The WashU Brown School’s Social System Design Lab has received a $75,000 Spencer Foundation grant to study pathways from high school to careers in St. Louis.
This collaborative vision planning grant will support a new research initiative focused on improving diverse education-to-career pathways for students in St. Louis.
Principal investigator Saras Chung, a research associate professor and director of the Social System Design Lab, is leading this work in close partnership with diverse St. Louis community partners, including educators, business leaders and community nonprofits.
This grant is a first step toward a potential larger award — up to $3.5 million — through the Spencer Foundation’s Transformative Research Grant program, which supports ambitious efforts to advance equity in education systems.
The project will examine how students in St. Louis schools make decisions about life after high school, including college, careers and other postsecondary options. Researchers will work with local teens to better understand the factors guiding those choices. The study also will incorporate insights from regional employers and educators to identify where pathways to stable, viable careers may be limited or unclear.
With this data, the research team will develop a system dynamics model to map gaps and barriers in the current landscape. In a time where artificial intelligence (AI) may significantly disrupt workforce needs, the findings will inform a broader, community-engaged research agenda to redesign systems of support that connect education to employment opportunities.
“This work is about listening to young people and aligning pipelines beyond schools and into adulthood,” Chung said.
“By asking students about their intentions and experiences and comparing them with observations from employers and educators, we hope to identify where opportunities exist for system redesign.”
The initiative is a collaborative effort involving researchers and community partners across the St. Louis region. Co-principal investigators include Andrew Butler, a professor of education and of psychological and brain sciences in WashU Arts & Sciences; Candice Carter-Oliver, CEO of Confluence Academies; Jay Hartman, of the St. Louis Community Foundation; and Jason Jabbari, an assisant professor at the Brown School.
Community collaborators include the St. Louis Community Foundation; Confluence Academies; Cortex; the WashU Center for Educational Research Partnerships and Policy; College Bound; and the St. Louis School Leaders Collaborative, among others.
The research responds directly to priorities that local school leaders identified through the St. Louis Research Practice Collaborative.