Intersecting Barriers, Diverging Pathways: An Introduction to the Educational Lives of Multilingual Adolescent English Learners

The major thrust of technical and vocational education (TVE) worldwide is to address issues of youth unemployment, poverty and international competitiveness in skills development towards current and projected opportunities and challenges. The paper posits that despite the evidence of numerous reforms in vocational and technical education programs over the years, they still remain greatly detested by students and parents in Nigeria as evidenced in low enrolment when compared with sciences, engineering, banking and finance, and medicine just to mention but a few. This may be because of lack of understanding of the importance, scope and content of the program or lack of occupational information. Some wrongly view technical and vocational education programs as education for the handicapped or education for those who cannot cope with the sciences and social sciences. This paper therefore, examines the factors responsible for low enrolment into technical and vocational education programs, its implications for Nigeria and suggests how career education and effective occupational information service can help to stem this trend. It is recommended that career education should be used to create the necessary career awareness and occupation information made readily to students to enable them make informed career choices.

The Course Of The Development On Vocational And Technical Education In Britain And Reference To China

As education has changed to meet the needs of society and has been shaped by the enactment of new laws, various aspects included under the massive umbrella of education have also changed to maintain momentum One such educational program is career and technical education (CTE). Changes to CTE have been made to continually meet the needs of all involved. The purpose of this study was to identify components needed for the design of a sustainable career and technical education program. The study will provide readers with factors, which in turn will allow them to design programs which will meet the needs of education and business and industry. Information was gathered from 106 out of 115 (92.17%) career and technical education directors in North Carolina using survey research methods. Statistical analyses were used to determine the most significant factors involved in sustaining CTE programs. Research Objective 1, to determine the factors that support the implementation of a career and technical education program, showed the most significant factors were teachers holding appropriate degrees and/or licenses for the courses taught (M=4.55), technical assessments have been established and are used within the district (M=4.42), a set sequence of rigorous courses that are relevant to the 16 national career clusters have been established (M=4.30), and career and technical education student organizations were established and active (M=4.23). Research Objective 2, to determine factors that facilitate the growth of career and technical education programs, analyzed the most significant factors to be a district having a local and state articulation agreement with community colleges and/or universities for courses offered (M=4.40), collaboration with local community colleges and universities having been established (M=4.37), students have access to industry credentialing exams (M=4.33), and workforce readiness skills were identified and incorporated into career and technical education course offerings (M=4.24). Research Objective 3. to determine factors necessary to sustain an effective career and technical education program, identified the most significant factors were instructors are provided opportunities for continued professional development (M=4.47) and teachers have the equipment and technology recommended to support teaching of career and technical education courses (M=4.36). Based on this study, the researcher was able to provide benefits of an effective career and technical education program which could be used to justify the importance of such programs not just to students, but to all stakeholders involved. More specifically, the research provided this information in the form of factors necessary to design and sustain an effective career and technical education program.

Work-based learning is a key component of career and technical education programs. A variety of certificated and non-certificated work-based learning programs exist for high schools to implement. Wisconsin's Youth Apprenticeship program is a widely used model of work-based learning in high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs across the state, yet there is limited research on the impact of these programs related to student outcomes.<br/> This paper describes the findings from a study in which educational and employment outcomes of secondary CTE concentrator-completers participating in a Youth Apprenticeship and/or Employability Skills program were analyzed. Findings indicate that participating in a Youth Apprenticeship program while concentrating in a secondary CTE program of study may lead to a higher rate of continuing into one's area of concentration after high school than students earning Wisconsin's Employability Skills Certificate.

Vocational and business training to improve women's labour market outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review

Purpose – This paper aims to review technical vocational education and training (TVET) literature, identify different components of the TVET system and develop a conceptual framework that integrates human resource development (HRD) and national human resource development (NHRD) outcomes. The renewed focus on technical vocational education and training (TVET) is important for human resource development (HRD), as it expands current understanding of its role in economic development through workforce training. National human resource development (NHRD) perspectives recognize the role of TVET in linking regional and national economic development strategies. Furthermore, TVET’s focus on literacy education, poverty alleviation and inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable populations emphasizes social development outcomes that are critical for NHRD. Using this background, the integration of HRD and NHRD outcomes into one conceptual TVET framework for addressing workforce, economic and social development outcomes has been proposed. Design/methodology/approach – A targeted literature review approach was used for exploring relevant research on TVET systems, identifying the components which support and/or inhibit its effectiveness and an integrative framework that connects education, workforce development, social development and economic development was developed. Findings – Three major themes were identified. The first theme identifies nine sub-themes that make an effective TVET system. These are as follows: national TVET policy, regional TVET policy, training, participation, curriculum, coordination of stakeholder institutions, individual and institutional attitudes toward skill development, managing supply-demand mismatches and economic and social development outcomes. The second major theme underlines the increasing overlap and connection between workforce development, social development and economic development strategies. In the third and final finding, effective TVET systems are positioned as the linking pin connecting the four TVET components (skills, education, innovation and knowledge) to the strategic goals of workforce development, economic development and social development. Originality/value – Integrating national and organizational-based HRD strategies is a unique focus and reflects the broader examination of the differences in the relationship between corporate HRD and more traditional TVET systems. It is argued that the role of TVET in social and workforce development at the regional and societal level cannot be ignored. HRD and NHRD outcomes were integrated by utilizing TVET as a framework for linking economic, social and workforce development strategies.

INTRODUCTION This article focuses on one of the more detrimental outcomes of the complex web of social forces that mitigate against African American males in school and society: their all-too-frequent placement in special education programs. Special education was mandated by law in 1975 with the passage of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA), now renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The purpose of the EHA was to provide specialized services to students who, by virtue of disability, could not profit from regular educational curriculum and instruction. The law was intended to regulate and extend to all children, regardless of handicap, the provision of special education services that already existed in various forms across the country. By the time it was enacted, however, evidence of misuse of this umbrella construct was already visible, as reflected in the EHA's requirement that assessment for special education purposes be nonbiased and conducted by a multidisciplinary team. Despite widespread concern, this requirement has proven to be extremely difficult to implement. Racial, gender, cultural and linguistic biases remain integral aspects of the special education process, particularly for African American males. In this article, we argue that the entire process is seriously biased against African American male students, from their first experiences in regular education through their disproportionate referral to, assessment for, and placement in special education programs. We begin with a brief overview of the history of this phenomenon and conclude with recommendations reflecting our belief that the inappropriate designation of educational disability has been created by schools and must be dismantled by schools. The disproportionate placement of students of a particular group in special education programs means that the group is represented in such programs in a greater percentage than their percentage in the school population as a whole. The issue is the relativity of placement, not absolute numbers. In assessing disproportion, then, one must first note the percentage of a given group in the population as a whole and then compare it to the percentage of that group in the special education program. Chinn and Hughes (1987) define disproportion as plus or minus 10% of the percentage that would be expected on the basis of the school-age population. For example, if African Americans account for 16% of the U.S. public school enrollment (U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 1994), then one would expect the special education enrollment to fall within a range of plus or minus 1.6% of the total enrollment; hence, any special education placement percentage outside of the range from 14.4% to 17.6% would be considered disproportionate. Another important aspect of this phenomenon is that historically it has been concerned mostly with what are referred to as the categories of disability-that is, the milder disability categories whose diagnoses are based essentially on clinical judgment rather than verifiable biological criteria. The centrality of the role of judgment makes it a potential source of bias. The disability categories considered to be most susceptible to bias are Educable Mental Retardation (EMR), Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED), Specific Learning Disability (SLD), and Speech Impairment (SI). Another category susceptible to bias that reflects more severe disability is Trainable Mental Retardation (TMR), which historically has been used to refer to moderate rather than mild mental retardation. For several decades, the U.S. Department of Education's (USDOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been charged with the responsibility for monitoring disproportion in all these categories.1 While the present article focuses on issues related to these judgment categories, identification of a disproportionate number of African American males has also been noted in recent years in the categories of deafness, visual impairment, and other health impairments (USDOE, Office of Special Education Programs [OSEP], 1992b). …

This article examines the role of Individualized Language Plans (ILPs) in fostering equitable education for English learners (ELs), particularly those with disabilities. ILPs are locally mandated documents that outline language acquisition goals and instructional supports, and have gained traction as an alternative to standardized, one-size-fits-all approaches in EL education in the United States. The article begins by contextualizing ILPs within broader individualized planning frameworks, such as Individualized Education Programs in special education. It then explores the legal foundations of ILPs, emphasizing the lack of federal guidance on their structure and implementation. Although ILPs are intended to support ELs’ English language proficiency, research indicates that their components and effectiveness vary widely across districts and states. A key discussion focuses on the factors contributing to the rise of ILPs, particularly the limitations of standardized assessments for English language proficiency and the reclassification process for ELs. Standardized tests often fail to capture the diverse linguistic abilities of ELs, especially those with disabilities, leading to inequitable educational outcomes. The article critiques the high-stakes nature of reclassification policies, which disproportionately disadvantage ELs with disabilities and create barriers to their academic progress. In response, ILPs have emerged as a tool for providing tailored language support—both to counter the high-stakes pressures of reclassification and to address the inadequacies of existing services. Yet, their effectiveness depends on how they are implemented in practice. ILPs, when thoughtfully designed, offer a mechanism for improving collaboration between EL, special education, and general education teachers. The final sections of the article focus on policy and teacher training implications. It calls for clearer state and federal guidelines, integration of Universal Design for Learning principles, and professional development to ensure ILPs function as meaningful instructional roadmaps rather than compliance-driven documents. In conclusion, it argues that ILPs have the potential to transform EL education, promote equitable learning opportunities, and improve educational accountability for diverse student populations.

Aggregated program and enrollment data about specialized vocational and technical teacher education programs as they currently exist in our nation's colleges and universities are presented. Some analysis is provided about the future supply and demand of vocational and technical education teachers. It is concluded that our nation's colleges and universities have greatly diminished their capacity to prepare teachers for vocational and technical education programs. Even with the decreasing supply, it is doubtful that there will be a large demand for traditional vocational teachers. There may be a shortage of teachers well prepared to teach in new or modified work-based education programs, technology, and technological applications. Further, a clearly focused conceptual framework undergirding vocational and technical teacher education in our nation's colleges and universities has yet to be developed.

Special education continues to suffer from chronic and persistent teacher shortages. For example, in 2000-2001, nearly 53,000 special education teachers, 12% of the teaching force, were less than fully certified, affecting more than 800,000 students with disabilities. In addition, many school districts lose special education teachers as the school year progresses, particularly in urban and rural areas. Since traditional sources of teacher supply, college and university preparation programs, have been unable to meet the growing demand for special education teachers, alternative routes to certification (ARC) have proliferated. Recognizing that there is a need for highly qualified special education teachers, it is essential that we develop innovative and creative alternatives to get interested individuals prepared, licensed, and into classrooms serving students with learning disabilities. As noted in the following statement, the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) agrees that strategies for recruiting and developing highly qualified professionals are necessary. Still, we must ensure that ARC programs deliver research-based teacher preparation and that graduates of such programs meet agreed-upon professional standards. ********** No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the proposed Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act (IDEA) have encouraged the development of alternative routes to certification (ARC) in special education. Even prior to these legislative efforts, ARC in special education had become a growth industry. In 1995, Buck, Polloway, and Mortorff-Robb found that 24 states offered ARC programs in special education, an increase of 19 states since 1991. Recently, it was found that 34 states offer more than 175 different ARC options, with California and Texas accounting for the largest number (Rosenberg, Boyer, Sindelar, & Misra, 2003). Analyses of the School and Staffing Survey (Connelly, 2003) indicate that over 15% of those who hold certification in special education earned it through an ARC; among those who are uncredentialed and seeking certification, 24% report being in an ARC program. Factors contributing to the proliferation of ARC in special education include (a) the persistent and growing shortage of special education teachers affecting over 800,000 students with disabilities, (b) the acute need for personnel from underrepresented groups, and (c) criticism from political action groups outside the profession and professionals within the profession (e.g., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1999) that traditional approaches to teacher preparation are self-serving, bloated, and over-regulatory. Unfortunately, our collective knowledge base of ARC programs in special education does not match either the growth or current levels of interest in and advocacy for such programs. Rosenberg and Sindelar (2001), in a comprehensive review of the literature, found very little on the nature and efficacy of specific programs in the professional literature. They asserted that the avail able literature represented merely the tip of the ARC iceberg and that a large underground economy for teaching credentials is in place in many areas of the nation. CLD recognizes the need for highly qualified general and special education teachers. For those responsible for the recruitment and retention of qualified special education professionals, in particular, there is a most troubling trend: As the number of children with special education needs increase, it is increasingly difficult to find highly qualified personnel who want to pursue a career in special education. …

This study aims to improve the operating guidelines of the Special Integration Education Program (PPKI) in Malaysia through qualitative methodology. The problem statement for this study is the insufficient operational guidelines for the Integrated Special Education Program, leading to sub-optimal results for students with special educational needs. Research objectives include identifying key challenges in the implementation of Special Integration Education Program operating guidelines, exploring stakeholders' perspectives on the current system, and developing recommendations to improve Special Integration Education Program operating guidelines. The literature review highlighted previous studies on the subject, emphasizing the need for a more comprehensive approach to the operationalization of Integrated Special Education Programs. The conceptual framework shows how the research will be conducted, using qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The findings are expected to contribute to the improvement of the implementation of the guidelines for the operation of the Integration Special Education Program in Malaysia, which will ultimately benefit students with special education needs.

Education continues to assume increasing importance in today's technological society. It is for this reason that the Federal Government has allocated large sums of money for training and human development in vocational and technical education programs. Congress allocated over $800 million for vocational education in the 1972-73 fiscal year.1 Existing programs are being expanded and new ones are being initiated yearly, with additional resources being directed toward vocational and public education programs. There is a growing concern on the part of educators regarding the perceptions and attitudes of black students toward vocational education. Indeed, in order to enable public education to initiate social, cultural, and economic growth, educators should have a broad perspective of the perceptions of these students toward traditional education programs. The industry's increasing need for highly skilled workers has generally left those without skills in a difficult employment situation. The black student's inability to meet the business and industrial requirements for greater occupational and employable skills hinders him as a worker and citizen in society. At the same time,

The purpose of this study was to determine the current and ideal focus of the technical education program in Zimbabwe's secondary schools. Data were collected in Zimbabwe from 452 technical education professionals (397 technical teachers, 39 technical teacher educators, and 16 education officers for technical subjects). The technical teachers were all from Harare region, the teacher educators were from three technical teacher colleges, and the education officers were from all the nine educational regions in Zimbabwe. A three part researcher designed questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. Respondents rated 40 statements of purposes of technical education on a 5-point Likert-type scale, according to the extent they perceived (1) the technical education program to be currently emphasizing the stated purposes, and (2) according to the extent the stated purposes were ideal for the program. For each statement of purpose, a mean rating was established to determine the extent of emphasis. The emphasis mean ratings were used to calculate the program's current and ideal focus (i.e. general education or technical skills). The focus scores ranged from 20 to 100, with a higher focus score indicative of a stronger technical focus, and a lower score signifying a stronger general education emphasis. The three groups of technical education professionals perceived the same purposes to be currently being emphasized in the technical education program. However, the professionals differed on the ideal purposes of the program. The technical teachers preferred a more technical focus. Overall, the current focus scores for all groups were around 60, (the midpoint), an indication that the program has no clear focus and that the program is emphasizing both technical skills and general education. The study recommends the Ministry of Education in Zimbabwe to make a decision on what focus the technical education program in secondary schools should have. Once the focus has been identified, the Ministry should clearly communicate the desired focus to the program implementors. In addition, the Ministry should follow up and evaluate the technical education program to establish if the practice in the schools matches the desired outcome.

1. Chris Plauche Johnson, MEd, MD* 2. William Otis Walker Jr, MD† 1. *Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Tex 2. †Director, Neurodevelopmental/Birth Defects Clinics, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center. The University of Washington, Seattle, Wash After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. List key components of the special education system that benefit children who have mental retardation (MR). 2. Describe associated conditions that commonly occur in children who have MR. 3. Recognize the importance of family supports, including support of siblings, in the management of children who have MR. 4. Discuss the most likely adult outcomes for persons who have various levels of MR. 5. Delineate the factors, in addition to cognitive skills, that help determine long-term outcomes of persons who have MR. 6. Know when it is appropriate to pursue guardianship proceedings for an adult who is mentally retarded. Management of mental retardation (MR) begins with breaking the news to parents of affected children sensitively, compassionately, and culturally appropriately. It is important to emphasize the child’s strengths in addition to describing the delays or deficits. It also is important to be realistic without taking away hope. If the child is younger than 6 years of age at the time of diagnosis, it may be more appropriate to use the term “global developmental delay” unless the delays are due to a recognizable syndrome known to be associated with MR. When the child enters elementary school and standardized testing provides more reliable and predictive results of adult cognitive impairment, the diagnosis may be revised to “mental retardation.” Parents should be informed that the child will continue to progress, albeit more slowly, than his or her peers. Families need additional patience and persistence when raising a child who has MR. Unlike typically developing children, who seem to learn skills simply by modeling their parents, siblings, and peers, children who have MR may need specific instruction to master a skill. If the global developmental delay or MR is due to a known syndrome, appropriate genetic counseling and up-to-date literature should be …

The application of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis for managing vocational and technical education (VTE) programmes for improved efficiency in Nigeria