ESCALA (Escuela y Carrera Latina/Latino School and Career) - ¿
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project will develop ESCALA (Escuela y Carrera Latina/Latino School and Career), a mobile web app designed to increase the college and lowest educational attainment in the United States. Because educational attainment is a major social
determinant of health, it is not surprising that Latinos also experience poor health outcomes compared to whites, especially in the areas of obesity, depression, diabetes, and teen pregnancy. Although Latino parents recognize education as vital to their children's future, Latino adolescents perceive postsecondary education as largely unattainable due to a lack of viable role models for students, parents' unfamiliarity with college preparation processes, limited English skills, cultural differences between students and teachers, and having to financially support their family, especially in the case of Latina teenage mothers. In response to these identified barriers, ESCALA proposes to impact Latino students' college and career preparedness by intervening with students, parents, and school staff. The ESCALA app will include (a) dual language (Spanish/English), culturally relevant training videos that clarify the college prep process, (b) action plans for accomplishing concrete goals, and (c) decision-making tools with which to facilitate informed choices about students' post-secondary education aims. To ensure that Latino families have ready access to these materials, we will make the intervention available through mobile (i.e., smartphone) technology, which has rapidly established itself as an important communication tool among Latinos. Phase I will focus on development of a scaled-down prototype of ESCALA that can be "scaled out" in Phase II. Development will occur with focus groups, consultant input, and usability testing. We will conduct an initial evaluation with a sample of 40 Latino students and their parents to determine the social validity, perceived efficacy, behavioral intention to use the learned strategies, and satisfaction with the program's tone and content. In Phase II, we will complete the parent and student components of ESCALA and add the module for school personnel. We will then evaluate the entire program's efficacy in a large randomized controlled trial.
The project's Principal Investigators and development and research personnel are fluent Spanish speakers with familial ties to Mexican, Central American, and Caribbean cultures. Project team members have years of experience in translational research involving media and Internet technologies. The project benefits from partnership with Dr. Charles Martinez from the Center for Equity Promotion at the University of Oregon, and Dr. Matt Coleman from the Educational Policy Improvement Center and Springfield Public Schools, serving a large Latino student population. The necessary institutional support, equipment and physical resources are available to develop and disseminate the program. IRIS Ed has a history of completing Phase I and Phase II SBIR projects, and prides itself on its commitment to successfully commercializing training interventions.
