DATA PROJECT IS CAREER BASED INTERVENTION EFFECTIVE?

1. DATA PROJECTIS CAREER BASED INTERVENTION EFFECTIVE? EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP 630A SUBMITTED BY LINDA DALTON

2. Administrator’s Dilemma Each school year many students can be identified as being “at risk”. These students are the ones who are disadvantaged economically, financially, and socially. As administrators and teachers, we see some of these same students score poorly on standardized tests, maintain low GPA’s, and have very poor attendance. This continues through their school career as they get further and further behind the norm, with many of them eventually dropping out of school.

3. EFFORTS Most schools have tried many methods to correct this poor performance. We have tier 3, math interventions, reading interventions, and counseling. What is the answer? No one wants to see these students continue to do poorly.

4. The Solution? In the state of Ohio a program was developed 50 years ago to deal with the administrator’s dilemma. A program called the Career Based Intervention Program was created. CBIP was developed to help “at risk” students to improve their self motivation and develop a self-interest in being successful in school. Many times the program is combined with a work component. Students are learning to see the relevance of school and work.

5. BACKGROUND CBIP- Career Based Intervention in the state of Ohio has existed for 50 years. Similar programs exist in other states, but with different names. Identification of students- those students who are identified as disadvantaged in the area of economics, academics, or social skills are invited to attend the program There are seven key principles of CBIP. They are higher expectations, common curriculum, authentic learning, supportive structures, sense of belonging, continuous improvement and student identification.

6. History of CBIP The Ohio model identifies 6 areas of intervention to help get students back on track: Academic Intervention; employability skills; career exploration; implementation of a career plan; work-based learning; and participation in a career pathway with options for both further education and jobs. Many other states offer the same program but with a different name. The theme seems to be to intervene with programs for career maturity level, self-esteem, and academic intervention.

7. A BURNING QUESTION DO STUDENTS WHO PARTICIPATE IN AN 8TH GRADE PROGRAM REFERRED TO AS CAREER BASED INTERVENTION, SHOW SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT IN AREAS OF OAA, GPA, AND ATTENDANCE BY THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR?

8. Does being in a program such as CBIP help a student maintain a level of learning that will allow them to improve scores on OAA, GPA’s and attendance? These three things: low standardized test results, low GPA’s, and poor attendance have all been identified as possible criteria that might signal a future drop-out. Is CBIP the answer for helping schools combat the rate of high school drop-outs? Can being in CBIP help a student to achieve better at his grade level and become an employed adult?

9. Hypothesis My expectations for this study will be to show that after being in a class such as CBIP, the student will improve or at the very least maintain his level of learning. Many studies show that the 9th grade is the most crucial year for students in setting the tone for the remainder of their school career. Learning to feel good about their accomplishments and setting some important goals will hopefully help my students to enter the 9th grade with a better attitude about learning.

10. Is Improving Standardized Test Scores Enough? “Research shows that nearly 1/3 of all high school students leave the public school system before graduating(Swanson 2004) “The most powerful predictors of whether a students will complete high school include course performance and attendance during the first year of high school (Allensworth & Easton, 2005;2007) “Drop-out theories suggest that student departure is related to problems with not only student learning and academic engagement but social engagement as well” (Finn, 1989; Wehlage et al., 1989

11. Early Warning Systems “More students fail 9th grade than any other grade in high school” (Herlihy) “ On average, students who earn a 2.0 GPA or less in their freshman year have significantly lower graduation rates than students who earn a 2.5 or higher.(Heppen and Therriault) Implementing career interventions at the middle school level is an important factor that helps to increase at-risk students’ likelihood of completing high school by addressing attendance, behavioral issues, and poor grades and test scores.( Legum)

12. DATA

13. What Data Can Be Used to Show the Effectiveness of this Early Intervention? Grade point averages from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades will be used. Attendance data from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades years will be averaged. OAA Data averages for each class will be used in both Math and Reading. NCE’s are calculated for both OAA Math and Reading

14. Data Limitations Human Calculations Error Data Accumulated is subjective in some instances Different schools collect data in different ways, for example attendance and tardiness may be entered differently in the 6th grade elementary school as opposed to 7th and 8th grade Junior High Schools Outside interference cannot be calculated. During the middle of this group of students 7th grade year, budget cuts forced to district to cut busing.

15. Student GPA’s Let’s start with Student GPA’s. This data was calculated by recording all 20 students GPA’s from their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade years. When teaching this program, the question often arises “Which is most important the GPA or OAA test scores?” This question is asked because there does not seem to be time to concentrate on both. This is similar to the “which comes first the chicken or the egg?” To the schools, OAA is important for additional funding; to the students, data shows us that classroom success is important to drop-out prevention. The teacher’s job is to find a happy medium.

16. Student GPA’s

17. Average OAA reading percentiles

18. Average Reading Normal Curve Equivalency

19. Average Gain by Subgroups as Calculated by Ohio Department of Education Value-Added. Information for highest quatrain not show due to low number or participants

20. Average Math OAA Percentile

21. Average Math Normal Curve Equivalency

22. 6th, 7th and 8th grade tardy and attendance averages

23. Conclusion By having a group of 20 students participate in a program called CBIP, the students improved their GPA and OAA math scores significantly. Reading OAA and attendance were not significant. Many variables, already mentioned may have entered into these statistics. Research suggests that improving self-confidence and knowledge of career might be as important as improved test scores. In the future I would like to administer the Crites Career Maturity Inventory and the Coopersmith Self- Esteem Inventory at the beginning and again at the end of my 8th grade year

24. Conclusion (cont) I do feel that due to research showing that the 9th grade year is the most important year of school to indicate potential drop-outs, making progress or staying the same during the 8th grade year is an important accomplishment. In the future years, I may focus more on attendance than I have in the past after learning what I have from completing this research. I would also like to see more progress in the reading OAA in the future.

25. Unpredictable factorsThis is a graph of a student’s OAA reading percentile. Student X ‘s parents divorced at the beginning of his 4th grade year and one of his parents announced a chance of sexual preference moving student x away from his birth parent and into the home of a same-sex partner. These kind of life events cannot not be predicted by testing or GPA’s. These kind of changes in a student’s life need to be addressed as swiftly as a reading deficiency.

26. Life Happens I know that there needs to be a way to show teachers’ accountability, but after completing this research and reading all the facts and statistics about drop-outs and the reason for dropping out, I am more convinced than ever that programs such as mine need to exist. My preceding slide is the most perfect example I could find.

27. QUESTIONS I would like to continue this research topic and add some more components to it. 1. What does longitudinal data show? 2. How do students in this program compare to students who may be identified as “at risk” but not enrolled in this program? 3. How do scores of OAA and OGT compare in passage rate?

28. Bibliography (2008). Fact Sheet Ohio Career Based Intervention (CBI)- The Model. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Department of Education. (2011). Middle/Early High School Intervention for At-Risk Students-Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. Best Practices Clearinghouse. Failure is Not an Option. (2012). Public Agenda, 1-5. Balfanz, R. a. (2007). Preventing Student Disengagement in Middle School. Educational Psychologist, pp. 222-234. Balfanz, R. D. (2012). What is the Middle School Moment? Drop Out Nation. Heppen, J. a. (2009). Developing Early Warning Systems to Identify Potential high School Dropouts. American Institute for Research, 1-11. Kennedy, K., Peters, M., & Thomas, M. (2012). How to Use Value- Added Analysis to Improve Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin-Sage. Kennelly, L. a. (2007). Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs With Appropriate Interventions.

29. Bibliography (cont.) National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research. Legum, H. a. (1982-2004). Impact of a Career Intervention on At- Risk Middle School Students' Career Maturity Levels, Academic Achievement, and Self- Esteem. Professional School Counselors, pp. 148-154. PalladinoSchulthesis, D. E. (2005). Elementary Career Intervention Programs: Social Action Initiatives. Journal of Career Development, 185-193. Price, M. (2012). Excel 2010. Warwickshire, United Kingdom: In Easy Steps Limited. Rumberger, R. a. (2005). Test Scores, Dropout Rates, and Transfer Rates as Alternative Indicators of High School Performance. American Educational Research Journal, 3-42. Sadker, D. a. (2011). Teachers, Schools, and Society: A brief Introduction to Education. New York: McGraw Hill.