Advancing Equity at Scale-Up: Research Priorities for College and Career Pathways

This report summarizes a three-year project designed to stimulate collaboration, build capacity, and prioritize research that can support equity in college and career pathway (CCP) students' success. CCPs combine career technical education (CTE) with rigorous academics, work-based learning, and coordinated, integrated systems of comprehensive student supports that personalize the learning experience to provide equitable access to postsecondary opportunities. Using a grounded theoretical approach, researchers worked iteratively with a collaborative of ten research and policy organizations, to design a series of four symposia. Through review of the literature, and of issues impacting equity as CCPs scale up, research recommendations were prioritized regarding topics, approaches and methodologies to inform policies and practices. Key lessons emerged on the implications of an equity lens in determining research priorities: (1) the importance of scholar-practitioners' role in the co-creation of research priorities through investigation of practical problems affecting equity in CCPs; (2) the value of Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) for mutual learning and capacity building, and the commitment required for effective RPP collaborations with CCP stakeholders--to address the causes of inequity and remove systemic barriers; and (3) the role of research in identifying best practices that enhance equity in CCP outcomes -- to both guide practice and inform local and state policymakers responsible for the systemic supports needed to scale CCPs. The symposia also produced criteria for prioritization of research, topical bibliographies, reports on the process and priorities determined at each symposium, and a network of college and career pathway researchers interested in pursuing the identified priorities. [For the executive summary, see ED617365.]