Term of Award

Spring 2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

Paul Brinson Jr.

Committee Member 1

Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume

Committee Member 2

Elizabeth Downs

Committee Member 3

Teri Ann Melton

Committee Member 3 Email

tamelton@georgiasouthern.edu

Abstract

With the start of the 21st century, business and industry has continued to report skills gaps between the skills needed to successfully complete work and the skills of the labor pool. In an effort to address the concerns of employers, public secondary schools have been charged with developing high school graduates that are better skilled than previous generations. In the state of Georgia, an increased emphasis has been place on the student outcomes associated with Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) through school accountability measures. In decades past, CTAE had not been an indicator of school success, which has resulted in CTAE being an under-researched aspect of the education process. Additionally, little research has been conducted regarding factors effecting CTAE. A review of literature found school size as a factor that had potential to effect CTAE outcomes. In this study, Georgia public schools were examined in order to collect data that could increase the understanding of the relationship between CTAE and school size to advocate for a size that would most benefit CTAE.

For the study, a quantitative ex post facto research design was used to determine if relationships existed between two measures of CTAE outcomes and school size. The CTAE outcomes—graduating pathway completer percentage and end-of-pathway assessment (EOPA) pass rates—used were those found on the College and Career Ready Index (CCRPI), which served as the state of Georgia’s accountability measurement system for public schools.

In this study, a series of hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the effect of school size on both graduating pathway completer percentage and end-of-pathway assessment (EOPA) pass rates while controlling for school contextual characteristics (e.g., socio-economic status, gender composition, minority composition, disability status composition and English language proficiency composition). Results from the regression analyses showed school size did not reliably predict graduating pathway completer percentage or end-of-pathway assessment pass rate when controlling for the school contextual characteristics of SES composition, minority composition, and LEP composition. The findings of this study are of greatest importance to school boards, district, school, and CTAE administration, and CTAE educators.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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