“You Gotta Work:” Sensemaking and Support Strategies in a Career and Technical Education Dual Enrollment Program
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Date
2025-05
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Publisher
Vanderbilt University Peabody College
Abstract
Tennessee has set a remarkable example in expanding career and technical education (CTE) access. Over 401 public high schools in the state enroll over 100,000 students in CTE (Williams, 2023), and educational legislation led by Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly has awarded over $530 million in state funds to expand CTE opportunities across the state (TDOE, 2024). Since 2005, the Tennessee Lottery has funded the state’s Dual Enrollment Grant (DEG), providing qualified students the opportunity to take Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) courses tuition-free and awarding more than $59 million in grants in 2024 (Tennessee Lottery, 2025). In 2022, the state revised DEG regulations so that students can complete their first TCAT credential for free and expanded access to all secondary school students (College for Tennessee, n.d.).
Considering Tennessee’s remarkable investment in CTE dual enrollment (DE), this research project seeks to 1) identify the strategies and practices that high school leaders and staff utilize to support students in CTE DE, and 2) understand how school leaders and staff use sensemaking to interpret and implement CTE DE policies.
The research uses a qualitative approach to understand high school leader and staff perspectives at two schools within the Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) District. We interviewed high school counselors, college and career readiness (CCR) coaches, CTE instructors, and district/state leaders. Our analyses identified four strategies and practices that staff and leaders currently utilize: they 1) focus on soft skills; 2) recognize parents as underutilized stakeholders; 3) tailor advising and teaching to students’ interests and goals; and 4) help undocumented students and their families overcome a unique set of challenges. We also identified four understandings of sensemaking that school leaders and staff utilized to interpret and implement CTE DE policies: 1) relying heavily on school counselors; 2) drawing upon personal or professional experiences; 3) creating a school- and district-wide culture of college and career readiness; and 4) emphasizing the invaluable role of CCR coaches on the student support team.
We believe the following four recommendations will build upon the strategies, practices, and understandings we identified in our findings: 1) remove barriers of entry for undocumented students to receive CTE DE credit; 2) support the continued employment of CCR coaches and expand the role to other high schools within MNPS; 3) increase parent involvement in the college and career goals of their students; and 4) cultivate a collaborative sensemaking ecosystem.
While our research explored the ways that school leaders and staff experienced the growth of CTE DE, focusing specifically on sensemaking and support strategies, we suggest several examples of potential future research, including 1) a needs assessment to identify gaps in student services that may prevent student enrollment in career and technical education dual enrollment by role with a particular focus on the traditional school counselor and CCR coach; 2) an explanatory study on recently graduated DE students who later matriculated at TCAT to understand what influenced them to enroll; and 3) a document analysis of advising, enrollment, and instructional guidance and protocols, to assess alignment between state, district, school-level policy.
Description
Leadership Policy and Organizations Department capstone project