Beginning in January 1998, I led a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and University of California, Berkeley in conducting a study examining the experiences and outcomes of over 4,700 students in eight local tech prep consortia in the U.S. The study provided a quantitative and qualitative analysis comparing student educational experiences as participants in tech prep programs, as well as their educational and employment outcomes after high school graduation. Findings are presented for students identified locally as enrollees in tech prep programs, who we refer to as tech prep-participants, as compared to a group of students drawn from the general student population with similar academic performance at high school graduation, referred to as non-participants. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Education to address fundamental questions about students' involvement in tech prep programs and their educational and employment outcomes after high school. Considering the enduring federal commitment to tech prep implementation beginning with the Tech Prep Education Act of 1990 (Perkins II), it was vitally important to understand the ways these programs influencing student outcomes.

Few studies have examined how tech prep programs have affected students' further education and work after high school graduation. Recognizing that a key feature of tech prep programs is the articulation of secondary and postsecondary curriculum and preparation for future technical and professional careers, a longitudinal study was needed to follow students over an extended period of time.

Major Results and Implications for Policy and Practice

Highlighted in this article are major results and implications for policy and practice, first discussing student characteristics; moving to secondary education; then transition from high school to college and college enrollment, persistence, and completion; and finally employment post-high school.

Tech Prep Participants Similar to General Student Population

First, students who participate in tech prep programs do not differ substantially on race/ethnicity, income, and parental education from the comparison group of students who represent the general student population that achieved similarly to the tech prep group at high school graduation. However, gender emerged as a variable on which tech prep participants differed from their peers in four consortia, favoring participation by males in all cases. This result was attributable largely to a preponderance of traditionally male-oriented career-technical education (CTE) specializations linked to tech prep. The CTE programs that enrolled males in larger numbers than females are not surprising, and included computer technologies, electronics, manufacturing, engineering, and trade and industrial occupations. Recognizing that federal law requires tech prep programs to provide equal access to all students, including non-traditional enrollments and members of special populations, it is important that local personnel emphasize equitable demographic representation.

Academic Course-Taking Similar to or Exceeding Comparable Students

Secondary curricula and types of tech prep participation varied widely from consortium to consortium, making it difficult to formulate definitive conclusions about particular models or approaches. Acknowledging this, our results support the notion that school and consortium course requirements influence student participation in core academic courses. Consortia that deliberately associate tech prep with college prep requirements in subjects such as math and science have students who engage in math- and science-course taking more intensively and extensively than tech prep consortia that do not. In consortia where the linkages between tech prep requirements and advanced academic requirements do not occur, tech prep students are less likely to progress into more advanced academic curricula. In a related and important finding, a few consortia show that tech prep participants need not be disadvantaged in fulfilling a college prep program of study if participating in both intensive CTE and academic course-taking.

Looking at academic course taking (amount and level) in greater depth, we found the level of math course taking was slightly higher for tech prep-participants than their non-participant peers in four consortia. Students in these consortia also showed group differences in the number of high school math courses taken, with tech prep participants at one site taking significantly more semesters than non-participants.

Group differences were evident in the number of science courses taken in seven of the eight consortia studied, usually favoring the non-participant group. In fact, non-participants exceeded tech prep-participants in the total semesters of science taken in five consortia, except in two sites (one consortium and one high school within a consortium). Most students in both study groups were taking mostly regular science (e.g., biology, chemistry). In a few consortia, tech prep-participants were taking more lower-level science courses than non-participants, but in most consortia the differences between groups was related to differences in the proportion of students taking regular and honors science (such as biology, chemistry and physics courses), all well beyond a basic level.

Career-Technical Education (CTE) Course-Taking Exceeds Comparable Students

CTE course-taking was enhanced by the tech prep model in most sites if judged by the level of secondary enrollment in CTE courses, including articulated CTE courses. Several forms of work-based learning such as co-op and job shadowing were prominent among tech prep participants, suggesting that students who engaged in tech prep were more likely to be involved in intensive learning experiences related to careers, both in the classroom and off campus. Work during high school was prevalent for both groups, suggesting students begin juggling school, work, and personal commitments early in their educational lives. Also, an association was found between tech prep participants and service learning/community service, always favoring non-participants.

Articulated course-taking was substantial for tech prep-participants in five sites, ranging from 65% to 91% for tech prep-participants and 31% to 76% for non-participants. This course-taking occurred most often in CTE areas such as business, mechanics/repair, and precision production in five consortia. Among all students who took articulated courses, tech prep-participants took significantly more semesters, on average, than non-participants.

College Enrollment High Among Participants and Non-Participants

Recognizing that many students selected for this study are labeled non-college bound during their high school years, the proportion of students in each group that went on to college at the two-year and four-year college levels is astounding. Indeed, the percentage of students attending college at the two-year level was quite high, with over 80% of the tech prep-participants in six consortia and close to that percentage or higher among the non-participant group in five consortia. Enrollment of tech prep-participants exceeded non-participants in seven consortia but the difference between groups was usually small, with a significant difference evident in two sites.

Tech prep-participants showed a slight preference for attending two-year colleges over their non-participant peers but, again, this is not surprising given the focus of articulated course taking that emphasizes sequenced course work extending from high school to community colleges. What seems more interesting is the frequency with which tech prep-participants attended both two-year and four-year colleges and four-year only. Attendance at four-year colleges was particularly evident among tech prep-participants living in localities where higher education options are plentiful, suggesting consortia located in urban or suburban areas with a dense higher education market may benefit from building relationships with a wide range of higher education institutions.

Though the accumulated hours of college credit did not differ for the two groups in most consortia, a difference was revealed in two consortia where tech prep-participants earned more college-level hours than non-participants, and these results held after controlling for differences in the date of high school graduation (1995, 1996, 1997, or 1998.)

College enrollment among tech prep-participants involved fairly substantial continuation of CTE course-taking, suggesting that if students finish a tech program in high school and enroll at the lead college within a few years, they are likely to continue enrollment in a tech prep program at the postsecondary level. Of tech prep-participants who transitioned to the lead college, typically over one-half continued to pursue a tech prep program of study, with participants in one consortium continuing at an astonishing rate of 95%.

College Readiness and Completion Problematic for All Students

Looking at college readiness among tech prep participants and non-participants, from 40% to nearly 80% of tech prep-participants placed into college-level course work overall, with the rest needing to take remedial courses. Non-participants had an even wider range of college-level placement- 30% to 76%. This finding is based on local institutional standards for college placement into career programs, which we referred to as the career standard. Using the transfer standard set by each institution, the vast majority of students (tech prep and non-tech prep) were not "college ready." One consortium was the exception where slightly over half of both student groups were college ready. When students failed a placement test it was usually because they had difficulties with math, and this result was evident for both groups of students (tech prep and non-tech prep).

Overall, completion rates of remedial/developmental and college-level hours were similar, with averages that ranged from about two-thirds to four-fifths from site to site. Differences between participants and non-participants in completion rates were few, with no consistent tendency as to direction.

To date, completion of a college degree (AA, AS, or AAS) or certificate has not been a common occurrence for students in any consortium, regardless of tech prep status. The median percentage of students earning some credential was only 10.5%, three or four years after high school graduation. Indeed, most consortia reported a modest range of completers at 8.5% to 11.7%.

Employment Among All Students is High, Especially Tech Prep Participants

Students who work after high school typically take full-time jobs in relatively unskilled, low-wage jobs. There was evidence, however, that tech prep-participants in some of the consortia were advancing beyond this level of employment, suggesting potential advantages for tech prep-participants in the labor market. A combination of factors may contribute to this phenomenon, including the relevance of tech prep training to semi-skilled or technical employment that is above minimum wage. In addition, more tech prep-participants than non-participants spend time with one employer, moving up from unskilled jobs obtained during high school to semi-skilled jobs after high school graduation. Admittedly speculative, these and other factors may contribute to positive economic outcomes for the tech prep-participants as compared to non-participants.