By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) recently received a $1 million grant from the National Center for Education Research (NCER) to enhance its ongoing research into the educational and vocational paths available to young adults after high school. This initiative, a collaboration with the nonprofit MDRC and supported by data from the Washington Education Research & Data Center (ERDC), aims to better understand and support transitions from school to the workforce, including both traditional college degrees and non-degree pathways.
“After leaving high school, students face many options for what comes next. We want to help them make informed decisions about their futures, and this innovative research will surface evidence-based insights that we can share with learners and families,” says Michael Meotti, Executive Director at WSAC.
According to KC Deane, Associate Director of Research and Program Evaluation for the Washington Student Achievement Council Research Team, the funding, which will formally begin in July, will allow them to reflect and work alongside different communities in Washington. The objectives for this new award complement the existing funding and provide a critical avenue for sharing key learning with academic and research audiences.
“It creates an opportunity for us to work with researchers at a national organization that can help expand our learning and what we are able to do with the knowledge, and are able to produce for policy,” says Deane. “The fund will allow specifically for a more in-depth look into some key subgroups of students that we are interested in learning more about, and those certain populations as they navigate these trajectories. A part of our work is around racial equity, so we want to better understand how Black students, Latinx students, and Indigenous learners navigate those post-high school pathways.”
The project, which seeks to engage with practitioners to gain insights into effective strategies for guiding students at critical decision-making points, aims to provide actionable insights that can influence policy and improve educational outcomes.
“We are trying to make college affordable for students and to get both traditional and adult students to enroll in post-secondary education,” says Isaac Kwakye, WSAC Deputy Executive Director.
“One of the key things for us, is how can we help students and their families in our state,” continued Kwakye. “We know there are education benefits, as well as disparities. We see it all, and so for us, it is important that we are continually trying to learn what is working and how to better understand the different pathways and patterns that students are using going from high school into the labor market.”
The WSAC does more than focus on affordability and enrollment, but they prioritize these aspects with a level of high importance to accomplish goals set to help give more opportunities to students after completing high school.
Deane says that the additional funding will help WSAC better understand how to support more students across the state.
“Because of this additional funding, we will be able to do more work directly going into communities talking with learners, talking with staff, and workers in the college access space who support those learners to hear directly from people in these pathways, what it is like to experience these pathways and to face the choices that we are putting in front of our students as they navigate them,” says Deane.
Kwakye says that from time to time, students may embark on unsuccessful pathways and journeys after high school, due to the lack of resources and support, and the hope to find a way solution to problems and provide a pathway to success that not only impacts students locally, but that can also be a blueprint for other states to follow.
“We are hoping that through this research work, in addition to showing the evidence that we find in research reports, we can provide practical tools that students and parents can use to make that decision when it comes to their life after high school,” says Kwakye.
