Career and Education Pathways

Not to be outdone by Walmart, Target is launching its own debt-free education assistance program to more than 340,000 employees.

The company announced that all part-time and full-time team members in the U.S. are eligible for debt-free undergraduate degrees, certificates, certifications, and free textbooks without having to lay out one red cent. Employees don’t have to work for a certain length of time to earn the benefit either. They’re eligible on their very first day of work at Target.

Lots of choices, lots of schools

Target’s new debt-free offering is built around 250 business-aligned programs at more than 40 schools, colleges, and universities including the University of Arizona, Oregon State University, and the University of Denver, along with historically Black colleges such as Morehouse College and Paul Quinn College. 

The program doesn’t just revolve around colleges or fully degreed programs either. Target will support team members taking courses for high school completion, college prep, English language learning, and other select certificates, certifications, boot camps, and associate degrees. For employees who already have an undergraduate degree, the company is going the extra mile by paying up to $10,000 annually for master’s programs.

“Target employs team members at every life stage and helps our team learn, develop and build their skills, whether they’re with us for a year or a career. A significant number of our hourly team members build their careers at Target, and we know many would like to pursue additional education opportunities,”  said Melissa Kremer, chief human resources officer, Target. “We don’t want the cost to be a barrier for anyone, and that’s where Target can step in to make education accessible for everyone.” 

Things like this can change customer perceptions

The pandemic forced many businesses to completely shift how they treat employees and customers alike. Now that available workers have become a scarcity, companies like Target and Walmart have no choice but to raise pay and give employees an incentive to become part of an organization that does more than just waiting for the cash register to ring.

In Target’s case, the new education assistance program is part of Target Forward, an initiative that the company calls a “new sustainability strategy that includes goals to create an equitable and inclusive workforce.” And, if proven viable, that’s a notion that’s probably not lost on its customers -- like Carolyn of Chicago.

“Most of the Targets I visit are very well maintained (clean, organized, well-staffed.) It's very easy to find things throughout the store, I feel like the selection is very broad and varied, and I enjoy shopping at Target. The in-house up & up brand is often very competitively priced and I've never had any issues buying generic. A lot of the clothes are cute, too, and I always find myself discovering a new cleaning or cooking product that becomes indispensable,” Carolyn wrote in a 4-star review of Target at ConsumerAffairs. 

“My only hesitation is that I am aware that Target shows their employees a lot of anti-union content to discourage the retail employees from unionizing and I don't really like that and I have discomfort about spending money with an union-busting retailer.”

With Target’s new education employee plan, customers like Carolyn might be more comfortable shopping with the company.

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware explored an interesting benefit linked to kids’ physical activity routines. According to their findings, consistent exercise may help kids develop stronger vocabulary skills; this was particularly true when kids participated in a swimming exercise.

“Motor movement helps in encoding new words,” explained researcher Maddy Pruitt.  

The researchers had nearly 50 children between the ages of six and 12 participate in the study. The kids were divided into three groups: one group went swimming, one group participated in CrossFit, and a third group did a coloring activity. Prior to each group starting their activity, the children were given a series of new words to learn; the researchers assessed their understanding of them afterward. 

The study showed that not all physical activity reaped the same benefits; the children who were swimming in the study retained more words than children from the other two groups. Overall, these kids were also 13% better at defining the new words they had learned prior to the activity. 

Muscle memory helps when learning words

The researchers explained that swimming was more effective at helping kids build their vocabulary than CrossFit because of the muscle memory involved in swimming. The children knew what to expect when swimming, which allowed them to use the other parts of their brains to build on their vocabularies. 

Moving forward, the researchers hope these findings can be beneficial in the classroom and for any consumers who work one-on-one with children in educational settings. While exercise is important for an overall healthy lifestyle, it can also be beneficial from an academic standpoint. 

“We were so excited about this study because it applies to clinicians, caregivers, and educators who can put it into practice,” said researcher Giovanna Morini. “It’s simple stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. But it could really help boost the outcomes.” 

Getting kids interested in reading can lead to several academic and developmental benefits. Now, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center explored how certain reading programs can better prepare preschoolers for entering kindergarten. 

The team explained that a combination of two early reading programs -- Reach Out and Read and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library -- gave preschoolers the literacy skills they needed to be successful in kindergarten. 

“With this early study, we suggest that when combined and sustained, these two programs have the potential for effectively supporting the development of preliteracy skills of large populations of at-risk children, improving kindergarten readiness, and, ultimately, success in school and life,” said researcher Dr. Greg Szumlas. 

The benefits of reading programs

To understand the benefits of the two reading programs, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 3,200 children in Cincinnati over the course of three separate school years. 

All of the children were involved in both the Reach Out and Read program and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The former program supplies books and reading guidance to children from birth through age 5; the latter also sends books to families during the same timeframe.

The children in the study took the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) prior to starting kindergarten so that their literacy skills and overall kindergarten readiness could be measured. The researchers compared their scores with other students in school districts that weren’t involved in either reading program. 

Ultimately, children enrolled in both reading programs performed better on the KRA than other children in the Cincinnati school districts that weren’t participating in the reading programs. Having the extra reading practice translated to scores that were more than 15 percentage points higher than other students in the districts that hadn’t received reading assistance. 

Moving forward, the researchers hope these findings highlight the benefits associated with early exposure to literacy and books. The team says reading with kids from infancy can result in a big advantage when it comes to getting ready for school.

“I can’t stress enough to parents the importance of reading with your child, starting at birth,” said Dr. Szumlas. “Just a few minutes a day, reading aloud, and interacting with your child over books can make a huge difference in helping them prepare and be ready for kindergarten.” 

While reading may not be every consumer’s favorite hobby, findings from a new study may prompt more people to pick up their favorite books more often. 

According to researchers from Concordia University, reading for fun has even more benefits than previously thought. Findings from a new study showed that reading for pleasure, as opposed to reading to find specific information, was associated with stronger verbal and cognitive skills.

“It’s always very positive and heartening to give people permission to delve into the series that they like,” said researcher Sandra Martin-Chang. “I liken it to research that says chocolate is good for you: the guilty pleasure of reading fiction is associated with positive cognitive benefits and verbal outcomes.” 

Long-term benefits of reading for fun

To determine the benefits associated with reading for fun, the researchers had 200 undergraduate students complete a series of assessments that evaluated their reading habits and their general attitudes toward reading. Afterwards, they answered test-based questions that gauged their verbal and cognitive abilities. The researchers also developed a predictive scale -- Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) -- to see how well they could identify which participants were most interested in reading for fun. 

The researchers found that participants who scored higher on the reading questionnaires also scored higher on the verbal acuity exams. The opposite was also true; participants that scored lower on the general reading questionnaires had poorer scores on the verbal tests. 

The same associations emerged when the researchers looked at the PoLR. Participants who reported reading more often, specifically seeking out fiction or other novels, also had the highest test scores. Conversely, participants who reported only reading to seek out specific information scored poorer on the verbal acuity test. 

The researchers explained that these findings are interesting because of the population that they focused on. While most kids have to read for academic purposes, by the time they reach young adulthood, reading becomes voluntary. It’s important to know that picking up a book for enjoyment can leave consumers with long-term benefits. 

“This ingrained interest, wanting to read something over and over again, feeling compelled to read an entire series, feeling connected to characters and authors, these are all good things,” siad Martin-Chang. 

A new study conducted by researchers from Ohio State University has found that kids’ motivation to perform well in school may not be set in stone. 

According to their findings, high school students are particularly susceptible to building motivation as they get older. The researchers also found that students can develop stronger motivational skills if they have a strong sense of belonging at school and within their groups of friends.

“Our results point to a more hopeful picture for students who start out with lower levels of motivation -- they tend to shift toward more adaptive profiles with better motivational characteristics over time,” said researcher Kui Xie. 

Building motivation

For the purposes of the study, the researchers followed more than 1,600 high school students for two school years. Each year of the study, the participants completed surveys that assessed both their motivation and their perceived sense of belonging in school. The researchers compared their results with motivational profiles to see what trends emerged among the participants. 

Ultimately, they learned that many of the students were capable of changing their motivational styles. Although some started out the survey with a very poor motivation to perform academically, changes occurred in 40 and 77 percent of the students over time. It’s also important to note that kids who were inherently motivated at the start of the study were likely to maintain their motivation long-term. 

The team found that more time in high school led to fewer kids in the least motivated category, and the percentage of students who were self-motivated increased over the course of the study. The researchers attribute this to several different factors. They theorized that many students feel motivated by the idea of getting into a good college; others like the feeling of getting good grades and are pushed to keep excelling. Others adopted more motivation as they felt a greater sense of belonging among their peers. 

“This may be one area where we can help students become more motivated,” said Xie. “Belongingness is something schools can change. They can find ways to help students feel like they are a part of the school community.” 

As school officials think about ways to keep kids engaged and focused, the researchers hope that these findings come into play. Motivation doesn’t have to be fixed and rigid, and kids are likely to adapt to several different approaches. 

“When we design interventions, we should think about gradually shifting students to more adaptive profiles,” said Xie. “We need to tailor the motivation strategies to specific profiles. There is no one universal strategy that will work for all groups.” 

Attending preschool has been linked with improvements for kids’ social and academic skills. Now, a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Georgia has found that state-funded preschool programs can play an important role in kids’ long-term academic success. 

According to the researchers, kids enrolled in state-funded preschool programs are more likely to develop strong math skills that last through middle school. 

“Pre-K is a critical space where children experience success, and it sets them on a trajectory for being successful as they make the transition to kindergarten,” said researcher Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett. “The hope is that when children are successful early in school, they are more likely to be engaged as they progress and more likely to complete high school.” 

Creating an educational foundation

For the study, the researchers followed nearly 460 students from preschool through middle school. Though not all the children attended a preschool program, the researchers evaluated their school records each year to assess their progress. 

The study revealed that kids who participated in the state-funded preschool program had more math success by the time they were in fourth grade than the students who hadn’t attended preschool. Between fourth and seventh grades, preschool attendees were more than two times as likely to be meeting statewide math standards than non-preschool attendees during those years. 

“School becomes more challenging as one progresses through the grades, and so if in middle school, students are still twice as likely to meet the state standards, it’s clear that something that happened early on was influencing their trajectory,” said Neuharth-Pritchett. 

Providing more learning opportunities

Many of the students involved in the study came from low-socioeconomic households, and opportunities for schooling before kindergarten were very limited. These findings highlight why state-funded preschool programs are so important because they offer educational opportunities for all kids -- regardless of their families’ income level. 

The researchers hope that these findings lead to substantial change in the education landscape. They say expanding these learning opportunities to more kids can only benefit their education down the road. 

“Equal access to pre-K education has a long history that goes all the way back to the war on poverty,” said Neuharth-Pritchett. “Part of the thinking during the 1960s was that such early learning opportunities would provide the high-quality preschool education that could level the educational playing field between those with economic resources and those without. 

“Our study indicated sustained benefits for children’s early learning experiences that persist into the elementary and middle school years.” 

A new study conducted by researchers from the American Psychological Association explored the academic advantages associated with attending preschool versus going straight to kindergarten. According to their findings, preschool is instrumental in developing kids’ skills in a variety of areas, but children who go straight to kindergarten are still able to catch up by the end of their first year.  

“One interesting part of our findings was that children’s classroom experiences in kindergarten had little to do with whether the benefits of pre-K persist over time,” said researcher Arya Ansari. 

“Instead, what our findings appear to suggest is that even though children’s skills are susceptible to improvement as a result of pre-K, their longer-term outcomes are likely to be affected by factors that are outside the scope of early schooling. We need to view pre-K as one of many investments we make to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed in life.” 

Understanding educational progress

The researchers had over 2,500 kindergarteners involved in the study; over half of the group attended pre-K while the remaining children went straight to kindergarten. For the entirety of the kindergarten school year, the researchers evaluated the students on three primary outcomes: social-emotional skills, literacy and math, and executive functioning, which includes things like memory and self-control. 

The study revealed that pre-K graduates outperformed those who didn’t attend pre-K in the early parts of the kindergarten school year when it came to both academic and executive functioning outcomes. However, by the end of the year, the researchers found that students who hadn’t attended pre-K were able to close that gap. 

In looking at specific academic areas, the researchers noted that pre-K graduates started out the year 80 percent stronger in literacy and 45 percent stronger in general knowledge; however, by the end of the year, those differences were eliminated. 

“We found that pre-K graduates entered Kindergarten demonstrating stronger academic skills than those who did not attend preschool,” Ansari said. “The same was true for executive functioning, but there was no aggregate difference in kindergarten teachers’ reports of their socio-emotional skills. However, we also found that the differences between attenders and nonattenders diminished between the fall and spring of kindergarten, primarily because nonattenders who entered school for the first time in kindergarten made larger learning gains as compared to their classmates with pre-K experiences.” 

Moving forward, the researchers hope that more work can be done on the effects of attending preschool, as understanding these differences in academic performance can be beneficial to both parents and educators. 

“Ensuring that young children enter kindergarten ready to learn has been of great research and policy interest,” said Ansari. “By all accounts, pre-K programs have helped achieve this goal. However, there have been lingering questions as to whether contemporary and scaled-up pre-K programs provide children with enduring benefits as they progress throughout their educational careers.” 

Career changes can occur at any age, and according to a new study, many teachers are opting for a switch after 10 years on the job.

Researchers found that after the decade mark, many teachers are leaving their chosen field to embark on new endeavors, citing the need for a better work/life balance and less pressure on performance.

“It’s not as if they weren’t aware that teaching was going to be demanding,” the authors wrote. “However, they feel that the demands of the job outstrip their capacity to adapt. This raises the questions: what can be done to arrest this trend?”

Deciding to leave

The researchers were most interested in seeing not only what was driving teachers to leave the field, but also what led them to the field in the first place.

To get a better understanding of the thought processes of a large sampling of teachers, the researchers utilized a London school that recruits and trains the majority of teachers in the United Kingdom, known as the UCL Institute of Education (IOE).

There were 1,200 teachers involved in the study, and the researchers developed a six-part survey that asked teachers a variety of questions including:

• Demographic questions

• Motivational themes (Why the participants wanted to become teachers)

• Career goals

• Teacher training path and outcomes

• Current employment and future goals

• Reasons for leaving or reasons to leave the field

At the time of the survey, 18 percent of participants never made it past their initial teacher training, while 13 percent finished their training but left the profession. Of those teachers who quit, over 20 percent were in their third year, while over 30 percent were in their second year.

For those still teaching, many of their initial goals for getting into the field were similar. While half of the participants reported being passionate about their chosen subject, nearly 70 percent had aspirations of making a difference, and over 60 percent wanted to work with kids.

While nearly half of the respondents reported being committed to teaching for the long-haul, 16 percent had plans of leaving within five years, while over 20 percent saw themselves in the profession for another decade. It is important to note that the participants ranged in age from 21 years old to 51 years old, but the majority of the group was between 26 and 30 at the time of the survey, showing that their reasons for leaving weren’t related to retirement.

The researchers had those who left teaching report on why they left, and then also asked those still teaching why they might consider leaving, and found that the responses were very similar.

Seventy-five percent of teachers who left wanted a better work/life balance, while over 70 percent were overwhelmed by the workload. Moreover, nearly 60 percent of former-teachers felt too much pressure for their students to perform well. Those numbers were very similar to the teachers who were just pondering why they’d leave.

“The general response from government is that teaching will be improved by reducing workload, removing unnecessary tasks and increasing pay,” the authors wrote. “This may help, and our study does continue the discourse that workload is key. However, it also indicates that part of the problem lies within the culture of teaching, the constant scrutiny, the need to perform, and hyper-critical management. Reducing workload will not address these cultural issues.”

Consistent findings

This study touches on themes and ideas that have been circulating in the news as of late.

Last year, researchers from the University of Missouri found that over 90 percent of teachers were feeling job-related stress, which was found to have an effect on student outcomes.

Earlier this year, a government survey revealed that teachers are quitting in record numbers -- particularly in public schools.

The survey found that while many teachers are simply getting better offers in other fields, others are looking for better compensation, and others are plagued with disruptive students and a lack of discipline from superiors.

A report by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) raises concerns about the long-term future of many members of the millennial generation.

The report, based on an analysis of an adult competency assessment, shows nearly half of millennials in the U.S. have low literacy skills and even more lack the ability to understand and work with numbers.

“These numbers are sobering because the findings presented in this report show that skills are associated with an array of important outcomes including employment opportunities, wages, and benefits,” the authors write.

The report also makes the point that literacy and numeracy are not only connected with economic returns but play a critical role in uniting society and democracy.

More likely to be unemployed

The report by ETS researchers Anita Sands and Madeline Goodman suggests millennials with low skills are more likely to be unemployed, out of the labor force, working in low-skill occupations, and earning low incomes.

They are also less likely to have health care coverage than those with higher skills. Societally, they are less likely than their higher-skilled peers to have trust in others, be engaged in civic affairs, and feel as though they can influence government.

Rapid and fundamental change

The authors say millennials are more vulnerable than previous generations because they came along at a time when America was undergoing rapid and fundamental changes. A manufacturing economy, which previously supported a broad middle class, was transitioning to a service and information economy, requiring education and skill.

“This shift impacted many facets of American life, not least of which is the nature of work and the need for higher level literacy and numeracy skills,” the authors write.

Unfortunately for millennials, the economy provides fewer sustainable economic opportunities to people who lack higher-level skills. The work that is available to those with lower skills often carries risks without providing benefits, such as retirement plans, health insurance, and sustainable wages.

The report sounds an alarm for a generation entering adulthood that may be ill-equipped to cope with a changing world. It concludes that the millennial generation is not just at risk, but future generations as well.