NRCCTE Articles

Introduction to Pathways to a Productive Adulthood: The Role of CTE in the American High School

Kirsten Sundell — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 21:10:00 +0000

Unlike many, if not most, other industrialized nations, U.S. education lacks formal structures—like apprenticeships—that facilitate the transition of youth from secondary education to the work-place. This issue of the Peabody Journal of Education examines the important role of career and technical education in helping young people begin that transition to a lifelong role as a productive citizen in a rapidly evolving labor market. The issue begins with a brief introduction to career and technical education (CTE) and seeks to frame the discussion that follows.

Achievement Outcomes Among High School Graduates in College and Career Readiness Programs of Study

Kirsten Sundell — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 21:09:00 +0000

This study investigated the relationships between completing the high school portion of a college- and career-preparatory program of study and high school achievement outcomes in a large urban district in the West. Programs of study are secondary-to-postsecondary educational programs mandated by the federal legislation (Perkins IV) governing career and technical education (CTE) in the United States. At graduation, 49.5% of students in the sample who began a program of study had completed their programs.

The Labor Market Imperative for CTE: Changes and Challenges for the 21st Century

Kirsten Sundell — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 21:07:00 +0000

The labor market in the United States is evolving in unexpected ways following the 2007 recession. Career and technical education (CTE) has historically linked young people to the workplace. In this article we examine the U.S. labor market and provide multiple perspectives on its growth and direction and implications for future directions for CTE.

Preparing Students for College and Career in the United States – The Effects of Career-Themed Programs of Study on High School Performance

Kirsten Sundell — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 21:15:00 +0000

In the United States, education policy calls for every student to graduate from high school prepared for college and a career. National legislation has mandated programs of study (POS), which offer aligned course sequences spanning secondary and postsecondary education, blending standards-based academic and career and technical education (CTE) content and often including work-based learning opportunities. This study examined the effects of these career-themed POS on high school achievement outcomes in the United States. We used structural equations and an instrumental variable approach to test the effects of POS enrollment and participation in CTE course sequences on GPA and graduation. Results indicated that POS enrollment improved students’ probability of graduation by 11.3 % and that each additional CTE credit earned in POS increased their probability of graduation by 4 %. There were non-significant effects for high school GPA. These findings suggest that POS benefited students in terms of retention at no cost to their achievement.

Ecological and Evolutionary Principles for Secondary Education: Analyzing Career and Tech Ed

Kirsten Sundell — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:17:00 +0000

Current approaches to secondary education expose students to cultural information and environmental conditions that were not typical features of youth development for the vast majority of human evolution. Understanding the mismatch between adolescents’ evolved information processing biases and the educational content and environmental cues they often experience in school can help us to identify and/or develop educational approaches that will work with student biases in attention and motivation, rather than against them.

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Building High-Quality Work-Based Learning Programs for High School Students

Kirsten Sundell — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 22:22:00 +0000

This article in ACTE’s Techniques magazine summarizes research conducted for the NRCCTE in 2012 to establish a knowledge base about work-based learning (WBL) to help state-level educators assist local WBL programs. Details on the background literature review, methods and findings can be found in the full report, Work-Based Learning Opportunities for High School Students, published in 2013.

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Benefits of Career and Technical Student Organizations’ on Female and Racial Minority Students’ Psychosocial and Achievement Outcomes

Kirsten Sundell — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 21:30:00 +0000

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent do CTSOs affect student psychosocial and achievement outcomes (above and beyond stand-alone CTE programs) when controlling for gender and race. Using a cross-sectional descriptive research design, a total of 5,677 students from 10 states were surveyed regarding their high school experiences. Students were recruited from CTSO, CTE, and non-CTE (general education) classrooms.

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Outcome Trajectories of Developmental Students in Community Colleges

Kirsten Sundell — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:27:00 +0000

This article, published by the authors of the NRCCTE’s Relative Impact study of community college retention programs in the Community College Review, explores student outcomes related to taking developmental English (i.e., reading and/or writing) and math classes in three community colleges in three different states, using institutional data from 7,898 students who began college in the fall of 2009 (Cohort 1) or fall 2010 (Cohort 2). We examine the outcome trajectories of students at each college, considering their enrollment in developmental courses in their first term at college as well as other variables. Several factors helped students persist into the second term of college, and a subset of these was also significantly related to continued persistence, graduation, and higher overall grade point average (GPA). Older students, White/non-Hispanic students, and occupational students were more likely to graduate. These groups, and women, also had higher cumulative GPAs. Math ability at the time of college entrance was a powerful predictor of student success.

Taking Charge of Your Career Path: A Future Trend of the Workforce

Kirsten Sundell — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:25:00 +0000

One workforce trend on the horizon is the shift from a collective sense of work to a more individualistic meaning of work. What does this shift mean for CTE students? What unique role does CTE play in preparing students for future employment?

Workplace trends portray relevant information regarding the present and future of the workforce and its members. These trends signify changes within the workplace regarding performance, retention, satisfaction and many other areas that affect the individual employee, as well as the organization and industry as a whole. Trends can be seen in statistical reports and observations, as well as in conversations between educational institutions and business and industry.

Professional Development in CTE Data Driven Methods: Development of a Research-Based Intervention

Kirsten Sundell — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:29:00 +0000

An initial survey conducted by the authors in 2009 determined the amount and type of preparation CTE educators had regarding the use of assessment data for program and instructional improvement; this survey was the basis for development of an intervention for teachers on interpretation of assessment data for improvement of classroom instruction. The intervention, titled Career and Technical Educators Using a Data Driven Improvement Model or CTEDDI, was developed and successfully piloted in five states during spring semester 2010; the results of the pilot study have been used to revise the materials and process to produce a professional development program to help CTE educators improve their data skills and instruction.

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Online Occupational Education in Community Colleges: Prevalence, Programming, and Connection with Workforce Development Needs

Kirsten Sundell — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:34:00 +0000

This study examined the current state of online occupational programs in community colleges and explored issues related to institutional, economic, and social indicators that influence (a) the offering of online programs and (b) the programmatic connection to workforce development needs. The study is based on a random sample of 321 institutions in the United States. This project is the first national study categorizing online occupational programs according to the Career Clusters and Career Pathways classification scheme. Although research has shown that most institutions offer online occupational courses, only 47.5% of colleges in the sample offered credit-granting online occupational programs. Additionally, despite research finding that skill-based programs requiring manipulative skill development can be successfully taught online, this study found that few such programs exist. Finally, our research indicated that occupational program development is not driven by statewide economic indicators, such as the state’s fastest growing occupations, suggesting a moderate responsiveness to states’ workforce development needs.

Learning Mathematics in High School Courses Beyond Mathematics: Combating the Need for Postsecondary Remediation in Mathematics

Kirsten Sundell — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:33:00 +0000

The NRCCTE’s Math-in-CTE model was employed as the treatment in a study that empirically tested the hypothesis that students who participated in a math-enhanced high school agricultural power and technology curriculum would develop a greater understanding of math concepts—as measured by students’ scores on the postsecondary ACCUPLACER test and need for remediation in mathematics—than students who received non math-enhanced instruction. The study, which took place from 2004-2005, included teachers and students in 32 Oklahoma high schools (16 treatment classrooms; 16 control classrooms). Although the study’s findings were not statistically significant, students taught using Math-in-CTE had higher ACCUPLACER scores than control students. The study’s authors urge further research regarding the use of curriculum integration in math in agriculture classrooms.

Implementing a Statewide Mandated Career Pathways/Programs of Study School Reform Model: Select Findings from a Multisite Case Study

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:32:00 +0000

A Longitudinal Study of the South Carolina Personal Pathways to Success Initiative (see Hammond, Drew, et al. 2011) follows the implementation of a statewide mandated career-focused school reform policy in one U.S. state. The research focuses on eight diverse high schools in the state, personnel at those schools, and approximately 6,200 students across three cohorts, with varying amounts of exposure to the policy. In the longitudinal study, we investigate whether the number of highly developed career-focused programs of study available to students increases under the policy and whether targeted student and school outcomes are affected. Findings are presented here as related to overall policy implementation, differences in student experiences, changes in the roles of guidance, and changing attitudes toward career and technical education.

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Do Career and Technical Education Programs of Study Improve Student Achievement? Preliminary Analyses from a Rigorous Longitudinal Study

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:31:00 +0000

This longitudinal study examines the impact of programs of study on high school academic and technical achievement. Two districts are participating in experimental and quasi-experimental strands of the study. This article describes the sample selection, baseline characteristics, study design, career and technical education and academic achievement results of 9th and 10th graders, and qualitative findings from site visits. Few differences existed across groups in 9th grade, but by the end of 10th grade, students’ test scores, academic grade point averages, and progress to graduation tended to be better for the students in programs of study (i.e., treatment students) than for control/comparison students. Qualitative results suggest that treatment schools have created school cultures around programs of study that appear to explain improved engagement and achievement.

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Mature Programs of Study: A Structure for the Transition to College and Career?

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:30:00 +0000

This study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine a new type of curriculum configuration that supports students’ transitions to college: career technical programs of study (POS). Interview and survey data were collected from a college and its feeder high schools in each of three well-established (“mature”) sites in geographically varied communities in the United States to investigate how POS are structured, what the key “ingredients” are, and what students experience as they move through the POS. Interview findings suggest that the key elements of POS include dedicated staff to create-secondary-postsecondary connections, active multi-stakeholder advisory committees, and flexibility and compromise in developing dual-credit options for students. Survey data show that high school students feel positively about their experiences in POS: however, career guidance is lacking. Student records indicate that even when POS were in place to support their transition, less than one-fifth of students remained in the same POS in college that they began in high school. Results are discussed in relation to the 2006 Perkins legislation.

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Situating Programs of Study Within Current and Historical Career and Technical Educational Reform Efforts

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:28:00 +0000

This article provides a broad overview of the history of career-focused education in the United States and the reauthorization of the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006. The Perkins act required that the recipients of its funding offer at least one program of study, and this reauthorization included four core components that play a central role in the implementation of the overall Programs of Study initiative. As such, we provide a background of the development of the Programs of Study initiative in Perkins through earlier initiatives: Tech Prep, career pathways, youth apprenticeship, and dual/concurrent-credit programs. We also offer a brief overview of the challenges faced by each initiative, along with an overview of the three NRCTE longitudinal studies represented in this special issue.

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The Role of School Culture in Improving Student Achievement in POS

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:27:00 +0000

Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in CTE Programs of Study, a longitudinal study, was designed to estimate the impact of POS on high school students’ academic and technical achievement outcomes through the completion of high school. For the past four years, NRCCTE researchers have followed two cohorts of students from the Class of 2012 in two large, urban school districts that offer POS. Each year, student outcome data are collected and site visits are conducted at treatment and control or comparison schools; the researchers observe academic and CTE classes and interview students, teachers, counselors and administrators in order to get a better sense of the experiences of students attending POS compared to students not attending POS.

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Lessons Learned from Highly Implemented Programs of Study

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:26:00 +0000

In 2009-2010, the NRCCTE conducted a cross-site evaluation of the Center’s three field-based longitudinal studies of POS through the project, Programs of Study – A Cross-Study Examination of Programs in Three States. This evaluative study, now concluded, allowed the NRCCTE to explore lessons learned regarding POS across three schools that were identified as having a high level of POS implementation. The researchers’ goal was to compare common elements across the schools in order to uncover key components that could be shared with others actively involved in developing more effective POS.

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Programs of Study: What “Mature” Sites Tell Us

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:25:00 +0000

As POS are relatively new, in name if not in practice, research evidence on their implementation and effectiveness is still in progress. NRCCTE-affiliated researchers at the National Institute for Workforce and Learning at FHI 360 are conducting Mature Programs of Study: A Postsecondary Perspective, a study that began in 2008 with the goal of examining “mature” POS-like sites around the country in order to learn about how they were developed and how they work. Three sites were selected that met study criteria for maturity, primarily consisting of evidence of a strong secondary-postsecondary partnership with students moving from the high school to the local community college in a CTE program.

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The Future of CTE: Programs of Study

Kirsten Sundell — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:24:00 +0000

This article describes one of the NRCCTE’s two qualitative investigations of POS, Six Stories About Six States: Programs of Study. This project, now concluded, focused on how POS were developed, and especially on how technical assistance was provided to strengthen and improve them.

The Six States project report noted the power of project-based learning (PBL) and hands-on, active participation in both classrooms and in the community/workplace to sustain student interest, engagement and understanding. In study sites, skills and knowledge were also developed and enhanced through instruction that met both academic and workplace competency expectations. Such strategies led to improvements in student achievement outcomes. Districts and states in the study were able to cite data that showed that CTE students were doing well and even outperforming average, non-CTE students in their states. District and state data also showed that students in POS had higher high school graduation rates.

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