Vol. 3, Issue 4 April 2006    Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia    Education News Research on DC Schools National Lessons Learned New Ideas   The State Education Office does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the SEO Ed Digest.	Related Links DCDOCS Subscribe to the digest. Education Center Find local information and resources. React! Share your thoughts about the digest. Research 101 Learn how to judge the quality of research. SEO_Ed_Digest@dc.gov Contact us.

 

This issue of the SEO Ed Digest covers recent and background research on the topic of career and technical education (CTE). The research in this digest focuses on the benefits of CTE; the role of CTE in high school reform; postsecondary CTE; alignment with skills standards; implementation; funding; and resources. The status and future of CTE programs in the District of Columbia have increasingly come under scrutiny by the Council’s Special Committee on Vocational Education and Jobs for District Residents and as a result of the recently released District of Columbia Public Schools’ Master Education Plan.    
         

 

 

 

 

This paper assesses the effects of offering upper-secondary students the opportunity to pursue vocational education in high school on completion rates and subsequent earnings. Analysis of international cross-section data found that nations enrolling a large proportion of upper-secondary students in vocational programs have significantly higher school attendance rates and higher upper-secondary completion rates. Test scores at age 15 and college attendance rates for people over age 20 were not reduced.  Analysis of 12 years of longitudinal data found that those who devoted about one-sixth of their time in high school to occupation-specific vocational courses earned at least 12% extra one year after graduating and about 8% extra seven years later (holding attitudes and ability in 8th grade, family background and college attendance constant). This was true both for students who did and did not pursue post-secondary education. Computer courses had particularly large effects on earnings eight years after graduating.

 

 

This report examines the impact that Career Academies have had on the educational attainment and post-secondary labor market experiences of young people through the four years following their scheduled graduation from high school. It is based on survey data collected from 1,458 young people in the Career Academies Evaluation study sample (about 85 percent of whom are either Hispanic or African-American). Findings included: (1) the Career Academies substantially improved the labor market prospects of young men, a group that has experienced a severe decline in real earnings in recent years; (2) the Career Academies had no significant impacts (positive or negative) on the labor market outcomes for young women; (3) Overall, the Career Academies served as viable pathways to a range of post-secondary education opportunities, but they do not appear to have been more effective than options available to the non-Academy group; and (4) The positive labor market impacts were concentrated among Academy group members who were at high or medium risk of dropping out of high school when they entered the programs. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of improving labor market preparation and successful school-to-work transitions without compromising academic goals and preparation for college.

 

 

This paper presents a synthesis of evidence on the implementation and outcomes of vocational education and of the 1998 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (Perkins III). It examines questions about the effectiveness of vocational education in improving student outcomes, the consequences of new funding and accountability provisions for programs and participants, the implementation and quality of vocational education, and the extent of its alignment with other reform efforts. The report also provides options for the future direction of vocational education legislation.  After more than three years of study, the National Assessment of Vocational Education finds that: vocational education has important short- and medium-run  earning benefits for most students at both the secondary and postsecondary levels and these benefits extend to those who are economically disadvantaged; over the last decade of academic reforms, secondary students who participate in vocational programs have increased their academic course-taking and achievement, making them better prepared for both college and careers than were their peers in the past; and while positive change is happening at the high school level, secondary vocational education itself is not likely to be a widely effective strategy for improving academic achievement or college attendance without substantial modifications to policy, curriculum, and teacher training.

 

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003025
 
This report uses data from high school transcript studies of 1982, 1990, 1994, and 1998 to examine trends in the vocational course-taking of public high school students, including their vocational course-taking overall, course-taking in computer courses, and the ways in which students combine vocational and academic course-taking.  The report finds that, in general, student participation in vocational education declined during the 1980s and early 1990s, but has leveled off since then.  Academic course-taking increased over the entire period, however, so that vocational education became a smaller proportion of all course-taking throughout the period studied.  Concentrated and sequential vocational course-taking also declined between 1982 and 1998, while course-taking in computer-related courses increased.  On average, all students increased their academic course-taking between 1982 and 1998, including students who were vocational concentrators.  While vocational concentrators in 1998 took fewer academic courses on average than other students, these differences tended to be small.

 

 

The goals of high school career-focused activities are evolving as educators concentrate more intensively on improving students’ academic achievement.  As a growing number of students plan to attend college, some policymakers have questioned the value and relevance of traditional vocational programs, particularly those that prepare students for jobs that do not require a college degree.  This has led some schools to develop career-focused programs designed to prepare students for at least two-year college programs.  Some states now encourage all students to participate in career development activities designed to help students clarify goals and develop postsecondary education and employment plans.  Nonetheless, some career-focused programs continue to provide technical training and internships for students who plan to work full time after leaving high school.  This report draws on recent surveys of three cohorts of students in eight states to examine the extent of student participation in career-focused educational activities and the potential value of those activities.  The authors examined the following: challenges recent high school graduates face as they seek to achieve their education and career goals; the extent and recent growth of students’ involvement in career-focused high school activities; and how high school graduates appear to value and use some of these activities in their jobs and postsecondary programs.

 

 

This issue paper discusses how career and technical education (CTE) programs can encompass high academic achievement and preparation for postsecondary education and training.  The authors examine various models and programs that have been successful in teaching students the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.  Successful models include High Schools That Work, Talent Development High School, and First Things First.  Other successful programs include Tech-Prep, middle colleges, and apprenticeships.  Lastly, the paper discusses states that are implementing content standards and assessments that measure the technical skills of CTE students.

 

 

 

This research brief examines the effectiveness of Project Lead the Way (PLTW) at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites. PLTW is a high school pre-engineering program designed to prepare career/technical students for postsecondary engineering technician or college engineering studies. This report compares the reading, mathematics and science achievement scores of PLTW students with that of non-PLTW students on the 2004 HSTW Assessment. When compared with career/technical students in similar fields, PLTW student have significantly higher achievement in mathematics; when compared with all career/technical students, PLTW students score significantly higher in reading, mathematics and science.

 

 

This is the 4th annual report from a 5-year longitudinal project that examined diverse and promising programs for integrating career and technical education (CTE) with whole-school reform in schools that serve predominantly disadvantaged students.  The authors describe whole-school reform as an effort to restructure the organization of a school and the priorities of instruction so that a particular, unified vision of an improved school pervades the school.  It requires additional professional development for a school’s entire faculty, with a focus on high standards for all students enhanced cross-disciplinary cooperation.  Prior annual reports have reviewed the research base on the integration of CTE and whole-school reform, provided preliminary findings in areas such as leadership, and analyzed student outcome data from mathematics coursetaking and progress toward graduation.  This report continues the analysis of selected measures of student progress—in this case, student coursetaking in English and science, compared to students attending demographically similar control schools that were not involved in concerted reform efforts.  On measures of quantity, difficulty, and success of coursetaking, students from the schools with CTE-enhanced reforms either fared better than students from control schools or were behind control-school students in the early high school years and closed this gap during the later high school years.  With respect to English, students from the study schools fared better than students from the control schools.  Science results were more mixed, but generally favored students from the study schools. 

 

 

The American Youth Policy Forum and the Institute for Educational Leadership organized two roundtable meetings on aspects of high school reform critical to helping students develop the range of skills needed to be successful and that take into account the varied learning styles, preferences, and needs of youth today.  To provide the context for the roundtables, papers were developed on each subject.  The two papers and the summaries of the roundtable are presented in this report.  The first paper, Supporting High School Students Through Assessment of Academic and Industry-Valued Skills, looks at issues such as: the impact of high stakes testing on career and technical education programs and the students they serve; the success of using additional assessments beyond academic-focused tests; how career-related and other employability skills can be incorporated into states’ academic standards and assessments; and how assessments can help support and improve contextual teaching and learning.  The paper for the second roundtable, Contextual Teaching and Learning Strategies in High Schools: Developing a Vision for Support and Evaluation, concentrates on the approach of contextual teaching and learning for strengthening instructional practice.  The papers include policy recommendations as well as practical advice on how to structure contextual teaching and learning and alternative assessments activities at the high school level.  The summaries of the roundtable discussions provide a multi-faceted look at the top topics, based on input from the authors, panelists, and participants, and how they relate to educational leadership, professional development, and federal education policy.  They also include descriptions of effective policies, practices, and programs for improving student learning. 

 

 

This research brief answers three basic questions that will help leaders take actions to raise vocational students’ academic achievement: What progress is being made? What things matter in raising achievement? What can states do to improve high schools for vocational students? The report is based on lessons learned in High Schools That Work since its inception in 1987.  The author found that all participating states are making progress and the overall academic achievement of vocational students has.  School practices that help improve academic achievement include: students completing a challenging curriculum, taking algebra by the end of eighth grade and a mathematics course their senior year, receiving extra help needed to meet higher standards, receiving earlier and continual guidance and advisement from caring adults, and meeting curriculum and achievement goals; vocational teachers stressing academic knowledge and skills, setting high academic expectations and making assignments that engage students; districts and states increasing graduation requirements; and holding vocational students accountable to demanding standards for technical achievement.  The author ends the brief by  discussing what states can do to improve high schools for vocational students.

 

 

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 was designed to improve occupational education at both the secondary and postsecondary levels.  For postsecondary occupational education, the Perkins legislation focuses particularly at the sub-baccalaureate level.  This report estimates the determinants of persistence and completion of educational goals at the sub-baccalaureate level, with particular emphasis on the effects of a student’s program of study.  It answers the question of whether sub-baccalaureate occupational students are more or less likely than other types of postsecondary students to achieve their educational goals.  The authors’ overall findings suggest that community colleges have yet to determine and implement the optimal approach to providing direct occupational preparation within an institutional structure that continues to rest on a foundation oriented toward academic education.  The authors recommend that more effective remediation programs and more intensive student counseling practices are needed to increase students’ attainment and promote employment opportunities.

 

 

 

New industry-led partnerships are seeking to enhance the productivity and mobility of the workforce by defining voluntary national skill standards.  These standards identify both the skills needed in particular fields and ways for individuals to document these skills.  Skill standards partnerships are also trying to create a market for portable skill certificates--credentials that most employers in an industry would recognize.  The success of these skill standards initiatives will hinge, in part, on whether a substantial number of schools, employers, and students find value in the new standards, develop confidence in the new assessment and credentialing systems, and make the necessary adjustments in their curriculum, hiring practices, and learning efforts.  This report identifies lessons learned by some of the first vocational education programs that adopted new skill standards. It examines the opportunities and challenges these programs faced and how program staff dealt with them.  Upon examining the programs, the authors provide the following recommendations: external support and incentives are needed to change and update curriculum and assessment; tangible evidence of program improvements and regional industry associations can secure industry support and engage employers to become active in vocational programs; programs need to enhance strategies for recruiting, engaging, and placing students; and new public and private resources are needed to implement skill standards.

 

 

Although the success of school reforms such as the School-to-Work (STW) Opportunities Act hinges on classroom teachers' implementation of career-related activities, few quantitative studies have examined teachers' implementation practices in STW programs. In this study, classroom teachers involved in a STW partnership in a Southwestern Pennsylvania school district were surveyed to determine the extent that they integrated school-based and work-based activities into their curriculum. The attitudes of teachers in the district were also examined in terms of their perceptions of the value of school-to-work and the benefits of the STW program for students. Analysis of the data indicated that teachers had favorable attitudes toward STW and the reform goals of the STW initiative. However, teachers' implementation of career-related activities on average was low. Teachers were more likely to implement school-based activities than work-based activities. Significant differences were found among the STW implementation practices of teachers of various grade levels.

 

 

This brief summarizes the results of a research study that contrasted the 2002 High Schools That Work (HSTW) Assessment results in reading, mathematics and science for career-oriented students at the top 50 HSTW high-implementation schools with those at 50 low-implementation schools.  Using the 2002 HSTW assessments, student surveys, and high school teacher surveys, the researchers found that students at high-implementation schools had significantly higher student achievement in reading, mathematics and science than students at low-implementation schools.  Upon these findings, the researchers also focused on answering the following questions: why do career-oriented students at high-implementation schools perform better than career-oriented students at low-implementation schools?; and what can school districts, states and national policymakers do to support schools in more fully implementing the HSTW design?

 

 

 

This paper presents not only a new vision of how federal funding for career and technical education (CTE) should be used, but also proposals about changing the way funding flows and who gets it.  This paper recommends moving from a state grant program to a competitive grant approach.  The author argues that while changing the funding formulas is controversial, this change will ultimately have a larger impact on bringing about change and improvement in CTE programs rather than tinkering with the current grant program.  The author argues that federal funds should not be viewed as an ongoing maintenance or general operating funds; rather, they must be used to support activities that will lead to the creation, continued improvement, and support of high quality CTE programs of study with improved student outcomes.  As conceived in this paper, funding would be used to support the development and expansion of rigorous CTE programs of study. 

 

 

The Peer Collaborative Resource Network is the resource and information-sharing forum for state vocational and technical education professionals. A joint initiative between the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the states, the site provides a peer-to-peer forum for states to improve their capacity to collect quality data as it relates to the Perkins accountability requirements and to promote quality vocational and technical education programs. The focal point of this site is peer collaboration -- a participant-driven medium that fosters communication and the exchange of innovative ideas and approaches among states.  The Perkins Consolidated Annual Report provides data on vocational and technical education as reported by the states. 
 

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