L. Allen Phelps

School-to-Work Transitions for Youth With Disabilities: A Review of Outcomes and Practices

This review examined employment and postsecondary education outcomes for youth with disabilities leaving secondary schools, as well as studies of educational practices reporting high-quality outcomes. Analytical considerations included the current initiatives in educational reform that emphasize the improvement of career-related outcomes for all students and the inclusion of youth with disabilities in regular classes. While school- and employment-related outcomes for youth with disabilities continue to be problematic when compared with those for nondisabled youth, two educational practices appear to consistently align with higher-quality outcomes for students. The promising practices that merit attention in improving programs and in advancing the knowledge base include school supervised work experiences and functionally oriented curricula in which occupationally specific skills, employability skills, and academic skills are systematically connected for students. The educational reform literature indicates that valued outcomes for all students are focusing more prominently on workplace and transition outcomes, and that educational practices supported with documented evidence from the secondary special education literature are viewed by many authors as promising directions for improving secondary education for all students.

The Nature and Use of Individualized Learning Plans as a Promising Career Intervention Strategy

Individualized learning plans (ILPs) are being implemented in high schools throughout the United States as strategic planning tools that help students align course plans with career aspirations and often include the development of postsecondary plans. Initial indications are that ILPs may be an important method for helping students achieve both college and career readiness. Parents, teachers, and students indicate that ILPs result in students selecting more rigorous courses, better teacher–student relationships, and positive parent–school relations. This article describes the emergence and nature of ILPs, promising practice strategies as well as challenges associated with gaining whole school buy-in, and the potential for career and vocational research.

How Professional Development in Project Lead the Way: Changes High School STEM Teachers' Beliefs about Engineering Education.

This quasiexperimental study measured the impact of Project Lead the Way (PLTW) instruction and professional development training on the views and expectations regarding engineering learning, instruction and career success of nascent precollege engineering teachers. PLTW teachers’ initial and changing views were compared to the views exhibited by a matching group of high school STEM teachers. The primary instrument was the Engineering Beliefs and Expectation Instruments for Teachers (EEBEIT), which included Likert scale items, contextualized judgments about fictional student vignettes, and demographic items. Teachers’ baseline survey responses, on average, revealed the importance of academic achievement on teachers’ decision making about who should enroll in future engineering classes and their predictions of who would be most likely to succeed in an engineering career. When making implicit comparisons between students who differed by SES, teachers generally favored enrollment and predicted more career success of high SES students. SES was excluded as a factor in the judgments of all participating teachers when explicitly probed, however. Preexisting group differences showed that budding PLTW teachers reported on STEM integration in their classes with greater frequency than control teachers, while control teachers agreed more strongly about the prerequisite role of high scholastic achievement for engineering studies. Finally, an analysis of teachers’ changing views indicated that nascent PLTW teachers increased their reporting of effective STEM integration over time, above and beyond preexisting group differences and retesting effects. In light of these data we explore the challenges of implementing effective STEM integration in high school classrooms, examine issues of attracting underrepresented students to engineering, and discuss some of the inherent tensions of engineering education at the K12 level.

Fuel for Success: Academic Momentum as a Mediator between Dual Enrollment and Educational Outcomes of Two-Year Technical College Students.

Objective: Despite the fairly substantial body of literature devoted to understanding whether dual enrollment programs are related to academic success in college, less is known regarding how dual enrollment transmits its potentially positive influence, especially among two-year college students. In this study, we fill this gap by delving into the process of how dual enrollment is related to academic success among students attending two-year technical colleges. Specifically, we examine academic momentum as a potential mediator of the relationship between dual enrollment and educational outcomes. Methods: We draw on a sample of more than 15,000 first-time postsecondary students who entered Wisconsin’s two-year technical colleges in 2009 to 2010 after graduating from high school between 2007 and 2009. Using a path analysis, we investigate student transcript records, along with data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Results: Participation in dual enrollment is found to be related to more attempted credits, higher likelihood of college entry without delay, summer enrollment, as well as stronger academic performance. These early academic momentum indicators are then positively related to students’ college completion or retention, fully accounting for the positive relationship between dual enrollment participation and college outcomes. Contributions: Our study provides a finer look into two-year college students’ academic progress and success and how dual enrollment may fuel this process by promoting students’ academic momentum early during their college careers.

Choosing STEM College Majors: Exploring the Role of Pre-College Engineering Courses.

Despite the recent policy proclamations urging state and local educators to implement integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula, relatively little is known about the role and impact of pre-college engineering courses within these initiatives. When combined with appropriate mathematics and science courses, high school engineering and engineering technology (E&ET) courses may have the potential to provide students with pre-college learning experiences that encourage them to pursue STEM college majors. Our central research question was: What is the nature and extent of any relationship between high school E&ET course completion and subsequent selection of a STEM major in a two-year or four-year college? Using the first and second follow-up datasets of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, we examined the direction and magnitude of the association between E&ET course-taking in high school and postsecondary STEM program enrollment. We controlled for a wide array of factors identified in the literature as being associated with college major selection, allowing us to better isolate the association between high school E&ET course-taking and college major selection. Overall, students who earned three credits in E&ET courses were 1.60 times more likely to enroll in STEM majors in four-year institutions than students who did not earn high school E&ET credits. This positive, significant association persisted even after controlling for students’ social backgrounds, academic preparation and attitudes during high school, college choice considerations, and early postsecondary education experiences. In combination with a high school college readiness curriculum, E&ET courses potentially contribute in multiple ways to informing students’ selection of engineering and STEM college majors.