Date

6-2021

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)

Chair

Meredith Park

Keywords

at-risk, struggling student, WIN Learning, career readiness, mentor program

Disciplines

Educational Leadership

Abstract

It is imperative for students to graduate career-ready in order to enter the employment field and fill this gap. This research examined a non-experimental causal-comparative quantitative study of at-risk students and their career readiness upon graduation. The effectiveness of Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) mentoring program was analyzed to determine the impact of career readiness among these at-risk students. A comparison of the data of at-risk students enrolled in the JAG program versus at-risk students not enrolled was compared to determine their career-readiness skills upon graduation. A review of the research showed that early intervention significantly increased the success of at-risk students by implementing options in the areas of parental involvement, mentoring programs, and career readiness. Worldwide Interactive Network (WIN) assessment scores was the tool used to determine the effectiveness of the JAG program in career readiness. A convenience sampling method of 106 at-risk third-year students was examined. Three independent samples t tests were used to determine the differences in mean scores for the two groups. This study’s conclusion yielded two out of three null hypotheses being rejected which revealed that the JAG program had significantly better scores on the WIN career assessment in Reading for Information and Locating Information. The WIN Applied Mathematics portion of the assessment showed the JAG students’ mean scores as being lower than their at-risk peers thus recommending a future study of these findings.

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