Job Shadowing As a Mechanism for College and Career Readiness
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JOB SHADOWING AS A MECHANISM FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS by Neil English Bachelor of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 1997 Master of Education, University of Pittsburgh, 2002 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education University of Pittsburgh 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by Neil English It was defended on June 27, 2018 and approved by Dr. Mary Margaret Kerr, Professor, Department of Administrative and Policy Studies Dr. Richard Correnti, Associate Professor, Department of Learning Sciences and Policy Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Sean Kelly, Associate Professor, Department of Administrative and Policy Studies ii Copyright © by Neil English 2018 iii JOB SHADOWING AS A MECHANISM FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS Neil English, EdD University of Pittsburgh, 2018 Schools currently face problems in preparing students for their post-secondary pursuits. The current job market remains unsaturated and almost half of all students that attend college end up dropping out. Almost a third of the students that do graduate end up working in a field unrelated to their course of study and college costs and debt are on the rise. To combat these issues, many schools require students to participate in job shadowing programs in hopes of providing authentic work experiences without the deleterious effects of adolescent work. The purpose of this research is to better determine whether the job shadowing program at Mountainside Junior-Senior High School provides students with a more acute awareness of career decision making self-efficacy, knowledge of career entry requirements, and ideal job characteristics. More broadly, however, the hope is to gain insight as to whether job shadowing experiences do what many think they do; and that is, to arm high school students with a better ability to make career-related decisions upon matriculating to their post-secondary educational and job related pursuits. A Randomized Control Trial (RCT) with two conditions on a volunteer sample of 30 ninth-grade students at Mountainside Junior-Senior High School was conducted. The treatment consisted of a one-day job shadowing experience of the students’ (and families’) choice; wherein iv the student closely observed the work of an experienced employee for approximately three to seven hours. In the treatment group, job shadow placements included working in an auto body shop, observing a symphony orchestra flutist, working in a law firm, and observing a hospital nurse, amongst others. The treatment group was also administered an hour-long curriculum intervention designed to enhance college and career readiness and to prepare students for their job shadow placements. Although no statistically significant differences in outcomes between the treatment and control groups were found, students were qualitatively appraised as developing a more acute awareness of the job preparation necessary to acquire a job. Additionally, many students either found the experience “very useful” or “extremely useless.” These extremes are worthy of further consideration and will be discussed in more detail. Overall, this research provides much needed insight concerning job shadowing and informs current practices at Mountainside Junior-Senior High School and countless other high schools across Pennsylvania and the United States. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ................................................................. 2 2.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..................................................................................... 5 2.1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA: PREPARING YOUTH FOR THE LABOR FORCE ........................................................ 5 2.2 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE 20TH CENTURY ............................ 10 2.3 COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS ...................................................... 14 2.3.1 Research Methodology: Surveys .................................................................. 14 2.3.2 Research Methodology: Mixed Methods (Surveys and Interviews) ......... 15 2.3.3 Research Methodology: Mixed Methods and Document Analyses ........... 16 2.3.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 18 2.4 PA CODE § 339.31: PENNSYLVANIA’S EFFORTS TO SUPPORT COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS ....................................................................... 19 2.5 ADOLESCENT WORK EXPERIENCE: PROS AND CONS ...................... 22 2.5.1 Research Outlining Possible Benefits of Adolescent Work Experiences .. 23 2.5.2 Research Outlining Possible Risks of Adolescent Work Experiences ...... 25 2.6 JOB SHADOWING ........................................................................................... 27 vi 2.7 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 30 3.0 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 33 3.1 INQUIRY SETTING AND STAKEHOLDERS ............................................. 33 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN AND INSTRUMENTATION .................................... 35 3.2.1 Randomized Control Trial ............................................................................ 35 3.2.2 Curriculum Intervention .............................................................................. 38 3.2.2.1 Part I - Success in the New Economy ................................................ 38 3.2.2.2 Part II - Career Key (CK) Assessment .............................................. 38 3.2.2.3 Part III - Naviance Road Trip Nation ............................................... 39 3.2.2.4 Part IV - Job Shadowing Guiding Questions ................................... 40 3.2.3 Pre and Post Survey ...................................................................................... 40 3.2.4 Survey Design ................................................................................................. 41 3.2.4.1 Readability Analysis ........................................................................... 41 3.2.4.2 Demographic Information .................................................................. 42 3.2.4.3 College and Career Readiness ........................................................... 42 3.2.4.4 Career Exploration and Decision Making Self-Efficacy ................. 43 3.2.4.5 O*NET Work Context Questionnaire and O*NET Education and Training Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 44 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 45 4.0 RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 49 4.1 INFERENTIAL STATISTICS ......................................................................... 59 4.2 MULTIPLE COMPARISONS CORRECTION ............................................ 65 4.3 SUMMARY OF SURVEY DATA ANALYSIS .............................................. 66 vii 5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................... 68 5.1 LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................. 71 5.2 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 74 5.3 PROCESS EVALUATION ............................................................................... 77 5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ........................................................................................................................ 81 5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING JOB SHADOWING .... 83 APPENDIX A .............................................................................................................................. 87 APPENDIX B .............................................................................................................................. 93 APPENDIX C .............................................................................................................................. 94 APPENDIX D .............................................................................................................................. 95 APPENDIX E .............................................................................................................................. 98 APPENDIX F .............................................................................................................................. 99 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 102 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Randomization summaries for demographic questions .................................................. 37 Table 2: Alignment of Inquiry Question, Instrument, and Methods/Analyses ............................. 46 Table 3: Summary statistics for questions related to “confidence.” ............................................. 49 Table 4: Summary statistics for questions related to “awareness.” .............................................