JVER v29n2 - Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Joe W. Kotrlik
Lousiana State University

As this issue goes to press, the debate has started about the Bush Administration's proposed Carl D. Perkins Secondary and Technical Education Excellence Act of 2004. The proposal, entitled "A Blueprint for Preparing America's Future: The Carl D. Perkins Secondary and Technical Education Excellence Act of 2004," builds on the No Child Left Behind Act and is expected to address how states and partnerships among local educational agencies, postsecondary educational institutions, and others develop and support career and technical education pathways that prepare youth and career-changing adults for the future. A copy of the proposal can be viewed at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/sectech/leg/cte/04blueprnt.doc and a summary can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/sectech/leg/cte/04summ.doc . Many of our AVERA leaders and members will be involved in the debate surrounding this legislation.

Given the discussion and debate about the new legislation, it is interesting that the first article in this issue by Richard Zinser and Frances Lawrenz addresses how an Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Program can serve as a model for business and industry collaboration for producing more and better technicians. The new roles of industry and college leaders are discussed through a synthesis of literature on skill standards and workforce development and data demonstrating substantial goal attainment are presented from a national evaluation of ATE projects on collaboration, materials development, professional development, and program improvement. The authors conclude the paper with a discussion on how this process has changed and benefited partnerships.

The second article co-authored by Scott Johnson, Angela Benson, John Duncan, Olga N. Shinkareva, Gail Diane Taylor, and Tod Treat addresses another issue directly related to the proposed new legislation, Internet-based learning in postsecondary career and technical education. This article presents the results of a national study of distance learning in postsecondary career and technical education (CTE). The results show that community colleges are actively involved in the delivery of CTE via distance learning and that Internet-based courses are the most prominent form of distance learning in community college CTE programs, especially for credit courses. Some colleges are creating their own online programs while others are partnering with other providers to make CTE courses available to students.

The article by Paul Brauchle and Md. Shafiqul Azam, "Factorial Invariance of the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI)," reports a study that compared the factor structures of the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI) for selfperceived work attitudes of manufacturing employees and their supervisors' ratings of those same employees. The study evaluated the construct validity of the instrument through comparative factor analysis. The authors concluded that the factors of OWEI are replicable in different populations and that evidence exists for the construct validity of this instrument.

This issue concludes with the study by Kurt Becker and Somchai Maunsaiyat in which they compared student attitudes and achievement in constructivist and traditional classroom environments in vocational electronics programs in Thailand. They found that although no differences exist for constructivist instruction over traditional instruction, the students still preferred the constructivist approach by a 4 to 1 ratio. Students had a positive attitude toward the constructivist process in the classroom, and toward their teacher's role. Moreover, the results of this study show that in this setting, constructivist instruction is at least as good as the traditional approach.

The authors are commended for conducting the research reported in these articles. Each of these studies represents a quality contribution to our body of knowledge in career and technical education.

jwk