Evidence from ExpandED’s STEM Options Program

By Clare Buckley Flack, John Sludden, and James J. Kemple 

(September 2024)

There is currently a heavy emphasis on career-connected learning for high school students in New York City. ExpandED Schools’ STEM Options (ES Options) program predates the newest of these initiatives. Launched in 2019, ES Options combines a credit-bearing STEM apprenticeship in the spring with a teaching internship in summer, designed to offer students hands-on learning experiences that increase their interest in STEM while exposing them to potential careers. Aspects of this model, including the provision of high school credit for a hybrid learning and work experience, have been adopted more broadly by NYC Public Schools and nonprofit organizations across the City. Insights into ES Options’ successes, challenges, and outcomes are therefore valuable to inform the continued development and improvement of local programs as well as broader efforts in the field.

In a previous report, the Research Alliance described ES Options’ implementation in 2022, highlighting notable challenges with program recruitment and persistence and outlining promising strategies to address these challenges. In this new report, we examine patterns of program participation for a more recent cohort of students (2023), and extend our analyses to investigate key student outcomes. Among our findings:

• ES Options implemented each of the major components of its model. Our analysis of program documentation and materials related to each feature of the ES Options model (i.e., STEM apprenticeships, project-based learning, and teaching internships) indicated that the program as a whole was implemented as intended. 
• There were some gains in program enrollment and persistence, but completion remained a challenge. ES Options markedly improved its rates of participation and retention through the end of the spring apprenticeship compared to the prior cohort. However, these gains receded by summer. While attrition varied by program provider– sometimes dramatically–just one in three students who started the apprenticeship completed the summer internship.     
• Participation in ES Options was not associated with statistically significant increases in STEM interest or Workforce Orientation beyond those of a comparison group. Drawing on surveys administered before and after the program, we measured students’ interest in STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science), as well as their “Workforce Orientation,” which captured problem solving and interpersonal skills. We found no statistically significant differences between participants and non-participants on either measure. Furthermore, the amount of programming that students engaged in did not correlate with STEM interest or career readiness gains. 
• Program participation was also not associated with postsecondary plans or plans for educational attainment. Four out of five respondents in both groups reported plans to attend a four-year college. Compared to non-participants, participants were somewhat more likely to report planning to pursue college only (versus planning to enter the workforce full-time or to combine college and work). 

Building from these insights, ExpandED piloted two new program models with the 2024 cohort. The first offers apprenticeships at schools during the school day as part of students’ regular schedules. The second folds the apprenticeship into a six-week paid summer intensive, avoiding a key point of program attrition. Although the evaluation of these in-school and summer intensive models is outside the scope of our work, initial feedback on the changes appear positive, and worth monitoring moving forward. 

This study was supported by a United States Department of Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Early Phase Grant (Award # U411C180023) to ExpandED Schools. For additional details on the methodology and findings, please see the Technical Appendix.