Promising Tech Prep Outcomes. The Highlight Zone : Research @ Work No. 3 / Bettina Lankard Brown.

Eight tech prep consortia located across the United States were studied to assess their tech prep implementation and outcomes. Special attention was paid to the consortia's use of and success with the following tech prep components: formal articulation agreements; core curriculum; rigorous instruction emphasizing integration of academic and vocational education; theory-practice linkages; efforts to increase access and opportunity; and transitions to college and work. The following were among the key findings: (1) tech prep has clearly broadened beyond the "neglected majority"; (2) in most consortia, tech prep and school-to-work initiatives were closely coordinated, especially when youth apprenticeships were involved; (3) consortia increasingly linked tech prep to efforts to meet state standards, which could displace its focus on work force preparation; (4) consortia increasingly sought to emphasize contextual teaching and learning, project-based instruction, and other applied teaching techniques; (5) schools involved in tech prep experienced increased collaboration among academic and technical instructors and among educators and business representatives; (6) a high percentage of tech prep participants continued to postsecondary education; and (7) although the consortia are successfully implementing individual components of tech prep, there remains a need to coalesce the individual tech prep components into comprehensive, career-focused structured programs of study. (MN)

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