National Research Center for Career and Technical Education

NRCCTE Launches First National Programs of Study Institute

To assist states in addressing barriers to the implementation of federally mandated Programs of Study (POS), the NRCCTE is launching its first National POS Institute, a six-month program of research-based technical assistance intended to support states in improving the quality of CTE instruction provided to secondary and postsecondary students.

Up to five states selected through a competitive process will participate in the technical assistance, which will commence with a two-day meeting on February 6-7, 2012, to be held at the NRCCTE's headquarters in Louisville. Later national-level convenings of the National POS Institute will be held at the 2012 ACTE National Policy Seminar, March 5-7, and the 2012 Career Clusters Institute, June 18-20, held by the NRCCTE's partner organization, the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium.

Learn more about the National POS Institute.

NRCCTE Programs of Study Research Heavily Featured in January's Techniques Magazine

Over the past five years, the NRCCTE has sponsored five research studies of Programs of Study (POS)--including three ongoing longitudinal projects--with the goal of informing the field about how and under what conditions POS impact student engagement, achievement, and transition to postsecondary education and employment.

The January 2012 issue of Techniques magazine includes five articles by NRCCTE-affiliated researchers that offer some of the latest findings and updates about these POS studies. Also included in the issue is an overview of POS by ACTE's Alisha Hyslop, which cites the importance of the NRCCTE's Math-in-CTE curriculum integration model to Montana's rigorous program of study (RPOS) schools.

Read the issue online or download the complete set of NRCCTE-authored articles (PDF).

Presentations Now Available: NRCCTE Sessions from the 2011 ACTE Annual Convention and ACTER Research Conference

Miss a session at ACTER or ACTE? Selected presentations made by NRCCTE researchers in St. Louis are now available online in PDF format. Learn more here.

New CEW, NRCCTE, NASDCTEc Joint Report Finds the Best Education Pathways Out of the Jobless Recovery

Drs. James R. Stone III and Pradeep Kotamraju of the NRCCTE at the University of Louisville co-authored a report on the best educational pathways out of the current recession with colleagues at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc). The report, Career Clusters: Forecasting High School through College Jobs, 2008-2018, was launched on November 14th at an event on Capitol Hill hosted by the American Youth Policy Forum. The event was filmed-- watch the video, download speaker presentations, and learn more about the forum here.

The report states that the majority of good jobs of the future will require postsecondary education and training. Of those high school-level jobs that remain, only one third will pay a living wage-and most are in male-dominated fields. The report, which builds on an earlier CEW report, Help Wanted: Projecting Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018, analyzes how labor market needs relate to the 16 career clusters and discusses implications for career and technical education.

In addition to the full national report, Career Clusters contains an executive summary and a state-level analysis of jobs by career cluster. All three documents are now available online at http://cew.georgetown.edu/Clusters.

Listen to a podcast about the report with Dr. Pradeep Kotamraju.

Read the press release about this report (PDF document).

Read a feature story about the report in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Jim Stone on College and Career Ready at the 2011 Education and Employers Taskforce Research Conference, University of Warwick

Jim Stone, NRCCTE Director, delivered a paper at the 2011 Education and Employers Taskforce Research Conference at the University of Warwick, England. His presentation, "College and Career Ready - A Conceptual Framework for the American Labour Market: Engagement, Achievement and Transition" was filmed and is now available at the University's conference website, along with his downloadable paper. Learn more and watch the presentation here.

Center Presentation on Return on Investment Available from NASDCTEc Fall Meeting

Pradeep Kotamraju, Deputy Director, presented "Return on Investment: Career & Technical Education," a discussion of the Center's work on Return on Investment (ROI) for CTE at the annual NASDCTEc Fall Meeting held at the Westin-BWI Airport on Tuesday, October 25th. You may download that presentation here (PDF document) and learn more about other presentations and resources available from the event.

Center Research Published in Human Resource Development Review

Related to the Online Occupational Education in Community Colleges project, Dr. Rod Githens (University of Louisville) and Dr. Rajashi Ghosh (formerly of the University of Louisville, now at Drexel University) wrote a paper entitled "Online Contract Training: Applying Organization Theory to Reconcile Competing Missions Within Community Colleges," which has been published in Human Resource Development Review (subscription req'd). The paper uses organization theory to address the competing emphases in the community college mission. Drs. Ghosh and Githens attempt to understand how various types of institutions overcome internal and external barriers in introducing online workforce development through organizational change initiatives. Read the full, pre-copyedited paper (PDF document).

Center Releases New Joint Technical Report on Programs of Study

The NRCCTE has sponsored four research projects that examine POS from different perspectives. This report presents their status as of July 2010. Three longitudinal studies, designed to complement each other, use some common data collection methods that allow for comparisons across projects and others that are specific to their research questions.  The fourth project, now concluded, used case study methods to describe how six states were implementing POS during the first half of 2010. This report presents individual and synthesized findings from each study, organized according to the four mandated components of POS in Perkins IV. The report also presents findings related to the 10 supporting components contained in the OVAE Design Framework for POS.

Download the report: Programs of Study Joint Technical Working Group. (2011, July). Programs of study: Year 3 joint technical report. Louisville, KY: National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, Louisville, KY. (PDF document)

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