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These case studies highlight the diversity of four tech programs that responded with a unique set of organizational policies and procedures to a unique set of challenges. The case study on City Tech Tech-Prep Consortium in Brooklyn focuses on three strategies: transition to City Tech program, postsecondary component, and program evaluation. The second case study is on Greater Capital District Tech-Prep Consortium, which involved 34 school districts, 4 regional Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), 6 2-year postsecondary institutions, and over 150 business partners. It describes three organizational features created to serve all participants effectively: organizational structure for management of a very large consortium, development of a mini-grant process for members, and formation of partnerships. The third case study targets the Mid-Suffolk Tech-Prep Consortium, one of two tech prep programs in Suffolk County, an area of 911 square miles with about 1.5 million residents. It focuses on three areas that allowed the program to position itself to further transform the region by serving as a conduit between educational and business communities: BOCES as a tech prep fiscal agent, collaboration with the Long Island Association, and curriculum development in high tech areas. The fourth case study discusses the Tech-Prep Consortium of Queens, which created articulated 4-year seamless curricula in three career cluster. It describes three features: transition to college sequence of activities and services, staff development, and instructional materials development. Contact information is appended. (YLB)

This document is part of a series of reports of a Statewide Evaluation Study of the Tech-Prep Program in New York State. The Pairs Study involved analysis of Tech-Prep vs. non-Tech-Prep student performance using 14 pairs of institutions - one college and its feeder high school. Research utilized high school and college transcripts for 391 students who had enrolled in the college that was paired with the high school from which they graduated. While the Tech-Prep group showed significantly higher cumulative high school averages, the difference was small, indicating that the effects of Tech-Prep were just beginning to materialize and that the sample groups were substantially equal in high school performance. About two-thirds of Tech-prep students were minority, as compared to one-third of non-Tech-Prep students, largely because of the significantly higher proportion of urban students in the former group. Tech-Prep students persisted more than their non-Tech-Prep peers, and the total sample of Tech-Prep students had significantly higher mean first semester grade point averages than the non-Tech-Prep students. Tech-Prep college students were more likely to enroll in career college curricula, and in more demanding curricula, choosing more rigorous "Engineering-Related" and "Health-Related" curricula. Tables 1-10 indicate: (1) high school outcomes; (2) distribution of study samples among Tech-Prep and non-Tech-Prep groups; (3) student demographics, (4) mean grade point average and status of students with various diploma types; and (5) statistical significance of selected variables. (AS)

The effectiveness of the first 5 years of tech prep in New York was examined through a three-component evaluation. Data were obtained from three sources. First, statewide surveys and interviews obtained input from 717 teachers, counselors, and administrators and 987 students currently involved in tech prep programs in New York's 30 tech prep consortia and an additional 132 tech prep professionals and 79 students and 15 local decision makers from outside the educational system. Second, a pairs study compared the performance of 1,050 tech prep students representing 15 consortia and 804 non-tech prep students. Third, a study of best practices in tech prep programs in 28 consortia was conducted. Most program participants found tech prep beneficial to students' academic, career, and social development and to staff, schools, and the community. Compared to their non-tech prep counterparts, tech prep students earn higher grades, have better school attendance, and have higher high school graduation rates and scores on New York's Regents Competency Tests. (Sixty tables are included. Appendixes constituting approximately two-thirds of this document contain information about the following: survey and interview methodologies and respondents; pairs study coding forms and instructions; study regression models; and descriptions of 97 best practices.) (MN)

A study sought to determine the extent to which mathematics content in tech prep programs in New York state matched or differed from the content of the three Regents college preparatory courses. Data were gathered through questionnaires received from a sample of 24 of the state's 30 tech prep consortia providing information about 27 curricula. Some of the results included the following: (1) almost 60 percent of the tech-prep mathematics curricula reported using only applied courses and no college preparatory sequential mathematics courses; (2) only two mathematics curricula were integrated into other subjects rather than being given as separate courses; (3) 20 percent of the tech prep programs included either 2 or all 3 of the Regents college preparatory mathematics courses; (4) the curricula typically covered just over 40 percent of the topics in the Regents curriculum; (5) agreement with State Framework Math Statements was substantial; and (6) anticipated changes to be brought about by various legislation and technology changes will have an impact on the curricula of the tech prep schools. (The report includes 31 tables and figures representing the topics covered in the various mathematics courses in the tech prep schools and in the mathematics framework.) (KC)