Past Projects – CSSR

This study will examine whether the promising early results of a large-scale career pathway program in California were sustained. Specifically, the study will use quasi-experimental methods to measure the causal impact of providing Career and Technical Education (CTE) programing via articulated career pathways to facilitate the transition from high school to college. 

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Sade Bonilla

Funder: Faculty Research Grant/Healey Endowment Grant

The research team will conduct an evaluation of Tennessee Pathways (along with earlier career pathway programs), a state initiative to align K-12 education, postsecondary education, and employers so that high school students have a clear pathway to move into the workforce.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Sade Bonilla

Collaborators: Jonathon Attridge, Jerre Maynor, Kevin Schaaf, Celeste Carruthers, Chaney Mosley, Elizabeth Dyer, Thomas Dee

Funder: Institute of Education Sciences

The purpose of this study is to understand what financial (in)security looks like for college students during the year 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Ryan Wells, Jordan Abbott

Collaborators: UMass Office of Undergraduate Student Success

Funder: UMass Amherst Provost's Office

An extensive body of research, largely from the field of social psychology, has provided leading evidence on the promise of interventions that seek to increase students’ engagement and performance through the promotion of positive academic identities and belongingness in schools. However, as yet, we know comparatively little about how to incorporate these scientific insights into the diverse, everyday professional practices of schools. One prominent counter-example is the grade-9 ethnic-studies curriculum developed in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). A recent study by Dee and Penner (2017) conducted in partnership with SFUSD examined the causal effects of this curriculum by leveraging the discontinuous assignment rule used to encourage students to take this social-studies class. They found that taking this course led to dramatic increases in several proximate grade-9 outcomes (i.e., attendance, GPA, and credits earned). The one-year results of the SFUSD study have influenced both the adoption of similar curriculum elsewhere and contributed to emerging discussions about incorporating social-psychological insights into everyday educational practice. However, we do not yet know whether the promising short-term effects of taking this curriculum were sustained beyond one year.  In this study, in partnership with SFUSD, we will examine the effects of grade-9 ethnic-studies curriculum on key outcomes: high-school persistence, graduation, and college matriculation.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Sade Bonilla

Collaborators: Thomas S. Dee (Stanford University), Emily K. Penner (University of California Irvine)

Funder: Mindset Scholars Network

Currently in its data collection phase, the LGBTQIA+ in STEM study seeks to understand how college students who have at least minoritized gender or sexual identity and who are majoring in a STEM field make meaning of their experiences. More specifically, this study utilizes both qualitative interviews and focus groups to learn about the successes, challenges, supports, and barriers encountered by LGBTQIA+ students in STEM fields.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Ezekiel Kimball

Collaborators: Annemarie Vaccaro (University of Rhode Island) and Ryan Miller (University of North Carolina Charlotte)

Funder: NASPA Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education

An Experimental Approach to Understand Diagnostic Failure and Facilitate Improvement for Patients with and without Mental Illness: For this project, Center personnel serve as the qualitative methodologists for the study's initial phase of data collection. The qualitative data collection provides preliminary data designed to inform experiments that advance the project's overall goal of developing strategies that help reduce diagnostic errors resulting from faulty thinking processes based on affective pre-dispositions and experiences related to how physicians think about people with mental health conditions.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Ezekiel Kimball

Principal Investigator: Linda Isbell (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Funder: US Department of Health & Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Now entering its dissemination phase, the Disability & Purpose project examined how students with disabilities selected majors and developed career aspirations while in college. Publications from this project have focused on: 1) the influence of disability status on identity development; 2) purpose development while in college; 3) activism and advocacy; 4) the sexual and gender  identity development; 5) the influence of social class on identity development; and 6) coping and resilience strategies. Forthcoming work from this project examines topics such as: 1) disability-based microaggressions; 2) the STEM career pathways of students with disabilities; and 3) the intersections of ableism, misogyny, and other forms of gender-based oppression.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Ezekiel Kimball

Collaborators: Annemarie Vaccaro (University of Rhode Island), Barbara Newman (University of Rhode Island), Adam Moore (University of Rhode Island), and Peter Troiano (Central Connecticut State University)

Funder: NASPA Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education

For this exploratory study, an interdisciplinary research team is developing and implementing an intergroup dialogue (IGD) intervention intended to decrease implicit bias among pre-health professionals. The project will result in the development of novel theory, program content, and experimental techniques for measuring the effect of IGD on undergraduate college students.

Center for Student Success Research Lead: Ezekiel Kimball 

Collaborators: Ximena Zuniga, Kevin Goodman

Funder: Health Promotion and Policy Faculty Seed Grant