Trade and Industrial Education: A Climate For Reform

The purpose of this study was to assessthe climate for the adoption of aproposed reform model for secondarytrade and industrial (T&I) education inVirginia. Vocational administrators andT&I instructors beliefs about the extentto which the adoption of the proposedmodel would precipitate selectedoutcomes were measured by using aninstrument developed specifically forthis study. The population of this studyincluded two sub-groups: secondaryvocational administrators andsecondary T&I instructors. Equalrepresentation from the groups couldnot be guaranteed as a result of thesampling procedures employed for thisstudy. Questionnaires were mailed to145 vocational administrators identifiedfrom the list provided by the VirginiaDepartment of Education. Responseswere received from 120 administrators(83%). Two-hundred-ninety-fivequestionnaires were distributed to T&Iinstructors. Responses were receivedfrom 129 instructors (43.7%). Thestudy examined the climate for changein secondary T&I education programsin Virginia. It examined whethervocational administrators and T&Iinstructors believe that implementationof the proposed model would be likelyto increase access to, the flexibility of,or the cost effectiveness of T&Iprograms. The extent to whichadministrators and instructors believedthat increasing access, flexibility, andcost effectiveness would affect selectedoutcomes was also investigated. Finally,the study examined the degree ofpersonal importance administrators andinstructors placed on selectedoutcomes. There was a similar beliefbetween both groups thatimplementation of the proposed T&Ireform model would result in increasedaccess, flexibility, and costeffectiveness. Both groups wereoptimistic that access and flexibilitywould be increased with slightly lessoptimism being shown for increasedcost effectiveness. Also, both groupswere optimistic that outcomes dealingwith "quality" issues (improve quality ofprograms and increase student quality)would be affected positively as a resultof model implementation and that theimage of T&I programs would also beimproved by implementation of theproposed T&I reform model. Ingeneral, administrators believed somereform outcomes less likely to beaffected by increased access, flexibility,or cost effectiveness than others.Specifically, they believed it less likelythat resources will increase or that thenumber of qualified instructors willincrease merely as a result ofimplementation of the proposed model.Instructors¹ responses were optimisticfor all outcomes except the extent thatincreased cost effectiveness wouldachieve selected outcomes. Instructors,like administrators, did not show strongsupport concerning the likelihood ofmodel implementation increasing costeffectiveness. As a whole, bothsub-groups appeared to be receptive tochange. Although the proposed tradeand industrial reform model may not inits¹ current form accomplish the neededchanges, administrators and instructorswould seem to be accepting of attemptsto reform secondary trade andindustrial education in Virginia.