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June 14, 2018 |
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Contacts: Review: Hard Work and Soft Skills: The Attitudes, Abilities, and Character of Students in Career and Technical EducationEAST LANSING, Mich. (June 14, 2018) — Research has shown that, after controlling for the lower test scores on average of students who take Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses, high school CTE programs are associated with higher high school graduation rates, and overall educational attainment and earnings than students in academic programs whose previous test scores were similar. But the reasons for this relationship are not clear. A new report from the American Enterprise Institute hypothesizes that noncognitive skills, such as work habits and effort, affect this relationship, and the report provides a sound test of this hypothesis. The report suggests that CTE may improve attainments by improving noncognitive skills. The key implication is that, instead of a narrow focus on academic skills, schools need to consider how to improve students' other skills to improve attainment and job outcomes. While the reviewer agrees that this implication is reasonably drawn from the report, he cautions that educators need a clearer interpretation of these "noncognitive skills" and whether they are persistent attributes or highly changeable behaviors. Professor James Rosenbaum of Northwestern University reviewed Work and Soft Skills: The Attitudes, Abilities, and Character of Students in Career and Technical Education, and found it to be a strong, careful, and thoughtful empirical analysis of a strong dataset. The report is part of Think Twice Review, a project of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. Rosenbaum's key finding is that the report presents a strong empirical analysis illuminating how students in CTE programs demonstrate better outcomes than students with similar test scores in traditional academic programs. The review notes that the most remarkable feature of this report is the broad array of indicators it compiles, including how much effort students exhibit on a routine task (e.g., a long and boring survey in school), and teacher reports of student effort. Professor Rosenbaum concludes that, despite a few limitations, the report has constructed "innovative and impressive new indicators of noncognitive behaviors." More clarity is needed, however, in defining the differences between "noncognitive skills" and "noncognitive behaviors." Is "effort," for example, a function of human behavior, or is it a learned skill? In conclusion, the reviewer holds that this report was successful in constructing "innovative and impressive new indicators of noncognitive behaviors," which should inform policy decisions about how nonacademic skills can help overall student achievement. Find the Think Twice Review on the web: Find Hard Work and Soft Skills: The Attitudes, Abilities, and Character of Students in Career and Technical Education, written by Albert Cheng and Collin Hitt and published by American Enterprise Institute, at: Think Twice, a project of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), provides the public, policymakers and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. The project is made possible by funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. You can also find the review on the NEPC website: - ### - |
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