Promising Outcomes for Tech Prep Participants in Eight Local Consortia: A Summary of Initial Results

Data were collected via high school and community college transcripts from well over 95 percent of participants providing high school and 40 percent having community college transcripts. (Transcript data were entered up through the summer 1998 term, which was between one and three years after high school graduation, for most study participants.) To supplement the field work and transcript data, a follow-up survey was conducted to identify attitudes toward high school, transition to college plans and actual experiences, and employment during and after high school. Between 38 and 62 percent of the sample of students in each consortium provided useable data, providing an overall return rate of 47 percent.

Results show Tech Prep centered on secondary education with goals and policies broadening and target populations shifting toward all students, especially as School-To-Work (STW) Opportunities legislation came about. Consortia also increasingly linked Tech Prep to state-level efforts to raise academic standards and enhance academic course-taking as the 1990s proceeded. Whether consortium administrators were headquartered within a community college or at the secondary level where they were affiliated with a regional vocational entity, they sometimes lacked the authority to bring about changes in comprehensive high schools consistent with full-scale implementation of Tech Prep. Even so, by showing savvy leadership and involving a broad cadre of educational, business, and community leaders, Tech Prep leaders were influential at generating the momentum needed to move Tech Prep ahead, though plans were sometimes slowed or halted when other priorities were elevated above Tech Prep. In several consortia, it was business and industry that kept the focus on Tech Prep through an evolving governance structure involving chambers of commerce and eventually more sophisticated industry councils.

Block scheduling, joint planning, and integrated instruction along with scholarships for Tech Prep participants transitioning to college were other mechanisms that seemed to facilitate Tech Prep implementation and student participation.

The Perkins II and Perkins III legislation is clear about the importance of seven essential elements associated with Tech Prep implementation. These seven elements are: articulation agreements, 2+2 curriculum, curriculum development, training for teachers, training for counselors, preparatory services, and equal access for all learners. Of these seven, articulation agreements provide the foundation for Tech Prep by creating the curricular structure to extend the educational pathway to the postsecondary level for more students. The articulation process has been beneficial to stimulating a dialogue among secondary and postsecondary educators around content and standards, and in the creation of new sequences of CTE courses. Articulation has been elevated to state-level status in a few states engaged in this study, to attempt to strengthen opportunities for youths to make a smooth transition to college. Even so, students often do not access the college credits they accumulate during high school. There are many reasons for this, including a lack of awareness that courses have generated college credit but also a lack of confidence in high school preparation.

Core curriculum occurs in many forms, including starting at grade nine rather than eleven, and extending to the bachelor’s degree rather than ending at the associate level. Linked to these approaches, consortia utilize different forms of Tech Prep (Hershey, Silverberg, Owens, and Hulsey, 1998). These forms include structured, comprehensive programs for selected student groups, vocational Tech Prep programs for students who have traditionally participated in vocational education options, and non-targeted approaches that rely on a hodgepodge of strategies, only loosely tied together for the purposes of Tech Prep. Of these three forms, the eight selected consortia displayed extensive evidence of the vocational Tech Prep form, and some indication of the comprehensive, structured model, but none of the consortia were indicative of the non-targeted approach. In addition to these, models of Tech Prep described by Bragg (1995) were evident in the form of work-based Tech Prep, specifically represented in the Tech Prep/Youth Apprenticeship (TP/YA) programs, and the Integrated Tech Prep approach where extensive emphasis is placed on locally-developed academic and CTE integration. One other model was represented and that was the College Tech Prep model, emphasizing academics that meet the four-year college and university admission requirements in the state. The College Tech Prep model was used extensively in one consortium, and representative of the curriculum pursued by some but not all Tech Prep participants in two other sites.

Academic course-taking was examined as a part of this study, and we learned that students’ math course-taking varied across the eight sites. In half the consortia, well over one-half of the Tech Prep participants started high school below Algebra I (usually a higher percentage than for their non-Tech Prep counterparts). By high school graduation, nearly all had completed Algebra I and some finished more advanced math courses. In two consortia where the majority of Tech Prep participants started below Algebra I, the majority had completed Algebra II or above by high school graduation, which is an impressive accomplishment. In the remaining half of consortia where most students began high school by taking Algebra I, these students were highly likely to complete advanced math at the Algebra II or more advanced level by high school graduation. In addition to academic course-taking, most consortia offered an array of new technology-based programs to attract students who might not participate in traditional CTE courses, in addition to long-standing CTE programs.

Career clusters were implemented in all consortia in the mid- to late-1990s, and these pathways led to new pathways leading to college. Training for teachers and counselors was a prominent element in all eight consortia. Over time, participants in professional in-service included a much more diverse group of academic and CTE teachers and counselors across the secondary and postsecondary levels. Parents, business and industry representatives, community leaders, and sometimes students were involved occasionally. Also over time, as Tech Prep shifted from the awareness and planning stages to full-scale implementation, professional development was used to encourage and support its evolution. Local business and industry played an increasingly prominent role in in-service, including providing training within local firms so that educational personnel could gain greater understanding of technical jobs and the modern work world.

Preparatory services were conceptualized and implemented in different ways, ranging from career exploration and guidance to providing mentoring to offering remedial and developmental education to students entering the postsecondary level. Increasingly, most consortia heightened attention to “college readiness”, preparing students for college placement tests and sharpening their study skills, while they were still in high school. These services facilitate the emphasis of Tech Prep on addressing the needs of all learners, including neglected majority students. Increasingly, Tech Prep has taken on an even more encompassing perspective, with most consortia encouraging students at any point on the academic ability continuum to participate in some way. Results suggest that, in most consortia, Tech Prep participants were similarly distributed on race/ethnicity and gender as the comparison group drawn from the general student population. In three consortia, a higher percentage of Tech Prep participants than the non-Tech Prep group reported family income below $30,000 and parental education less than college level, suggesting Tech Prep participants represented a lower socioeconomic status (SES) group and were more likely to be first-generation college.

Since beginning Tech Prep in the early 1990s or earlier, all consortia have experienced an increase in student enrollment in Tech Prep. Enhanced implementation activities involving more teachers, greater emphasis on guidance, more integrated instruction, and heightened recruitment are only a few of the specific strategies that have been employed to help the Tech Prep programs grow in size and scope. On average, Tech Prep enrolled about 15 percent of the high school students in these selected consortia during the 1996-97 academic year, and have undoubtedly grown more since that time. (During the current field work, we plan to update the consortia enrollment figures through the 1999-2000 academic year.)

Transition to college and work are important outcomes investigated as a part of this study. Indeed, results show that a high percentage of Tech Prep participants continue on to postsecondary education of some type after high school graduation. Results suggest that, across all eight consortia, at least 65 percent of Tech Prep participants enrolled in some form of postsecondary education within one and three years of high school graduation. In fact, the percentage of Tech Prep participants entering college exceeded 75 percent in five of the eight consortia. In all but one consortium a higher percentage of Tech Prep participants enrolled in two-year college than their non-Tech Prep peers, though the difference was usually modest. Some Tech Prep participants enrolled in four-year college, and in the case of two consortia, the percentage pursuing this option was quite extensive, approaching or exceeding 50 percent.

Further analysis will be done to determine if the College Tech Prep model emphasizing four-year college and university requirements is associated with this transition pattern. Work was an important part of the lives of Tech Prep participants, whether or not they attended college after high school. Tech Prep participants were more likely than non-Tech Prep participants to be working; of those working in both groups, Tech Prep participants were more likely to be working full-time. This pattern was not evident in all consortia, but it was a predominant pattern in several. Within consortia, results show promising outcomes linked to wage increases over time for Tech Prep participants and also the acquisition of more highly skilled and technical jobs.

Because the timeframe for our initial data collection was relatively short (one to three years post-high school), it was not possible to see the impact of college completion and credentials on subsequent employment, but this question is of utmost importance to our future analysis. Additional study will also be focused on qualitative and quantitative data essential to understanding the decisions youths make in moving out into the world as young adults. Reliable estimates of Tech Prep enrollment at the postsecondary level are difficult to ascertain, but knowledge of student participation in the entire curriculum is essential to determining the success of Tech Prep. Our data set is uniquely capable of answering questions pertaining to transition to college and work, and our future efforts will be dedicated toward this end goal.