Findings from Achieving the Dream’s Open Education Resources (OER) Degree Initiative, which helps colleges reduce the financial burden on students by developing course pathways using free and openly licensed instructional materials
This brief describes the successes and challenges the districts have experienced in fostering access and equity in Linked Learning pathways, examining five groups of students frequently underserved by traditional schools: students with low prior achievement, English learners, African-American students, Latino students, and female students. Throughout the evaluation and in this brief, we focus on data … Continue reading Access & Equity in Linked Learning: A Report on Pathway Access and Academic Outcomes for Traditionally Underserved Students
The Open Educational Resources (OER) Degree Initiative, led by Achieving the Dream (ATD), seeks to boost college access and student success by supporting the redesign of courses needed for a degree using OER in place of proprietary instructional materials. ATD’s programs aim to help community colleges throughout the United States increase student success through data-informed … Continue reading Launching OER Degree Pathways: An Early Snapshot of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative and Emerging Lessons
Linked Learning is an approach for transforming high schools to prepare all students for college, career, and life. It works through career-themed pathways that integrate college preparatory academics, rigorous technical training, work-based learning, and supports to help students stay on track. With support from The James Irvine Foundation, SRI International has evaluated this approach at … Continue reading What it Takes to Create Linked Learning: A Report on Lessons Learned from Evaluating the Approach in Practice
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success initiative seeks to understand what is required for technology applications to produce positive student impacts at scale. SRI analyzed the features of 137 different courses from 12 major postsecondary courseware-related projects and performed a quantitative meta-analysis of student outcomes to estimate the impact of digital courseware on … Continue reading A Review of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Postsecondary Success Portfolio: Lessons from Five Years of Funding Digital Courseware
SRI examined the academic and economic impacts and implementation of the OER Degree Initiative. The OER Degree Initiative seeks to boost college access and completion, particularly for underserved students, by engaging faculty in the redesign of courses and degree programs through the replacement of proprietary textbooks with open educational resources (OER). SRI, along with partner … Continue reading OER Degree Initiative
Los Angeles City College’s STEM Pathways Program is supporting success for students who are underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Launched in 2016, the STEM Pathways Program at Los Angeles City College aimed to increase low-income and Hispanic/Latinx students’ participation and success in STEM fields. The program included STEM tutoring, specialized counseling, faculty mentoring, math boot camps, … Continue reading Evaluation of LA City College’s STEM Pathways Program
SRI Education leads a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study on the schools’ effectiveness in Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio. SRI researchers identified and recruited 39 inclusive STEM-focused high schools (ISHS) and 3,022 comprehensive (or traditional) high schools serving similar student populations but without a school-wide STEM focus in North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio. An additional comparison school … Continue reading iSTEM: Impacts of Inclusive STEM High Schools on Student Outcomes
The rapidly expanding Linked Learning approach blends career technical and college preparatory course sequence in a single high school pathway, representing the convergence of two strands of high school reform from the past thirty years. Using data from nine California districts, we examine the effect of high school Linked Learning participation on students’ early community … Continue reading Community College On-Track Indicators for Linked Learning Students
SRI evaluated NGC projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand the technology features and implementation practices that achieve positive educational impacts at scale. The Next Generation Courseware Challenge (NGC) was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop personalized courseware to improve learning outcomes and postsecondary success, particularly for … Continue reading Evaluation of the Next Generation Courseware Challenge
SRI examined the impact of a program that combines strong academics with real-world experience. Its goal: help students build a foundation for success in college, careers—and life. In 2009, recognizing the challenges inherent for individual schools or pathways trying to redesign the high school experience, The James Irvine Foundation launched the California Linked Learning District … Continue reading Evaluation of the California Linked Learning District Initiative
This research brief compares the postsecondary outcomes of students in certified Linked Learning pathways with those of peers with similar demographic characteristics and prior achievement in traditional high school programs. Certified pathways are those deemed to have met established quality standards through an external review. We found that Linked Learning students enrolled in college, remained … Continue reading Linked Learning and Postsecondary Transitions: A Report on the Early Postsecondary Education Outcomes of Linked Learning Students
To increase participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers, some states have promoted inclusive STEM high schools. This study addressed the question of whether these high schools improve the odds that their graduates will pursue a STEM major in college. State higher education records were obtained for students surveyed as seniors … Continue reading Broadening Participation in STEM College Majors: Effects of Attending a STEM-Focused High School
SRI’s study of the largest UC outreach program to increase college-going opportunities for underserved students included analysis of EAOP college outcomes relative to those of matched comparison samples. In 2013, SRI conducted the first independent evaluation of the Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) in 10 years. Using extant high school and postsecondary data, SRI assessed … Continue reading Study of University of California Early Academic Outreach Program
The University of California (UC) established the Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) in 1976 to improve access to UC for students from underserved schools, targeting low-income, first-generation college, and minority students who have traditionally been underrepresented in postsecondary education. This report assesses the current status and success of the EAOP since the last independent evaluation … Continue reading Promoting Access to College in an Era of Fiscal Constraints: The University of California’s Early Academic Outreach Program