young adults for well-paying jobs with advancement…