Community College: Transitions

Community colleges are redesigning programs to prepare adults to enter the 21st century workforce. SRI has experience studying career pathways and partnerships with industry, using technology to streamline alignment between industry needs and academic programs, designing online tools for faculty professional communities, and evaluating evidence of workforce competence, particularly in high-paying STEM fields. Get more information on SRI’s past work on measuring reform to support real-world learning and students with disabilities.

Projects

teenage students in a classroom
Bridging the Divide: High School and College Dual Enrollment

SRI studied programs across several states that offer college enrollment to high school-age students, and recommended improvements.

Topics: Community College: Transitions School Improvement School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction School Improvement: Student Success
college student at a whiteboard drawing math equations in front of class
Bridging the Valley: A STEP Ahead for STEM Majors

SRI is evaluating the progress of programs that aim to reverse the trend of declining enrollment in STEM programs at four Virginia colleges, and increase the diversity of STEM majors at each institution.

Topics: Community College: Transitions Higher Education + Workforce Development Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education
students at computers in a classroom
Evaluation of CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computer Education

The National Science Foundation asked SRI to evaluate its program to transform undergraduate computing education on a national scale.

Topics: 21st Century Skills Community College: Transitions Higher Education + Workforce Development Learning Technologies School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education
three teenage students working on a laboratory activity
Evaluation of the California Linked Learning District Initiative

SRI is examining the impact of this program that combines strong academics with real-world experience. Its goal: to help students build a strong foundation for success in college and careers—and life.

Topics: Community College: Transitions School Improvement School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction School Improvement: Student Success
college students at their graduation in caps and gowns
Global Skills for College Completion

SRI provided formative evaluation services for this Gates Foundation effort to improve faculty instructional practice and thereby increase college graduation rates.

Topics: Community College: Transitions Evaluation Planning + Design Teacher Quality + Learning
students in a classroom
National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)

SRI documented the experiences of a national sample of students as they moved from secondary school into adult roles.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College + Workforce: Disabled Veterans: Transitions to Civilian Life Large-Scale Surveys Special Education/Disability
screenshot of 3D virtual environment
National Training and Education Resource

SRI is developing the next generation of online learning tools to meet the needs of a changing workforce.

Topics: 3D + Virtual Environments Community College: Transitions Energy + Sustainability Energy Efficiency Software Engineering Training Systems

Products + Solutions

NTER platform screenshot
National Training and Education Resource Training Platform

For the U.S. Department of Energy, SRI developed the NTER platform to meet the online training needs of a diverse 21st century workforce.

Topics: 3D + Virtual Environments Community College: Transitions Energy + Sustainability Training Systems

Press Releases

men in hard hats
Meet NTER, a 21st Century Model for Virtual Education and Job Training

SRI International will demonstrate the National Training and Education Resource (NTER), a web-based online learning platform for virtual job training, workforce development, and certification. NTER was envisioned by the Department of Energy and developed by SRI.

Topics: 21st Century Skills Community College: Transitions

SRI In the News

Department of Energy Creates Online-Learning Platform for Technical Training

The U.S. Department of Energy today unveiled the National Training and Education Resource, a new open-source online-learning platform designed to facilitate technical training.

Topics: Community College: Transitions Out-of-School Learning Software Engineering

Events

Louise Yarnall
Cafe Scientifique Silicon Valley @ SRI: Using Cognitive Science to Transform Assessment in College General Education

Louise Yarnall will discuss a study that involved prototyping a new assessment to track how well community college students are learning "big ideas" in the first two years of college and how well they are learning to apply these ideas to real-world problems.

Topics: Community College: Transitions

Publications

Sharing Models and Research to Build Leadership in Program Improvement

This presentation presents an overview of the architecture of problem-based learning (PBL) and a faculty perspective on how it provided support for classroom implementation of PBL in a STEM workforce course.

Topics: Community College: Transitions Teacher Quality + Learning
Contextualized Learning and Assessment

Contextualized instruction involves developing activities that involve students in applying knowledge in real-world situations, working on teams, reflecting on what they learned through an activity, and involves teachers in coaching more, which requires more formative assessment.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction
Getting on the Same Page using Scenario-Based Learning: An Alignment of Education and Industry Goals for Technician Education

This report examines how community college and industry experts rated a problem-based learning curriculum. The report indicates that industry experts and instructors diverge in their expectations about how "real-world," problem-based learning curriculum needs to be.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning
Domain-specific Assessment: What Foundational Concepts and Reasoning Skills are Community College Students Learning?

The Domain-Specific Assessment project developed a set of tools and assessment items that measure students’ capacity to apply knowledge rather than simply memorize vast amounts of it. An overview of the approach to the methodology is presented in this paper.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning School Improvement: Student Success
The Design Pattern: A Blueprint for a New Domain-specific Assessment

This presentation focuses on a scenario-based assessment to measure how well college students learn.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Learning Technologies
Global Skills for College Completion: Tools and Routines

Less than 30 percent of students complete an associates degree, and 60-80 percent need developmental education. How do we change this?

Topics: Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning Learning Technologies
The ATE Suitability Inventory: A Tool for Analyzing Features of Workforce Education Instructional Materials

This report documents the design and validation of a checklist intended to provide a consistent set of features that can be used to “tag” instructional materials so instructors can find and select them for their classrooms.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Teacher Quality + Learning
Poster: Assessment Research to Inform Community College Instructional Goals

A poster presenting the team's research on how to make visible, by means of assessment, the important, foundational knowledge in domain areas.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions
Meeting Student Challenges to Innovative Instruction with Improved Assessment Techniques

Presentation of an R&D project focused on the assessment of project-based learning involving community college instructors, and engagement in some of the reflection activities that helped instructors identify and measure the skills taught in innovative instruction.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction Teacher Quality + Learning
Using Knowledge about How People Learn to Define Learning Goals

How well are college general education classes preparing students to apply big ideas to real-world problems? What are the major steps of domain-specific assessment design?

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions

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