Teacher, administrator, and professional business partner perceptions of the effectiveness of the Oak Creek High School Advisory Board

Abstract

At the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year, the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District implemented a Career and Technical Education Advisory Board comprised of teachers, administrators, and local business professionals. The mission of the board is to "provide business partners, community leaders, and teachers an opportunity to improve student learning outcomes and to expand CTE experiences for students." CTE advisory boards that follow best practices in CTE advisory board implementation and development engage members, create work-based learning opportunities for students, and create opportunities for CTE students by partnering events that allow students and community members to collaborate. Through this qualitative study, members of the Oak Creek CTE Advisory Board described the effectiveness of the board in regards to curriculum development, work-based learning opportunities, and the ability to create partnerships for events. Findings from the data defined the current effectiveness of the board and provided a blueprint for successful practices for the future. The results of the study demonstrated that teachers and administrators perceived the advisory board to be more effective than professional business member counterparts in the areas of curriculum development and the ability of the board to create events that featured student and community member collaboration.