Building Momentum for Student Success: Investigating the Relationship Between Two-Year College Integrated Education and Training Programs and Student Outcomes

Background: Lengthy sequences of decontextualized adult education and literacy program courses pose a challenge to two-year college students’ educational outcomes. The Integrated Education and Training model has been suggested as a promising approach to creating accelerated and contextualized pathways from adult education and literacy programming to two-year college credentials. Yet, research investigating the effects of exposure to Integrated Education and Training on student outcomes is sparce. Objective: My study investigates the associations between exposure to Integrated Education and Training and shorter-term, interim, and longer-term two-year college educational outcomes. Research Design: My quantitative study employs propensity score matching to develop a sample that is balanced in student characteristics between a student group served in Integrated Education and Training and their counterparts co-enrolled in adult education and literacy programming and workforce training that is not part of an Integrated Education and Training program. I generated regression models to explore the relationship between exposure to Integrated Education and Training and a series of educational outcomes. Conclusions: Exposure to Integrated Education and Training is significantly and positively associated with each of the analyzed student outcomes including completing college credits in the first semester, college persistence to the second year, achieving a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or greater, and obtaining a two-year college credential. My study’s findings extend the existing research on contextualized instruction by investigating a specific model of contextualization and suggest Integrated Education and Training as a mechanism for students to build momentum toward two-year college success.