Linking Attitudes and Behaviors to Student Success in Career and Technical Education

目前，职业与技术教育(CTE)的许多领域都与快速增长的高科技和STEM相关行业保持一致，如计算机、网络安全、先进复合材料和材料以及工程。CTE还支持更好地理解科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的内容，并为广泛的学生培养STEM能力。对于农村地区和贫困地区的学生来说，获得高需求的CTE领域的职业机会尤其重要。在农村地区建立强大的人才库可以促进这些社区的经济增长。不幸的是，在许多为学生提供高需求技术职业道路(如计算机科学和信息技术)的CTE项目中，总入学率很低。尽管它们的范围有限，但研究表明，低入学率可能是由于学生的误解导致的，这种误解使得追求CTE项目变得不受欢迎。该项目将：(1)利用调查和区域讲习班，找出广泛的利益攸关方群体中的误解和偏见；(2)收集和分析信息，以制定新的CTE沟通和外联战略；(3)实施新的沟通和外联战略；(4)创建一个分析平台，定期评价和评估这一实施的效果。拟议的活动可能会增加对所有州共同面临的挑战以及可能是犹他州独有的问题的了解。由此产生的执行计划有可能用对特定目标受众的CTE的高价值的更现实的看法来取代对CTE的误解。评估新的沟通战略是否改变了行为，包括利益相关者的决策，这一能力可能与制定有效的沟通和推广战略有关，以传达STEM的整体价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Currently, many fields of Career and Technical Education (CTE) align with fast growing high-tech and STEM-related industries, such as computing, cybersecurity, advanced composites and materials, and engineering. CTE also supports greater understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content and development of STEM competencies for a broad range of students. Access to careers in high demand CTE areas is especially important for students in rural areas and in poverty. Building a strong talent pool in rural areas could increase the economic growth of these communities. Unfortunately, overall enrollments are low in many CTE programs that educate students for high demand technical career pathways (e.g., computer science and information technology). Although they are limited in scope, studies suggest that the low enrollment may result from student misperceptions that make pursuing CTE programs undesirable. This project will: (1) use surveys and regional workshops to identify misperceptions and biases within a comprehensive group of stakeholders; (2) collect and analyze information to develop a new CTE communication and outreach strategy; (3) implement the new communication and outreach strategy; and (4) create an analytics platform to regularly evaluate and assess the effectiveness of this implementation. The proposed activities could increase knowledge about challenges that are common across all states, as well as issues that may be unique to Utah. The resulting implementation plan has the potential to replace misperceptions about CTE with more realistic perceptions about the high value of CTE for specific target audiences. The ability to assess whether the new communication strategy changes behavior, including decision making by stakeholders, may be relevant for developing effective communication and outreach strategies for communicating the overall value of STEM.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.