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Description
School reform initiatives are not new to education, but increased emphasis put on school accountability since the report A Nation at Risk and the inception of No Child Left Behind created a sense of urgency and launched a collage of reform efforts. In response to these demands the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) changed its mission to reflect the need to infuse rigor with core academic and Career and Technical Education (CTE) standards as a means of improving student academic achievement and preparing all students for both college and careers. Though an increasing body of evidence documents that integration of CTE results in positive gains in student achievement, resistance exists to program implementation. Describing CTE program models, as well as the change process utilized for integration, provides insight for high school leaders interested in including these programs. This case study explored the change process that took place as a comprehensive, public high school integrated career and technical education as a means of improving student achievement. Three questions guided this exploration: (a) What were the determining factors that led to the adoption and implementation of CTE at this site? (b) What were the change processes implemented at the school to facilitate the integration of CTE pathways? (c) How did the school measure successful integration of career and technical education and what factors affected this integration? Conventional High School, now Academy High School Education Campus, was selected for this case study because it was a comprehensive public high school that restructured into four themed CTE academies and has documented increased student achievement. Qualitative tools were utilized to collect data including face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, classroom and common area observations, and a document review. The data collected were analyzed using a constant comparative process allowing themes or categories to emerge. Member checks were performed, and the data were triangulated to increase validity of the findings. Findings showed that visionary, top-down leadership, at the district level, was a key to the initial success of career and technical education integration. It was necessary for the district superintendent to embrace CTE integration. In addition, educating and gaining support from the teacher union and the school board were essential to the process. The superintendent in this study was able to gain flexibility with the school board and with teacher union contract guidelines in order to hand-select and assign like-minded individuals. The high school became a self-organizing system once the initial transformation was complete because it was able to fill the roles of principals, teachers, and staff with specifically selected, like-minded individuals. Further research is needed to analyze to what extent it is necessary to change the face of our school system in order to meet the demands of the changing world.
