NSF ATE CREATE Center Longitudinal Targeted Research Study

The project, NSF ATE CREATE (California Regional Consortium for Engineering Advances in Technological Education) Center Longitudinal Targeted Research Study, will contribute to a growing understanding of the role of two-year institutions in providing academic and career pathways for technicians in the advanced technological fields associated with engineering technology, such as information technology, manufacture technology, and renewable energy. Through the development and use of data mining and data analytic tools and procedures, the research team will investigate student educational and economic achievement over a twelve-year period of time. Building on partnerships among academic institutions, state-level agencies and industry, the project will develop and serve as a model for longitudinal data mining and analysis of institutional data that can be replicated at two-year institutions. The project will investigate patterns of course-taking, specifically CREATE courses and course materials, to discover relationships between patterns of course taking and student academic success (e.g., retention, certificate and degree attainment) and success in the STEM workforce (e.g., wage increases and wage levels).

This exploratory descriptive empirical investigation will document, identify, and match a list of courses from 2002 to 2014 to the state-level K-16 system of student data and employment development department labor market information to discover student academic and career pathways. To investigate the contribution of course taking to student academic and career success, the project will conduct a series of descriptive and regression analyses to identify relationships between patterns of course taking and expected outcomes (e.g., retention, certificate and degree attainment and wage increases an wage levels).