The Perkins IV Act is an act whose main purpose is to develop the academic and career and technical skills of secondary and post secondary education students who” elect to enroll in career and technical education program.”(The United States House of Representatives) Among the requirements of the act is collecting and reporting data from the programs on the students and their categories, who decided to take part in their class. This report briefly describes the various types of students’ categories in secondary and secondary tech prep.
The secondary accountability reporting data contain the following categories of students:
- Not Career Education (NHS): the category includes any secondary student who did not earn career education credit grades 9-12.
- Less Than One Credit (LTO): The category includes any secondary student who earned less than one career education credit.
Participant – a category includes the following subcategories:
- Career Education Participant (PHS): This category includes any secondary student who earned one or more credits in any Department-approved career and technical education program area.
- Tech Prep Participant (PTP): this category includes any student who “enrolled in at least three sequential career technical education credit course/s grades 11or12.” (“Help Document for Perkins Iv Secondary Accountability Reporting “)The student must have a signed an articulation agreement of enrolling in Tech prep program signed by a secondary, post secondary education agency, or a student, which is a nonduplicative sequence of training which leads to two year degree or program certificate.
Concentrator – this category includes the following subcategories:
- Career Education Concentrator (CHS): the category includes any secondary student who received three or more credits in a sequence in a Department-approved career and technical education program area.
- Tech Prep Concentrator (CTP): The same requirement as a PTP, with the addition of earning three sequential CTE credits grades 11 or 12.
- Concentrator Not Participant (CNP): the same as CHS, but the student is not participating in career education the current year.
- Concentrator Tech Prep Not Participant (CNT): the same as CTP, but the student is not participating in career education the current year.
- Completer – this category of students is defined by the Effectiveness Index Formula (EIF), as a student who “earns three or more units of credit in approved secondary career and technical education programs (within a “sequence of courses”) and graduates.” (Quinn)
Additionally, Perkins Act defines several categories of students who are identified as a special population. These categories include:
- Individuals with disabilities: an individual with physical or mental impairment, with a record of such impairments.
- Economically disadvantaged: families or individuals who are considered low-income according to data from the Department of Commerce.
- Displaced homemaker: an individual whose marketable skills were diminished due to working to care for a home and family, or was dependant on another family member and is no longer supported by that member.
- Limited English proficient: an individual with limited ability in English language and whose “native language is a language other than English; or who lives in a family or community environment in which a language other than English is dominant language.”(“Help Document for Perkins Iv Secondary Accountability Reporting “)
Works Cited
“Help Document for Perkins IV Secondary Accountability Reporting “. 2009. Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. Web.
Quinn, Tom. “Program Memorandum: Effectiveness Index Formula “. 2008. Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. Web.
The United States House of Representatives. “Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006”. Washington, 2006.