Follow-up study of participants in the Educational Talent Search program

Abstract

Historically, counselors, clergy or parents, don’t have the time or expertise to work one-on-one with most students now in TRIO programs. To receive the help they need to succeed in life, students seek the Educational Talent Search (ETS) program because they receive little or no encouragement from home. Most counselors think that low-income students are too time consuming. The ETS program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout desires to help qualifying students to think critically, communicate effectively, to help them solve problems, and to encourage high school completion and enroll in a postsecondary education program. The purpose of this study was to use ETS data to identify what students did postsecondary after being in the ETS program and to look at the program over the course of ten years. The study indicated that students have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills, from basic to highly technical needed to adapt to emerging new technologies, work methods, and markets through the Educational Talent Search program.