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

Capacity To Report Student Participation

Many consortia were unable in fall 1993 to report on student participation in Tech-Prep for the previous school year. Three important factors can affect an individual consortium's capacity to measure participation.

First, relatively new consortia may still be planning and determining objectives, target population, and program elements. Some practitioners and researchers have suggested that consortia must devote at least one year to planning before enrollment can begin (Walter 1991). Other research indicates that consortia may spend an average of three to five years on planning and full implementation (Dutton 1991). More than one-fourth of the survey respondents had received their first Title IIIE grant for FY 1993--the year for which student counts were requested--and the remainder had received their first grant one year before. Thus, in fall 1993, we might expect that some consortia would not yet be prepared to identify Tech-Prep students. About one-third of consortia lacked a definition for identifying Tech-Prep students at the time of the national survey. Even among those that could report they had defined participation by the fall 1993 survey, some may have only begun counting participants that fall and thus could not respond to survey questions about participation in school year 1992-1993.

Second, some consortia may not have the capacity to collect data on student participation. Even consortia that have developed a definition for identifying which students are in Tech-Prep, and that have students participating in the program as it is defined by them, may be unable to assemble the information. Member districts may lack computerized files that enable them to determine the number of students meeting the Tech-Prep definition--for example, students who take a vocational course and related applied academic courses. Some consortia may not operate as a cohesive unit. Consortium staff may lack the leverage to request or require student-level data collection efforts of individual member districts. Lack of cooperation among districts and schools may prevent student counts from being collected and reported.

Third, the organization of a Tech-Prep program can affect the capacity to measure participation. Consortia that implement Tech-Prep as a distinct program may find it easier to document participation. When participants are defined by their "choice" of Tech-Prep as a path, school or consortia staff can count application forms, for example, to determine the number of participating students. Consortia that make Tech-Prep components broadly available to all students, and in which students participate to different degrees, may have greater difficulty identifying who is a Tech-Prep student.

Development stage affects the ability to report student participation

Consortium capacity to report participation in Tech-Prep for school year (SY) 1993 is fairly limited. Overall, 250 (36 percent) of the 702 consortium respondents had begun to identify and count participating students that year (Figure VI.1). This proportion is lower than the estimate by the National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) of the proportion of regular school districts that reportedly have established formal Tech-Prep enrollment procedures (48 percent) (NAVE 1994, p. 350). In part, this difference may reflect the fact that districts that have established procedures for enrolling or identifying Tech-Prep students may not yet have actually enrolled students. Our lower estimate includes only consortia that reported actual numbers of participating students. 

                                FIGURE VI.1          PERCENTAGE OF CONSORTIA ABLE TO REPORT ON 1992-93 TECH-PREP                   PARTICIPATION, BY YEAR OF FIRST GRANT     YEAR OF FIRST TITLE IIIE GRANT           FY 1992 =====================>45%           FY 1993 ====>9%               ALL ===============>36%                  +--------+--------+--------+--------+---------+                  0        20       40       60       80        100  SOURCE: Inventory of Local Tech-Prep Planning and Implementation, Fall 1993

The "maturity" of a consortium seems to influence its ability to measure participation, just as it affects the likelihood of having developed a definition on which the counts are based (see Chapter V). Data from the fall 1993 survey confirm that older consortia are more likely to be able to identify Tech-Prep students. Forty five percent of the early grantees--those that received their first Title IIIE grant in FY 1992--were able to report Tech-Prep enrollments, whereas only 9 percent of the FY 1993 grantees were able to do so (Figure VI.1).

Capacity to report enrollments varies significantly across states

Consortia in some states have been more successful in developing student reporting capacity than have those in others (Table VI.1). More than 75 percent of consortia in five states can identify Tech-Prep students; in three of these five, there is a single, statewide consortium. In contrast, none of the consortia in ten other states could report the number of students participating during SY 1992-1993. In most states, 25 to 75 percent of consortia were able to measure participation.

Although individual consortium differences probably explain some of the variation in reporting capacity, state policies influence reporting capacity as well. State agencies, in Ohio, for example, provide guidance to local consortia on developing curricula and defining core programs and participation criteria. Because Ohio has encouraged consortia to implement programs carefully and fully before enrolling and "counting" students, none of the 13 consortia in the state were yet prepared to report participation numbers for the fall 1993 survey. In California, where few Title IIIE grants were awarded in time for FY 1992, most consortia were still in the planning stages; only one consortium had formulated and applied a definition of participation by the time of the national survey. Consortia and state agencies in Oregon have developed a simple statewide definition for counting Tech-Prep students1 and have made individual schools and regional vocational committees responsible for collecting these enrollment figures. This strategy probably explains why more than half of the consortia in Oregon were able to report the number of participating students.

The survey findings indicate that in almost all consortia containing multiple school districts--the majority of consortia--only some member districts are able to determine Tech-Prep enrollments (Table VI.1). Although 36 percent of consortia nationwide could report student participation, they could do so for only 17 percent of their consortium districts. This pattern suggests that Tech-Prep is unevenly implemented across member districts in many consortia. Some consortia may be in a pilot phase, concentrating implementation efforts in a few schools or districts. In others, districts are at different implementation stages, with only the more advanced districts able to document Tech-Prep participants. Consortia with many member districts (intuitively, the most likely to have uneven implementation) have the smallest proportion of districts that can report enrollments.

TABLE VI.1
Percentage Of Tech-Prep Consortia And Their Districts That Can Report Student Participation For SY 1992-1993, By State
Numbera Percentage that Can Report
State Consortia Districts Consortia Districts
Alabama 27 102 52 31
Alaska 2 2 0 0
Arizona 15 67 40 30
Arkansas 13 58 62 29
California 44 210 2 1
Colorado 13 59 23 5
Connecticut 9 58 56 40
Delaware 1 14 0 0
District of Columbia 1 1 100 100
Florida 16 36 56 39
Georgia 46 94 30 23
Hawaii 4 4 0 0
Idaho 6 93 0 0
Illinois 28 323 32 13
Indiana 13 275 62 14
Iowa 5 36 60 17
Kansas 6 58 33 10
Kentucky 38 51 34 26
Louisiana 12 28 42 36
Maine 6 143 17 8
Maryland 15 23 53 44
Massachusetts 9 57 67 51
Michigan 37 489 19 11
Minnesota 18 209 17 3
Mississippi 14 72 7 4
Missouri 12 257 0 0
Montana 3 20 33 5
Nebraska 6 37 83 30
Nevada 3 9 100 33
New Hampshire 2 14 0 0
New Jersey 15 162 53 30
New Mexico 10 38 60 45
New York 26 166 46 34
North Carolina 42 65 55 54
North Dakota 1 53 0 0
Ohio 13 145 0 0
Oklahoma 10 59 40 9
Oregon 7 77 57 61
Pennsylvania 18 239 28 9
Rhode Island 1 20 100 100
South Carolina 16 93 63 73
South Dakota 4 58 0 0
Tennessee 14 114 71 54
Texas 25 692 52 14
Utah 8 40 38 20
Vermont 4 11 25 9
Virginia 21 124 10 2
Washington 15 105 7 4
West Virginia 11 32 36 15
Wisconsin 12 291 42 12
Wyoming 3 3 33 33
Puerto Rico 1 1 100 100
Virgin Islands 1 2 0 0
Total 702 5,489 36 17
SOURCE: Inventory of Local Tech-Prep Planning and Implementation, fall 1993.

aNumbers based on survey respondents.

How consortia define participation does not appear to affect their ability to report on it

Formulation of a definition for who is "in Tech-Prep" is often divorced from consortia's ability to report the number of students who meet the defined criteria. In fall 1993, more than 70 percent of consortia said they had developed a definition for Tech-Prep participation, but fewer than 36 percent could report the number of participating students in the previous school year. The type of definition developed by the 439 consortia with consortium-wide definitions did not influence their ability to report enrollments significantly (Table VI.2). Contrary to expectations, consortia in which students explicitly choose Tech-Prep were actually slightly below average in their ability to report prior-year enrollments.

1 Tech-Prep participation in Oregon is equivalent to enrollment in an articulated vocational course.
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[VI. Participation In Tech-Prep Programs] [Table of Contents] [Reported Participation In Tech-Prep Programs]