Identifying factors that influence enrollment in technology education courses at Reedsburg High School

Abstract

The number of students enrolled in the Technology Education program at Reedsburg High School has been declining. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence students’ decisions to enroll in Technology Education courses. These factors were identified by administering a questionnaire to the tenth grade class at Reedsburg High School during the 2002-2003 school year. The population of this study consisted of half of the tenth grade students enrolled at Reedsburg High School during the fourth quarter of the 2002-2003 school year. At the tenth grade level, the students had tentatively mapped out their high school academic plan. So at this juncture in their high school career, they had already made some choices about what electives they would be taking in the years to come. The tenth grade students were also chosen because they may still be able to benefit from the outcomes of this study. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part dealt with questions to find out demographic information such as the gender of the student, family information, and the post high school plans of the students. The remaining questions were designed to gather information as to why students were not enrolling in technology education courses. Students were given between two and five choices for each question to select when filling out this portion of the questionnaire. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of two questions addressing the source and level of influence they experience when enrolling in high school courses. The first question sought to find out who influenced students to enroll in the courses that they take. The second question posed a series of statements about negative influence on course enrollment (or choice) to which the students responded. A three point Likert type scale was used for these two questions. The results of the study suggest that there is no real significant data that shows there are people influencing students not to enroll in Technology Education courses. The data also indicated that Technology Education course offerings had a very positive image among students. Worth noting, though, is the fact that guidance counselors and teachers have very little influence at all on the courses that students choose to take throughout high school. The course curriculum is a factor in why males are more interested in taking courses than the females. Another factor in why students were not enrolling in Technology Education courses was graduation requirements. Of the males and females that responded that they would like to take a class but didn’t, the main reason was because of graduation requirements.