1

Innovation Plan: Addressing Non-Traditional Student Enrollment in the Engineering

Pathway to Improve CCRPI Scores

Damon Andrew Smith

College of Education, Georgia Southern University

ITEC 8133: Trends & Issues in Instructional Technology

Dr. Nihan Agacli Dogan

Fall 2021
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 2

I. Describe the need (with data)

Female students account for an alarmingly low rate of overall students enrolled in the
Engineering Pathway at RHHS. After conducting an interview with the RHHS principal in which
we discussed possible school-level problems that could be addressed through an innovative use
of technology, we began to look at our non-traditional student (students enrolled in courses that
they are not usually expected to be in) enrollment across our CTAE pathways. Being a former
engineering teacher, I was very interested in this specific pathway. The principal indicated that
this would be a good item to tackle as non-traditional student enrollment in CTAE courses
directly impacts the school’s CCRPI (College & Career Readiness Performance Index) score
each year in both the “Pathway Completion” and “EOPA” subcategories. The principal noted
how RHHS has made a concerted effort to improve their overall CCRPI scores over the last
several years and was interested in addressing any component that could improve overall scores.
He suggested I consult the assistant principal overseeing the CTAE department. After a
conversation with her, she agreed that non-traditional student enrollment in CTAE courses was
lacking, especially in the engineering pathway. With her permission, I was able to review
engineering pathway enrollment data.
Based on these interviews, I uncovered the following information. Going back to 2015,
RHHS’s overall CCRPI score trends in an upward direction even with some individual lower
years along the way. The school’s score for the most recent full reporting year (2019) was 89.9
(Georgia Department of Education, CCRPI Reporting Data).

RHHS CCRPI Scores

92

90

88

86
Score

84

82

80

78
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Year

RHHS’s Pathway Completion and EOPA scoring also recorded their highest scores in the 2019
reporting year at 73.74% and 45.66%, respectively (the Georgia Department of Education’s
CCRPI dashboard does not break down sub-category scores prior to 2018).
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 3

RHHS Pathway Completion CCRPI Subscore

75
73.74
74

73

72
Score

71
70.06
70

69

68
2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

RHHS EOPA CCRPI Subscore

50 45.66
45
40
35 33.05
30
Score

25
20
15
10
5
0
2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

Reviewing student enrollment data for the engineering pathway, the lack of non-
traditional students completing the pathway is clear. Five years of Engineering Applications (the
third and final course of the engineering pathway) course enrollment data was reviewed. The
highest number of female students completing the pathway in the five-year period reviewed was
six (Source: Unpublished RHHS student enrollment data).
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 4

Engineering Applications Student Enrollment (2017 - Present)

80
70 64 67
6058

Number of Students
52 54
50
40
30
20
10 2 3 4 3 6
0
17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22
School Year

Males Females

Engineering Application Student Enrollment (2017 - Present)

18

295

Males Females

It is clear after these interviews with RHHS administration and reviewing CCRPI and
engineering pathway enrollment data that the lack of non-traditional students in the engineering
pathway is real problem. As one last data point, I wanted to know what female students felt
about the engineering pathway at the school. I was able to interview three high achieving 12th
grade students and ask them their thoughts on the engineering pathway. Their main responses
were that it was “overwhelming to be the only girl in a class of 25-30 boys”, that they “didn’t
want to work with tools in a wood-shop during the day”, and that they “didn’t see how taking the
engineering courses would help them get into the college they wanted if they weren’t specifically
interested in an engineering related career”.
Other stakeholders also had various opinions on this topic. Several teachers felt that
RHHS has so many CTAE pathways to choose from that it would be difficult to directly pinpoint
a cause for any pathway’s enrollment trends as it relates to male/female numbers. (Engineering,
Early Childhood, Video Broadcasting, Healthcare Science, Business, JROTC, and Graphic Arts
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 5

are offered as options. Note that for CCRPI reporting, academic pathways in Foreign Language
and Fine Arts are also included in the overall reporting data.) Some teachers interviewed noted
they could see why females would be scared away from being in classes so outnumbered by
boys. Parents in the Richmond Hill area look upon engineering careers favorably as several large
name engineering companies (most notably, Gulfstream Aerospace) employ a large percentage
of the population.
In conclusion, the data gathered for this problem through interviews with various
stakeholders and a review of enrollment data point to a very clear issue of a lack of female
students enrolling in and completing the engineering pathway. More females taking and
completing the engineering pathway would be a step to improving multiple sub-scores (most
notably, Pathway Completion & EOPA) impacting RHHS’s overall CCRPI score in the years
ahead, which is a major goal of RHHS administration. It would also keep the engineering
program itself healthy due to strong enrollment numbers and more high-achieving students
participating in courses. My innovation plan will seek to address this enrollment issue.

II. Describe your proposed solution (with research evidence)

My first solution would be to have female students in engineering and science courses
become part of a Professional Learning Network (PLN) through Twitter. Twitter was chosen as
the technology tool as research has shown its high usage rates among high school students. A
2014 research study reported that more than 70% of high school student respondents indicated
that they used Twitter, and of those 70%, over 75% indicated that they used the platform “more
than once per day” (the highest usage level available in the survey). This study concluded that
“secondary students appreciate and believe that social media usage is important to helping them
learn” (Lu, Newman, Miller 2014). This PLN would be led by various female facilitators
currently teaching engineering, math, and science courses at RHHS and thus have a likelihood of
already being familiar with the female students enrolled in these courses and could easily build
relationships with them. The PLN will also be led by a current female student nearing
completion of the pathway and by a female student that has already completed the pathway.
These different PLN leaders will lead for one month at a time and host discussions via Twitter at
least once a month. This PLN will be organized and found (by RHHS students and possibly
others) through a particular hashtag that can be decided by the group once the PLN is ready to
begin. Through the Twitter PLN, female students will be able to interact, learn from, and be
mentored by females currently in the engineering field in some capacity. This will provide
students peer and professional role models in the field that are also female. The PLN will also be
advertised to middle school students in an effort to build interest in engineering ahead of high
school enrollment. By exposing students to a variety of new people and ideas, research-based
evidence of the success of PLN’s can be achieved. “PLN activities, and discussions about these
activities, can result in the sharing and cross-pollination of new, innovative and critical ideas
across school, district, state and even national lines” (Krutka, Carpenter, Trust 2016).
My next solution would be to incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous mentoring
activities for female students in engineering courses via several unique uses of technology. These
mentoring activities would be a leadership role for a current RHHS engineering teacher (who is
also female) as she would help recruit and maintain female students in the engineering pathway
and pair them with female mentors in the field. For the mentoring, females currently working in
engineering and related fields would be recruited and supported by the teacher-leader to mentor
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 6

individual students. As the mentorship program grew, it could be branched out so that the high-
school female students could begin mentoring female students enrolled in the middle school
engineering program. By this expansion, the high school students would also be gaining valuable
leadership skills. Synchronous mentoring will happen through Google Meets at least once a
month as RHHS is currently a 1:1 Google school and students are familiar with the use of
Google Meets. For asynchronous mentoring between Google Meets sessions, groups will utilize
the Web 2.0 tool Padlet to share ideas and resources. The leader of this solution will support the
success of this plan by providing Google Meets and Padlet support, overseeing mentoring pairs
within the group, and providing overall mentorship to all female students involved in the
program. Overall, these uses of technology would help to bolster the research-based positive
impacts of a mentoring program. In a recent research study on the impacts of mentorship
programs in STEM courses, every participant, both mentors and mentees, indicated a positive
experience with the mentorship program, as 67% of mentors responded “watching young
students learn and being excited about the study and project” as their favorite part and 51% of
mentees responded that “gaining real work environment experiences” as their favorite part (Kin
2021).
My final solution will be to connect the female engineering students with the Georgia
Southern chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The GSU SWE chapter will
provide additional mentorship to female students as well as provide them with hands-on
experience with various engineering & technology related tools that would not be possible in the
current classroom experience at RHHS. The GSU SWE chapter hosts a yearly engineering day
for high school students and a coding day for middle school students on GSU’s campus where
they bring together female students from around the local area to give them an out of the
classroom, hands-on experience related to the day’s respective theme. Coding is an important
piece of this solution and partnership with the GSU SWE as research has shown that coding “can
lead to dramatic increases in students choosing advanced courses” (Mecca, Santoro, Sileno,
Veltri 2021), such as engineering. The engineering teacher will oversee the relationship with the
students and SWE and provide activities related to coding and engineering concepts learned as a
follow-up to these experiences at Georgia Southern.

III. Rough Plan of Implementation

The goal is to increase non-traditional student

Goal enrollment in the engineering pathway to
increase RHHS’s CCRPI score.

1. Start a PLN for current & prospective

female engineering students.
2. Start synchronous/asynchronous
mentoring activities using a variety of
Objectives web 2.0 tools.
3. Start a relationship between the RHHS
engineering pathway and the Georgia
Southern Society of Women
Engineers chapter.
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 7

Administrators: Administrators will be

responsible for overall support of the
engineering pathway by providing proper
budgeting for field trips, classroom
equipment, and professional development
opportunities for teachers. Supporting outside
contacts to work with and provide learning
experience for students. Supporting overall
timeline of implementation of plan.
Teachers: Teachers will be responsible for
overall implementation of the plan including
timelines, budgets, PLN leadership, and
coordination with contacts. Teachers will
understand how the CCRPI score is calculated
and how the plan impacts the specific sub-
categories targeted. Teacher will support
current female engineering students and
continue to recruit new students.
Students: Students are responsible for being
active participants in class and solutions
implemented above. Students will encourage
each other and as well as prospective female
Stakeholders engineering students.
Parents: Parents will be responsible for
supporting their child’s engineering interests
at home and encourage them to take part in
mentoring activities outlined.
Media Specialist: Media Specialist will be
responsible for overall support of
implemented solutions as well as providing
technical support for Google Meets, Padlet
other Web 2.0 issues that may arise.
In-Field Mentors: In-Field mentors will be
responsible for meeting with their students as
scheduled and provide guidance, assistance,
and support.
Georgia Southern Society of Women
Engineers: GSU SWE will be responsible for
providing Coding and Girl in Engineering
Days. Will meet with students as outlined in
proposed plans. Will provide students access
to appropriate coding software and other
technology tools.
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 8

Timeline will be based on both the RHHS

Master Schedule (specifically when the
Engineering Applications course is scheduled
each semester) and the CCRPI reporting date.

Engineering teachers will be trained on the

solutions during pre-planning before the
school year starts and will begin
implementing them at the start of the school
year for students.

The mentoring program and Twitter PLN will

Timeline begin during fall semester.

Students & Teachers attend GSU SWE STEM

Night (usually held in February of each year).

Students & Teachers attend GSU SWE Girl’s

in Engineering Day (usually held in March of
each year).

During post-planning, enrollment and

evaluation data will be gathered and reviewed
among engineering teachers and RHHS
administration.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed
solutions, both formative and summative
evaluations will be used. The Summative
evaluation will involve comparing female
enrollment increases between SY21-22 and
SY22-23 as well as RHHS CCRPI data (both
overall score and in the subcategories of
Evaluation Pathway Completion and EOPA) for 2021
and 2022 reporting periods.

The Formative evaluation will include student

surveys given to female engineering students
at the end of each semester to assess their
attitudes to the various components of the
proposed solutions.
1. Lack of Student Participation – the
proposed solutions rely heavily of
female students being fully active and
engaged in all aspects of the class,
field trips, and mentoring activities. If
students do not participate in all the
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 9

activities, it will be hard to accurately

assess the proposed solutions and how
to possibly improve on them.
2. Lack of Participation from if-field
mentors – if enough mentors do not
participate in mentoring activities as
described, it could only further high
school students’ opinions of females
not being interested in either
engineering or their involvement in
engineering. This could potentially be
more damaging to high school
students than attempting to complete
the pathway with no outside support at
all.
Potential Risks 3. Lack of Support from RHHS
Administration – the proposed
solutions will take time to implement
and evaluate. RHHS administration
must give the proposed solutions time
to foster and grow. Cutting them off
early due to lack of support will only
continue the cycle of low female
enrollment in engineering courses and
the subcategories of Pathway
Completion and EOPA will continue
to hold back RHHS’s overall CCRPI
score potential.
4. If Georgia Southern SWE cancels any
of the yearly events proposed to attend
this could impact the overall execution
of the plan.
5. Georgia Southern SWE controls what
type of coding technology they will
expose students to.
Damon Smith: Innovation Plan 10

References

CCRPI Data: http://ccrpi.gadoe.org/Reports/Views/Shared/_Layout.html

Krutka, D. G., Carpenter, J. P., & Trust, T. (2017). Enriching Professional Learning
Networks: A Framework for Identification, Reflection, and Intention. TechTrends: Linking
Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 61(3), 246–252.

Lu, M.-Y., Newman, R. E., & Miller, M. T. (2014). Connecting Secondary and
Postsecondary Student Social Media Skills: Recommendations for Administrators. Educational
Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development, 25, 54–64.

Mecca, G., Santoro, D., Sileno, N., & Veltri, E. (2021). Diogene-CT: tools and
methodologies for teaching and learning coding. International Journal of Educational
Technology in Higher Education, 18(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-021-00246-1

Mihyeon Kim. (2021). Intensive Learning Experience: Development of STEM Mentorship

Program for High School Gifted Students. Gifted Child Today, 44(4), 228–235.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10762175211030522