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Summer Intern Project 3: California’s Changing College-Goers

PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA
Sacramento, CA Intern
POSTED ON 12/22/2024 CLOSED ON 2/18/2025

What are the responsibilities and job description for the Summer Intern Project 3: California’s Changing College-Goers position at PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA?

PPIC’s Summer Intern Program provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students interested in a public policy career to work in a policy research environment. Intern projects are proposed by PPIC staff members and designed around a specific set of tasks and deliverables that can be accomplished within the term of the internship. Please complete your application by February 9, 2025. We expect to make final selection decisions by mid-April.

Project title: California’s Changing College-Goers After the Pandemic

Project Directors: Iwunze Ugo, Beyond Deng

Project Description

The COVID-19 pandemic was a massive disruption to California’s education system. School closures and challenges with the transition to distance learning led to declining achievement and college readiness. Graduation rates, however, ticked slightly upward. This is partly due to the state’s response to the pandemic: Assembly Bill 104 (AB 104, 2021) loosened graduation requirements and allowed students to replace letter grades with simple Pass/Fail designations. The reforms sought to limit the effects of the pandemic rippling through students’ pathways, but could also have progressed students who are less prepared for college.

In this project we look at differences between recent cohorts of college-going students from California—students both before and after the pandemic—and analyze how the characteristics and early outcomes of recent college enrollees have changed.

Responsibilities

A key part of this project will be developing an understanding of how district high school graduation requirements have changed. Most district graduation requirements are higher than the state minimum, but they vary widely in how much more they ask of their students.

An intern working on this project will assist us with the task of compiling high school graduation requirements. Development of this database of district graduation requirements will be useful for this project specifically, and our broader research agenda on college readiness and transitions to postsecondary education.

Specific project objectives include:

  • Read recent research and state guidance on graduation requirements, related state policy and recent trends in graduation rates.
  • Work with the research team to develop a strategy to compile information on district high school graduation requirements. Methods could include a survey of districts, automated web scraping of district sites, or manual collection of publicly available district information
  • Use the compiled data to conduct an analysis of how district graduation rates compare to the state standard and describe the impacts of AB 104.

In addition, the intern will also participate in frequent research team meetings to discuss project updates and get feedback on their work. The intern will be a member of PPIC’s PK-12 education policy group.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring undergraduate or graduate training in economics, education, public policy, sociology, or a related field.

An intern working on this project should have an interest in education and public policy, as well as skills and experience in:

  • Gathering information from research reports and policy documents[CD1] 
  • Compiling, organizing and analyzing large amounts of information
  • Data management and statistical programming experience (STATA, R, and/or Python)
  • Writing and verbal communication
  • Working independently and with a team
  • Seeking and accepting feedback, changing direction when necessary

The Research Environment

Interns are offered the opportunity to participate in the collegial atmosphere of PPIC through daily interaction with all aspects of the institute. They are invited to join the staff in their regular meetings and to attend PPIC’s outside events, including the institute’s public affairs programs and research briefings. PPIC offers access to the Institute of Governmental Sciences library at the University of California, Berkeley, allowing interns to work with many important databases, journals, and statistical datasets. The intern program also includes a discussion of California state policy by PPIC’s government affairs staff. 

Each intern’s project will include an initial meeting with research staff, and towards the end of the project, a briefing by the intern on the goals, findings, and significance of the project. In 2025, the following dates are expected to be in-person for all interns: 

    • Tuesday, June 17, 2025: Internship kickoff in San Francisco
    • Wednesday, June 25, 2025: Capitol tour in Sacramento
    • Friday, August 22, 2025: Final presentations in San Francisco

Interns are encouraged to discuss their work throughout the course of the project, to meet with research staff to discuss careers in research, and to meet with communications staff to learn about outreach and building an audience of policymakers.

Location, Compensation, and Time on Project

The 2025 intern program will be conducted via hybrid or remote setup; the details of the setup will be arranged with the intern’s supervisor. Interns will need to be based in California while working on a PPIC project. 

Compensation is $23 per hour. This full-time internship will last up to eleven weeks, ideally beginning June 16, 2025.

To Apply

As part of completing this application, submit your cover letter highlighting the particular skills you bring to the project and describing how this internship would contribute to your career development, and attach your resume as PDF or Word file.

Equal Employer Opportunity (EEO) statement:

PPIC celebrates diversity and is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a team that represents the backgrounds, perspectives, identities, and skills of California. No matter who you are, we invite you to apply for this role.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer

 [CD1]This seems fairly specific. Could you broaden it out to be “compiling information from research reports and policy documents”?

Salary : $23

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