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Mature Programs of Study: A Structure for the Transition to College and Career?
Abstract
This study uses a mixed methods approach to examine a new type of curriculum configuration that supports students’ transitions to college: career technical programs of study (POS). Interview and survey data were collected from a college and its feeder high schools in each of three well-established (“mature”) sites in geographically varied communities in the United States to investigate how POS are structured, what the key the “ingredients” are, and what students experience as they move through the POS. Interview findings suggest that the key elements of POS include dedicated staff to create secondary–postsecondary connections, active multistakeholder advisory committees, and flexibility and compromise in developing dual-credit options for students. Survey data show that high school students feel positively about their experiences in POS; however, career guidance is lacking. Student records indicate that even when POS were in place to support their transition, less than one-fifth of students remained in the same POS in college that they began in high school. Results are discussed in relation to the 2006 Perkins IV legislation.
... However, these requirements do not meet the post-secondary needs of the 21 st century (Stephens, Warren, Harner, & Owen, 2015;OECD, 2013;Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;OECD, 2012;Daggett, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010), nor do they align with the newly-implemented California State College/Career Indicators accountability standards (CA Accountability Model, 2017). ...
... For example, there is a growing body of literature that suggests that U.S. students are not reaching the same educational attainment levels in secondary schools when compared with other industrialized countries ; Institute for Economics and Peace, 2015; Kaeble et al., 2015;Stephens et al., 2015;OECD, 2013). There have also been indications that students are not prepared with the skill sets they need to be a success in the collaborative environments that current careers require (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010). Therefore, given the educational, socio-relational, political, and economic challenges that students will face in a neoliberal globalized marketplace, I argued that we must support increased expectations for students graduating high school. ...
... Within the framework of globalization, education has become a core component of the nation-state's infrastructure that can be tied to its economic health. However, there may be disconnections between what may be required of students in the 21st century and what is provided by our schools (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010). with the U.S. representing the single largest economic force (Stephens et al., 2015). ...
Students may be situated within complex systems that are nested within each other. This complexity may also envelop institutional structures that lead to the socio-economic reification of student post-secondary opportunities by obscuring positive goals. This may be confounded by community misunderstandings about the changed world that students are entering. These changes include social and economic factors that impact personal and economic freedoms, our ability to live at peace, and the continuing trend of students graduating high school underprepared.
Building on previous cycles of action research, this multi-strand mixed-methods study examined the effects of the innovation of the I am College and Career Ready Student Support Program (iCCR). The innovation was collaboratively developed and implemented over a 16-week period using a participatory action research approach. The situated context of this study was a new high school in the urban center of San Diego, California. The innovation included a student program administered during an advisory period and a parent education program.
Qualitative research used a critical ethnographic design that analyzed data from artifacts, journals, notes, and the interviews of students (n = 8), parents (n = 6), and teachers (n = 5). Quantitative research included the analysis of data from surveys administered to inform the development of the innovation (n = 112), to measure learning of parent workshop participants (n = 10), and to measure learning, hope, and attitudinal disposition of student participants (n = 49). Triangulation was used to answer the studies’ four research questions. Triangulated findings were subjected to the method of crystallization to search for hidden meanings and multiple truths.
Findings included the importance of parent involvement, the influence of positive goals, relational implications of goal setting and pathway knowledge on agentic thinking, and that teacher implementation of the innovation may have influenced student hope levels. This study argued for a grounded theory situated within a theoretical framework based upon Snyder’s Hope Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. This argument asserted that influence on pathway and agency occurred at levels of high proximal process with the influence of goal setting occurring at levels of lower proximal process.
... However, these requirements do not meet the post-secondary needs of the 21 st century (Stephens, Warren, Harner, & Owen, 2015;OECD, 2013;Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;OECD, 2012;Daggett, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010), nor do they align with the newly-implemented California State College/Career Indicators accountability standards (CA Accountability Model, 2017). ...
... For example, there is a growing body of literature that suggests that U.S. students are not reaching the same educational attainment levels in secondary schools when compared with other industrialized countries ; Institute for Economics and Peace, 2015; Kaeble et al., 2015;Stephens et al., 2015;OECD, 2013). There have also been indications that students are not prepared with the skill sets they need to be a success in the collaborative environments that current careers require (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010). Therefore, given the educational, socio-relational, political, and economic challenges that students will face in a neoliberal globalized marketplace, I argued that we must support increased expectations for students graduating high school. ...
... Within the framework of globalization, education has become a core component of the nation-state's infrastructure that can be tied to its economic health. However, there may be disconnections between what may be required of students in the 21st century and what is provided by our schools (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Zhao, 2012;American Management Association, 2010;Wagner, 2010). with the U.S. representing the single largest economic force (Stephens et al., 2015). ...
The I am College and Career Ready Student Support Program (iCCR). The iCCR was a collaboratively designed system utilizing a PAR (Herr & Anderson, 2015; Ivankova, 2015) structure that (a) provided staff and stakeholder professional development on a graduation profile that identify post-secondary needs for all students, (b) collaboratively set positive goals and expectations for all students in our schools to be ready for 21st century post-secondary environments, (c) developed and implemented college and career ready advisory period curriculum and supporting experiences, and (d) provided parent workshops to increase parent knowledge of college and career readiness standards being expected of students, and (e) provided ongoing professional development sessions for the implementation of iCCR curriculum with advisors in their advisory period.
... Despite numerous studies that suggest students who participate in a CTE POS have positive outcomes (Alfeid & Bhattacharya, 2012Harvard Pathways to Prosperity Report, 2011;Kalchick & Oertle, 2010;Lekes et al., 2007), of the 500,000 students who participate in CTE programs annually in grades 6-12, the problem is less than 50% of high school seniors graduate as a CTE completer (ACT Career Solutions, 2014;NCDPI News Release, 2014) fulfilling one of the requirements of a program of study. There were 92,106 students who graduated from high in North Carolina in 2014 with approximately 40,000 of those students graduating as a CTE Completer (ACT, 2014;NCDPI News Releases, 2014). ...
... What do participants attribute to their readiness for entrance to a post-secondary institution and the workforce after graduating from high school? Participation in a CTE POS has been known to produce positive outcomes for graduates (Alfeid & Bhattacharya, 2012Kalchick & Oertle, 2010;Harvard Pathways to Prosperity Report, 2011;Lekes et al., 2007). Participants have an increased opportunity to earn post-secondary credits as well as industry-recognized credentials (Castellano et al., 2014). ...
... Research studies suggest that CTE programs have a positive impact on student outcomes (Alfeid & Bhattacharya, 2012Kalchick & Oertle, 2010;Harvard Pathways to Prosperity Report, 2011;Lekes et al., 2007). In recent years, CTE programs have placed greater emphasis on not only encouraging student participation and increased engagement (Allen, 2010), but providing students with knowledge and skills that expand beyond high school. ...
... The development of career pathways and POS is no small task, necessitating labor market analysis and consideration of local capacity. Also, divisions that may exist between CTE programs and core academic disciplines may complicate leaders' efforts to ensure rigorous, aligned coursework (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012). Despite these challenges, some high schools have implemented career-focused pathways that provide quality POS for their students. ...
... Despite these challenges, some high schools have implemented career-focused pathways that provide quality POS for their students. These sites are instructive, with potential to inform more widespread quality implementation (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Hammond et al., 2013;Stipanovic, Shumer, & Stringfield, 2012). Yet, empirical research has overlooked the essential role of formal and informal leaders in guiding these implementation processes. ...
Creating effective pathways for students to transition from high school to college or career is immensely important and, although challenging, some have developed promising approaches. This case study examined how formal and informal leaders in an urban high school and district collaborated to implement a college and career academy model, utilizing distributed-leadership theory as a lens. Data analysis yielded seven themes. This study’s documentation of considerable leadership distribution outside the organization is unique within the literature and underscores the need for researchers and practitioners to consider the important contribution of community leaders in promoting college and career readiness.
... In earlier reports from this project (i.e., Alfeld, 2010;Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012), we discussed emergent themes across the three POS sites. We briefly describe them here, then compare them to the Perkins IV legislation and policy guidance around POS. (We use the term POS to describe the mature programs we studied; however, recall that the secondarypostsecondary connections cultivated at these sites had begun prior to Perkins IV.) Full case studies of each of the three sites are available in Appendix H. ...
... The spring 2012 issue also provides descriptions of three longitudinal studies funded by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education on diverse questions related to POSs: Castellano, Sun- dell, Overman, and Aliaga (2012) gathered quantitative and qualitative data on student outcomes in an unusually rigorous test of POSs in three states. Alfeld and Bhattacharya (2012) reported on an effort to examine the extent to which POSs are achieving their goal of guiding more young people to community colleges and 4-year colleges. Withington and colleagues (2012) closely followed South Carolina's legislatively mandated efforts to provide career awareness and a career focus to every student in the state. ...
... These three studies, taking place in diverse districts across the United States, were created to examine the outcomes and effectiveness of CTE and the implementation of POSs. The three studies include an examination of mature POSs that focuses college transition (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012), a rigorous examination of the impact of POSs on high school academic and technical achievement (Castellano, Sundell, Overman, & Aliaga, 2012), and an examination of school reform in South Carolina focused on career pathways (Withington et al., 2012). The purpose of the cross-site analysis of these three studies was to examine how each site defined and implemented POSs and determine each site's level of implementation of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education's design framework for POS. ...
This qualitative study explores career counseling and guidance services as provided to students engaged in career and technical education programs at three sites in the United States. The sites, consisting of high schools and community colleges, were part of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education's 5-year studies of programs of study and were identified as providing highly implemented programs of study. This article provides insights about the career services offered in these systems of programs of study, with special attention paid to the role of school counselors. We found that career development occurs in a variety of forms and is provided by counselors and career and technical education teachers. However, the most comprehensive services were provided in settings where school counseling programs were highly developed and supported.
... As this educational reform developed, the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education was commissioned by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education to study POSs from several different perspectives. Three longitudinal studies were launched to measure the impact of such programs on dimensions of student grades, retention, and ability to get skill/ knowledge certifications and other forms of employability success and to determine how the POS model could deliver high-quality CTE experiences for students (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Castellano, Sundell, Overman, & Aliaga, 2012;Withington et al., 2012). A fourth study was launched in 2010 to collect qualitative data on state-level efforts to enhance the development of POS efforts in six states, determining how the programs grew over time and how technical assistance and program development helped to improve the delivery and success of the efforts. ...
Educational reform in the United States is perpetually evolving. Much of the recent reforms have concentrated on high-stakes testing and assessment, but a parallel effort has been emerging in the field of vocational and career education. Prompted partly by federal legislation—most recently by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (also known as Perkins IV)—the field has been dramatically altered to include a renewed vision of vocational education. The Perkins IV legislation officially changed the title and focus of the efforts, installing the name career and technical education as the replacement for the older version of vocational education and training. Armed with this new name, the focus of the reforms took on new perspectives, adding a career education focus and broadening the goals to include academic learning with vocational/work-based learning. The result has been a renewed effort to make all students “college and career ready.”
... Participants indicated that the competitive nature of PBL was a motivating factor. This was tied to student learning skills to meet the needs of the 21 st century in alignment with several research studies (Alfeld & Bhattacharya, 2012;Withington et al., 2012;Roberson, 2011;Symonds, Schwartz, & Ferguson, 2011;American Management Association, 2010). Rodgers et al. (2009) conducted research on the importance of professional development during the first year of implementation of PBL. ...
Research supports that Project-Based Learning (PBL) has a positive impact on student achievement and prepares students with 21st century skills. With over 150 years of presence in American pedagogical practice PBL is rarely used as a primary teaching strategy. This action research study examined why some teachers self-initiate a change to PBL. Findings from this study were used to advance student achievement for college and career readiness by developing an action plan to increase the number of teachers that utilize PBL.
This mixed method study investigated what motivators and pedagogical values within the administration’s immediate control might encourage teachers to self-initiate a change in their instructional practice to PBL. Quantitative research examined two null hypotheses on the topics of school culture and desired pedagogical outcomes. Qualitative questions focused on why teachers choose to adopt PBL and what might have helped them to make a change to PBL earlier in their career. Descriptive statistics, cultural aspects, pedagogical values, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivators were triangulated with member checks utilized to increase the validity of findings.
This study found that there are common motivators and pedagogical values within the administration’s immediate control that may encourage teachers to self-initiate a change in instructional practice to PBL. Both quantitative null-hypotheses were rejected. Qualitative analysis found that extrinsic motivators within administration’s control were listed as being important to study participants in their change to PBL, in those factors that may have had them change sooner, and in suggestions for future areas for improvements.
Students may be situated within complex systems that are nested within each other. This complexity may also envelop institutional structures that lead to the socioeconomic reification of student post-secondary opportunities by obscuring positive goals. Building on previous cycles of action research, this multi-strand mixed-methods action research study examined the effectiveness of an innovation designed to address student, teacher, and parental understandings of college and career readiness. This innovation was developed and implemented using a participatory action research model and included a student program administered during an advisory period and evening parent education programs. Findings included the importance of parent involvement, the influence of positive goals, relational implications of goal setting and pathway knowledge on agentic thinking, and that teacher implementation of the innovation may have influenced student hope levels.
In the 1990s, federal legislation authorizing funding for secondary vocational education, increasingly called career and technical education (CTE), began to mandate accountability requirements such as improved academic achievement. These requirements have necessitated a search for ways to integrate CTE into broader school reforms that have improved student achievement as their goal. This review examines research on the effects of CTE reform efforts in general and on efforts to meld CTE with comprehensive secondary school reforms. The authors found that the intersection of CTE with comprehensive school reform is under-researched. However, the studies reviewed here reveal the potential benefit for research and practice in re-examining CTE as a means of preparing our nation’s youth for the future.
Studied the implementation of the Federal School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994 in 47 school districts in upstate New York using a backward mapping policy analysis model. Variation between federal intent and local adaptation was explained by characteristics of the particular high school and the perceptions of local stakeholders. (Contains 60 references.) (SLD)
The life stage of adolescence now occurs in most corners of the world, but it takes different forms in different regions. Peers, with such a central role in Western adolescence, play a comparatively minor role in the lives of Arabic and South Asian adolescents. Emotional turmoil and individuation from family occur in some societies but not others. Adolescent sexual revolutions are sweeping through Japan and Latin America. In this 2002 book, scholars from eight regions of the world describe the distinct nature of adolescence in their regions. They draw on research to address standard topics regarding this age - family and peer relationships, schooling, preparation for work, physical and mental health - and show how these have a different cast across societies. As a whole, the book depicts how rapid global change is dramatically altering the experience of the adolescent transition, creating opportunities and challenges for adolescents, parents, teachers, and concerned others.
This article provides a broad overview of the history of career-focused education in the United States and the reauthorization of the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006. The Perkins act required that the recipients of its funding offer at least one program of study, and this reauthorization included four core components that play a central role in the implementation of the overall Programs of Study initiative. As such, we provide a background of the development of the Programs of Study initiative in Perkins through earlier initiatives: Tech Prep, career pathways, youth apprenticeship, and dual/concurrent-credit programs. We also offer a brief overview of the challenges faced by each initiative, along with an overview of the three National Research Center for Career and Technical Education longitudinal studies represented in this special issue.
Because leisure activities are often viewed as optional, their value to people with disabilities may not be recognized. This study explored the benefits of leisure activities for eight young people who are blind. These activities provided them with supportive relationships, a desirable identity, experiences of power and control, and experiences of social justice. They enabled the young people we studied to thrive despite adversity.