No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

As contemporary federal education legislation requires schools to ensure that all students are prepared for college and careers upon graduation, the college and career readiness of ELs is an urgent matter requiring investigation. Within this policy context, career and technical education (CTE) has been presented as a potential pathway for ELs to achieve college and career readiness. This necessitates research examining ELs’ opportunities to participate in CTE programs as an alternative to traditional secondary schools. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is (a) to examine the processes required to access CTE programs and the barriers ELs face when attempting to enroll in CTE, (b) to understand how institutional culture and the distribution of resources support ELs and instructors with ELs in their courses, and (c) to investigate ELs’ classroom experiences and opportunities to learn, as understood by the students, teachers, and administrators in a school dedicated to CTE programming. Drawing on ethnographic methodology, data were collected through fieldwork and classroom observations documented as fieldnotes; 36 in-depth interviews with teachers, administrators, ELs and former ELs; artifacts from classrooms; policy documents; student academic records; and state-level data from the Department of Education. The data analysis demonstrated that, overall, ELs did not experience equitable access to educational experiences leading to college and career readiness. First, ELs’ access to CTE programs that aligned with their career aspirations was restricted; administrators and counselors justified this practice through discourses of meritocracy and deficit framing of ELs. Second, despite the fact that ELs and instructors complained about the lack of support and resources, administrators drew upon race- and language-neutral ideologies to rationalize their failure to invest in programs and practices that would ensure equitable access and success for ELs. Finally, within this context of limited support, instructors expressed deficit views of ELs and relied on pedagogies that did not accommodate the linguistic needs of ELs. As a result, ELs believed that they did not receive adequate support, and many felt unprepared for college and careers. Interpreting these data from a critical race theory perspective, these findings suggest that CTE functions as a White educational space, operating under tacit White supremacist ideologies to justify inequitable treatment of ELs and privilege the cultural and linguistic practices of White students. This undermines CTE’s potential in providing equitable access to college and career readiness for ELs. / Teaching & Learning

This qualitative case study is designed to document the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on career and technical education (CTE) in Pennsylvania. The research was conducted utilizing a qualitative case study protocol on two specific CTE Centers in the suburban Philadelphia area. The study centered on the following question. Has compliance to the accountability components of NCLB impacted the delivery of secondary education in CTE centers in the Pennsylvania? The study identified the changes that have occurred to selected CTE centers in the NCLB era. The assessment mandates of federal policy NCLB are narrowly focused in academic curriculum. The data used to answer the questions was accumulated through interviews with facility staff and the examination of archival records at the two specific centers to be researched. This study determined the impacts of NCLB on the facilities. The impacts included; decreased enrollment, increased academic and testing focus, reduction in technical budgets, increase in academic budgets, increase of special education students, staff changes for the increase of academic areas, morale issues, program changes, shifts in staff development, facility changes, negative publicity and public image due to academic reporting in the media. Questions for future study. What are the costs, financial and opportunity related to the reduction in CTE for increased academics? How many students have been denied the opportunity of attending or completing CTE programs? Why there isn't an alignment of NCLB and IDEA goals? What is the emotional impact to our students who keep getting told they are below basic? The conclusion from this study suggests that the public education system in this country needs to be more centered on actual student outcomes and preparing students with marketable skills and not based on the narrow focus of academic test scores. / Educational Leadership

No description available.

The intent of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine the role teachers' beliefs play when making instructional decisions. The population included in-service teachers representing four Career and Technical Education disciplines located within the commonwealth of Virginia. Using a stratified random sample, 622 teachers were selected for the quantitative strand, and employing a system of four contacts, quantitative data were collected from 292 participants. Dweck's Theories of Intelligence scale assessed the nature of in-service teachers' beliefs about intelligence, and the Epistemic Belief Inventory was used to measure their epistemological beliefs. Finally, the participants rated their use of teacher-centered and student-centered teaching methods. In the second phase, qualitative data were collected from nine participants to further understand how in-service teachers' beliefs are related to the teaching practices they use. The quantitative and qualitative data were combined to determine if the descriptions of teaching method used, beliefs about intelligence, and epistemological beliefs aligned with the outcomes of the quantitative questionnaire. Significant correlations existed between the Theories of Intelligence scale and the Epistemic Belief Inventory. A significant positive relationship existed between the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory and the overall teaching practices score, indicating in-service teachers' advanced epistemological beliefs are related to the use of student-centered teaching practices. A regression analysis indicated that teaching discipline, epistemological beliefs, teaching experience, and highest level of education completed predicted the teaching practices in-service teachers' select. The qualitative data supported the claim that beliefs about intelligence and epistemological beliefs influence teaching practices. Six themes emerged from the qualitative data, and the themes were used as a framework for organizing the findings. The researcher acknowledges that teachers possess a variety of beliefs, and those beliefs influence how teachers teach. The researcher recommends that teacher educators attempt to identify the beliefs pre-service teachers hold, and if modifications of beliefs are needed, facilitate interventions to modify those beliefs. While some have labeled the direct relationship between teacher beliefs and teaching practices as "messy", the evidence indicates the two, are in fact, related. / Ph. D.