From Classroom to Career: Expanding CTE Opportunities for Multilingual Students Classified as English Learners

• In Event: Demystifying Systemic Barriers for Multilingual Adolescents: An Examination of State and Local Policies and Their Implications

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework
In the face of declining college and career readiness for all students (Solberg et al., 2022), career and technical education (CTE) has emerged as a promising pathway to college or the workforce, particularly for underserved students such as multilingual students classified as English learners (ML-ELs; Emerick, 2022). Students in CTE are more likely to graduate high school and earn higher wages, and less likely to be unemployed (Dougherty, 2018; Kreisman & Stange, 2021). To better understand the landscape of ML-ELs’ access to CTE and strategies used to expand access, we explore CTE and EL leaders’ perspectives about whether ELs have equitable opportunities to access CTE and approaches they believe could expand ML-ELs’ opportunity to learn (OTL).

The OTL framework underpins our investigation of ML-ELs’ CTE access, both in terms of enrolling in programs and accommodating their learning needs. An ecological systems perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 2000) prompts us to look across levels to investigate how OTL is shaped by state policy, regional CTE centers, local school districts, and high schools. We also draw from the framework of “rightful presence” (Calabrese-Barton & Tan, 2020) to surface ways to go beyond simply including ML-EL students in CTE and work toward justice in teaching and learning.

Methods
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 CTE and ML-EL leaders situated in Michigan districts that vary in terms of urbanicity, ML-EL concentration, and CTE structure. Our interviews elicited perspectives on ML-ELs’ access to CTE across contexts and probed the barriers to and affordances of accessing CTE for ML-EL students.

We coded using inductive and deductive codes based on prior literature on OTL for ML-ELs (e.g., Aguirre-Muñoz & Amabisca; Callahan, 2005) and how the education of ML-EL students is shaped at different levels of the educational system (e.g., Authors, 2022; Weddle et al., 2024). We attend to factors that shape access at different levels including access to ML-EL-focused personnel at the CTE program level and at the high school level.

Results
Participants surfaced concerns regarding ML-EL students’ OTL in CTE programs. As one example, linguistic support in CTE coursework remains elusive, thus hindering ML-ELs’ full participation and benefit realization, particularly ML-ELs with early English proficiency levels. Further, participants stressed the complex language used in some CTE coursework and the need to carefully think through how to provide linguistic scaffolds for ML-ELs in ways that do not restrict CTE learning opportunities: “We've had paraprofessionals attend [CTE] with a student a couple of days a week. We've had programs where the student will return to their home school after going to the technical program and get one hour of academic support.” Building CTE program and school district partnerships to support English language development is central to improving OTL for ML-EL students.

Significance
While educational leaders are making efforts to include ML-ELs in CTE programs, addressing linguistic and administrative barriers that limit ML-ELs’ full engagement in CTE remains a challenge. Building EL-focused partnerships between CTE programs and local districts can allow CTE to expand OTL for ML-EL students.

Authors

• Madeline Mavrogordato, Michigan State University

• Caroline Bartlett, University of Tennessee

• Matthew J. Guzman, Michigan State University