ERIC Number: ED639175
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Jul
Pages: 44
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effects of At-Scale Career Pathway Investments on the Transition from High School to College. EdWorkingPaper No. 23-813
Sade Bonilla; Alexander Thim
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
In this study, we examine an at-scale effort to encourage the formation of career pathways in California, with the goal of estimating the initiative's causal effects on community college enrollment. We leverage a discontinuous assignment rule used to award grant funds to obtain credibly causal estimates of an ambitious $500 million effort to expand and establish career and technical education pathways between K-12 and community colleges. The competitive grant application process used a standardized rubric, and those receiving a score above a predetermined threshold were awarded funding (i.e., treatment group) while those just below received no funding (i.e., control group), allowing for a regression discontinuity (RD) design. We found that successful grantees did not experience overall enrollment increases in postsecondary partnerships; however, there were enrollment increases of 13.5 percent to 14.8 percent in CTE health sector courses, the program targeted the most for expansion. Manufacturing, and information communication technology, the other programs with the most expanded offerings, experienced no increases in postsecondary enrollment. The enrollment increases for the health sector were concentrated amongst female students in line with earlier findings by Bonilla (2020) documenting reductions in high school dropout rates for female students. These findings suggest that partnerships between K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions may be a viable avenue for increasing alignment between enrollment and high-growth sectors.
Descriptors: Career Pathways, College Enrollment, Educational Finance, Transitional Programs, Community Colleges, Partnerships in Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Health Education, Vocational Education, Enrollment Trends
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: AISR_Info@brown.edu; Web site: http://www.annenberginstitute.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges; Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A