Among the challenges confronting Wisconsin's K-12 education system are long-standing disparities in educational opportunity and achievement on the basis of race. Racial and ethnic achievement gaps also largely correlate with related socioeconomic differences within students' communities in terms of income, poverty, unemployment, and educational…

This study used self-determination theory (SDT) to investigate the motivations for selecting a major among mass communication and media majors at 18 colleges and universities across the United States. Specifically, 669 mass communication majors were queried on their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for choosing a major, their degree of major…

Long term care administrators need a broad base of knowledge, skills, and interests to provide leadership and be successful in managing a fiscally responsible, quality long term care organization. Researchers developed a tool to help students assess whether a long term care administration major is a compatible fit. With input from professionals in…

This is the executive summary for the report, "Opening Doors: Strategies for Advancing Racial Diversity in Wisconsin's Teacher Workforce." The report is the second of a pair of Wisconsin Policy Forum reports that address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in Wisconsin's teacher workforce. The impetus for this research is both…

During high school, developing competence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is critically important as preparation to pursue STEM careers, yet students in the United States lag behind other countries, ranking 35th in mathematics and 27th in science achievement internationally. Given the importance of STEM careers as…

In June 2020, the Wisconsin Policy Forum published "A Teacher Who Looks Like Me: Examining Racial Diversity in Wisconsin's Teacher Workforce and the Student-to-Teacher Pipeline." The impetus for that research was both the long-standing racial disparities in educational outcomes that have persisted in Wisconsin for decades and a growing…

Marketing and business education faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UW-Stout) recently conducted a longitudinal study, spanning the entire 35 years of the program's existence, describing and analyzing its graduates' career paths. Data was collected through a questionnaire that utilized a combination of Likert-type responses, open-ended…

Responses from 532 of 1,500 female technical college students in traditional training (280), nontraditional training (149), or gender-balanced (99) programs. Nontraditionals rated themselves higher on vocational self-efficacy, perceived opportunities, social support, and confidence. (SK)

Change is examined in life goals, occupational values, and achievement orientations of 5,600 high school seniors from the same 17 Wisconsin high schools in 1964 and 1975. Change is seen in the intensification of feminine patterns consistent with changes in society and in higher female achievement orientation. (Author/MH)

An analysis was made of the professional and psycho-social characteristics of 24 Wisconsin women who held management positions in the leisure services field. Comparisons were made between these managers and other women employed in leisure services, but the major focus was in delineating the uniqueness of these women managers and comparing how they…

Though women are entering the paid work force in increasing numbers, their distribution across occupational categories is far from even. Women workers are clustered in traditional women's work jobs and represent only five percent of the nation's craft workers. In an effort to discover the motivations, experiences, and attitudes of women in…

This study of the college experiences of 1,724 academically talented (upper 2%) high school seniors in Wisconsin did not support suggestions of a "brain drain" out of Wisconsin. The study also found that 82% of males and 72% of females majored in math-science areas and 60% felt ill prepared in foreign languages. (DB)

This study investigated how African American women from low-income, single-parent female-headed households conceptualize work and transitions to work, and how these conceptualizations relate to the dominant discourse of work underlying policies and practices in education-for-work. The study used the construct of cultural models as a conceptual…

This report presents 1997 supply and demand information about Wisconsin Public School educational personnel using Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) data. The analysis found a large supply of teachers in most subjects. The largest number of new licenses was in fields that already had surplus educators. The number of teachers prepared…

The Equity Leadership Project provided technical assistance, coordination, training, and resources to equity projects developed in the process of implementing the Wisconsin Model for Sex Equity in Career and Vocational Education. The project served 108 school districts. The project's focus was on training regional equity leaders responsible for…