Infusing Career Orientation in the Middle-School Curriculum

Infusing Career Orientation in the Middle-School Curriculum 

In this American Educational Research Journal article, Michael Woolley (University of Maryland) and Roderick Rose, Dennis Orthner, Patrick Akos, and Hinckley Jones-Sanpei (University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill) report on their study of CareerStart, a program aimed at helping middle-school teachers make course content more career-relevant for their students. The program was implemented in seven of 14 middle schools in a diverse district of 3,295 students and followed over three years. Lessons in core curriculum areas are available online for grades 6-8 at this website: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/careerstart-grade6 (for grades 7 and 8, substitute those numbers for the last number in this URL). 

The result: CareerStart brought about significant gains in students’ math performance but had no effect on reading performance. The researchers attributed the gains in math (versus reading) to the more direct curriculum links to math and science careers.

“Advancing Academic Achievement Through Career Relevance in the Middle Grades: A Longitudinal Evaluation of CareerStart” by Michael Woolley, Roderick Rose, Dennis Orthner, Patrick Akos, and Hinckley Jones-Sanpei in American Educational Research Journal, Dec. 2013 (Vol. 50, #6, p. 1309-1335), http://aer.sagepub.com/content/50/6/1309.abstract; Woolley can be reached at mwoolley@ssw.umaryland.edu. 

 

From the Marshall Memo #514

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