CTER v31n2 - Editor's Note

Editor’s Note

Steven R. Aragon
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

As I shared in my previous Editor’s Note, we are getting caught up on past issues. Shortly after receiving this issue, you will be receiving the final issue of Volume 31. Based on the number of quality manuscripts being received and the timely feedback from the reviewers, my guess is Volume 32(1) will follow shortly as well.

In this issue, we have included the 2005 Presidential Address delivered by Diane Jackman during our conference in Kansas City. I encourage you to take a look at it as Jackman describes how the members of the newly named (at the time) ACTER came together to revitalize the organization as well as to plan and execute a successful pre-conference at ACTE. It shows what is possible when people come together with a shared vision.

The first empirical study is by Julie Chadd and Karen Drage. In this study, Chadd and Drage examine high school principals’ and CTE teachers’ perceptions of whether the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has positively influenced CTE programs. Both principals and teachers in the study disagreed that NCLB has had a positive impact on the image of CTE at their school. Both groups did believe that CTE courses can help schools meet the goals of all students. However, the two groups differed when asked if NCLB had a positive impact on CTE enrollment. Principals felt it had while the CTE teachers believed it had detracted from enrollment.

In the second study, Zirkle, Norris, Winegardner, and Frustaci examine perceptions of business education teacher educators with respect to the barriers of offering courses and programs via distance education. They examine the barriers unique to students, faculty, and the educational institutions. Utilizing a survey design, the authors are able to discuss the specific barriers found within each of these three contexts and provide recommendations for overcoming them. The three biggest barriers found include lack of support to help with course development (institutional), time commitment (faculty), and concern whether career/technical content can be learned at a distance (student).

As I stated, the speed at which we have been able to get caught up on past issues of the journal has had a lot to do with the timely evaluations from our reviewers. This process has literally taken just the past few months to complete. As my staff and I are working on transitioning the journal to the new editor, I would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to individuals who may have an interest in serving as reviewers. Our reviewer pool has been shrinking some over the past year. While we are in the process of slowly building this pool back up, we are still in need of individuals who are willing to help out with this process. If you would like to be part of the CTER reviewer pool, I would ask that you send me a copy of your vita, the number of articles you are willing to review during the year, methodological preferences (quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method) and any areas of specialization you may have related to CTE. Typically, we are seeking individuals who have published 4-6 articles in journals comparable to CTER before considering them as reviewers. Therefore, if you meet this criterion and have an interest in serving as a reviewer, please send me your vita.