Understanding Changes in the Postsecondary Admissions Landscape

Name of Faculty Member or Lead Researcher: Dr. Michael Bastedo

Project Description: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Supreme Court’s decision against race-conscious admissions, there have been significant changes in the postsecondary admissions and enrollment landscape. More recently, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence tools has complicated the college application and admissions process for students and admission teams alike. At the same time, the growth of contextualized, holistic admission practices have encouraged admission officers to seek a more nuanced perspective of applicants’ academic potential. Our research team is working on multiple projects in relation to contemporary admission policy and practices to increase admissions equity for underrepresented student groups. We are also exploring the intersection of disability and selective admissions processes to better understand how disability disclosure may impact the evaluation of applicants with disabilities.

Secondary Transitions and Education Pathways in Career and Technical Education (STEP-CTE) Lab

Name of Faculty Member or Lead Researcher: Dr. Walt Ecton

Project Description: This project is a deep exploration of career development opportunities at a school district level, undertaking mixed methods research to examine how high schools and districts make decisions about their program offerings, how key stakeholders (students, teachers, school and district leaders) consider the goals of career development opportunities and their strengths and weaknesses, and how they think about program quality and the experiences of students. The project also examines participation and outcomes of specific career development programs, including career and technical education (CTE) coursetaking and dual enrollment in technical and community colleges. Throughout, the research team will pay close attention to differences in access and outcomes for students of different populations across schools, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability status, and level of academic achievement.

PreTeXt-Runestone: Open Textbooks Engaging Undergraduates in STEM, PROTEUS

Name of Faculty Member or Lead Researcher: Dr. Vilma Mesa

Project Description: This project is a collaborative effort between the American Institute of Mathematics, Runestone Academy, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; WestEd is our evaluator. The project will advance our knowledge of the process of developing content for three novel interactive questions for four PROTEUS textbooks (PreTeXt-authored textbooks hosted in HTML format on the learning analytics platform Runestone Academy) and their use in classrooms. 

The question-development process involves all stakeholders: Students (who have taken the courses), Teachers (with experience teaching the courses), Authors of the textbooks, and Researchers--STAR teams hereafter. We use a design-based research process with rapid cycles of question development and use the textbooks in actual classrooms, collecting feedback from users (teachers and students) in laboratory and naturalistic settings to refine the questions.

U-M First-Year Experience Project

Name of Faculty Member or Lead Researcher: Dr. John Vasquez

Project Description: This project will support the First Year Experience (FYE) at the University of Michigan by helping establish an extended Working Group tasked with developing (1) a more coherent communication plan for first-year students and (2) a plan for ongoing and “relentless onboarding.” The project will involve collaborating with campus partners to coordinate communications from Undergraduate Admissions, New Student Programs, Student Life, colleges, and units to ensure smooth hand-offs and clear messaging. Additional elements include exploring possible communication plans for the Class of 2030 and supporting the development of resources to guide sophomores as they transition from their first year. Students will assist with institutional research, resource development, meeting coordination, and synthesizing best practices for supporting first-year and sophomore students.