New Jersey Health Professions Pathways to Regional ...

[Pages:130]New Jersey Health Professions Pathways to Regional Excellence Project TAACCCT Evaluation

Interim Report: Implementation and Early Outcomes

Michelle Van Noy Ren?e Edwards Sara Haviland Heather McKay Justin Vinton Paige Dennis March 2017

School of Management and Labor Relations Janice H. Levin Building 94 Rockafeller Road

Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 smlr.rutgers.edu/eerc

New Jersey Health Professions Pathways to Regional Excellence Project TAACCCT Evaluation

Interim Report: Implementation and Early Outcomes

Michelle Van Noy Ren?e Edwards Sara Haviland Heather McKay Justin Vinton Paige Dennis

Education and Employment Research Center School of Management and Labor Relations Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Janice H. Levin Building 94 Rockafeller Road Piscataway, NJ 08854

March 2017

Preparation of this document was fully funded by a $15 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The document was created by the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timelines, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.

ABOUT RUTGERS SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND LABOR RELATIONS

Rutgers' School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) is the leading source of expertise on the world of work, building effective and sustainable organizations, and the changing employment relationship. The school is comprised of two departments--one focused on all aspects of strategic human resource management and the other dedicated to the social science specialties related to labor studies and employment relations. In addition, SMLR provides many continuing education and certificate programs taught by world-class researchers and expert practitioners.

SMLR was originally established by an act of the New Jersey legislature in 1947 as the Institute of Management and Labor Relations (IMLR). Like its counterparts that were created in the other large industrial states at the same time, the Institute was chartered to promote new forms of labor-management cooperation following the industrial unrest at the end of World War II. It officially became a school at the flagship campus of the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick/Piscataway in 1994. For more information, visit smlr.rutgers.edu.

ABOUT THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH CENTER

Rutgers' Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) is housed within the School of Management and Labor Relations. EERC conducts research and evaluation on programs and policies at the intersection of education and employment. Our work strives to improve policy and practice so that institutions may provide educational programs and pathways that ensure individuals obtain the education needed for success in the workplace, and employers have a skilled workforce to meet their human resource needs. For more information on our mission and current research, visit smlr.rutgers.edu/eerc.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the many people who contributed to this report. We appreciate the ongoing support and guidance from Justin Doheny, Lisa Duddy, and Vincent Cheng of Bergen Community College, as well as the NJ-PREP site coordinators at all of the Consortium partners who supported our data collection efforts and opened their campuses to us for our site visits. We appreciate the experiences and perspectives that NJ-PREP students, faculty, and administrators generously shared through their participation in focus groups and interviews. At EERC, Dilafruz Nazarova, Samantha Busicchia, Laura Barrett-Hansen, Daniel Douglas, Shuyang Yang, Crystal Bedley, Heather James, Joseph Rua, and Brooklynn Hitchens skillfully provided research support through various phases of the project, and Angel Butts of The Word Angel LLC provided excellent editorial assistance. The authors are solely responsible for any errors.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 1 METHODS................................................................................................................................................ 2 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ........................................................................................................ 3

The Consortium ................................................................................................................................... 3 Grant Goals ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Staffing .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Transition to TAACCCT ..................................................................................................................... 7 Organization....................................................................................................................................... 10 PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................................................. 11 New Programs.................................................................................................................................... 12 Program Reforms ............................................................................................................................... 13 EQUIPMENT ACQUISITION .............................................................................................................. 17 SMART START ...................................................................................................................................... 18 Variation in Smart Start Implementation Across Colleges ........................................................... 18 Staff/Faculty Reaction to Smart Start ............................................................................................... 21 Student Reaction to Smart Start ....................................................................................................... 22 Challenges........................................................................................................................................... 23 Sustainability ...................................................................................................................................... 24 EDREADY............................................................................................................................................... 24 Student Response ............................................................................................................................... 26 Sustainability ...................................................................................................................................... 26 CREDIT REVIEW / REGIONAL PLA STANDARDS ........................................................................ 26 NETWORKING SESSIONS .................................................................................................................. 28 JOB DEVELOPMENT............................................................................................................................ 31 EMPLOYER CONNECTIONS ............................................................................................................. 33 Sustainability ...................................................................................................................................... 37 WORKFORCE SYSTEM CONNECTIONS ......................................................................................... 37 DATA TRACKING ................................................................................................................................ 40 OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER) ......................................................................................... 42 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................................... 43 PARTICIPANTS..................................................................................................................................... 43

Student Enrollments and Characteristics........................................................................................ 43 Students' Educational Goals............................................................................................................. 47 Students' Employment Goals ........................................................................................................... 48 EARLY OUTCOMES ............................................................................................................................. 49 RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS ..................................................................................... 52 Recommendations.............................................................................................................................. 52 Evaluation Preview............................................................................................................................ 56 REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................... 57 APPENDIX A: COLLEGE SUMMARIES ............................................................................................ 58 Bergen Community College ............................................................................................................. 59 Brookdale Community College........................................................................................................ 65 County College of Morris.................................................................................................................. 70 Essex County College ........................................................................................................................ 75 Hudson County Community College ............................................................................................. 79 Mercer County Community College ............................................................................................... 83 Middlesex County College ............................................................................................................... 88 New Jersey Health Care Talent Network, Rutgers ........................................................................ 93 Ocean County College....................................................................................................................... 96 Passaic County Community College ............................................................................................. 101 Raritan Valley Community College............................................................................................... 105 Sussex County Community College .............................................................................................. 111 Union County College..................................................................................................................... 116 APPENDIX B: LOGIC MODEL.......................................................................................................... 121 APPENDIX C: LIST OF TAACCCT PROGRAMS, BY COLLEGE ................................................. 123

INTRODUCTION

The healthcare industry is a major source of employment in the state of New Jersey with projected growth into the foreseeable future. In response to the needs of this growing industry, the New Jersey Health Professions Pathways to Regional Excellence Project (NJ-PREP) seeks to prepare students to enter and advance in careers in the health professions. NJ-PREP, a consortium led by Bergen Community College that includes 12 New Jersey community colleges, is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career and Training (TAACCCT) grants. The TAACCCT grants focused on "advancing innovative, sector-based system change in regional and statewide economies" with the goal of "creating industry-driven strategies that are responsive to regional labor markets and state economies" (US DOL, 2014). The grants sought to strengthen community colleges' ability to meet workforce needs by: 1) increasing student attainment of industry-recognized credentials, 2) developing innovative approaches to instructional delivery, and 3) improving students' employment outcomes. To this end, the NJ-PREP grant seeks to meet these goals through a multifaceted set of activities designed to promote the development of career pathways in health professions by creating clearer program pathways, integrating technology into the curriculum, providing additional supports for students, and engaging with local employers and the workforce system.

The Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, is working with the NJ-PREP Consortium to evaluate the NJ-PREP TAACCCT grant. The evaluation uses a mixed-methods approach to gather grant implementation and outcomes data from multiple perspectives. The Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers is partnering with EERC to calculate employment outcomes using wage records data. Throughout the course of the grant, the evaluation examines the multiple strategies the Consortium is implementing to develop and strengthen pathways into healthcare careers. This interim report will identify promising practices and offer suggestions for improvement to guide ongoing implementation efforts as well as provide information on early outcomes. A final report at the end of the grant period will discuss accomplishments and challenges in the grant implementation and will provide a more in-depth discussion of student outcomes.

This report begins with a section that describes the methods used in the evaluation. We follow that section by providing some background and context for the grant and its goals. We then discuss the implementation of each of the grant's key activities, including developing or redesigning relevant programming; purchasing state-of-the-art equipment; converting traditional in-person courses to online/hybrid delivery formats using Smart Start or EdReady; applying for credit review; expanding employment opportunities for students by creating networking sessions, developing new connections with employers and local workforce centers, and establishing a job developer role on Consortium campuses; implementing new data tracking methods; developing open education resources (OER); and creating professional

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development opportunities for faculty. Next, we will examine the demographic characteristics of program participants and present early outcomes. Finally, we will conclude this report with recommendations for implementation improvement and a discussion of next steps for the evaluation.

While the report provides an overarching view of the Consortium's activities with the TAACCCT grant, Appendix A includes summaries of key implementation activities at each of the 12 Consortium colleges and their subcontractor, New Jersey Health Care Talent Network (HCTN), which is based at Rutgers.

METHODS

EERC's analysis of the NJ-PREP grant in years 1 and 2 focused on the implementation of key grant activities. The evaluation used a mixed-methods approach including multiple sources of data: interviews with site coordinators and Consortium leadership, site visits with each of the 12 colleges in the Consortium, content review of existing program documents, and analysis of the administrative records of students enrolled in TAACCCT programs. Each method is briefly described in this section.

Interviews. The evaluation team conducted in-person interviews with Consortium leadership staff as well as staff involved in planning the grant in fall 2015; additional in-person interviews with Consortium leadership were conducted in fall 2016. We also conducted 30minute telephone interviews with site coordinators at each of the 12 Consortium colleges in December 2015.

Site Visits. We conducted two rounds of one-day site visits to each of the Consortium colleges and to HCTN. The first visits were conducted in February and March of 2016, and the second visits were conducted from July through September 2016. During these visits, we interviewed grant staff--including site coordinators, job developers, and faculty--as well as college leadership. We also conducted focus groups with students in TAACCCT programs when possible.

Document Reviews. Throughout the evaluation process, we collected all documentation related to the Consortium's grant activities, including program curriculum, presentations on program activities, and materials from program activities. We requested these documents from Consortium leadership regularly and from faculty and staff at the Consortium colleges and HCTN directly during our site visits. Additionally, the Consortium shared summary reports on program activities conducted at the colleges.

Student Tracking System Data. Consortium leadership developed a tracking system for students using Salesforce database management software and implemented this system at each of the partner sites (the implementation of Salesforce is discussed in more detail later in this report). The data we use for our analysis of student characteristics were pulled from the

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Salesforce database and from the administrative records of students enrolled in TAACCCT programs. The data extract for this report was from November 2016. At that time, some data cleaning and verification were still in process. The current data in this report includes some inconsistencies that will likely be reconciled in future data extracts as the Consortium updates and improves data quality. Therefore, the student numbers from Salesforce reported in this report should be interpreted as estimates with some potential to change.

All data were analyzed using established analysis software and techniques. Qualitative data were managed, coded, and analyzed using NVIVO 11 qualitative analysis software. Quantitative data were managed and analyzed using Excel and Stata quantitative analysis software.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

In this section, we provide background for the major activities of the grant. First, we discuss the history of the consortium of colleges included in the grant and outline the overarching grant goals and activities. We then discuss the staffing involved in carrying out the grant activities and the location of the grant administration within the context of the college organization. Finally, we discuss the understanding of grant goals among staff involved in its implementation.

The Consortium

In 2010, ten community colleges in Northern New Jersey, along with their workforce system partners and one employer, received a Health Professions Opportunity Grant (HPOG) through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This group of colleges formed the New Jersey Health Professions Consortium. Through HPOG, the Consortium provided training to low-income individuals and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and General Assistance (GA) that would help them establish careers in the health professions. HPOG paid students' tuition, provided support services, and assisted students with job placement.

Through the TAACCCT grant, the Consortium sought to extend and build on the work it had begun with HPOG. It expanded to include 12 of the state's 19 county colleges--three new colleges were added and one college was lost after HPOG. In addition to the 12 colleges, the Consortium subcontracted with the Health Care Talent Network at Rutgers to offer a specific training program for community health workers through the TAACCCT grant that is based on an apprenticeship model. (All partners in the TAACCCT grant are listed in table 1.) Ultimately, the Consortium views TAACCCT as part of its larger goal of becoming an independent, selfsustaining organization.

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