Improving Postsecondary Readiness in Rural Districts: Experimental Evidence from Two Pilots in a Rural Research Network

The National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) seeks to increase opportunity for rural students through the power of actionable data and evidence. NCRERN partners with networks of rural school districts to generate and evaluate strategies for improving student outcomes. For more information about NCRERN’s process, see the Introduction to NCRERN’s Continuous Improvement Model. For more information about the network of rural schools testing these interventions, see the Introduction to NCRERN’s New York & Ohio Rural Research Network.      

This brief provides an overview of the postsecondary readiness-focused interventions that NCRERN districts implemented and evaluated in the 2021-22 school year. NCRERN districts piloted two interventions aimed at improving postsecondary readiness outcomes: Career Exposure and Student Success Planning. We find small, uncertain impacts of both interventions on students’ end-of-year GPA and self-reported career readiness. We find no impact of the Career Exposure intervention on students’ self-reported social-emotional outcomes, but some small, positive impacts of Student Success Planning on students’ learning strategies, grit, and optimism. This brief describes the interventions, evaluation strategy, and findings from these pilots.