An analysis of selected racial and ethnic enrollments in secondary level vocational education programs in Texas

Abstract

This study was an examination of the concentration or representation of racial and ethnic groups in the vocational courses of the Texas public high schools, with two specific objectives: 1. to determine if the racial and ethnic categories of Negro, Spanish American and All Others were represented proportionately to their share of the scholastic enrollment and of the census population, and 2. to ascertain the nature of the reasons expressed by students for enrolling or not enrolling in vocational programs. After evolving a theoretical base and recognizing certain delimitations and limitations, a research design was formulated for comparing the percentages of enrollments in each of the six vocational program areas and in 13 of the pre-employment laboratory subdivisions, with scholastic enrollment percentages and with census population percentages. The hypothesized attraction-avoidance patterns in vocational enrollments were generally supported by the data: the category of Negro was markedly underrepresented in distributive education, and the category of Spanish American was markedly underrepresented in agriculture, distributive education and health occupations; the category of All Others was underrepresented in all programs and courses under consideration except agriculture, distributive education and metal trades. The category of Negro was markedly overrepresented in health occupations, homemaking pre-employment laboratory, child care, and cosmetology; the category of Spanish American was markedly overrepresented in homemaking pre-employment laboratory, and in such industrial courses as graphic arts, commercial art, electrical trades, auto body, and drafting. These attraction-avoidance patterns were sustained in the state-wide data, and in most of the data for the eight geographic subdivisions of the state. ...