Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of the study was to describe how ten California regional occupational centers and programs (ROCP) teachers integrated mathematics standards into career and technical education (CTE) courses. The study described the biography of the ten teachers, the motivation to integrate mathematics standards into CTE courses, and the teaching strategies used to teach mathematics standards. Methodology. The qualitative research methodology used for the dissertation. Teachers participated in interviews and classroom observations using both open and closed-ended questions. Data collection included observations, semistructured interviews, and document investigation. A matrix analysis was used to aggregate data and included an analysis by individual cases and by variables. Findings. Seven of the ten participants were observed teaching mathematics standards, although all ten of the teachers believed mathematics standards were being taught. Nine of the ten participants identified mathematics standards that were intended to be integrated. None of the teachers used a standards-based instruction model to integrate and teach mathematics standards. Participants identified the greatest number of mathematics standards from the strands of the third-, fourth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade mathematics standards. Eight of the ten participants listed specific mathematics standards in lesson plans. Eight of the ten participants were self-motivated or both self-motivated and mandated to teach mathematics standards; one participant was mandated, and one participant had not identified any mathematics standards. Conclusions. The case study teachers did not participate in any type of standards implementation training necessary to learn how to teach standards in a standards-based instruction model. ROCPs need to adopt a standards-based model and teach academic standards in order to fully participate as partners with school districts in preparing students to achieve the competencies necessary to pass California's standards tests. Recommendations for future research. Future research should include a study of the integration of science standards and social science standards; a study of teachers within the same occupational cluster; a study of teachers who have had the same training regarding standards integration; and a replication of the current study with a larger population. In addition, a study should be conducted to determine the most effective teaching strategies for integrating academic content standards into CTE courses offered by California ROCPs.