From Classroom to Career: Exploring Opportunity to Learn in Career and Technical Education Programs for Multilingual Students Classified as English Learners

In-service teacher training more commonly referred to as Professional Development (PD) is a critical part of education especially in career and technical education (CTE). CTE programs have rapidly changing technological foundations (Panella, 2007;Cho & Imel, 2003) and CTE teachers’ primary focus is to prepare students for entry-level positions in their occupational areas. As such, CTE teachers must ensure that their own technical knowledge and skills remain current in order to adequately prepare students for these technically enhanced work environments. This becomes even more critical now that theCarl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006(Perkins IV) links funding to student outcomes. Students must now demonstrate proficiency on technical assessments covering industry-recognized standards.

The integration of career and technical education (CTE) and academic curricular content represents a challenge for CTE professionals. Currently, little is known about the process of integrating science into secondary CTE programs. Grounded theory method was employed to create information about CTE teachers' perspectives of and experiences with the process of CTE and science content integration. From the perspective of the CTE teachers involved, integrating CTE and science content resulted in their programs of study being adapted into something very different than they were before the process of integration was begun. The CTE teachers revealed that evolutions in their programs of study and themselves were associated with three other categories within the grounded theory: connecting; enacting; and futuring. The findings indicate that the process of CTE and science content integration represents a deep and complex episode for CTE teachers. The findings also reveal that the process of CTE and science content integration requires connecting to others, putting ideas into action, and an orientation towards the future.

A national study examining safety factors and training associated with STEM education and CTE laboratory accidents in the United States

Meeting the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in career and technical education (CTE) represents a growing challenge for all teachers in the field. The challenge is especially overwhelming given the widespread agreement that teachers are not well prepared to meet the needs of ELLs. The implications for schools and CTE teachers are discussed in connection to appropriate instruction for ELLs addressing language development considerations. The underlying premises of effective instruction aligned with contextual teaching and learning, relation to teaching practice in CTE programs, and the implications for using technology to facilitate ELLs’ learning are also examined.

The need for workforce ready students can be met through the use of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Identification of workplace skills that are rewarded and required by employers will foster relationships between CTE programs and workforce employers. These relationships will also impact economic growth, school-to-work efforts, and the global workforce. This chapter addresses the workforce competencies of business and industry and CTE programs as well as addressing shortfalls in these areas. Future trends are also identified in regards to workforce competencies in CTE programs.

This paper focuses on the need to provide systems of support for multilingual students in career and technical education (CTE) programs. The paucity of research on multilingual students’ access to, participation in, and outcomes from CTE and lack of attention to issues of language in CTE teacher preparation has left CTE educators and administrators with little basis for imagining meaningful, research-based initiatives to support multilingual students. In this paper, I describe an ongoing equity-focused PD initiative undertaken by a large regional CTE center to address the needs of multilingal students and advance equity in CTE programs. The program foregrounded professional development opportunities for teachers and administrators to ensure that equity is pursued on a systemic level.

IN THE prologue to Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison's narrator wrote that he was invisible simply because people refuse to see me. That was another time and a more personal story. But idea of people who are under your nose yet unseen seemed relevant as I read two documents that draw on same research. They use different language and come to different conclusions. The differences are subtle to be sure, one document tends not to see much, while other sees a lot. The first document is National Assessment of Vocational Education: Final Report to Congress, which was submitted this past summer. The other document is Report of NAVE Independent Advisory Panel. This panel was appointed to guide research for NAVE and to comment on final report. While eminent research groups prepared data for NAVE report, it was actually written by a group in policy office of U.S. secretary of education. The Advisory Panel, which met many times over four years, included employers, secondary and postsecondary educators, union representatives, work force development experts, and researchers. The NAVE report is understandably more wrapped up in data and more focused on past and present conditions for career and technical education (CTE), new moniker for vocational education. The report of Advisory Panel uses same data, often sees more positive trends in those data, and concludes with a strong vision for future of CTE. The NAVE report, on other hand, suggests that a choice needs to be made between mostly fostering academic skills or mostly fostering work force development. Consider data used in both reports. Both agree, for example, that clearest benefits of CTE can be seen in earnings. NAVE calls them and medium-term benefits. The Advisory Panel declares that the most significant effect of secondary school CTE is boost in earnings and wages that get from even a handful of courses. Taking four high school CTE courses for credit increases a student's average annual earnings by $1,200 immediately and by $1,800 seven years later. Sure, these are short- and medium-term benefits, Advisory Panel points out, as NAVE does not, that 37% of country's high school graduates each year go directly to work. Moreover, economic benefit for earning a postsecondary credential is also significant: for females with associate degrees, earnings are 47% higher than for those holding only a high school diploma; for males with associate degrees, earnings are 30% higher than for males who lack degree. The NAVE report almost grudgingly acknowledges that in CTE programs been taking more academic courses, it quickly adds that achievement gaps between CTE and academic remain. The Advisory Panel report says that in CTE been closing gap with academic students and that CTE programs have led way toward increasing number and rigor of academic courses required. The Advisory Panel report also points out that CTE concentrators' scores on National Assessment of Educational Progress increased by nearly a grade-equivalent between 1994 and 1998. The NAVE report says that NAEP assessments show substantial progress, but more work is necessary to raise achievement levels of all students, particularly those in vocational programs. NAVE says little about different approaches to pursued in traditional academic work and in CTE, except in a discussion of teaching approaches. The Advisory Panel report, however, contends that CTE relies on a powerful mode of teaching and learning -- i. …

Outstanding talents exist in all areas of human endeavor, yet little information exists concerning gifted and talented students in career and technical education (CTE) settings. This qualitative study investigated an exemplary CTE center and the experiences of the rural secondary students who were identified as talented in this setting. Four themes emerged and paralleled suggested practices in gifted education: individualization, student-centered meaningful choices, instructors as developers of talent, and participation in career and technical student organizations. Results offer methods that secondary educators can use to recognize and identify talented CTE students and engage them in challenging, meaningful learning. Findings of positive experiences of talented students in this setting led to the conclusions that CTE programs should be included as part of the continuum of services for gifted and talented youth and that CTE programs should identify, recognize, and serve gifted and talented students. Putting the Research to Use: With the current U.S. Department of Education's definition of gifted and talented including all areas of human endeavor, career and technical education areas need to be included among programming options for gifted and talented students. The results of this study indicate that not all students with gifts or talents have skills in the traditional academic areas. Some prefer applied content areas taught in hands-on, student-centered classrooms, such as those found in the career and technical education center described in this study. Teachers of traditional academic subjects can use this research to engage their students in meaningful learning by providing them with choices, encouraging their self-direction, and presenting content in a relevant manner. This study also reinforces the value that students place on teachers who care about and connect with them on personal levels.

The community and technical college mission requires offering relevant Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Board policies are plentiful for creating new programs in alignment with workforce needs. However, few districts have robust policies in place to appropriately discontinue or replace CTE programs. This book identifies successful CTE program discontinuance including how people feel about the process and the impact of institutional culture. The interviews and policy analysis conducted provide best practices to effectively and appropriately discontinue CTE programs. Eleven practical recommendations are outlined to help community and technical colleges in establishing program discontinuance processes which strategically and effectively discontinue CTE programs while making optimal use of limited fiscal and human resources. This book provides readers with information on career and technical education, appropriate strategies to manage the constant churning of CTE programs, college governance, and academic discontinuance policies.

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) cites the 2005 National Association of Manufacturer’s Skills Gap Report that over 80 percent of respondents to that survey said that they were experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. It is the Career and Technical Education (CTE) field that tries to close this gap by preparing students for the 21st century workforce. Sustaining educationally sound and robust CTE programs depends on a stable level of enrollment. When student demand for CTE classes suffers due to increased academic demands, opportunities for CTE to play a role in enhancing the performance of schools through practical application of academics to the “real world” suffers. One of the factors playing a direct role in the success of CTE programs at the secondary level is the knowledge and perceptions of guidance counselors. It is logical to believe that if the guidance counselor understands the career and higher education opportunities related to those fields, they would be more likely to advise students to explore CTE. Guidance Counselor knowledge of the opportunities for careers and for higher education in a specific career field is vital to the continued success of CTE, the schools and to industry needing a well trained work force. CTE leaders and proponents are often concerned about School Counselors’(SC) knowledge of CTE career and higher education opportunities and their willingness to encourage students to consider CTE fields (Brand, 2008). Anecdotally, counselor’s knowledge and support of CTE is often cited as a concern. The importance of the role of the SC in promoting or discouraging students for CTE fields has been examined (Matulis, and Osborne 1990). Research by Dyer et.al (2003) found that agriculture teachers perceived support of guidance counselors the second most influential factor behind scheduling conflicts as a problem preventing students from taking agriculture. In fact, the Association of California School Administrators (2008) identified guidance counselors as a key component in efforts to improve graduation rates and achievement scores by strengthening CTE. In an attempt to understand more clearly, the role of Illinois school counselors in the guidance process, and to identify support the CTE fields might provide school counselors to assist with their professional duties, a series of research projects were conducted. The initial two studies in this series sought to identify the knowledge levels and perceptions of school counselors about the career and higher education opportunities in agriculture. This was followed by a two part study, first to assess knowledge levels and perceptions of school counselors about the career and higher education opportunities in Career and Technical Education (CTE) fields, and in the second phase, to use a consensus process to identify tools and methods to help educate the school counselors about opportunities in CTE.

Research has demonstrated career and technical education (CTE) programs have a strong positive influence on secondary students’ behavior, attendance, academic achievement, and college persistence. Critical success factors common to career academies, small schools, and CTE programs include socio-emotional support and community, along with a culture of high expectations and student engagement. Yet little research has been conducted on social and cultural factors involved in these programs’ success. This qualitative study focused on one high school healthcare education program in the Mid-Atlantic to identify the social and cultural critical success factors that contributed to successful student outcomes. Through classroom observations; interviews with administrators, teachers, partners, program graduates, and parents; surveys of graduates; and focus groups with current students, the following critical success factors emerged: learning environment and community, focused student support, engagement through a real-world context, and a culture of professionalism. These findings may help educators and districts focus their attention and efforts on the critical factors that impact student success as they seek to expand and improve CTE programs.

Community colleges are the leaders in facilitating career and technical education (CTE), and faculty help develop program offerings on campus. This study explored faculty perceptions of community college CTE programs using the survey research method. Participants included 36 faculty members from various disciplines from 15 state colleges in Florida. Participants were sent a digital survey and asked to use a scale from 0 (do not agree) to 8 (agree) to score their agreement level with 43 statements of opinion. Data revealed that community college faculty perceive CTE as beneficial, but CTE programs must include the habits of mind and support students’ social and emotional development. The findings also indicated that CTE programs should be credit-bearing and offer students a holistic education. Implications of the study are concerned with community college development and implementation of CTE programs such that these programs must include industry-required competencies to prepare students for work. However, they must also offer students an equitable education to promote life-long learning, sustainable employability, and growth.

Construction is one of the most dangerous industries in the US. Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are important settings in which new construction workers can learn about Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). CTE programs are sometimes the only place where these workers will encounter such training. We set out to examine the quality of OSH education received by students in post-secondary CTE construction programs by conducting a surv ey of instructors teaching in these programs across the country . The goal was to learn the extent to which previously identified" essential elements necessary for providing effective safety and health education" are spread across these programs. Our findings show instructors in these programs prioritize hands-on training, make efforts to stay current in best practices in safety and health, and regularly update their curricula. We also found that instructors need more training on effectively teaching safety and health to more meaningfully integrate such content into their trade skill courses. Finally, we found that instructors need to better model effective safety and health management systems within their classrooms to help keep students safe and set students' expectations for safe work when they enter their chosen trade.

Students with special health care needs (SHCNs) and individualized education plans (IEPs) may be injured more often in vocational, career, and technical education (CTE) programs. No research to date considers personal protective equipment (PPE) use among students with SHCNs in school-based programs reporting injuries to agencies. Data from 1999 to 2011 on PPE use among injured students in CTE programs in public schools and private secondary schools for the disabled were analyzed; students with SHCNs were distinguished by IEP status within New Jersey Safe Schools surveilance data. Among students with IEPs using PPE, 36% of injuries occurred to body parts PPE was meant to protect. Likely injury types were cuts-lacerations and burns for students with IEPs using PPE and cuts-lacerations and sprains for students with IEPs not using PPE. Females with IEPs using PPE were injured less often than males across ages. Results suggested students with SHCNs with IEPs need further job-related training with increased emphasis on properly selecting and fitting PPE.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a popular trend in education due to the increased demand from American citizens to include CTE opportunities in schools along with federal funding to build new CTE programs and improve existing ones. Schools are tasked to improve student achievement. Testing performance is a central process to demonstrate satisfactory student achievement and school quality. In this study, the academic achievements of CTE completer high school graduates were measured by their performance on the nationwide American College Test (ACT), including the subjects of English, reading, writing, math, and science. CTE graduates in this study received CTE endorsements in the four program areas: 1) business and marketing education; 2) education, hospitality, and human services; 3) information and media technologies; and 4) skilled and technical sciences. The testing scores from an entire graduating class in a large school district with over 64,000 students were analyzed. The results revealed significant differences in students’ academic achievements among the four CTE program areas. Especially, students in the Skilled and Technical Science cohort and the Information and Media Technologies cohort had higher mean scores on ACT examination subjects of math, reading, science, and English than those from the other two cohorts.