A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Emergence of Tech-Prep at the State and Local Levels - 1995

Summary Of Major Findings

The analyses presented in this report yield many interesting findings about the development of Tech-Prep nationwide. Several of these findings have implications for policy decisions concerning future support for and approaches to Tech-Prep planning and implementation.

Tech-Prep has the potential to affect many students

Title IIIE has supported the organization of many Tech-Prep consortia across the United States since its inception. More than 800 consortia were funded by Title IIIE for FY 1993, and they included 5,328 secondary districts as consortium members. These "Tech-Prep districts" represent almost half of all school districts in the United States. Moreover, Tech-Prep districts serve more than 60 percent of all secondary students in the country. These estimates are based only on districts included in consortia that responded to the 1993 survey; the proportion of districts and secondary students covered by all FY 1993 Tech-Prep consortia including those that did not respond is thus somewhat higher.

The number of consortia, and thus the proportion of secondary students who might be affected by Tech-Prep, is growing. For FY 1994, state agencies awarded about the same number of planning grants as they did for FY 1993. Because most planning grants are awarded for one year, FY 1994 planning grants most likely are to new consortia, rather than to those that had already received grants in previous years. In addition, ten states have stipulations in state legislation, in their state plan for vocational-technical education, or both that require the creation of local Tech-Prep programs statewide by 1995.

Tech-Prep students so far represent a relatively small proportion of students in their consortium districts

Although Tech-Prep districts serve many secondary students, the proportion of students who are so far actually participating in Tech-Prep is small. More than 172,000 students were identified and reported as participating in Tech-Prep in school year (SY) 1992-1993. This figure is a good start for Tech-Prep development, given the newness of many of the programs. However, Tech-Prep students represent under five percent of all secondary students in Tech-Prep consortium districts nationwide.

Reported participation in Tech-Prep is likely to grow, however. More consortia are being created. More of the existing consortia may begin to report on participation as they become more established; the survey data indicate that "older" consortia are more likely to have defined who is a Tech-Prep student and to have begun identifying and counting participants. Data on Tech-Prep students collected by the national survey may also reflect true participation better in later years of the survey. The fall 1993 survey was the first time many local coordinators had to assemble counts of Tech-Prep students from participating schools and districts. Some of these coordinators may have begun too late to collect this information and reported only partially on participation or not at all.

Many features of Tech-Prep programs take time to implement

Developing rigorous programs of study that span secondary and postsecondary learning is challenging. Many Tech-Prep consortia are still in the planning stages and others are implementing Tech-Prep components incrementally. The longer a consortium has been established the more likely it is to be implementing Tech-Prep program components.

The survey data indicate substantial differences in the extent of Tech-Prep implementation between consortia that received their first Title IIIE grant in FY 1992 and in FY 1993. The older grantees were more likely to have a defined core program, to offer career clusters as a way to guide student course taking, to have developed new curricula (particularly occupational/ technical curricula), to make workplace experiences6 available to Tech-Prep, and to have defined what it means to participate in Tech-Prep. Many of these older consortia had developed articulation agreements before receiving their first Title IIIE grant, which allows them to build Tech-Prep as an extension of an existing program feature and gives them a head start on Tech-Prep development.

Many consortia are still in a pilot phase

Most consortia were, in FY 1993, implementing components of Tech-Prep and counting Tech-Prep participants in only some of their member districts and schools. New applied curricula, a choice of career clusters, workplace experiences, and most career development activities are in place for Tech-Prep students in a relatively small proportion of secondary districts that are members of Tech-Prep consortia. Although 36 percent of consortia nationwide could report on student participation, only 17 percent of consortium districts could do so.

The current level of activity among postsecondary partners is unclear

Postsecondary partners often play key roles in the administration of Tech-Prep, but their involvement beyond those roles is not evident. All consortia include at least one postsecondary institution, almost always a two-year college. Representatives from these institutions frequently act as a fiscal agent for the consortium and/or as the designated consortium coordinator. They are about as likely as representatives from secondary consortium members to serve on or chair governing boards or committees that are responsible for Tech-Prep policymaking.

However, other aspects of Tech-Prep activity at the postsecondary level appear, so far, to be limited. Few postsecondary schools relative to secondary schools are currently introducing new academic curricula to reflect contextual learning or new occupational/technical curricula. Although 43 percent of the consortia with specific articulation agreements reported that these agreements involved the revision of postsecondary courses, evidence from the in-depth study sites suggests that articulation often does not affect postsecondary curriculum offerings, at least not in the early years of program development. Postsecondary representatives may work closely with district or high school staff on articulation issues, but relationships across levels are not uniformly collaborative. Promotion of cooperation between secondary and postsecondary partners continues to be a primary staff development issue for consortia and an important focus of technical assistance, according to state coordinators.

The more prominent role of secondary partners at this time may be appropriate. Promotion of and recruitment for Tech-Prep is necessarily accomplished in high schools. Career exposure activities are undoubtedly most important at the secondary level. Currently, relatively few consortia are sufficiently advanced to have already graduated Tech-Prep students and to have these students entering articulated postsecondary programs.

Urban areas may be underserved by Tech-Prep

Tech-Prep development in urban communities may face greater challenges than does the initiation and expansion of Tech-Prep in suburban or rural locales. In 1993, urban areas accounted for about 7 percent of the reported Tech-Prep students. However, urban consortia enrollments so far report the smallest proportion of their students as participating in Tech-Prep. In urban consortia that can report on participation, only 1 percent of high school students participate in Tech-Prep, compared with about 6 percent and 11 percent in suburban and rural Tech-Prep consortia, respectively.

Reporting on students is a major obstacle for consortia and for states

Data on the number of students participating in Tech-Prep and their educational and employment attainment are important measures of implementation progress and potential program effects. These data provide input to policy decisions concerning Tech-Prep and can also be used by consortium leaders for purposes of program improvement--for example, to identify potential implementation problems and formulate corrective steps.

Consortia have a long way to go in reporting on Tech-Prep students. Thirty-four states require consortia to inform state agencies of the number of students involved in Tech-Prep, and 28 of these also require data on some outcome measures. Despite these reporting requirements and reports of relatively ambitious plans for developing student databases, in fall 1993 only about one third of consortia could report numbers of students considered in Tech-Prep in the previous year; far fewer could report on high school graduation and postsecondary activities of Tech-Prep students.

Several factors can affect consortium capacity to measure participation and outcomes. First, some consortia are still in an early stage of development--planning and determining objectives, target population, and program elements. Many of these have not begun to develop a definition for identifying Tech-Prep students, much less enrolled students who fit those definitions. Second, some consortia that have formulated a definition for identifying Tech-Prep students may not be able to apply the definition because they lack the resources or leverage to collect the data from consortium members. Finally, some consortia are introducing elements of Tech-Prep as school-wide reforms that could potentially affect all sudents. This approach makes it difficult to define who are Tech-Prep students or to count them.

Tech-Prep has laid some of the groundwork for transformation to school-to-work systems

Facilitating students' entry into career-oriented employment is considered a key Tech-Prep objective and component. Most early models of Tech-Prep, as well as the Title IIIE legislation, emphasized employment more as an outcome of Tech-Prep than as a fundamental part of the program experience.

Interest in work-based learning as a component of Tech-Prep has developed more recently, as a result of expected federal support under the recent School-to-Work Opportunities Act. This legislation promotes development of systems of career-oriented, integrated school curricula linked to structured training and other activities at a worksite. Tech-Prep consortia may figure heavily among partnerships seeking grants under the new legislation, because many proponents believe that Tech-Prep is the natural model for the school-based component of school-to-work systems and consider workplace experiences a logical extension of Tech-Prep. Many state and local Tech-Prep coordinators feel that successful implementation of Tech-Prep gives consortia a solid basis for developing school-to-work systems.

According to data from the fall 1993 survey, Tech-Prep consortia were already implementing some important features of school-to-work systems before passage of the new act. Many of these features are common to both the idealized Tech-Prep and school-to-work models. However the components were not always widely implemented or considered a core part of the Tech-Prep program model.

Many Tech-Prep consortia are implementing the school-based features of school-to-work systems to some extent. For example, the new act requires students to choose a career major by the beginning of the 11th grade. Almost two-thirds of Tech-Prep consortia reported defining and implementing career clusters--groupings of programs of study that prepare students for related occupations--in at least one of their consortium districts. About half of these said the choice of a broad career cluster was a standard step in the core Tech-Prep program--almost always a decision made in the 11th grade or earlier. School-to-work systems are supposed to link secondary and postsecondary education. Virtually all Tech-Prep consortia have developed articulation agreements among member districts and community colleges; many of these consortia had agreements that pre-dated the formation of the consortium. Most consortia report having recently introduced new applied academic curricula, one approach to another component emphasized in the new act--integrating academic and occupational learning. So far, however, these new curricula have been implemented in fewer than 40 percent of the schools in consortia that offer them. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act also requires that career awareness and career exploration be provided as part of school experiences. Some types of career development activities have been implemented in most Tech-Prep consortia, although not necessarily in all consortium schools.

Structured work-based learning is one component of school-to-work systems that has so far received less attention in Tech-Prep consortia. Although about three-quarters of consortia reported receiving some types of support from businesses, corporations, trade associations, and labor organizations, most of this support was directed toward reviewing curricula, helping to define outcomes, and promoting Tech-Prep. Still, more than 150 consortia reported requiring workplace experiences as part of the Tech-Prep core program, and about another 200 reported making these experiences available--to interested Tech-Prep students and, in most cases, to other students as well. These workplace opportunities range from low-intensity or occasional activities such as employer visits to activities requiring more intensive commitments from employers, such as paid youth apprenticeship positions. Some are probably cooperative education arrangements. Most of the workplace experiences available to Tech-Prep students in fall 1993 were low-intensity. The extent to which Tech-Prep students actually pursue and participate in these experiences is currently unknown.

6 Although workplace experiences were not defined as a Tech-Prep component in Title IIIE of the Perkins Act, many educators view them as a logical extension that complements school-based activity. Workplace experiences are called for in the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994.


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[Purpose And Basis For The Survey Report] [Table of Contents] [Outline Of The Report]