Future Career Thinking, School Valuing, and the School Success of Vulnerable Middle Grades Students

Background and Purpose. Research and theory suggest that when youth believe school lessons are relevant and valuable for possible career futures, students experience higher academic performance (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). For example, possible selves' theory asserts early adolescents are actively engaged in exploring future selves and such exploration influences attitudes towards school (Oyserman, 2008). Additionally, linking career information to schooling is more important for students vulnerable to poor outcomes including students from non-dominant race or ethnicity groups or low SES (Orthner, 2007). This presentation will report on findings from an evaluation of CareerStart, a teacher focused middle grades intervention that links core curricular lessons in math, science, social studies, and language arts with information about a variety of careers with diverse educational needs. Recent school reform efforts have called for closing persistent achievement gaps by increasing the relevance of instruction. CareerStart answers that call by systematically increasing career relevant instruction (CRI) in the middle grades. The present study examined the effect that increased CRI had on improving students' thinking about future careers and seeing school as valuable for their future.

Methods. CareerStart was implemented randomly in 7 of 14 North Carolina middle schools. Two cohorts of over 3,500 students were followed from 6th through 8th grades. We hypothesized that CRI would promote increased future career thinking and also higher school valuing among students who experienced higher levels of CRI across the middle grades. The future career thinking scale included four items such as I think about the job I might have after high school (alpha=.86). The school valuing scale included 7 items such as School is important for getting a job (alpha=.79). Analyses included descriptives and multilevel logistic regressions.

Results. Descriptive analyses revealed while future career thinking remained stable during the middle grades, school valuing steadily decreased. However, students who reported more CRI in their core classes increased their likelihood of being above the mean on both future career thinking by 10% (OR=1.103) and school valuing by 13% (OR=1.128), even after controlling for prior levels and student demographics. Multi-level logistic models, while underpowered with only 14 schools, found increased student valuing and future career thinking. Students in CareerStart schools were 41% more likely to report above average school valuing than students in control schools (p=0.012). Overall, the differences for future career thinking were positive but not significant. However among females, future career thinking significantly increased in treatment over control schools. Likewise, low SES students (lunch program eligible) reported significantly increased future career thinking in treatment over control schools. Conclusions and Implications. This study has broad practice and research implications. First, we hypothesize that student future career thinking and valuing are mediators of academic performance. Second, this universal pedagogical approach was introduced by a social work and education team, therefore demonstrating that such collaborations can positively address the psychosocial outcomes that influence academic achievement. Finally, results suggest that school social workers should partner with teachers and other staff to support student exploration of possible futures in order to promote academic success.