
CTE Students and Science Achievement: Does Type of Coursework and Occupational Cluster Matter?
Career and Technical Education programs include over 9.2 of the nation's 14.9 million secondary students. Although STEM and health CTE programs are thought to contribute to students’ achievement in science, previous studies also suggest that agricultural and natural resources
programs can aid students in making connections between agricultural topics and science principles. This study compares 11th grade science achievement test scores of students enrolled in the agricultural and natural resources cluster with those enrolled in STEM and health clusters,
as well as the education and training cluster. The analysis revealed that performance on the standardized science test tended to improve as a student's coursework in a CTE program increased from coursetaker to explorer to occupational concentrator. The results also showed that students in
agriculture programs scored slightly lower on the science test than those in health programs and somewhat lower than those in STEM programs, but higher than students in education programs. Concentrators in agriculture programs scored on par with those in health programs and slightly lower
than those in STEM programs after controlling for student and school factors.
Keywords: FCAT; coursetaker; occupational concentrator; occupational explorer; science test
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: January 1, 2012
- (CTER) publishes refereed articles that examine research and research-related topics in vocational/career and technical education, career development, human resource development, career issues in the schools (Grades K-12), postsecondary education, adult and lifelong learning, and workforce education. The CTER Editorial Board is committed to publishing scholarly work that represents a variety of conceptual and methodological bases. Submission of manuscripts representing one of the following styles is encouraged: (a) empirically-based manuscripts that report results of original research, either quantitative or qualitative, (b) reviews or synthesis of empirical or theoretical literature, (c) essays derived from original historical or philosophical research, (d) reviews of recently published books, and (e) rejoinders to articles recently published in CTER. CTER will consider for publication papers initially presented at conferences, including those disseminated through conference proceedings.
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