This project starts with a comprehensive examination of a midsize public school district’s approach to career development. Researchers will conduct a deep exploration of career development opportunities at a district level, undertaking mixed methods research to examine how schools and district leaders make decisions about their program offerings, how key stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, teachers, counselors, school leaders, and community and workforce leaders) consider the goals of career development opportunities and their strengths and weaknesses. The research team will also explore how stakeholders think about program quality and the experiences of students as they prepare to transition to their post-high school lives. The researchers will also examine participation and outcomes of specific career development programs, including career and technical education (CTE) course taking and dual enrollment. After learning more about the needs of the district in this exploratory research, the research team will identify a single career development opportunity that is either new or can be scaled up in order to conduct an impact study. Throughout, the research team will pay close attention to differences in access and outcomes for students of different populations across schools, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability status, and level of academic achievement.
Study period: 4 years [09/01/2024–08/31/2028]
This project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305N240056 to Florida State University.
There are so many unanswered questions about CTE and career development opportunities, particularly questions of equity, access, program quality, and the how and why of what works and what doesn’t. Through this work, we’re excited about the insights we’ll be able to offer school and district leaders as they aim to provide CTE and career-focused programming that prepares students for high-earning jobs and a strong beginning to their career.
Walter Ecton, PhDThe research team brings expertise in CTE alongside deep backgrounds in relevant fields including high schools, transitions to college, school leadership, and program evaluation. The team is a partnership between Walter Ecton at the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and Christine Mokher, Stacey Rutledge, and Erica Harbatkin at Florida State University’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.
