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Sithole, Daniel Simbisai

College of Education and Social Services

2013

Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Carl D. Perkins Act policies on gender equity in nontraditional career pathways in Vermont High School Career Technical Centers using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Data was collected concerning the members of the Vermont high school graduating class of 2011 (N = 7214), with a focus on those who attended technical courses at one of the 18 regional career technical centers (N =2504) to find out what the effects of gender equity coordinators, dual enrollment, career technical student organizations, and cooperative education were on female students completing nontraditional career pathways. The data revealed that students' participation in and completion of technical courses in the technical centers ofVermont were reminiscent of the situation of the decades from 1980-2000, when girls and boys disproportionately concentrated in traditional career pathways based on their gender.
The findings showed that although girls have been completing the Agriculture and Natural Resources and Information Technology career pathways in slightly greater numbers, the Carl D. Perkins Act policies have had no effect on the completion of nontraditional career pathways for either boys or girls. Although the study was limited to the number of career-technical centers in Vermont, it nevertheless contributes an understanding of the context of gender equity in Vermont's high school career technical centers, the dialogue on narrowing the gender achievement gap, and the use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling as a research methodology in Career Technical Education.