Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning: Changes in Participation, 1997-1999.

v Pre-Baccalaureate Workforce Education . 1 Federal School Reform in the Last Decade . 1 Perkins II.1 The School-to-Work Opportunities Act . 2 Perkins III.3 Student Participation in CTE and Today’s High School.3 Objectives of the Study . 7 Data and Method.9 Variables.10 Data Limitations and the Use of Interview Data . 11 Findings . 13 Participation Patterns in Curriculum Concentrations.13 Descriptive Characteristics of Youth Participating in the Four Curriculum Concentrations—1999.13 Math Coursetaking . 15 Science Coursetaking . 16 CTE Coursetaking . 16 Participation Patterns in Career Pathway, Tech Prep, and Specific WBL Activities . 17 Coursetaking and Post-High-School Expectations . 17 Predicting Curriculum Concentration and Participation in CTE-Related Activities . 18 Analytic Approach . 18 Predicting Curriculum Participation.19 Predicting Participation in Career Pathways, Tech Prep, and Any WBL Activities . 19 Career pathway . 19 Tech prep . 20 Work-based learning . 20 Nonparticipants . 20 Predicting Participation in Specific WBL Activities . 20 Predicting Student Outcomes—1999 . 21 High School GPA.21 Risky Behaviors . 22 Discussion.23 References . 25 Tables . 29 Appendix . 49 Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning iv National Research Center for Career and Technical Education Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning National Research Center for Career and Technical Education v ABSTRACT We examined the extent to which high school students are choosing to participate in workrelated education after a decade of education reform in the United States. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we first examined the characteristics of students enrolled in alternative curriculum concentrations: career and technical (CTE), academic, dual (combining academic and CTE), and general. We then examined the characteristics of students who enroll in career pathways, tech prep, or any work-based learning (WBL) activity (defined as cooperative education, job shadowing, mentoring, school-sponsored enterprise, and internship/apprenticeship). Secondly, we analyzed socioeconomic, school experience, and CTE-related variables that could be predictors of participation in curriculum concentrations, career pathways, tech prep, and WBL activities; high school academic achievement; and risky behaviors. We concluded that CTE-related programs, supported by the school reforms, have helped in changing the coursetaking pattern of youth participating in those programs, and significantly contribute to students’ high school achievement. Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning vi National Research Center for Career and Technical Education Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning National Research Center for Career and Technical Education 1 PRE-BACCALAUREATE WORKFORCE EDUCATION The latter years of the 20th century were a time of school reform, particularly with regards to preparation for work. Many reforms were enacted to address concerns about perceived shortcomings of the U.S. education system and to ensure that students were being well prepared for educational and economic attainment. Three important federal laws were passed to improve workforce development opportunities for high school students: the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act in 1990, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act in 1994, and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998. All of this legislation focused on improving the academic and technical competence of students emerging from high school. Despite federal efforts to engage more youth in workforce development, there is evidence that the proportion of high school students who are career and technical education (CTE) concentrators declined during the late 1980s and 1990s (Delci & Stern, 1999; Levesque et al., 2000). During this time, a new classification of student has arisen, called the dual concentrator—a student who takes both an academic and a CTE program in high school. This group has generated considerable interest among policy makers and practitioners. Some evidence suggests these students, unlike traditional CTE concentrators, perform as well on traditional measures of achievement as academic concentrators (Plank, 2001). We researched the extent to which students are choosing to participate in the career and technical, and dual curriculum concentrations; in career pathway (CP), tech prep (TP), and specific work-based learning activities (WBL)—i.e., cooperative education, job shadowing, mentoring, school-based enterprise, and apprenticeship/internship—in the wake of more than a decade of education reform. We also examined whether tech prep and specific WBL activities have become infused in the schooling of adolescents and to what extent they transcend traditional curricular patterns. Federal School Reform in the Last Decade Three major pieces of federal legislation were part of the education reforms of the 1990s. Each affected high school students graduating in the latter part of the decade. Two were revisions of existing federal CTE education legislation. The third was an attempt to foster change within state education systems. Perkins II In the late 1980s, congressional concern about the economic competitiveness of the U.S. workforce led to the approval of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990, or Perkins II. The strategy it embodied for improving the competitiveness of the labor force was to upgrade secondary and 2-year college education programs in order to more fully develop the academic and occupational skills of all segments of the population, so to better prepare them for the demands of work in a technologically advanced society. Hayward and Benson (1993) declared the Act the most significant policy shift in the history of federal involvement in vocational-technical education funding. For the first time in CTE legislation, Congress emphasized academic as well as occupational skill development. A Career and Technical Education, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning 2 National Research Center for Career and Technical Education second important change was the emphasis on all segments of the population—a shift recognizing the need for all students to prepare for the workforce of the future. Perkins II was the first of several legislative efforts to reconnect CTE education to academic education. The Act included three unique components. First, Congress created a national program called Tech-Prep. In the mid-1980s, Parnell (1985), among others, argued that students were leaving high school unprepared for either work or further education