Effects of Embedded Math-in-CTE Teaching Model on Automotive Youth Education Systems (AYES) Assessment Scores
Open Access
- Author:
- Senapedis, Barbara Ann
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 04, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Kenneth Carter Gray, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Richard Allen Walter, Committee Member
Cynthia Pellock, Committee Member
Janet Scanlon, Committee Member - Keywords:
- math assessment
automotive technology
AYES
Mathematics
CTE
vocational education - Abstract:
- With the passage of the No Child Left Behind act of 2001(NCLB), all students need to be proficient on high-stakes standardized testing by the year 2014. However, currently, career and technical education curricula, which lack the rigorous academic standards noted in NLCB, exist in numerous CTE centers nationwide. If standardized tests touted by NCLB emphasize rigorous academic standards, and all students, including CTE students, need to pass these high-stakes tests, how is it possible to provide instruction in order that the CTE student masters both the necessary academics and skill development concurrently? Specifically, this research investigates whether mathematics taught in content areas may enhance rather than detract from skill development for CTE students. This study uses data from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education national study of Math in CTE. The NRC model study had 5 replications with 149 teachers and over 2000 students, and utilized The Pennsylvania State University’s replication, which included 28 teachers and 550 students. Each participant of the NRC study completed the Terra Nova Basic Math Battery as a pretest, and completed 1 or more of the Automotive Youth Education System end-of-program tests as the post test. There were 849 data points distributed across the four tests. Using the multivariate analysis, a positive relationship was found between math scores on the Terra Nova Basic Math Battery pretest and scores on the 4 AYES end-of-year tests. It may be important to note that students who scored well on the AYES end-of-year tests had taken 3 or more math classes previous to taking the AYES test; yet, teaching math concepts of the NRC Model study in the auto technology class did not increase nor decrease scores in three out of the four AYES exit tests, the Steering and Suspension, Electrical/Electronics Systems, and Engine Performance auto tests of students participating in the NRC model and the control group and one test, the Brakes test, yielded a negative relationship for the students who participated in the NRC model study. Furthermore, a strong positive relationship was found between high scores on the math pretest and high post test scores on all four AYES exit tests. Therefore this concludes that students wanting to enroll in the Automotive Technology curriculum be proficient in mathematics before enrolling. Young students, 15 years of age, and/or students with 0-1 math classes were the ones to do poorly. Also the Brakes test was given to younger students so this could be why the math instruction intervention did not help those students. The NRC Model study, while helping with the automotive technology students’ math scores, did nothing to increase their automotive technology exit test scores. However, this intervention and the time it took to implement did not harm those AYES scores either.