Career Development in Chicago: Offerings, Participation, and Outcomes

• In Event: Evidence on Participation in High School Career and Technical Education Programs and Student Outcomes

Abstract

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) recently embarked on an ambitious reimagining of its approach to career development to standardize CTE and WBL offerings and expand access to high-quality programming across the city. This effort has included creating career development experiences for students in middle grades (e.gs., CTE summer camps, career exploration days), scaling career connected learning approaches across secondary programming (e.g., work-based learning), and strengthening postsecondary transitions for graduates (e.g., Chicago Roadmap). Our mixed methods exploratory study documents the range of CTE and WBL offered across the district and examines access to and participation in these career development opportunities (CDOs), with an explicit focus on racial and geographic equity across Chicago. 

CPS has a history of strong decentralized decision making, which has resulted in considerable variation in career development programs and practices across schools. There are a number of different types of high schools available to CPS students, including comprehensive neighborhood, career academy, alternative, and selective enrollment high schools. Within any of these high schools may exist open-enrollment or selective programs including CTE Pathways. While decentralization and these sources of variation are complex, they are also benefits for understanding how a variety of approaches to CDOs and the contexts they are situated in are related to student outcomes.

Preliminary analysis has shown considerable variation in the demographics of CTE students across program clusters. For example, Black students are slightly overrepresented in nearly every CTE area; White students are overrepresented in Agriculture, Business, and IT and underrepresented in all other CTE areas; and Asian students are overrepresented in Business, IT, and Law and underrepresented in all other areas. CTE programs are concentrated on the South and West sides of the city, serving largely Black and Latinx communities. Drawing on the district’s novel systematic data collection on WBL opportunities, we find that participation in these opportunities also varies across schools and students districtwide. In addition to analyzing this variation, we also examine the relationship between CDO participation in middle and high school with secondary outcomes: high school choice, attendance, school connectedness, beliefs about the importance of high school for the figure, college aspirations, academic achievement, and graduation. Additionally, we examine postsecondary education and workforce outcomes: verified postsecondary plans, college enrollment, college persistence, and credential attainment.

The reasons for differences in participation and outcomes are not yet well understood, and this study will examine variations in program quality, structure, accessibility, and alignment with the job market in relation to the students they serve across the city. We have conducted dozens of interviews with district, school, and program staff. Preliminary analysis of interview data has shown considerable variation in the structures of the CDOs, how they are initiated and maintained, and counseling practices.

Findings from this study contribute to the CTE literature by documenting the CDOs across vastly different school contexts in Chicago, while also providing timely and relevant research to inform the district as they continually improve and scale their CTE and WBL programming.

Author

• Amy E Arneson, The University of Chicago
  Presenting Author