Building a 1+3-Year High School to College Pathway to Prepare Students for High-demand Jobs in Information Technology

Seattle Community College District Office, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to create pathways for high school students to pursue training that leads to a Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology (IT) from Seattle community colleges, thus preparing the students for high-demand IT jobs. The pathways will enable high school students to earn up to one year of college credit toward the degree. As a result, it will be possible for them to complete their degrees in just three years after transfer to college. This project has the potential to demonstrate how coordination between high schools and community colleges with Bachelor of Applied Science programs in technical fields can help students embark and persist on pathways toward high paying careers. The project addresses the national need for a trained workforce for high demand jobs in areas such as Applications Development, Cyber Security, IT Networking and Data Analytics, while also diversifying the workforce. The project will pursue two primary goals: 1) Create an IT 1+3 Pathway, and 2) Recruit students into the IT 1+3 Pathway by launching an IT Academy at two Seattle Public High Schools with high populations of lower-income students. To achieve the first goal, the three community colleges within the Seattle Colleges District will align foundational college IT courses with high school dual credit IT curriculum, and work with high schools to chart the IT 1+3 pathway. To achieve the second goal, a community-based organization, Computing for All, will assist with community outreach to students and their parents/guardians to ensure the pathway serves a diverse cohort of students, including students from groups that are underrepresented in IT fields. An onboarding class will help students learn about IT careers while they build the skills needed to successfully pursue the IT degree. The partnering institutions will provide extensive support to students in the IT Academies. The support will include mentoring, tutoring, and field trips to help the students succeed in the academy and transition seamlessly to bachelor-degree pathways at local community colleges upon high school graduation. The City of Seattle will inform and advise the project to address digital equity issues for students and communities. A Technical Advisory Committee representing small, mid-size, and large IT companies in the region will inform the work of the IT 1+3 Project, ensuring it is responsive to the enormous need for qualified IT professionals in the region. The evaluation plan will include quantitative and qualitative measures to assess the project's impact on students, faculty, and schools. Once the IT 1+3 pathway is established, the project includes a plan to sustain the pathway through the normal operations of both the high schools and the colleges. The IT 1+3 Project builds on other NSF and ATE projects that are developing pathways to Bachelor of Applied Science degrees in Washington State, with the potential to result in a sustainable and replicable model for similar high school to college pipelines in IT and other technical fields. This project is funded by the NSF Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.