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Abstract Demand for engineering‐interested and proficient high school graduates continues to grow across the nation. However, there remains a severe gap in college participation and employment in engineering fields for students with learning disabilities (SWLDs). One potential way to encourage SWLDs to consider engineering as a profession and promote the development of key science attitudes may be through engineering and technology career and technical education (E‐CTE) coursework. In this study, we address the following research questions: Do SWLDs take E‐CTE courses in the early years of high school at different rates compared to students without learning disabilities? What is the relationship between early E‐CTE coursetaking and science attitudes (self‐efficacy, utility, identity), and does this differ for students with and without learning disabilities? How do specific engineering career expectations change with respect to enrollment in early E‐CTE coursework, and do these differ for students with and without learning disabilities? We utilize the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS) to respond to the research questions through moderation models and a student fixed effects methodology. Ultimately, we found no evidence of SWLD underrepresentation in E‐CTE in high school. However, SWLDs were expected to benefit more than the general population from E‐CTE participation with respect to higher levels of science self‐efficacy and science identity. Implications from these findings include how to encourage persistence along the engineering pathway, the growth of career pathway policies at the state level, and how to incorporate E‐CTE practices in academic courses.
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Does Career and Technical Education in High School Increase the Odds of College Enrollment?
The legacy of career and technical education (CTE) in years past, stretching into the vocational education era, was lower college enrollment after participating in CTE. More recently, others have concluded that college enrollment is not affected but that CTE students enroll more frequently in 2-year degrees over 4-year degrees. I revisit the question with more recent data than has been used by other researchers. I adjust my estimates by the level of academic preparation that students have undergone in high school, known as curricular intensity. I use transcripts from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) to determine participation in meaningful CTE course sequences, known as programs of study, and then follow the students via the HSLS:09 survey administered in the fall after high school. I find that participation in CTE has no association with a student’s probability of enrolling in college. Further, participating in CTE has no association with a student’s decision to enroll in a two-year or four-year program, after adjusting for curricular intensity. These results are exciting because they allow for the general recommendation of CTE to any interested student, without fear of adverse effects on later educational attainment and the no-harm finding opens the door to many new CTE policy conversations.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1749275
- PAR ID:
- 10433061
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of career and technical education
- Volume:
- 36
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1531-4952
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-19
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.21061/jtce.v35i1.a4
