Pathways to Opportunity: Insights into Workforce Entry from 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 background on NCRERN’s work, see the Introduction to NCRERN’s New York and Ohio Research Network. 

This report provides an overview of descriptive data analyses of students’ career readiness in rural districts participating in NCRERN between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. Analyses of workforce entry milestones, measured through a senior exit survey, draw on data from a subset of NCRERN districts that administered the survey. We primarily draw on data collected in 29 districts in New York and Ohio in the 2021-22 school year. The patterns presented here may not generalize to other rural districts. For information on students’ progress towards college and military postsecondary pathways, please see the other reports in the “Pathways to Opportunity” series.