Career and Technical Education: An Alternative Approach to Educating At-Risk Youth Seminar in Applied Theory and Research II By Nicole Morris Midterm Presentation Spring 2010 –

Table of Contents  Research Design  Threats to Internal Validity  Threats to External validity  Pretest and Posttest  Proposed Data of Pretest and Posttest  Correlation  Proposed Data Analysis  References

Research Design  Pre-Experimental Design: One-Group Pretest- Posttest Design.  Single Group: Single group is pre-tested (O), exposed to a treatment (X), and posttested (O).  Symbolic Design: OXO

Threats to Internal Validity  History : Poor weather conditions, fire drill, student misbehavior, and classroom distractions e.g., iPods and cell phones.  Maturation : Lack of engagement due to age and repetition of ninth grade.  Testing : Pre-test sensitization, and familiarity with questioning, could improve scores.  Instrumentation : Researcher created teacher and student surveys, and used Prentice Hall NYS Regents Review exams presented by classroom teacher.  Selection : Non-random student group.  Mortality : Possibility of drop outs, change of address and transfers.  Selection-Maturation Interaction : Students vary in age and gender.

Threats to External Validity  Ecological Validity : Personal issues could affect academic performance.  Generalizable Conditions : Small class size and same instructor for multiple subjects allows students to adjust to instructors teaching style.  Pre-Test Treatment : The exposure to pre-test questions are likely to have an impact on the quiz and post-test scores.  Selection-Treatment Interaction : The teacher and student participants as well as the subject area were chosen, rather than selected randomly.  Experimenter Effects : The actions of the researcher through observation, whether conscious or unconscious, may affect the performance and responses of the participants.  Reactive Arrangements/ Participants Effects : Students may behave or react once aware they are involved in a action research study.

Pretest and Posttest  One single group of students will be given four exams to test content mastery of Integrated Algebra using Prentice Hall Brief Review for New York State Regents Exams. Pretest: 2 Pretest exams will be administered to student group with and without prior CTE instruction. Posttest: 2 Posttest exams will be administered to student group with and without prior CTE instruction. * CTE – Career and Technical Education

Proposed Data of Pretest and Posttest

Correlation Correlation of student engagement to mathematics because of CTE and content mastery of Integrated Algebra. Survey Question 8: I enjoy math more when integrated with carpentry projects.  The data shows a strong, positive correlation of 0.89

Proposed Data Analysis  The bar graph, displaying pretest and posttest math score averages, demonstrates that the single group analysis of a ninth grade class is more engaged and thus masters math content, when CTE is integrated into the algebra lesson.  The scatter plot shows that the association between CTE and engagement of Algebra, which results in content mastery, has a strong- positive correlation. The correlation coefficient is  Hence, it can be proposed that, students who enjoyed math when taught with carpentry projects (*CTEC) were more engaged and thus performed better and mastered the content taught in an algebra lesson. * CTEC – Career and Technical Education Component

References O’Connor – Petruso, S.,(2008) Stat.scales.analyses.threats.design.ppt.