ILPs, CTE, SEL and the 4th Industrial age

Keynote presentation to a middle school summit on career development sponsored by the Career and Technical Education Center which is a national center supporting state engagement in career development.Othe

USA educator perspectives regarding the nature and value of social and emotional learning

This paper discusses the US educator perspectives regarding the nature and value of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. This research is part of a larger study being conducted by 33 career development investigators from 15 countries. SEL skills are becoming increasingly critical to helping youth develop the competencies needed to become employable within the emergent 4th Industrial Revolution. Today’s youth must articulate how their competencies align to multiple career opportunities. They need relationship skills and social awareness to interact with different managers and work environments. Youth need self-management skills to advance in the workplace and engage in lifelong learning. For this study, educators were asked to provide written responses to a series of open-ended questions about their understanding of SEL, their perspective on SEL’s relevance to their own effectiveness as educators, and whether and how they perceive SEL as relevant to teaching in classroom settings. This paper will report on the results of how U.S. educators perceive the value and relevance of SEL. Using a modified grounded theory approach, responses from 40 educators were analyzed and 123 SEL themes emerged. The results will be discussed in relation to existing SEL and career readiness frameworks.First author draf

Designing quality programs that promote hope, purpose and future readiness among high need, high risk youth: recommendations for shifting perspective and practice

This paper uses a social justice perspective to recommend a number of program design strategies for improving high need, high risk youth access to quality education, career and workforce development. Globally, high need, high risk youth refer to the estimated 500 million youth who live on less than $2 per day, the estimated 600 million youth who are not in school, not employed, and not in training (i.e., NEET or Opportunity Youth). The recommendations are framed using a number of U.N. Sustainable Development Goals with the central aim being to increase access to decent work.First author draft2021-01-1

A longitudinal and multi-national study in impact of community well-being on individual well-being

Using the Gallup World Poll (2018), this study examined the subjective Individual Well-being (positive and negative affect) and subjective Community Well-being (perceptions for freedom of choice and social support) among 155 countries across an 8-year period. Using Latent Class Growth Analysis the results indicated that the 155 countries could be classified into three major groups—countries reporting high freedom of choice and high social support, low freedom of choice and low social support, and low freedom of choice and high social support. From the results of both multi-group Growth Mixed Model and Growth Curve Model, the three groups were found to vary with respect to positive and negative affect with higher positive affect and lower negative affect reported in countries classified as high freedom of choice and high social support, lower positive affect and higher negative affect reported in countries classified as low freedom of choice and low social support, and lower positive and lower negative affect reported in countries classified as low freedom of choice and high social support. These results indicate that higher freedom of choice in a country may encourage positive affect of people, and stronger social support systems of a country may prevent negative affect of people.First author draf

Teacher support and guidelines for diverse student learners during COVID-19

Teachers serving students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds are experiencing a myriad of challenges due to the pandemic that is exacerbating existing inequities and risks. The purpose of this study was to assess whether and to what extent teachers received access to professional development support that would enable them to more effectively respond to the education to the challenges experienced in managing through COVID-19 and evaluate the impact of this access on their perceptions on student engagement. Using the RAND 2020 American Teacher Panel (ATP) COVID-19 collected in October 2020, four clusters of support and resources were identified: Most Supported, Least Supported, Moderate Supported A (received support primarily with students with Disabilities) and Moderate Supported B (received support primarily with diverse backgrounds). Teachers classified as relatively less supported groups were more likely to be teaching in more urbanized settings with larger size schools than the other clusters and perceived their students as attending less often and being less ready for grade-level coursework. Recommendations for school psychologists and human service professionals organizing professional development to address teacher self-care and social emotional learning are described.First author draf

Promoting quality individualized learning plans throughout the lifespan: a revised and updated ILP how to guide 2.0

Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans throughout the Lifespan: A Revised and Updated ILP How to Guide 2.0 expands upon the guidance and resources in NCWD/Youth’s earlier ILP How to Guide. ILP How to Guide 2.0 provides career development resources and examples of ILP implementation for an expanded range of age groups and settings including elementary and secondary school, postsecondary education, workforce development programs and other non-school settings. It also offers strategies for building and supporting capacity at the local level to facilitate adoption of the ILP process and provides examples of how to ensure that ILPs are implemented with quality.Published versio

Developing STEM career identity among Latinx youth: impact of an intervention that integrates STEM learning with individualized learning plans

This study reports on the collaboration and impact of an after-school Latinx STEM intervention effort designed to develop both advanced science self-efficacy and career search self-efficacy (Solberg, Nord, & Good, 1994). The project team composed of different departments of a higher education institution partnered with a community-based organization in Boston to provide Latinx middle school students with an opportunity of learning science concepts using network science lenses within their community context that involve the current issues, such as COVID-19 and election. The youth also explore their interests, strengths and skills and the careers aligned with them, and learn how continuing to develop their network science skills expands their future occupational opportunities that they did not know how to or are not aware that they could access.Othe

Empowering women in finance through developing girls' financial literacy skills in the United States

This study examines the effectiveness of a financial literacy program, Invest in Girls (IIG), in promoting financial capability among high school girls. Using a quasi-experimental separate-samples pretest-posttest design and a longitudinal qualitative study, the study aims to assess the program efficacy and investigate the perspectives of the female students on its impact on their knowledge, behavior, and future goals and aspirations. The results indicated that the participants had significantly higher confidence for engaging in financial literacy after the program. The findings from the longitudinal study also suggested that that the program was influencing the students in positive ways, increasing their financial capability and leading them to consider wide occupational pathways available in finance. Given the lack of female leaders in the world of finance, the IIG program aims to address gender disparity in financial knowledge and highlight the importance of building financial literacy skills among girls.Published versio

The role of empathy in improving SEL skills among educators and sudents in era of COVID-19

First author draf

Embedding life design in future readiness efforts to promote collective impact and economically sustainable communities: conceptual frameworks and case example

This is the first of two sequential papers describing the design and first-year implementation of a collaborative participatory action research effort between Sociedad Latina, a youth serving organization in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston University. The collaboration aimed to develop and deliver a combined STEM and career development set of lessons for middle school Latinx youth. In the first paper, life design and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are described in relation to the rationale and the design of the career development intervention strategy that aims to help middle school youth discover the ways that learning advanced-STEM skills expand future decent work opportunities both within STEM and outside STEM, ultimately leading to an outcome of well-being and sustainable communities. In addition to providing evidence of career development intervention strategies, a qualitative analysis of the collaboration is described. The second paper will discuss two additional frameworks that guided the design and implementation of our work. As an example of translational research, the paper will provide larger national and regional contexts by describing system level career development interventions underway using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological and person–process–context–time frameworks.Published versio