The survey research we conducted in 1993 examined the goals, policies, practices, and obstacles local consortia were encountering in implementing Tech Prep. The data were supplied by local Tech Prep consortium coordinators (and occasionally by their designees). Consequently, the information obtained by the survey was reflective of the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of this group. The primary goal of our survey research in 1993 was to describe how Tech Prep policy was implemented by local consortia, including examining the ways in which varying contexts (e.g., settings, funding) interact with Tech Prep development.
The five major research questions for the study were:
Our earlier report synthesized the federal legislation on Tech Prep, reviewed extant literature pertaining to its implementation, and provided descriptive findings associated with the study's five research questions[5]. Since our report on local implementation was one of the first to be published on this concern[6], it was not filled with complex statistical results, but written in a concise and straightforward manner for an audience composed largely of education practitioners. Policy makers at all levels of government were another important audience for the report.
Our initial survey involved a sample of the nation's total 1993 population of 855 local Tech Prep consortia. Sample selection occurred on a state-by-state basis, ensuring that all the states had at least one local consortium represented in the total sample[7]. In total, 473 local consortia were surveyed, representing 55 percent of all local Tech Prep consortia in the nation as of June 1, 1993. Of the 473 consortia, 397 provided usable questionnaires that were included in the final data analysis, yielding a response rate of 84 percent.
The mail questionnaire used for our initial study was a sixteen-page booklet of closed- and open-ended items organized into five parts: a) Tech Prep goals and outcomes, b) the stage of implementation of Tech Prep, c) barriers to Tech Prep implementation, d) Tech Prep consortium characteristics, and e) Tech Prep coordinator background. To establish content validity, the instrument was reviewed by a national panel of Tech Prep experts. Then, during the Spring of 1993, it was pilot tested with a small sample of state and local Tech Prep coordinators in California, Illinois, Maine, New York, Texas, and Virginia. Reliability estimates for subscales in the questionnaire ranged from .82 to .94, suggesting a high level of reliability.
During the summer of 1993, we administered the mail questionnaire in four waves, based on procedures developed by Dillman (1978). In wave one, the questionnaires were mailed to the total sample of 473 local consortium coordinators who were asked to return it by June 30, 1993. In wave two, a postcard was mailed to all coordinators reminding them to return the instrument by June 30, 1993. In wave three, at approximately one week prior to June 30, another postcard was mailed to all coordinators who had not yet responded. Also at this time, state coordinators were notified of their state's overall response rate and asked to encourage 100 percent participation in their states. In wave four in early July, all non-respondents were mailed a replacement questionnaire and asked to complete it by July 25, 1993. Throughout the month of August, telephone follow-up was conducted and surveys were accepted. On September 1, 1993 data collection phase was concluded.
Data analysis consisted of computing simple descriptive statistics followed by inferential statistics such as the Pearson Product-Moment correlation and factor analysis. Open-ended items were analyzed using an inductive content analysis procedure described by Guba and Lincoln (1985). Appendix A presents aggregated responses to each item on the 1993 survey, along with a response rate for each item.
[6] Only the National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) study of Tech Prep implementation (Boesel, Rahn, & Deich, 1994) existed at the time our NCRVE report was published in 1994. The first comprehensive report on tech prep implementation conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. was not published until 1995 (Silverberg & Hershey, 1995).
[7] For an in-depth discussion of the sample selection procedure and other aspects of the methods used for the 1993 survey (see Bragg, Layton, & Hammons, 1994).