PROCESS AND OUTCOMES
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Process
The Association of American College and Universities has identified “Ten High Impact Practices” that are positively related to student learning, retention and graduation rates in college. TfC incorporates eight of these practices in its pedagogy and curriculum including:
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Outcomes
Data from longitudinal surveys, in-depth interviews, written reflections, and correspondence between instructors and students, student research team leaders and team members indicates that seminar participation is positively related to outcomes that enhance:
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PRE-COLLEGE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CAPACITIES
Tools participation helps students develop relevant community, college and career cognitive and personal capacities and the confidence that comes with the them.
Capacities Developed by TfC
- Research methods, skills and mindsets
- Analytical reasoning required to solve unscripted, real world problems
- Collaboration with students from a range of backgrounds and diverse perspectives
- Oral and written communication
- Civic engagement that connects volunteering to policy formation to community change
- Intellectual leadership (among students who enrolled in Tools multiple times and served as leaders of peer-led research teams)
Capacities in Action
Applied Research. Research problem solving methods learned in Tools have--under the direction of Dr. Valerie Feit at Rye Neck High School, New York--been used to study:
Community Consultants. As part of an elective at Rye Neck High School, students:
Government Interns. In response to a Tools for Change report, the Town of Rye, New York created a summer internship program in 2012 in part to allow Tools students to implement their data-based policy recommendations:
Applied Research. Research problem solving methods learned in Tools have--under the direction of Dr. Valerie Feit at Rye Neck High School, New York--been used to study:
- Perceptions of first-generation, adolescent Latinas. Initial interviews with teachers, guidance counselors, and the director of a community center found a huge problem of self-destructive cutting behaviors in these girls and challenging educational constraints.
- Perceptions of adolescent, educated girls in Syria, Jordan, and Kuwait of cultural norms and school life. (Arabic speaking students remotely interviewed these girls.)
- The relationship between the perceived relevance of news stories and the sources that high school students use to get news.
Community Consultants. As part of an elective at Rye Neck High School, students:
- Helped Personal Touch, an area assisted living facility, devise a marketing strategy to remain viable in the emerging senior care marketplace. (2013-14)
- Helped Bread for Life, a community food pantry, develop more efficient and effective methods for conducting food drives. (2014-15)
Government Interns. In response to a Tools for Change report, the Town of Rye, New York created a summer internship program in 2012 in part to allow Tools students to implement their data-based policy recommendations:
- In 2013 interns helped area non-profits use social media to increase effectiveness, specifically in regard to volunteer recruitment.
- Summer interns have also worked with town officials to start a series of meetings of area food pantries and community kitchens to discuss common challenges and opportunities for collaboration and partnership on issues identified in the TfC report.
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY OUTCOMES
An overwhelming number of Tools’ students attend college and have graduated or are making normal progress toward graduation. These are baseline outcomes. Students reported that Tools was “the best” or “one of the best” high school courses for preparing them for college academic success. The capacities developed in TfC serve students in the following ways:
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