NCES
Data on Vocational Education
DOVE UPDATE
A quarterly newsletter for the NCES Technical Review Panel (TRP) on Vocational Education
cte in the u.s.
The latest edition of Career/Technical Education in the
United States (formerly Vocational Education in the United
States), which entered the NCES review process in August,
analyzes trends in the CTE enterprise between 1990 and
2002. With the imminent release of the new ELS and
NAEP transcript data, NCES has decided to quickly update
selected analyses in the report to include data from 2004
and/or 2005. We will incorporate recent data on high
school coursetaking as well as postsecondary students and
faculty before re-submitting the report for review by sum-
mer 2007 at the latest.
Career/Technical Centers in SASS
At the DOVE TRP meeting in August, we learned that
the Schools and Staffing Survey of 2004 (SASS:2004) may
have excluded all career/technical centers (CTCs) from
its sampling frame, by excluding shared-time facilities
with zero student counts in the Common Core of Data
(CCD). An analysis comparing SASS:2004 schools with the
recently compiled DOVE list of CTCs found, however, that
SASS:2004 had not in fact excluded all CTCs. Nevertheless,
we were able for the first time to estimate the undercount of
these centers: SASS:2004 describes only 64 percent of the
CTC universe, while SASS:2000 described just 43 percent
of the universe. Moreover, this under-representation yields
a biased sample of CTE teachers, since it excludes all CTCs
in certain states and disproportionately excludes teachers in
CTE fields that are more commonly taught at these centers
(such as mechanics, construction, and health care). In order
to avoid this problem in SASS:2008, we have encouraged
SASS program staff to incorporate the DOVE list of CTCs
into the sampling frame for the 2008 survey. In the mean-
time, based on TRP recommendations, we will not include
existing SASS data on CTE teachers and schools in either
the updated CTE in the U.S. or DOVE on the Web tables.
DOVE TRP Summary
A summary of the 2006 TRP meeting and recent follow-
up activities will be posted on the DOVE TRP website by
the end of October. You will receive notification when it is
available.
DOVE on the web
At the recent TRP meeting, we presented a preliminary
framework for the secondary, postsecondary, and adult
components of DOVE on the Web. An updated outline for
the secondary section of the website follows. The site will
be launched with selected tables by the end of the calendar
year.
Questions or comments about this publication? Contact Lisa Hudson at 202.502.7358 or Karen Levesque at 510.849.4942.
NCES DOVE website: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/dove
Vol. 8, No. 4 october 2006
Secondary CTE
The secondary section of DOVE on the Web will be
organized into the following main sections and sub-sec-
tions. Visitors will then select from a list of specific tables.
CTE Delivery System and Offerings
• High schools that offer CTE
• Career/technical centers
• Where public high school students are enrolled
• Dual enrollment
• Other career-related offerings
Student Participation in CTE
• Participation in CTE
• Trends in CTE participation
• Characteristics of participants in CTE
• Trends in who participates in CTE
Combining CTE and Academic Coursework in High School
• Academic coursetaking among CTE participants
• Trends in academic coursetaking among CTE partici-
pants
Education and Work After High School
• Postsecondary education
• Employment experiences
• Occupational licenses
As mentioned earlier, we will not include data on high
school CTE teachers in DOVE on the Web until compre-
hensive information on career/technical centers becomes
available.
VocED Fast Fact
.................
Career/Technical
Student Organizations
Over the period from 1980 to 2002, the self-reported partici-
pation of high school sophomores in academic clubs, voca-
tional clubs, music-related activities, and hobby clubs declined.
In 1980, 14 percent of sophomores reported participating in
vocational clubs, in comparison with 12 percent in 1990 and 8
percent in 2002. In each year studied, sophomores were most
likely to report participating in athletics (51–54 percent).
SOURCE: Cahalan, M.W. et al. (2006). United States High School
Sophomores: A Twenty-Two Year Comparison, 1980–2002 (NCES
2006-327). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics. Washington, DC: National Center for Education
Statistics.
DOVE TRP website: http://dovetrp.mprinc.com