Career-Technical Education Research News

PD for Teachers & Administrators on the Use of Assessment Data – Foster, Pritz, Kelley, & Hodes

nrccte — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:36:52 +0000

Professional Development for Teachers and Administrators on the Use of Assessment Data - A Podcast with John Foster, Sandy Pritz, Pat Kelley, and Carol Hodes of NOCTI

This research study, led by NOCTI (Drs. John Foster, Sandy Pritz, and Pat Kelley, pictured left to right) focuses on the development of interventions that combine the professional development of teachers and administrators in schools with how they can use the data and information obtained from administering technical assessments in the secondary-level CTE classroom to make decisions about how to improve student achievement. John, Sandy, and Pat, co-Principal Investigators of this project, along with Dr. Carol Hodes, Senior Consultant at NOCTI, joined Catherine Imperatore of ACTE to talk about the project.

In 2009, the NOCTI team conducted a descriptive survey that investigated how secondary CTE educators, both administrators and teachers, use technical assessment data to improve program curriculum and identify individual and group instructional needs. In order to gain additional perspectives on schools’ adoption of data use for program improvement, the team also conducted case studies in six sites. Overall, educators indicated that their opinion of testing had improved as a result of professional development on the use of assessment data, and several commented that the main reason for the change was a better understanding of tests and the use of assessment data.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

John Foster: You know, Catherine, in the last few years education in general has really taken center stage in the media. A lot of the focus generally has been, why don’t our kids appear to be achieving as fast as those in other countries. And people have commented on lots of different sides of this issue, but the discussion has really put a spotlight on teacher quality and really how we measure our programs. Teachers of quality career and technical education programs, because of their background and their focus on a particular industry sector, are quite used to having their “output,” let’s say, assessed. But are they used to looking at the data over a longer period of time, and do they use information to make instructional or programmatic decisions? This study is actually in its second year and it looks at how to take good programs and make them great. And really, what could be more important?

Download the transcript [PDF document] or read more about the Professional Development for Teachers and Administrators on the Use of Assessment Data study at the NRCCTE website.

The NRCCTE’s multimedia content- including podcasts, webcasts, full-length reports, Research Snapshots, and presentations- is always available from the NRCCTE website, http://www.nrccte.org/. If you have a comment or question about our products or projects, please drop us a line at nrccte@louisville.edu. We welcome your feedback!

Update from the 2009 NCWE Fall Conference - A Podcast with Dr. Rod Githens and Dr. Fashaad Crawford

nrccte — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:56:33 +0000

Rod Githens and Fashaad Crawford, principal investigators of Online Career and Technical Education in Community Colleges: Prevalence, Context, and Organizational Approaches, recently attended the Fall 2009 conference of the National Council for Workforce Education (NCWE), where they led two sessions on the findings and implications of their project. Rod and Fashaad are examining the prevalence of online programs within community colleges and looking at the connection between those programs and workforce development needs and contextual factors such as population demographics, institutional demographics, and economic needs. Their second session sought audience feedback and input on these issues. As noted in their conversation with Catherine Imperatore of ACTE, Rod and Fashaad noted that “people are deeply interested in understanding the differences between online education, face‑to‑face education, in regards to employment outcomes, income attainment, as far as attainment of credentials such as industry‑recognized certificates or licensure by the state, et cetera, to see if there’s a difference in what’s being done online and face‑to‑face. So that was a big emphasis of the discussion.”

Here’s another highlight from their conversation:

CI: How is workforce education being affected, especially by this economic and political climate [and by initiatives like] the American Graduation Initiative?

RG: There was a major, major emphasis throughout the conference on program completion, and a lot of discussion about what can we do to help students get through programs, such as having clear paths to graduation, for example; having cohort programs; not having electives; making it a very linear path to graduation. A lot of discussion about contextualizing developmental courses because we all know that developmental courses are a major hurdle to graduation for a lot of students. Discussion about how can we make developmental courses more relevant for students. Can we eliminate developmental courses and just have intensive support when students are in regular math courses, for example?

There are some really innovative online programs related to developmental education within the workforce development context that I was very interested in learning more about. The issue of thinking about how can we really use technology in an innovative way to support developmental courses, that came up a lot. I think all those issues are very much related to the political climate that’s saying, “We have to do better as far as program completion and graduation.”

Download the transcript [PDF document] or read more about the Online Career and Technical Education in Community Colleges: Prevalence, Context, and Organizational Approaches study at the NRCCTE website.

Alternative Licensure CTE Teacher Induction Model: A Podcast with Heather Sass and Stephanie Hyder

nrccte — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:44:23 +0000

Heather Boggs Sass of the Southern Regional Education Board is a principal investigator of the Alternative Licensure Career/Technical Teacher Induction Model. Dr. Sass talked about the current status of this project with Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). Joining Dr. Sass was Stephanie Hyder, Leadership and Professional Development Specialist with the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education.

In conjunction with the NRCCTE, SREB is developing an induction model for new career and technical education (CTE) teachers pursuing an alternative route to certification that will increase their competence, self-efficacy and retention. A series of professional development sessions will emphasize four areas of knowledge and skill teachers need to improve student achievement and preparedness for further learning and the workplace: planning standards-based instruction, using research-based instructional strategies, assessing students to promote learning, and effectively managing classrooms. Support elements will include mentoring from an educator in the teacher’s school, coaching from the professional development instructor, the guidance of a school principal, and the support of electronic communities of practice with cohort peers. Recently, Dr. Sass and Ms. Hyder have been field-testing the model in Oklahoma. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

HBS: Well we’ve seen an increased need for really high-quality alternative certification routes. In this country we’re seeing more and more teachers entering through alternative routes for a number of different reasons. Sometimes teachers are seeking different certifications, sometimes they don’t always have a traditional program nearby, and we’ve actually seen a drop in the number of traditional teacher preparation programs in career-technical education. We also see that there is a wide variety across the country of alternative certification programs, and they vary widely in quality. And this project is really looking to cull some if the best practices across the country and put this together into a model that states, or districts, or even colleges could use to improve their alternative certification programs.

The other thing we’ve seen is there are a lot of increasing demands on career-technical teachers, which put even more pressure than usual on new teachers. We’re really expecting career-technical teachers to, for example, integrate academics at a much higher level then we’ve done in years past through No Child Left Behind and the demands of Perkins IV. We’re really looking at increasing our expectations for these teachers. So we’re looking for a very high-quality fast-track program that’s going to help those new teachers hit the ground running with the most important competencies that will get them through that first year, and really launch them on a good career in career-technical teaching.

Read more about the Alternative Licensure Career/Technical Teacher Induction Model at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research: Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE, A Podcast with Dr. Travis Park

nrccte — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:13:36 +0000

Travis Park, principal investigator of Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE: Helping All Students Learn, talked about the current status of his project with Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). His study employs an experimental design with qualitative evaluations of interventions to evaluate the efficacy of two literacy models for application within CTE and strategies that help students construct meaning from texts. The study’s purpose is to determine the impact of disciplinary literacy strategies on the reading comprehension and motivation to read for students enrolled in CTE courses by comparing the effects of literacy strategy instruction under two models of content area reading interventions and a control condition. The two models are (1) the ALS Framework and (2) the MAX Teaching Framework.

Recently, Dr. Park and his colleagues have been engaged in training teachers in the use of these reading frameworks and their associated strategies. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

Travis Park: I think there are a couple of issues that we’re starting to find that have emerged from especially our interviews with the teachers, but in the pilot phase, I think the most interesting thing we found, is that ‑ and we hoped to find this, and we did ‑ that career and tech ed teachers, while we typically think of our disciplines as hands‑on and experiential learning, do involve a lot of reading. And a lot of that reading is authentic and technical materials and so if we can use that opportunity with real, live authentic text and incorporate some reading strategies with that, then we found that the two treatments, the reading frameworks that we used, actually improved the students’ reading comprehension and their use of vocabulary. And so it has a significant impact on improving student achievement. That was very exciting that we’re finding that. With our pilot phase, those findings occurred over about an 11-week trial period. And so we’re gearing up for the full, year‑long intervention in hopes that we see that those significant results are magnified over the course of the year, so teachers are helping students develop quality reading skills.

Read more about Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE: Helping All Students Learn at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Community College Noncredit Occupational Programming: A Study of State Policies, Funding: C. Oleksiw

nrccte — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:31:06 +0000

Catherine Oleksiw, primary author of “Community College Noncredit Occupational Programming: A Study of State Policies and Funding,” recently spoke to Catherine Imperatore of the ACTE about this recent NRCCTE study, which inventoried state policies and regulations on and financial support for noncredit occupational programming offered by community colleges. Information collected from state- and community college-level administrators and Web-based searches was organized according to a range of issues related to noncredit occupational programming and funding, such as definitions for noncredit; categories of noncredit courses; development and delivery of programming, including content standards, instructor qualifications, and noncredit-to-credit course transfer; state-level collection of noncredit programming data; state funding mechanisms for noncredit courses; and contract training. The study also laid the groundwork for further research on the impact of community college noncredit programming policies and funding on course availability and accessibility, business and industry partnerships, and reporting mechanisms and data systems for noncredit programming.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

CO: We had a number of recommendations, a lot of which focused on gathering more information because this was an exploratory study. It had never been done on this scale before. What is interesting, though, is that at the same time this study was being done, it was done through the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, the Community College Research Center at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, was doing the same study, in the sense that we were gathering a lot of the same information. It was serendipitous, and really a sign of the field, and business and industry and education seeing that we needed more information on this. So, both of the studies came out at about the same time, both equally rich in much information.

So our recommendations called for really assessing the overall impact of noncredit workforce development programming on business and industry, in a broad sense, looking from an economic perspective. Based on the programming, were there more skilled workers generated? Were they receiving higher salaries because of the added skills? Was it value-added? What was their work performance like?

Another recommendation was researching the administration structures in the development and delivery of content. Possibly creating a taxonomy to analyze the current structures and determining if there are any lessons to be learned from how the different structures might inform the field. Are some structures more effective at delivering content, and is there a relationship between state policies and administrative structure? So that’s a study in itself.

Read the transcript of this interview, the one-page Research Snapshot, or download the full research report.

Site Visit Update: Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in Programs of Study, Castellano and Sundell

nrccte — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:34:13 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

MC: Well, there are three areas of interest to the field that we wanted to talk about in this podcast. And those are project-based learning, a culture of support for success and use of technology.

I’ll begin about the project-based curriculum. One of the schools we visited has a project-based curriculum in which the whole school takes on a major project each year. And for this year, what we saw was in the science class, students are hooked in to a NASA project where they get a chance to control a radio telescope that NASA has that’s gathering astronomical data. And students are learning how to analyze the data and record it in a computer software program. So they’re work together, they’re learning team participation and problem-solving skills. And the results are useful in the real world; they’re included in a database of scientific knowledge about astronomy. There are schools all across the country that are involved in this NASA project. But at this school because they do school-wide project-based learning, this project has been integrated into other classes, including Spanish, construction, engineering, botany, culinary … all of them have created assignments around this project. For example, in culinary, what kind of a diet do astronauts need? And in botany, what kind of plants grow in space?

Read more about Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in CTE Programs of Study at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research - Programs of Study Site Visit Update, with Corinne Alfeld

nrccte — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:46:37 +0000

Corinne Alfeld, principal investigator of Programs of Study: A Longitudinal Analysis, talked to Catherine Imperatore at ACTE about early observations derived from three site visits she made this spring to high schools participating in her POS longitudinal study.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

CA: What we did is we looked at programs that may have started under Tech Prep or as career pathways, and we selected them because they included a lot of components of the Programs of Study that are in Perkins IV. We found that mostly it’s the college and not the high school that initiates the partnership. Of course, these are just observations from these eight sites, so not generalizable, but that was kind of interesting. We’re not sure why that is and not sure how widespread that is but that was an interesting pattern.

At the sites where Programs of Study are working really well we found that the players involved had really good, close relationships with each other, and they also had active advisory groups that included people from both secondary and postsecondary levels and also from the business community on the advisory committees.

Read more about the Programs of Study: A Longitudinal Analysis study at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research: Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE, A Podcast with Travis Park

nrccte — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:27:34 +0000

Travis Park, principal investigator of Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE: Helping All Students Learn, recently talked to Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). His project employs an experimental design with qualitative evaluations of interventions to evaluate the efficacy of two literacy models for application within CTE and strategies that help students construct meaning from texts. The study’s purpose is to determine the impact of disciplinary literacy strategies on the reading comprehension and motivation to read for students enrolled in CTE courses by comparing the effects of literacy strategy instruction under two models of content area reading interventions and a control condition. The two models are (1) the ALS Framework and (2) the MAX Teaching Framework.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

Travis Park: What we found in our previous research is that when teachers use strategies that make sense, the students see that and they get more engaged in the reading, they respect the opportunity to learn from their text, in addition to the hands‑on learning and experiential learning that they experience in CTE classes as well.

So it definitely ties into engagement. We’re hoping that ‑ and we found that ‑ as students begin to use some of these reading strategies - a reading strategy is really just a model of how students should think cognitively about learning from text - but the students will actually take some of the strategies they’re using in their CTE classes and apply that in other areas in the school. Not only does it help achievement and help the learning in CTE, but also other academic disciplines.

Read more about Authentic Literacy Applications in CTE: Helping All Students Learn at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research: Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in CTE Programs of Study - Castellano, Sundell

nrccte — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:21:32 +0000

Marisa Castellano and Kirsten Sundell, principal investigators of Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in CTE Programs of Study, recently talked to Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). Their project is evaluating the implementation of federal education policy that was mandated in October 2006 in the reauthorization of the Perkins legislation. This new mandate is known as programs of study (POS), and this study measures its impact on student academic and technical achievement. The study has two parts: a set of randomized controlled trials in one large district and a rigorous quasi-experimental study in another large district. The measures of effectiveness of POS include: (a) academic achievement; (b) technical skills achievement; (c) high school completion; (d) placement in postsecondary education, work, or the military; (e) program participation and completion by nontraditional students; and (f) program participation and completion by students from special populations as defined by Perkins IV.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

MC: This is one of three Program of Study studies being conducted by the Center… of those three Center studies, this one is the one that seeks to experimentally evaluate the effects of Programs of Study. The indicators that we’re using to measure those effects can be thought of in terms of those three priority areas - engagement, achievement and transition.

And the way we do that is we’ll measure engagement by attendance and dropout over the four years, and comparing to see if the Program of Study students have better attendance and drop out less than the control students who are not in Programs of Study.

In terms of student achievement, we’ll be measuring that through course grades, state test scores, and whatever assessment that the school or the state already uses for technical achievement. It could be NOCTI [National Occupational Competency Testing Institute] or WorkKeys exams, could be various industry certification or state licensure exams.

And finally, in terms of transition to postsecondary education or work, we’ll compare the groups on whether they earn dual credits in high school, how many dual credits they earn, and also we’ll be surveying the seniors as to their plans after high school. But, again, our funding ends when the sample graduates in 2012. And if possible, we’d really like to seek out more funding and follow students beyond high school and then be able to say something about the effects of Programs of Study on students’ lives after high school.

Read more about Rigorous Tests of Student Outcomes in CTE Programs of Study at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research:Longitudinal Study of the SC Personal Pathways to Success Initiative: Cathy Hammond

nrccte — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Cathy Hammond, research associate for A Longitudinal Study of the South Carolina Personal Pathways to Success Initiative, recently talked to Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). The purpose of the longitudinal study of the SC Personal Pathways Initiative (EEDA) is to assess the extent to which the implementation of a state policy requiring school reform through career-focused planning and education impacts students and results in reforms in public high schools. More specifically, the following four primary research objectives guide the study’s design:

1. To assess the impact of implementation of this state policy on the development of career-focused programs of study in high schools,

2. To assess the impact of community resources on implementation of this state policy and the development of programs of study in high schools,

3. To examine the impact of implementation of this state policy on expected high school and postsecondary outcomes, and

4. To identify factors that contribute to the development of successful career-focused programs of study, whether components of the state policy or other types of elements.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

CH: This statewide policy is really different from other approaches to Programs of Study, and that’s because it encompasses more supporting components than most others do. Particularly its emphasis on the role of guidance counseling in career planning and also the mandate to reform all of high school curricula, not just CTE. It’s sort of a “Perkins-IV PLUS” initiative.

The ways that Programs of Study have been implemented in various places around the country have often been more patchwork or piecemeal. And it’s really left open the question of what’s the best way to implement Programs of Study. So, this study really offers a unique opportunity to explore whether this approach in South Carolina actually works better than other methods.

So we can really provide an in-depth look at whether a clear statewide mandate to provide Programs of Study to all students actually helps to promote the development of Programs of Study, as well as to improve student outcomes. So from this analysis, hopefully we can provide really helpful information to policymakers who are considering implementing Programs of Study in their schools and districts.

Read more about A Longitudinal Study of the South Carolina Personal Pathways to Success Initiative at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

Current Research - Programs of Study: A Longitudinal Analysis, with Dr. Corinne Alfeld

nrccte — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:07:18 +0000

Corinne Alfeld, principal investigator of Programs of Study: A Longitudinal Analysis, recently talked to Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). This study uses a mixed-methods design in examining “mature” POS sites to identify the key factors contributing to successful student outcomes. Specifically, the objective of the study is to determine the critical components of the structure and process of POS (e.g., what are the elements, how do they work together, and under what circumstances or conditions?) The ultimate purpose of the study is to gather useful information that can inform future implementation of POS around the country.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

CI: And how does this align with other Center work and Center priorities, especially those engagement, achievement and transition priorities?

CA: I think Programs of Study really get at all three because they engage students in career-related coursework, they coordinate high school technical skills and academic skills with the college level, and align courses in a sequence from secondary to postsecondary so that students see a clear pathway and know what they have to do to get there. And so if this is done really well, such as in the sites that we’re including in the project, there’s potential for a lot of students to become more engaged in school, achieve their goals and transition to college.

Read more about the Programs of Study: A Longitudinal Analysis study at the NRCCTE website. Read the transcript here.

What Will Be the Impact of Programs of Study? A Preliminary Assessment - A Podcast with Morgan Lewis

nrccte — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:54:58 +0000

In this eleventh podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Morgan Lewis, primary author of ““What Will Be the Impact of Programs of Study? A Preliminary Assessment Based on Similar Previous Initiatives, State Plans for Implementation, and Career Development Theory.” This paper examines precursors of POS: Tech Prep, career clusters/pathways, youth apprenticeships, and dual/concurrent enrollment. It also summarizes how states propose to implement POS, based on a review of 53 state plans (the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) for Perkins IV submitted to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education. This paper also reviews the implications of career development theory as it relates to students’ decisions about POS. It concludes by posing three questions concerning the implementation of POS:

1. To what degree can secondary and postsecondary instruction be articulated?

2. To what degree can rigorous and relevant technical content be aligned with challenging academic standards?

3. What are appropriate measures of the effectiveness of POS?

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

Our conclusion from all this is that the academic rigor of what is taught at the secondary level has to be increased. The academic deficiencies which many CTE students have are preventing them, in our judgment, from getting the postsecondary certificates or degrees. And because they spend so much time in developmental/remedial courses, they never get into the technical courses they really want to study.

Our recommendation, our major recommendation, is to beef up in Programs of Study, these new Programs of Study, which are being developed to respond to the new Perkins Act, the academic rigor has to be at a higher level so that the students will be better prepared for postsecondary level instruction and they won’t have to take those remedial courses.

Read the transcript of this interview, the one-page Research Snapshot, or download the full research report.

CTE Pathway Programs, Academic Performance, and the Transition to College and Career – Natasha Lekes

nrccte — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:52:16 +0000

In this tenth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Natasha Lekes, primary author of “Career and Technical Education Pathway Programs, Academic Performance, and the Transition to College and Career.” This mixed-method NRCCTE study examined secondary student matriculation to two selected community colleges offering career and technical education (CTE) transition programs through partnerships with K-12 and secondary districts having numerous high schools. CTE transition pathway programs seek to help students transition from high school to college and into family-sustaining wage careers. The study had two distinct components: 1) a secondary study that compared CTE and non-CTE students on academic experiences, achievement, and transition into the first semester of college; and 2) a postsecondary study that examined CTE pathway students’ transition experiences and outcomes associated with enrollment at the local community college.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

I think the most compelling finding was that the CTE transition programs, in providing high school students with a career pathway, helped them feel more prepared for their chosen area of study in college, without hindering their academic performance.

So, when we compared CTE participants with their non-CTE counterparts, matched on demographic variables, we found that the two groups did not differ significantly in their math and science course taking - despite the fact that CTE students were spending more time in career pathway courses. So, in other words, devoting a significant part of their high school experience to a career pathway did not stop students from taking the math and science courses necessary for college preparation.

And furthermore, the two groups did not differ in their academic performance as measured by their grade point average. And we found some evidence that CTE students were better prepared academically than their counterparts, so that they did significantly better on a standardized reading test than the non-CTE students.

Read the transcript of this interview, the one-page Research Snapshot, or download the full research report.

State Approval Policies and Procedures for Postsecondary CTE – A Podcast with Rodney Merkley

nrccte — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:53:07 +0000

In this ninth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Rodney Merkley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, primary author of “State Approval Policies and Procedures for Postsecondary Career and Technical Education.” This NRCCTE study examined the final program approval for new postsecondary CTE programs and program review policies and procedures for existing programs based on publicly available Web sites and on follow-up interviews with representatives in the final state approving agency. It also sought to inventory the various state-level policies and procedures and examine how occupational standards were being incorporated into approval processes. In addition, the study examined the methods by which the states ensured that programs were aligned with labor market needs and how articulation efforts were being incorporated into the final state program approval policy and procedure.

Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

CI: So what overall conclusions did you reach?

RM: I think that probably the probably biggest one and that’s really based on the variability between the different state approval processes or mechanisms: that it’s going to be really difficult for policymakers to come out and say, “This one size or this one application meets everybody’s needs and they should follow it.” Really, because there are some states that they would meet that need. They would probably exceed that need as they exist now.

But then there are probably a lot of other states that would have to do a lot of work. And I’m just not sure they have the funding to support the extra staff positions and the type of personnel and other processes to continue forward. So, I think it’s an important consideration there, but I think more importantly it gives the insight to those states that maybe are looking to reevaluate how they approve programs to, “Hey, maybe we ought to do this. This is something that can learn.”

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

Study of State Certification-Licensure Requirements for Secondary CTE Teachers - Dr. Chris Zirkle

nrccte — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:31:38 +0000

In this eighth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Chris Zirkle of The Ohio State University, primary author of “A Study of State Certification/Licensure Requirements for Secondary Career and Technical Education Teachers.” This NRCCTE study sought to determine the requirements for CTE teacher certifica¬tion/licensure in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including education requirements (academic and/or technical preparation), work experience, and entry and exit tests (such as the Praxis assessments). The study determined the traditional routes to certification/licensure as well as any alternative pathways for individuals from business/industry who wish to enter the CTE teaching profession.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Zirkle’s conversation:

One thing that we found is that just as we are testing students more often, we are also testing our teachers more often. And states are using tests to assess a person’s ability to teach and these can be tests of basic academic skills, they are sometimes subject area and content area tests, and they can also be tests over the principles of teaching and learning. We also saw the requirements for these teachers to participate in some type of mentoring programs to be more common than perhaps in the past. And this fits also with the research that we’re seeing now that finds that these are a key piece for getting new teachers off to a good start and that also helps with teacher retention.

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

State Secondary CTE Standards: Developing a Framework out of a Policy Patchwork-Dr Marisa Castellano

nrccte — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:52:12 +0000

In this seventh podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Marisa Castellano, primary author of “State Secondary CTE Standards: Developing a Framework out of a Patchwork of Policies.” This NRCCTE study engaged in a 50-state survey of CTE standards and ex¬plored (a) the progress and status of states in developing statewide secondary CTE standards sys¬tems, and (b) whether and how teachers are using those standards in their CTE courses. In the sec¬ond phase of the project, the researchers selected states with well-developed statewide standards systems and interviewed state-selected CTE teachers about whether having CTE standards has changed how they teach.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Castellano’s conversation:

In the teacher part of the study, we learned what broad support the standards had amongst the teachers in those states. Now, we didn’t select the teachers at random, so I want to put that caveat out there. But we were still impressed because there was a pretty wide range of teaching experience. Everybody seemed to embrace the standards. You can expect new teachers-fresh out of teacher ed programs-to know about standards, to know how to use them in their teaching, but to see the veteran teachers also using them was really heartening.

And we heard several times that standards were exactly what they’d been waiting for, to be able to show the rigor of CTE; the rigor, and that it’s a credible high school program and that it really is on a par with academic courses.

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

Sustaining the Impact: Follow-Up of Teachers Who Participated in Math-in-CTE – Dr. Morgan V. Lewis

nrccte — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:21:05 +0000

In this sixth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Morgan V. Lewis, primary author of “Sustaining the Impact: Follow up of Teachers Who Participated in the Math-in-CTE Study.” This NRCCTE follow-up study to the original Math-in-CTE study was conducted in the 2005-06 school year, the year after the Math-in-CTE experi¬ment ended, to determine the extent to which the teachers in the experimental group had continued to use the instructional method and lessons developed for the experiment and teachers in the con¬trol group had adopted any of the lessons. The mail survey found that, in the school year after the experiment ended, almost three-fourths (73%) of the experimental CTE teachers continued to use the method and materials from the study, two-thirds (66%) of the experimental math teachers used examples of applications of math from the lessons, and a little over one-fourth (27%) of the control CTE teachers had taught one or more of the lessons. The personal interviews indicated that for many of the experimental CTE teachers, participation in the study had changed their approach to teaching.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Lewis’ conversation:

That community of practice [created during the Math-in-CTE study) was reinforced when we did … follow-up interviews. [The teachers] said how important that interaction with their colleagues had been to them, not just with their CTE colleagues from the same occupational areas, but also with their math partners. And both sides reported that their interest and their respect for their colleagues increased as a result of this.

The math teachers said that they really had no idea of the depth of the mathematics which was being taught in many of the CTE classes in their own school until they worked with their CTE colleagues. And the CTE colleagues were very appreciative of the assistance which they received from the math teachers. And they were pleased also that many of these math teachers, after the study ended, picked up some of the same concepts that they had helped develop, the same teaching techniques and examples in their own classroom, and they reported that to us.

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

Career Pathway Programs Linking Low-Skilled Adults to Family-Sustaining Careers – Dr. Debra Bragg

nrccte — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:33:58 +0000

In this fifth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Debra Bragg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, primary author of “A Cross-Case Analysis of Career Pathway Programs that Link Low-Skilled Adults to Family-Sustaining Wage Careers.” This NRCCTE study was designed to answer the question of what programs, policies, and practices-particularly curricular, institutional, and support strategies-are currently being implemented to support the transition of low-skilled adults through career pathways that align with postsecondary CTE? Several sub-questions were posed to investigate program and policy components and implementation strategies and to provide insights into sustainability.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Bragg’s conversation:

One of the most important aspects, I think, of career pathway programs such as these is making the course sequence make sense to the learners, so they can see what their opportunities are and they can understand that if they complete, you know, a particular course in a sequence and they are successful passing that course, they’ll be eligible for some sort of certification, and that is tied to a labor market opportunity and outcome. Then students can begin to see that the pathway doesn’t have to last a lifetime. You know, it’s tangible. They understand what the educational experience leads to, and how they will then find employment. Because for adults who are low-skilled and often unemployed or seriously underemployed, they don’t always understand the educational system, and they don’t always understand employment.

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

The NRCCTE’s multimedia content– including podcasts, webcasts, full-length reports, Research Snapshots, and presentations– is always available from the NRCCTE website, http://www.nrccte.org/. If you have a comment or question about our products or projects, please drop us a line at nrccte@louisville.edu. We welcome your feedback!

Career-Based Comprehensive School Reform – A Podcast with Dr. Marisa Castellano

nrccte — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:21:35 +0000

In this fourth podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Marisa Castellano, University of Louisville, primary author of “Career-based Comprehensive School Reform: Serving Disadvantaged Youth in Minority Communities.” This five-year longitudinal NRCCTE study was designed to examine the effect of career-based comprehensive school reform (CSR) on creating a successful high school experi¬ence and preparing youth for the adult world of postsecondary education and work. The study included three feeder patterns of middle schools, high schools, and community colleges in com¬munities with high percentages of at-risk students. The high schools implemented career-based CSR to try to improve the educational chances of the poor and minority students they served.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Castellano’s conversation:

…what we learned from the results of the study, there were two findings that I thought schools, and also school districts, could really consider.

The first one was we found that regardless of which high school a student attended-so they could have gone to one of the three high schools that we found with the innovative, career-based programs, or it could have been one of the three comparison schools. But it didn’t matter which high school they attended; across all of them, students who took CTE courses were significantly less likely to drop out than those who took no CTE courses. So, even if the high school had a high dropout rate, CTE helped keep those students in school. Now, this is really important, and I think that CTE teachers have known this forever. But it’s good to get research-based confirmation that CTE helps keep kids engaged in school and not drop out.

Read the transcript of this interview or download the full research report.

Moving Beyond the GED – A Podcast with Dr. Rosemarie Park

nrccte — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:06:35 +0000

In this third podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Rosemarie Park of the University of Minnesota, primary author of “Moving Beyond the GED: Low-Skilled Adult Transition to Occupational Pathways at Community Colleges Leading to Family-Supporting Careers.” This NRCCTE research synthesis study was part of a larger project that identified exemplary community college programs that employ innovative curriculum and instructional practices in order to help low-skilled adults attain a family sustainable wage. The project goal was to identify best practices that are replicable at other community colleges. These programs and models combined Adult Basic Education (ABE), General Educational Diploma (GED), and sometimes English as a Second Language (ESL) programs with the opportunity to attain postsecondary credentials leading to gainful employment at a family sustainable wage. Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Park’s conversation:

The institutions that seemed to do best had what we called integrated institutional structures and services. So that all of the services which related to the at-risk or the students who came into that program, there were linkages between those systems and structures and services-so that you didn’t have, say, an adult basic group of people working over here, the college group of people working over here, and the instructors working-that somehow (and the counseling factors) the people all worked together with the institutions to try and help people be successful.

Read the transcript (PDF) or the full research report (PDF).

Looking Inside the Black Box: Value Added by CTSOs - A Podcast with Dr. Corinne Alfeld

nrccte — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:48:30 +0000

In this second podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series, Catherine Imperatore of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) talks with Dr. Corinne Alfeld of the Academy for Educational Development (AED), primary author of “Looking Inside the Black Box: The Value Added by Career and Technical Student Organizations to Students’ High School Experience.” This NRCCTE study was designed to examine the impact of student participation in Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) on student achievement and other outcomes. All eight national CTSOs-SkillsUSA, DECA, FBLA, FCCLA, HOSA, TSA, BPA and FFA-participated.

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Alfeld’s conversation:

First, we developed a theoretical model of how we thought the “black box” worked. That is, we had a working hypothesis of the processes that went into affecting these outcomes (achievement, transition and employability). For example, we hypothesized that participation in a CTSO would increase students’ engagement in school, which would then have a positive effect on their grades and, eventually, on their success in school or work. We didn’t follow the students long enough to find out about their transition into college or work, but we were able to follow them for one year and measure other things that might lead to future success in these areas. I mentioned academic engagement and grades, but we also measured motivation, college aspirations, employability skills and self-efficacy.

Read the transcript (PDF) or the full research report (PDF).

Welcome to the Career and Technical Education Research News Podcast Series: Dr. James R. Stone III

nrccte — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:32:27 +0000

The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) is now making its most recent podcasts highlighting the latest in Center research available for free through Podbean and the iTunes storefront in addition to the Center’s website.

Our first podcast in the Career and Technical Education Research News series is an introduction to the new Center, now located at the University of Louisville, from Center Director, Dr. James R. Stone III. Dr. Stone describes the Center’s research agenda, partner organizations, primary goals, and aims for its podcast series. Read the transcript (PDF) here.