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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students who enrolled in a career and technical education engineering pathway at the secondary school level and those who did not. It was unknown if there was a significant difference in the overall academic performance of career and technical education engineering participants when examining attendance percentage rates and academic performance versus the attendance percentage rates and student achievement of their non-engineering pathway participant peers. This study was guided by the following research questions: (A) Is there a statistically significant difference in the GPAs of students who participate in a CTE engineering career pathway versus those students who do not participate in a CTE engineering pathway? (B) Is there a statistically significant difference in the student SBAC scores on the eleventh-grade math SBAC test scores for students who participate in a CTE engineering pathway versus those students who do not participate in a CTE engineering career pathway? (C) Is there a statistically significant difference in the attendance average of students in a CTE engineering career pathway versus those students who do not participate in a CTE engineering career pathway? (D) Is there a statistically significant difference in the pre-and post-GPAs of CTE engineering students before they enroll in a CTE engineering pathway and post-completion of a CTE engineering pathway?
This quantitative causal-comparative study used archival data from 200 students from the 2023- 2024 school year from one secondary school district in Silicon Valley, California. The data analysis found that the results from independent samples t-tests indicated no statistically significant differences in attendance or GPA between the groups, although these differences were non-significant, descriptive statistics revealed minor trends, with the non-engineering group displaying slightly higher averages in both attendance and GPA. When examining pre and post-GPAs of the students enrolling in a CTE engineering pathway, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in GPA from before enrolling and after completion of the CTE engineering pathway. This finding suggests that the intervention had a positive effect on GPA scores, though modest.
Implications for the study indicate further research is needed, possibly in different county or state settings, to see if findings are replicated or unique to the Silicon Valley student demographic population due to the prevalence of technology and engineering in the local industry and community.