Abstract
The federal Tech Prep Education Act (1990) provides funding to local consortia to bring about changes in local community colleges and high schools that link the two organizations. When multiple organizations are involved in the change process, how does successful change occur? There is little research available on the process used by multiple entities to effect successful change. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to describe the process by which multiple entities--the secondary and postsecondary faculty and administrators in two successful Tech Prep consortia--passed through the stages of analysis, planning and implementation to effect required change and institutionalized the change. Methodology. Literature research helped to identify a change model to study multiple entity change in two successful Tech Prep consortia in California. The sites were selected based on an outside evaluator' s determination of successful consortia. The model selected for the study was Thomas Harvey's short-form change checklist found in Checklist for Change (1995). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with forty-one teachers and administrators using an interview guide based on Harvey's ten-step model. The data were recorded, coded by variable, and then presented in tabular and narrative format. An analysis of the congruency across cases was rendered. Findings. (1) Of the seven required elements of Tech Prep, only two (Curriculum Development and Curriculum Design) were reported as changes that had occurred. (2) Payoffs that were identified as motivators for teachers to change were student satisfaction and success as well as working in teaching teams. (3) High school teachers were frequently described as both the changers and the changees. (4) There was an expressed belief that change can occur at the high school and at the community college and that Tech Prep is a realistic change effort. (5) Strong central leadership was reported and the consortium director was most frequently identified in this role. (6) Resistance to Tech Prep reportedly came from conflicting organizational and group norms. (7) Resistance to change was overcome by creating norm incongruence. (8) Examples of normative-reeducative and rational-empirical approaches were most frequently described as change strategies. (9) Change processes did not occur simultaneously across both organizations.