From our work with our partners, we know that advanced coursework is an incredible opportunity to promote college success for students. As a result, we often conduct an Advanced Academics analysis with the goal of supporting districts in increasing student access to and success in advanced academics opportunities with a focus on equity.

To understand opportunities for growth, we explore various questions, including the following:

• Who participates in advanced coursework opportunities? How has participation changed over time, and what equity gaps may exist by demographics, campus, etc.?

• What are the current outcomes of students that participate in these courses? Do students go on to earn college credit? What are the long-term college success outcomes of these students?

• What practices has the district implemented to ensure teacher success? What opportunities exist to increase teacher and student performance?

• What are students’ motivations for engaging in advanced coursework? 

• What message is communicated at the district level regarding advanced coursework, and how does this compare to the internalized understanding of counselors and students?

In addition to advanced academics, many of our clients are interested in understanding and improving their current CTE offerings and programs. We have supported districts with their CTE strategic questions in a number of different ways.

• Are students meeting accountability measures? Which courses / programs of study / schools help promote students reaching CTE completer / concentrator status, and ultimately earn a certification in high school?

• What impact does CTE participation have on college enrollment? How does CTE participation in different programs of study impact college enrollment? Often, this analysis helps directly address staff / adult misconceptions around CTE pathways being for students not enrolling in college.

• What CTE pathways should we offer to better promote student success? Using regional labor market data and research on student outcomes by CTE pathways, we help provide guidance to districts on high-priority programs they should offer to promote students attaining a living wage. 

• What pathways are our students / parents most interested in? We have supported a handful of districts in administering student and parent surveys to incorporate community interest into their decision-making around CTE offerings. 

• What colleges provide strong degree programs in each CTE program of study? To help support students in taking the necessary steps in their career pathway, we have supported partners in better communicating strong postsecondary opportunities aligned with students’ current pathways and arming counselors / advisors with these resources.

Beyond the analyses we mentioned above, we also have supported our partners with a number of other strategic questions. While we included a number of examples below, we would love to partner with you to see how we can answer your specific “top of mind” questions!

• High school math pathways - We supported a district partner in understanding the impact of their change in their HS course offerings (order in which students took Geometry and Algebra 2) on students reaching higher level advanced math courses and attaining higher SAT scores. 

• Impact of external partners - We have supported multiple district partners by evaluating the impact student participation in these programs (e.g., college access providers) has had on student success metrics such as college enrollment, persistence, and attainment. 

• Impact of college persistence efforts - For a district that has dedicated staff to promote student success in college, we helped demonstrate the impact of the district’s efforts on improving student persistence in college. We also helped the district understand which programmatic components were having the most impact on which student groups.  

• Impact of test prep vendors/providers - We have supported district partners in understanding the impact of student usage of test prep providers on SAT scores to inform their wider test prep implementation strategy. 

• Where your students see the most college success - We have conducted multiple analyses to demonstrate what colleges promote better success rates for different student groups in districts. These analyses can then be shared with counselors to support their advising of students. 

• What courses are specific student groups struggling in - One of our district partners was struggling with the graduation rates of their EB/EL students. We were able to conduct an analysis that identified the key courses (and teachers) that were contributing to this gap. 

• College and career outcomes of our SPED students - For another partner, we conducted a data analysis across all college and career outcomes for their Special Education students. We were also able to put these outcomes into context by comparing the district’s SPED results to SPED results in other districts and the state.