In recent years, many states have begun offering college credit to students who complete CTE programs in high school. While this has become a major area of policy movement, very little is known about the landscape of these articulation agreements in CTE. Given the lack of current research, this project represents an effort to better understand the nature of these policies and how they differ across states. In doing so, we aim to shed light on a little-understood policy while also uncovering important policy questions for future research.
The postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) faculty shortages intensify challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified faculty. This study examines the viewpoints of faculty regarding workplace experiences and values concerning retention using Q methodology. Grounded in Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Job Embeddedness Theory, the research identifies viewpoints toward remaining in the profession. A Q-set of 64 statements was developed through an academic literature review, contemporary publications, social media, and expert input. Thirty-four CTE faculty from multiple institutions sorted the statements on −7 to +7 forced distribution under the condition of “statements that influence their desire to stay in their roles”. Factor analysis revealed six distinct viewpoints named Impactors, Balancers, Innovators, Builders, Equippers, and Mentors. This study contributes to the faculty retention literature by centering on the perspectives of postsecondary CTE instructors, offering a novel understanding of how distinct viewpoints influence retention strategies in community college settings.
Historically, research indicates that teacher candidates are not adequately prepared to effectively integrate technology into teaching and learning. The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine early career teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for virtual teaching. An examination was conducted to determine how teacher preparation programs prepare early career teachers to facilitate virtual learning, and their perceptions of technology competencies needed. Survey research was conducted with 102 early-career teachers who graduated in Spring 2019 or 2020. Findings revealed that fewer than 50% were satisfied with their training in integrating technology and teaching online. Over 85% indicated they would have benefited from additional training. The study identifies the required technology competencies, professional learning experiences, and the challenges faced in online teaching.
Understanding how beginning teachers feel about their preparation before entering the classroom is critical in developing teacher supports. Two specific aspects of teacher preparation include student teaching and the highest degree obtained. This study compared the self-reported preparedness of beginning CTE, science, and mathematics teachers based on whether or not they had student teaching experience and their degree level before becoming a classroom teacher. This was done by analyzing data from the 2020‐2021 National Teacher and Principal Survey for CTE, science, and mathematics teachers within their first three years of teaching. The results show that beginning CTE, science, and math teachers who had student teaching experience before becoming a classroom teacher had a statistically significantly higher level of perceived preparedness compared to the teachers who did not have student teaching experience. Regarding degree level, overall, there was no difference between those teachers with a bachelor’s degree or lower compared to those with a master’s degree or higher. Of the teachers with a bachelor’s degree or less, beginning math teachers had a statistically significantly higher perceived preparedness than CTE teachers. Understanding the factors that contribute to a teacher’s feeling of preparedness is critical for supporting new teachers. More research is needed to understand teacher preparedness in STEM fields.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) earned in secondary school led to quality employment and which IRCs should be integrated into career and technical education (CTE) high school courses. Using survey data from business leaders across the 14 nationally recognized Career Clusters (Advance CTE, 2024a), credentials were ranked by importance within five program areas ( n = 257). Pareto analysis revealed 80% of respondents rated health sciences, family and consumer sciences, and agricultural sciences credentials highest, while business/marketing and skilled/technical sciences/STEM credentials did not rank in the top 20%. This research provides empirical evidence for prioritizing specific IRCs in secondary CTE programs that lead to higher quality jobs, higher pay, and a job to support a family. Career and technical education programs should consider each certification’s value and select the most beneficial ones.
Apprenticeships have recently gained renewed attention as an effective means to prepare individuals for the world of work even though this method of instruction dates back to 1937 with the passage of the National Apprenticeship Act. An even more recent development is the growth of degree apprenticeships, the aligning of postsecondary degree programs with apprenticeships. Community colleges are leading the way in this area, as well as some four-year institutions that are beginning to explore the effectiveness of this approach. This study sought to explore the current models, challenges, and strategies in the implementation of degree apprenticeships. Through structured interviews conducted over a three-month period with 13 community and technical colleges across 17 states, as well as eight intermediary organizations that support apprenticeships, this study identified four distinct models for integrating apprenticeships into postsecondary degree programs. The study also examined postsecondary institutions’ motivations for developing degree apprenticeships, the occupations involved, the challenges to implementation, and the strategies used to address those challenges. The study concluded with recommendations to further expand these efforts.
Community colleges focus on technical skills, completion rates, and employment metrics. As careers in the United States become increasingly technical, employers indicate that technical skills are just part of an employee's role. Regardless of the level of technical application, employees must be able to make decisions, think quickly and rationally, exhibit self-awareness, communicate effectively, and solve problems. Due to the technical nature of the work, employees must be motivated to develop career and cultural competencies. The purpose of this study was to explore employers’ perceptions of the role of soft skills in the workforce. Using a semi-structured protocol and eight industry professionals in Duval County, Florida, a focus group was conducted to explore employer perceptions of soft skills in the workforce. Four themes emerged from the data: cultural fit, motivation, communication, and performance. The data indicated that employees’ contributions to the organization’s culture were most important to them, while an employee’s performance was considered the least important. Organizations could use this data to better inform onboarding and professional development for new employees and those moving into supervisory positions. Community colleges could use this data to better inform their curriculum and course content. Data indicated that community colleges must offer soft skill training as a prominent element of a two-year degree program, while employers will focus on discipline and industry-specific skills.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has become widely promoted. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) uses science to improve home life while reinforcing technology, engineering, and mathematics principles. However, FCS is not usually recognized as a STEM subject. The purpose of this study was to determine what factors may affect FCS teachers’ level of self-efficacy in teaching STEM to provide supports that improve teaching practices. This quantitative study surveyed secondary FCS teachers in Pennsylvania using the T‐STEM Survey for Elementary Teachers . Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis was performed to determine the predictive relationship between the independent variables and each of the teacher self-efficacy construct scores as the dependent variable. The first research question explored the level of self-efficacy of FCS teachers regarding teaching STEM concepts. The second research question explored how each of the teacher demographic variables respectively predicts the level of self-efficacy of FCS teachers when teaching STEM concepts. A regression analysis was used to test the differences among variables that had significant effects (significance level at p < 0.05). The five independent variables were participation in FCCLA, number of STEM courses taken, education level, number of years in teaching, and gender. Overall, FCS teachers scored highest in 21st-century learning attitudes and lowest in STEM instruction. Results indicated the independent variable, number of STEM courses taken, was a significant predictor of 21st-century learning attitudes (b = .02, SE = .01, p = .019).
Little is known about the motivational factors or design features that might lead female career and technical education (CTE) health sciences students to persist in self-regulated engagement to win state achievement in serious simulation games (SSGs). In this study, 12th grade female CTE health sciences students played a 3-Level hand hygiene SSG that was developed based on a learner analysis of a prior cohort of students. A within-subjects repeated measures design was used to assess differences in student motivation using a 10-construct Value-Achievement-Cost (VAC) Survey between baseline and the time they exited the SSG. Student choice to persistently engage in each level of the SSG was also evaluated using a 10-item SSG design feature score board. The average time that the Level III achievement students were engaged in the SSG was twice as long as Level I/II achievement students. Three of the 4 perceived mean Cost construct scores significantly decreased with large effect from baseline for students who persisted to the SSG Level III win state while all pre-post Value and Achievement orientation constructs scores remained unchanged. Mean average differences were not statistically significant for any of the ten core SSG design elements regardless of engagement time.
The contemporary reconceptualization of Career and Technical Education (CTE) often emphasizes the need for more post-secondary opportunities for racially marginalized students. Yet CTE typically functions as a mode of social control for the racial capitalist project, and increased exposure and more CTE for students of color, particularly Black girls who have been notoriously neglected across the profession, without a refusal of its extractive purpose, will not radically shift possibilities for their futures. In this article, we apply Critical Race Feminism to analyze the current contextual landscape for Black girls in CTE, and argue that CTE educators and school counselors must turn toward the politics of abolition feminism to radically transform future possibilities for and with Black girls. We offer five life-affirming tenets of abolition feminist praxis that refuse the master’s tools (Lorde, 1984) of traditional CTE and center and elevate the humanity and world-making of Black girls.
Non-degree postsecondary programs are often seen as complements to, rather than substitutes for, other postsecondary credentials. However, many of these programs could serve as entry points into high-wage, stable careers for students right out of high school. Increasing and equalizing participation in high-quality non-degree postsecondary programs requires better understanding the student choice process. In this paper we use novel survey data that interrogated high-school students' beliefs and perceptions about specific postsecondary programs, including non-degree pathways. We make two main contributions. First, we present some of the first descriptive evidence of student perceptions of non-degree postsecondary pathways. We find that familiarity with non-degree postsecondary pathways is generally relatively low with some notable differences across pathways and across groups of students. Second, we examined the postsecondary pathways students stated they were currently considering and the factors most associated with students selecting non-degree postsecondary pathways. We find that male students are nine percentage points less likely than female students to include non-degree pathways in their consideration sets and that Hispanic students are seven percentage points more likely than White students. Students who are concerned about lowering costs (e. g., lower financial cost, easier academics, faster) are more likely to consider choosing non-degree pathways while students who state that their reasons for pursuing a post-secondary pathway are related to greater perceived benefits (e. g., higher quality education) are more likely to only consider degree pathways. This study provides important insights into potential student sorting across programs and can also help us to understand how this decision-making process might have implications for future economic, social, and civic outcomes.
Teacher workload is a key consideration in supporting student outcomes. We investigate whether this factor applies to CTE teachers as well—with a specific focus on STEM-CTE (i. e., STEM-focused career and technical education). We examine teacher characteristics associated with teaching only STEM-CTE coursework in high school (i. e., "STEM-CTE exclusivity") as well as student outcomes related to having a STEM-CTE exclusive teacher. We use data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS)—employing school and cohort fixed effects techniques—to identify potential benefits of having a STEM-CTE exclusive teacher. We find STEM-CTE exclusive teachers were more likely to be male, older, and have alternative teaching certifications. With respect to student outcomes, students who have STEM-CTE exclusive teachers are expected to have higher STEM-CTE grades and likelihood of STEM-CTE pathway completion. They are also more likely to have a higher GPA in advanced math courses and graduate on time. Implications are discussed.
Weaknesses in instructor communicative behaviors negatively affect online learning. The purpose of this study was to understand how instructor clarity and computer-mediated immediate communicative behaviors influence student dissent in the asynchronous online classroom. Distance learning is not new to career and technical education; however, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many career and technical education programs to offer more courses online. Through the guidance of construal level theory, perceived immediacy with the instructor and information flow were predicted to mediate instructor communicative behaviors and student dissent. The mediated models were supported for expressive and vengeful dissent. Although fit statistics were strong for the rhetorical dissent model, the indirect effects were not statistically significant. As such, instructor clarity and computer-mediated immediate behaviors serve as predictors of students' expressive and vengeful dissent in the asynchronous online classroom.
This study explored the job satisfaction, professional identities, and turnover intentions of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers by certification type. Additionally, this study aimed to explain the impact of job satisfaction and professional identity on the turnover intentions of SBAE teachers. A series of survey questions were used to describe the sample of SBAE teachers, their job satisfaction, professional identity, and turnover intentions. Notably, regardless of certification type, participants displayed comparable levels of job satisfaction and positive professional identities. Moreover, despite the certification differences, both groups of teachers exhibited moderately low turnover intentions. Lastly, the statistical analysis addressing the impact of job satisfaction and professional identity on the turnover intentions of SBAE teachers yielded statistically significant results, suggesting that both variables positively influence the turnover intentions of SBAE teachers.
This exploratory evaluation of Oklahoma SBAE students' perceived knowledge, experience, interest to learn more, and motivation to pursue a career in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Career Pathway (The National Council for Agricultural Education, 2015) areas while engaging the Agricultural Career Experience (AgCE) curricular resource. The study also sought to evaluate the resource by obtaining SBAE students' and teachers' perceptions of their experience. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided the evaluation's attempt to understand students' and teachers' experience with the resource. Using a convergent, parallel mixed-methods design, data were collected through questionnaires and interviews with students and teachers. Descriptive statistics and eclectic coding strategies were used to explain the quantitative and qualitative findings. Findings were then analyzed to evaluate the curricular resource. The evaluative study found the resource to meet curricular needs associated with Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) and AFNR exposure. However, challenges such as usability of the resource, student engagement, and timing impacted the students' and teachers' perceptions of the resource. It was concluded that the resource serves as a viable tool for programs.
In 2020, the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development established the International Agricultural Education Fellowship Program (IAEFP) funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service. The IAEFP provided an opportunity for nine fellows to live in Ghana and implement the school-based agricultural education system, originally based on the vocational agricultural education model from the 1917 Smith Hughes Act. A phenomenological qualitative approach examined the impact of a 10-month international fellowship experience on the fellows and their perceived impact on the rural communities they served from 2021-2022. This study examined the participants' cultural awareness, agricultural enhancement, and professional formation as a result of participating in a long-term international experience. Through analysis, six themes emerged including programmatic adjustments, international development, challenges, personal and professional growth, and personal positivity's. Recommendations from results include for future like-programs to provide intentional and timely training to match context, increase host community and school communication, use reflection and mental health services, carefully outline emergency protocols to participants, adapt participants' roles and responsibilities to match location, and ensure programmatic location sustainability.
