Katherine Shields
About
Katherine Shields, a senior research scientist at EDC, co-leads the Rhode Island Partnership to Support Early College Opportunities and the Vermont Partnership to Strengthen Flexible Pathways for College and Career Success. Shields brings extensive expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, quasi-experimental design, psychometric analysis, multilevel modeling, and survey design, and is a certified WWC reviewer.
Previously, Shields led a research partnership with the New York State Education Department on graduation pathways and a quasi-experimental study of early college opportunities in Rhode Island. She leads IES and other federally funded studies of college and career readiness in areas that include career and technical education and high school STEM learning.
Shields holds a PhD in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation from Boston College.
Email: kshields@edc.org
Associated IES Content
report
Descriptive Study
REL Report: The Cost-Effectiveness of Providing Early College Opportunities in Rhode Island
The Cost-Effectiveness of Providing Early College Opportunities in Rhode Island
May 22, 2025
Publication number:
REL 2025 012
About REL Northeast and Islands
About REL Northeast and Islands
FY2022
FY2022 Education Systems and Broad Reform Peer Review Panel
resource
Training Material
School Counselor Perspectives on Student Advising in Vermont
REL Northeast & Islands staff supported the Vermont Agency of Education in surveying school counselors across the state about college and career pathway advising practices in February 2021, including how the counselor's role changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This document summarizes the survey findings.
Sep 30, 2021
FY2021
FY2021 Education Systems and Broad Reform Peer Review Panel
Blog
New Report Finds Accelerated College Credit Programs Have Positive Outcomes for Students
College and career readiness is a top priority for the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE). One of the state's key strategies for improving youth college and career readiness is through accelerated college credit programs. These programs allow students to earn college credits while in high school through the following options: -Dual enrollment: A program that allows high school students to attend college courses taught by college faculty on a college campus. -Concurrent enrollment: A ...
Date published:
Jun 30, 2021
report
Descriptive Study
The Effects of Accelerated College Credit Programs on Educational Attainment in Rhode Island
This study examined participation in accelerated college credit programs dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and Advanced Placement courses in Rhode Island high schools to understand their effects on educational attainment in the 2013/14 grade 9 cohort. The state, which has funded and promoted these opportunities for students to earn college credit during high school over the past five years, sought evidence of the programs' effects on participants' high school graduation rates, postsecon...
Jun 01, 2021
report
Impact Study
A Descriptive Analysis of Expanded Pathways to Graduation in New York State
The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) partnered with the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to examine the pathways used by students to attain a Regents diploma at the outset of a new policy expanding those pathways in June 2015. Under the new 4+1 pathways policy, students could replace one of the two required social studies Regents exams with another approved assessment in one of several subjects to earn a NYSED-recognized Regents diploma. The analysis,...
Jan 01, 2019
Grant
Career Academies, Pathways, and Elective Courses: Exploring Variation in Work-Based Learning Experiences and Student Outcomes
In this project, researchers will compare three modes of career technical education (CTE) delivery: career academies, career pathways, and elective CTE courses. Although CTE is increasingly used as a means to prepare students for college and careers, the modes of delivery can vary. Most prior studies of CTE effectiveness have examined students enrolled in one mode. Without attention to variation in how students experience CTE instruction, including work-based learning opportunities, it is di...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A170383
report
Descriptive Study
How kindergarten entry assessments are used in public schools and how they correlate with spring assessments
This study examined how many public schools nationwide used kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs), and for what purposes; the characteristics of public schools that used KEAs; and whether the use of KEAs was correlated with student assessment scores in reading and mathematics in spring of the kindergarten year. Drawing on a nationally representative sample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Class of 2010--11 (ECLS--K:2011), the study examined responses to an ECLS--K:201...
Oct 01, 2016
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