THE IMPACT OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM OUTCOMES IN THE WINDHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT ON OFFENDER POST-RELEASE EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Lopez, Amy K., The impact of career and technical education program outcomes in the Windham School District on offender post-release employment status. Doctor of Education (Developmental Education Administration), August 2020, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. The primary purpose of this study was to explore any relationship between pre- release Career and Technical Education (CTE) course participation outcomes and post- release employment status. The target population of this study was defined as offenders who were released from the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on supervision for whom employment status data was reported and who participated in a Windham School District (WSD) CTE course and for whom post-release employment data was available for school years 2011-2013. A non-experimental, factorial design (Chi-square test for independence) was employed to explore the relationship between independent variables (WSD students who completed a CTE course and earned an industry certification, WSD students who completed a CTE course but did not earn certification, and WSD students who participated in CTE but neither completed a course nor earned certification) and a dependent variable of post-release employment status (employed and retained, employed but not retained, full-time student, unemployed, and never employed). The relationship between each independent variable and the dependent variable reached statistical significance. Further examination of the identified CTE participation outcomes and employment status (employed or unemployed) indicated that the increased odds of participants in each CTE participation outcome being employed in the first 12 months of release also reached statistical significance.