The District is exploring new ways to promote student success during and after high school, whether they enroll in college or transition directly into the workforce after graduation. Research suggests that paid internships in high school can keep students engaged in school and connect students to jobs after they graduate. In the 2021- 2022 school year, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) launched the Advanced Internship Program (AIP) for high school students in career and technical education programs. AIP connects students with school-year internships in their fields of study. Students are paid and receive school credit. In the 2022-2023 school year, 198 students were successfully placed in internships. The Lab and OSSE are working together to study how students who participate in AIP succeed during high school and after they graduate.
Two students work on lab experiment.
(Credit: Office of the State Superintendent of Education.)
Why is this issue important in DC?
In 2021, only 51 percent of DC high school graduates went on to enroll in college or another post-secondary program. OSSE created AIP to give students practical experience in an industry aligned with their studies. The experience is designed to help students understand whether the industry is the right fit for them. It also aims to prepare them to be successful in college and the workplace.
What did we do?
The Lab and OSSE are studying how well AIP prepares a student for college and the workplace. We will compare students who participated in AIP to a similar group of students who did not participate in AIP to see how their outcomes differ during school and after they graduate.
What have we learned?
We are awaiting results.
What comes next?
First, the Lab and OSSE will decide which outcomes to measure. For example, we may measure outcomes like communication skills or enrollment in college. We will consider factors like what matters most to AIP participants and which outcomes we can measure well with the data available. We’ll then analyze the data to estimate the impact of AIP on student success during and after high school. The information we learn can help OSSE determine how best to design its career and technical education internship programs to support students.
“The Advanced Internship Program will launch careers for hundreds of DC high school students who will have a chance to hone their skills through high-quality internships in competitive career fields that pay well”
What happened behind the scenes?
The Lab worked with OSSE to draft surveys for students, employers, and school staff to learn their opinions about how recruitment and orientation for AIP went. The survey also asked what outcomes from AIP matter most to them. This information is helping us think about what outcomes to study. We are also working with OSSE to create a logic model of the AIP program to support the design of our evaluation. Logic models serve as visual maps of a program, they outline the resources and stakeholders that drive activities in a program and capture ways we can assess program success in the short term and long term.