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

Regional And State Distribution Of Tech-Prep Consortia

Overall, 823 consortia were funded by Perkins Title IIIE grants for FY 1993 (Table III.1).1 Of these consortia, 702 completed the survey questionnaire.2 These respondents provide the basis for the analysis in this report.

TABLE III.1
Number Of Local Tech-Prep Consortia In FY 1993, By State
State Total State
Secondary Enrollmenta		 Number of FY 1993
Funded Consortia		 Consortia Responding
to Survey
Alabama 199,907 30b 27
Alaska 29,556 3 2
Arizona 167,331 15 15
Arkansas 122,209 13 13
California 1,354,457 65b 44
Colorado 156,272 18 13
Connecticut 125,369 10 9
Delaware 27,661 1 1
District of Columbia 17,922 1 1
Florida 503,500 17 16
Georgia 312,428 62b 46
Hawaii 43,495 4 4
Idaho 63,801 6 6
Illinois 486,990 31b 28
Indiana 274,823 14 13
Iowa 135,744 6 5
Kansas 116,1996 6
Kentucky 176,459 45b 38
Louisiana 194,060 13 12
Maine 54,773 6 6
Maryland 186,084 16 15
Massachusetts 230,165 11 9
Michigan 427,920 38 37
Minnesota 192,461 24 18
Mississippi 127,704 14 14
Missouri 229,222 12 12
Montana 42,677 4 3
Nebraska 78,185 6 6
Nevada 54,055 3 3
New Hampshire 47,313 2 2
New Jersey 291,788 20 15
New Mexico 79,242 13 10
New York 713,658 28 26
North Carolina 302,825 44 42
North Dakota 33,737 1 1
Ohio 531,684 13 13
Oklahoma 155,192 10 10
Oregon 138,109 20 7
Pennsylvania 476,198 21 18
Rhode Island 37,694 1 1
South Carolina 171,513 16 16
South Dakota 35,555 4 4
Tennessee 230,662 14 14
Texas 888,937 25 25
Utah 125,578 9 8
Vermont 23,844 9 4
Virginia 271,181 27 21
Washington 236,546 18 15
West Virginia 95,429 11 11
Wisconsin 231,732 16 12
Wyoming 28,082 5 3
Puerto Rico 163,652 1 1
Virgin Islands 5,284 1 1
U.S. Total 11,446,864 823 702
SOURCE: Iventory of Local Tech-Prep Planning and Implementation, fall 1993; ED-INFO.

aBased on most recent information from the National Center for Education Statistics(NCES)--for school year 1991-1992, available from ED-INFO.

bThe number of potential respondents to the survey was actually smaller in these states, primarily because multiple consortia merged or were consolidated during FY 1993, so that fewer consortia were in existence when the survey was administered in early FY 1994. The difference between the number of FY 1993 funded consortia and the number expected to respond in those states ranged from one to four consortia.

Tech-Prep consortia are particularly concentrated in the South

A little less than half of the FY 1993 consortia were located in the South, as defined by census region (Figure III.1). With 46 percent of the consortia, the South had more than twice as many consortia as the West (19 percent) or Midwest (22 percent). The Northeast had the smallest proportion of FY 1993 consortia (13 percent).

                                FIGURE III.1                Regional Distribution of Tech-Prep Consortia  Northeast ==========> 13%      South =========================================> 46%    Midwest ====================> 22%       West =================> 19%           +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+           0        10       20       30       40       50                              Percent  SOURCE: Inventory of Local Tech-Prep Planning and Implementation,         Fall, 1993.

The number of grantees in each state and the size of the student population show some correlation.

The number of consortia in each state--one possible indicator of Tech-Prep "activity"--varies with the number of secondary students and the amount of Title IIIE funds awarded to a state, which is based largely on student enrollment (Table III.1). However, this general relationship has many exceptions. For example, although Kentucky and South Carolina have approximately 170,000 secondary students each and receive similar amounts of Title IIIE funding from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the two states had very different numbers of funded consortia in FY 1993--45 in Kentucky and 16 in South Carolina. Although Florida had larger secondary enrollments than Illinois, it awarded only 17 local consortium grants that included FY 1993, compared with 31 awarded by Illinois.

Differences in the number of states' Tech-Prep consortia also seem related, in part, to explicit state decisions about funding practices. Some large states, like Texas and Michigan, have encouraged the organization of all or most secondary districts and community colleges into Tech-Prep consortia and have funded the majority of these consortia. Other states appear to be very selective in determining how many and which partnerships of districts and community colleges receive Title IIIE funding. These states tend to award large grants to fewer consortia, such as those designated as pilot projects or those in a more advanced stage of development, as in Arkansas. Kentucky is using Tech-Prep as one vehicle for statewide education reform efforts, which may have influenced the state agency to award a large number of grants relative to the size of its student population.

1 The number of consortia funded by Title IIIE grants for FY 1993 is less that the number of Tech-Prep grants awarded for that period, and less than the number of fgrants for the same year reported by Layton and Bragg (1991), because some states made multiple awards to a single consortium. Lists recieved from states indicated a total number of grants virtually identical to the Layton and Bragg estimate. However, this study focuses on Tech-Prep consortia, so each consortium is treated as a single observation, even if recieved multiple grants.

2 Although 823 consortia recieved grants in FY 1993, the number of potential survey respondents was smaller (812), because some consortia merged with others to form larger consortia during the 1993-1994 school year, thus reducing the number of consortia that could respond to the survey in fall 1993.
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[III. The Setting For Tech-Prep Initiatives] [Table of Contents] [Geographic Location and Size Of Tech-Prep Consortia]