National Center for Education Statistics. Available from: ED Pubs. P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Tel: 877-433-7827; Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/help/orderinfo.asp
This report examines career/technical education (CTE) coursetaking of 2005 public high school graduates using a recently revised taxonomy and new indicators of participation to present a more contemporary and detailed picture of CTE coursetaking than is provided by previously-used indicators. To understand how students use the CTE curriculum, this brief examines different patterns of student participation in CTE.: (1) Across the three main CTE curriculum areas (family and consumer sciences education, general labor market preparation, and occupational education); (2) Coursetaking within occupational areas, including occupational concentration; and (3) Coursetaking across occupational areas, to determine the extent to which students earn credits across multiple occupational areas versus within one occupational area, and which occupational areas students tend to combine. Following an overview of data used to examine participation, the report presents the new indicators used. A technical section describes in more detail the data source, the recent taxonomy revision, and analytic procedures. Standard Error Tables are appended. (Contains 16 footnotes, 4 figures and 17 tables.)
