Students' Transitions from High School to College and to the Job Market

1 Course Unit

Scope and Audience: This course is appropriate for both masters level and doctoral level students in fields relevant to education, policy, or social science. Special emphasis will be given to develop research proposal that address gaps detected in the literature pertaining to issues and factors affecting students' transitions from high school to college and to the job market. The ultimate goal of the coursework is to critically analyze and have informed opinions of the state of knowledge regarding factors affecting students' college choice, access, and success, as well as how these choices impact their job market prospects. Course Description and Objectives: This course examines existing research on the analysis of college access and success, the transition from high school to college, community colleges, labor market opportunities, and the policies, interventions, and initiatives that have been developed to address inequities and inequities in students' college plans, academic preparation, and financial access. Particular attention will be paid to issues of poverty, race, and ethnicity. The topics studied are informed by sociological, economic, and anthropological theories. Given that community colleges enroll close to 50% of total undergraduate students, and serve as the primary provider of college education for underrepresented, first-generation, low-income, and minoritized students, their role as a potential equalizing engine in the American higher education system will be studied. Specifically, we will study the diverse set of theoretical frameworks and methods that researchers have been using to understand these institutions and will assess the extensive evidence we have to date regarding their effects on education and labor market outcomes. Expectations: Students are expected to be engaged intellectual thinkers and active participants in the pursuit of knowledge, not just passive recipients of information. This course is reading intensive and the majority of class time will be spent in a seminar format discussing the assigned readings. There will be opportunities for students to take turns leading discussion sessions using a set of guiding questions generated by the students own creative and original thinking with the help of the instructor. These student-professor led discussion sessions will occupy about half of our class time while the other half will be lecture and presentation by the instructor along with presentation of work in progress of final papers to gain collective feedback. Fall 1 Course Unit