Does Technology-Based Advising Promote Equity in Career and Technical Education? Issue Focus
Author: Rosen, Rachel
Date: 2020-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Career Education,Technical Education,High School Students,Workplace Learning,Vocational Education,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Credentials,Computer Software,College Credits,Vocational Interests,Career Counseling,Decision Making,Educational Policy,Career Choice,Cost Effectiveness,Online Systems

Modern high school career and technical education (CTE) programs are often referred to as &quot;high-quality CTE,&quot; and they are designed to help students build career skills and earn credentials through sequenced coursework, postsecondary credit acquisition, and exposure to relevant work-based learning experiences. These kinds of programs, which are on the rise, are poised to expand even more in the coming years. The updated Perkins V legislation (passed in 2018), which provides funding and oversight for state secondary and postsecondary CTE programs, encourages the development of more work-based learning opportunities and continues to push states to increase the academic rigor of CTE through a variety of means, including an emphasis on attaining industry-recognized credentials (for example, Autodesk AutoCAD, Adobe Expert) and earning postsecondary credit while still in high school. While career assessments that include an inventory of students' stated interests have been used for many years to help students identify possible career paths, an assessment of interest alone may be inadequate for a variety of reasons. In particular, research indicates that stated interests can be heavily influenced by the internalization of societal or community expectations and biases. Additionally, career counselors, like all members of society, are also susceptible to the internalization of biases, which can in turn influence their recommendations to students. Technology-based career-advising tools may help. Most such tools walk students through a series of holistic assessments designed to measure qualities like aptitude and personality, and they generate career recommendations to students that match these measured attributes. Because the tools yield recommendations based on the results of these assessments, rather than on social expectations, they may serve to increase equity by democratizing recommendations and access to information about careers across a diverse student population. While many schools across the country use these tools, however, there is currently little evidence about their efficacy for supporting students in making decisions about CTE and careers. For this reason, MDRC -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan social science and education policy research institute -- has partnered with two technology companies that make popular career-advising software for students, Naviance and YouScience, to test whether and how these tools affect student thinking and decision making, and whether they are viable tools for supporting students as they identify and pursue CTE and future careers. With funding from the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences, MDRC is beginning a study of the use of these tools that will use a rigorous school-level random assignment research design, paired with a study of the implementation of technology-based advising tools and a cost-effectiveness analysis. The study will evaluate the effects of these tools on high school students' self-awareness and understanding of potential career pathways, their CTE course-taking patterns, and their engagement with school and progress toward graduation. The objective of this study is to tell a comprehensive story about career advising tools from multiple perspectives. The evaluation will be of interest to policymakers who want to understand the impacts and costs of these tools, and to teachers, parents, and students wishing to learn more about how these technology-based advising tools affect student outcomes.