Technical Education Curriculum

After years of being considered second rate to traditional academic courses, technical education (formerly called vocational education) now finds itself center stage in the reform of the high school curriculum. According to the U.S. Department of Education, enrollment shot up from 1990 to 2005 by 57%, from 9.6 million students in 1990 to 15.1 million students in 2005. This increase is at least partly the result of the growth of career academiessmall schools-within-schools focused on career paths or themes. Designed to make high school more relevant to students, there were 2,500 career academies in the United States by 2007. During the past decade, college-bound and high-achieving students who wouldn't have considered taking vocational education courses are now moving to them. Likewise, students enrolled in technical education programs, who weren't expected to take advanced academic classes, are now moving to them. And interestingly enough, the old high school tracking system of taking either college prep or career prep courses is now blurred by students who are crossing over.

Probably the most notable provision of the Career and Technical Education Improvement Act [Page 875]of 2006 was called the new “programs of study provision.” The law charged states with offering high school students a new kind of career and technical education that would help prepare them for both college and careers, not just for success in entry level occupations.

For many high school students, especially those at risk of dropping out of high school, this mandate was good news. Rather than an alternative to postsecondary education, technical education has become the key to making postsecondary education an achievable goal for all high school students. As professional educators have come to acknowledge, not everyone needs a 4-year college degree to be classified as successful. However, some level of postsecondary education4-year or 2-year college, apprenticeship, the military, or formal employment trainingis almost certainly essential for lasting success.

To enable students to achieve this goal, schools are infusing more demanding academic content into technical education courses. This also means stressing more authentic application in such areas as college preparatory mathematics, science, English, and social studies courses. Focusing just on the technical education curriculum is not enough. Technical education, which traditionally accounted for only 4 or 5 of the 25 courses that students take to earn a high school diploma, has now opened “academic pathways,” which blend academics with technical education. These pathways are where a number of schools are focusing their attention. They are small schools-within-schools and embody the elements of what many in the high school reform movement say all high schools should strive for: high academic standards for all students, small groups of students moving together with the same teachers, and a themed career approach, with students having many connections to the outside world of work. This is perhaps why they are being embraced by many districts looking to break large, comprehensive high schools into smaller learning communities.

Despite the recent explosion in growth, career and technical academies are by no means new: The first was established in Philadelphia in 1965. It was an attempt to find out if career academies could help students from low-income neighborhoods go to college and do well in their careers. In 1994, researcher James Kemple began gathering data on students from nine such career academies in low-income neighborhoods and at high schools with high dropout rates. Kemple's ongoing study is considered an excellent investigation, mostly because it contains a control group, and is attempting to resolve the question about whether these programs can affect academic performance and workforce preparation. Results published in 2004, revealed that these nine career academies were having a substantial effect on earnings and employment rates. The academy students had 18% higher earnings than the control group students did 4 years after high school graduation. One thing that the ongoing Kemple study has not been able to show is whether career academies have any effectpositive or negativeon achievement. Both groups of students reported in the 2004 study did graduate at higher rates than the national average for minority students, but as Kemple noted, the students in the control group are finding other opportunities to succeed.

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