Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Growth of Career Pathways
- The TAACCCT Grant Program
- Scaling Up Career Pathways Through TAACCCT
- Data and Methods
- Analyzing TAACCCT Grants Using the Career Pathways Framework
- TAACCCT Grants Integrating Career Progression
- More TAACCCT Grants Which Include Career Progression
- Recommendations
Data and Methods
Our team’s study of TAACCCT began almost three years ago when we analyzed approximately 220 third-party evaluation reports.1 This research confirmed that career pathways implementation was widespread in TAACCCT grants, with evaluators reporting the career pathways included stacked and latticed credentials, comprehensive student supports, credit for prior learning, and partnerships with employers and workforce agencies emphasizing employment and economic recovery.
Using meta-analysis methodology, we dug deeper into 36 evaluation reports that our team determined had used some of the most rigorous methods to estimate the average effects of TAACCCT grant programs on student outcomes. Our research team found positive effects on both education and employment outcomes for TAACCCT participants, with the magnitude of effects being greater for program and credential completion than post-program employment and pre- to post-program wage change.2
These promising results and emerging findings from the federal evaluation of TAACCCT, as well as other secondary analysis3 encouraged us to dig even deeper with our research, to determine what more TAACCCT could contribute to guiding future policy and practice.
Citations
- Phase one of this research on TAACCCT is discussed by Ivy Love and Debra Bragg, “What Can TAACCCT Teach Us? Leveraging Past Lessons for the Future of Work,” EdCentral (blog), New America, October 9, 2018, source
- Results of this meta-analysis are discussed in Grant Blume, Elizabeth Meza, Debra Bragg, and Ivy Love, Estimating the Impact of the Nation’s Largest Single Investment in Community Colleges (Washington, DC: New America, 2019), source
- Results of additional secondary analysis of TAACCCT third-party evaluations are summarized in Impacts of Key Community College Strategies on Non-Degree Credential Completion by Adult Learners (Indianapolis, IN: DVP-PRAXIS, November 2019), source