Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Stephen Laws

Abstract

Evidence today suggests there is a skills gap among employable young adults. This study was based on a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program evaluation that was conducted in a rural school district in North Carolina. The study examined the perceptions of the program by CTE High School teachers, CTE Community College instructors, CTE local employers, and CTE program graduates. The focus was the overall functioning of the program and its ability to form students who are college and career ready through attainment of important future ready attributes. The study was conducted through a mixed methods approach. Data were collected from two instruments. First, quantitative data were collected by the completion of a survey. Next, qualitative data were collected from focus group interviews. Collecting the quantitative data first, and then further explaining the responses through qualitative data, formed an explanatory sequential design. Two important resources that were used to determine components of effectiveness included the 12 elements from the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education framework and the 17 attributes of a North Carolina future ready graduate. Together, these resources aligned with categories connected to college and career readiness. Data found that strengths of the district CTE program included academic and skill attainment, partnership opportunities, and workplace alignment. The greatest weakness involved fluent communication between the CTE groups.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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