Combining entrepreneurship and web development for high school students: a pilot evaluation of the Startup Tech program and high school students' college and career aspirations

The Startup Tech program is built around an innovative, applied curriculum that aims to teach creative problem-solving and technical skills in the context of developing and pitching a new web-based business idea. The curriculum encourages student learning in technical areas through practice in coding and web design. This pilot evaluation of Startup Tech assesses whether 12th-grade students in one New York City school experienced either improved self-efficacy or changes in their college and career plans during the year in which they were in the program. For the most part, the authors did...  [+] Show more

The Startup Tech program is built around an innovative, applied curriculum that aims to teach creative problem-solving and technical skills in the context of developing and pitching a new web-based business idea. The curriculum encourages student learning in technical areas through practice in coding and web design. This pilot evaluation of Startup Tech assesses whether 12th-grade students in one New York City school experienced either improved self-efficacy or changes in their college and career plans during the year in which they were in the program. For the most part, the authors did not identify evidence of program effects on students' survey-reported self-efficacy or generic college and career aspirations. However, the authors found evidence that the program is effective at increasing recent student interest in business as a primary career path. Overall, the evaluation indicated that the program might have influenced students' college and career aspirations.

Excerpt from publisher's website.