ERIC Number: EJ1245975
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1085-5300
EISSN: N/A
Evaluating Innovations for Improving College and Career Readiness in Rural Schools
Mokher, Christine G.; Lee, Steve; Sun, Christopher
Research in the Schools, v26 n1 p48-63 Spr 2019
We explore the impacts of a Consortium of rural high schools and colleges in Tennessee engaged in partnership activities to improve high school students' college and career readiness. These 29 Consortium schools received support from the federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to scale up local promising practices, including distance and online learning, college partnerships to boost dual enrollment, professional development for teachers, and college and career counseling to students. Propensity score matching was used to select 29 comparison schools from among 288 regular high schools statewide. We used a quasi-experimental, matched-control study to compare students in Consortium schools to those in matched comparison schools and found that even though most of the Consortium's components of the intervention were implemented with at least moderate fidelity, most of the impacts on student outcomes were relatively small in magnitude and were not statistically significant for all cohorts. Outcomes with positive impacts include testing college ready, participating in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, receiving a score of 3 or greater on an AP examination, enrolling in college, and persisting in college. These findings suggest that schools faced considerable challenges to reforming college and career readiness that might reflect deeper issues associated with developing and maintaining relationships and changing the cultures of schools.
Descriptors: Career Readiness, College Readiness, Comparative Analysis, Consortia, Intervention, Advanced Placement, Outcomes of Education, Rural Schools, High School Students, Academic Persistence, School Culture, Barriers, Educational Change, Federal Aid, Faculty Development, Dual Enrollment, Career Counseling, Distance Education, Online Courses, Scores, Program Descriptions
Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA). Web site: http://www.msera.org/publications-rits.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Tennessee
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A