The Diverse Forms of Tech-prep:
Implementation Approaches
In Ten Local Consortia (1995)
Analysis and Highlights
The report, The Diverse Forms of Tech-Prep: Implementation Approaches in Ten Local Consortia, documents the approaches, progress, difficulties, and creative solutions and innovations of 10 local Tech-Prep consortia. This report is based on several types of data: on-site interviews with a wide range of key individuals--high school and college administrators and faculty, counselors, representatives of actively involved employers and labor or community groups, and the consortium coordinator. Evaluation staff also conducted focus groups with students participating in Tech-Prep, and observed classes (including those involving vocational or technical instruction and academic classes affected by Tech-Prep curriculum development).
Study Findings
Preliminary findings suggest that four dimensions of Tech-prep development efforts (articulation; enhancement of curriculum and instruction; approaches to recruiting, guidance, and career development; and the governance structures created to organize curriculum activities and coordinate use of grant funds) provide a consistent framework for the diverse approaches local consortia approach Tech-Prep implementation.
- Articulation and Programs of Study. Articulation agreements are a major defining feature of Tech-Prep in most sites. Most consortia have built their Tech-Prep development on earlier articulation, and some are currently expanding articulation to new schools and occupational areas. A few consortia have adopted articulation of academic courses. In most sites, articulation links individual courses at the high school and college level. A few consortia have created broader programs of study that include sequences of technical and academic courses for students with particular career interests, but others are making progress toward that goal.
- Changes in Curriculum and Instruction. Although most of the ten consortia have taken some steps to upgrade vocational curricula, most curriculum changes has focused on the introduction of applied approaches to teaching math, science, and English. Most sites have adopted commercially available curriculum packages or incorporated modules from them into existing courses. Consortia have used applied curricula quite differently. Some encourage all vocational students to take applied academic classes, or just those students who are enrolled in vocational programs designated as Tech-Prep. Other consortia make applied courses generally available to all students, and rely on counselors to guide into these courses the students for whom they seem most appropriate. Applied math and English classes, under this latter approach, are most commonly serving lower-ability students, whereas applied science courses in some cases are attracting a mix of students with diverse abilities and educational aspirations.
- Recruiting, Guidance, and Career Development. Some of the ten consortia have defined Tech-Prep as a distinct, high-tech form of vocational education, for only some occupations and a small, carefully selected group of students. These sites have paid close attention to recruiting well-qualified students, who consciously choose a Tech-Prep occupational program. In other sites, Tech-Prep is primarily an upgrading of vocational programs with the addition of applied academics courses; students in those sites are much less conscious of being in a special program. A few sites treat Tech-Prep as a foundation for general school reform and do not recruit students at all; instead, they provide career development activities for all students, and are promoting the value of career-oriented programs of study for all students, whether or not they include vocational courses.
- Governance and Resources. The in-depth study sites have a variety of structures for planning and coordinating Tech-Prep development. Several consortia have formal and quite extensive structures of committees and specialized subcommittees, including secondary and college staff, and teachers, administrators, counselors, and employer and community representatives. In other sites, responsibility for Tech-Prep has been folded into regular school district operations, and there is little ongoing interaction between secondary and college staff. All the sites have at least one staff person serving as a consortium coordinator, and in a few sites several individuals serve as a collective coordinating body. Annual implementation grants to the local consortia vary widely in amount, from as little as about $20,000 per year to more than $260,000, reflecting differences in consortium size and complexity as well as state funding practices.
-###-
Text of Report
Return to Vocational Education Evaluation Page
Last modified -- September 15, 1998 (lyp)