CTE Fellow Experiences

In this hybrid program, Fellows are required to attend 2 two-day research training institutes: one virtual and one in-person. The first institute will be held virtually early in the Fall semester, and will be focused on team building and expectations, such as attending both institutes, meeting monthly with mentors, attending webinars, and completing their research and dissemination. The face-to-face institute will be held in conjunction with a national research conference. These meetings will serve to build a community for the Fellows and have a more formal curriculum to develop their research skills. Topics will include random control group designs, propensity score matching, working with large datasets, and other topics suggested by the advisory board. The meetings will include specific content on research methods to support postsecondary CTE research, writing and dissemination skills, and grant writing skills. Each meeting will include external experts.

Each Fellow will be assigned a CTE research mentor. Gordon (2016) stated that mentorship is needed to sustain the profession of CTE researchers and the national CTE research organization ACTER. Mentors will receive online training and material to support their work with the fellow. This will be a one-year commitment. The mentor and mentee will sign a letter of agreement on expectations. The Fellows will be provided a stipend annually to meet face-to-face with their mentor once at a mutually agreed location. Mentors and Fellows will be asked to meet virtually every month. A tool will be created to match the mentor and mentees based on previous work done in partnership with the Aspen Institute. Mentors will also be asked to review the research project, conference proposals, and serve as a resource. This part of the project will be evaluated not only on how it has impacted the mentee but also the mentor.

Using a webinar format, every two months a session will be created to help support the needs of the Fellows. The topics will include specific research methods and provide session that illustrate the use of topics such as performing propensity score matching, causal effects, meta-analytic procedures, Delphi technique, experimental design, hierarchical linear modeling, Q methodology, using large datasets, formulating theory and other areas such as obtaining funding and dissemination of research. These sessions will be modified to meet the needs of the Fellows in term so interests or skills needed to support their research. As appropriate, sessions will be saved and made available to the Fellows to create resources and community.

All Fellows will participate in the ECMC Foundation’s annual CTE Leadership Collaborative convening. Additionally, the Fellows will submit a proposal to present during at least one conference during each year of their fellowship. The NCSU team will work to share the results and best practices from this project and will write blog posts to share research, data, and best practices which will be posted on ECMC Foundation’s website and included in a yearly ECMC Foundation publication. Additionally, the team will work with Fellows and advisory board members to co-author this work. NC State will also attend the yearly ECMC Foundation convening to actively participate in sharing about the fellowship program. This web page will disseminate information about the project and make the research, data, and best practices open access.  Additional publications (edited books or special editions of journals) will be created to share studies from this fellowship program.

CTE Fellows Projected Timeline

2021 Fellows

April 2021

  • Virtual Institute Kick-off & AERA attendance (virtual)

May – July 2021

  • Independent preparation for research: IRB process, literature review, securing access to data

August 2021 – August 2022: Fellowship programming

  • Work Fellows with a Mentor
  • Attend webinars
  • Complete quarterly reports
  • Attend ECMC CTE Convening
  • 2nd 2-day Research Institute (November)
  • Conference proposal
  • Complete manuscript to disseminate project
  • Complete final report

2020 Fellows

April 2020

  • 2 day Institute Kick-off

May – 2020 to April 2021

  • Work Fellows with a Mentor
  • Attend webinars
  • Complete quarterly reports
  • Attend ECMC CTE Convening
  • 2nd 2 day Research Institute (November 2019)
  • Conference proposal
  • Complete manuscript to disseminate project
  • Complete final report

2019 Fellows

April – 2019

  • 2 day Institute Kick-off

May – 2019 to April 2020

  • Work Fellows with a Mentor
  • Attend webinars
  • Complete quarterly reports
  • Attend ECMC CTE Convening
  • 2nd 2 day Research Institute (November 2019)
  • Conference proposal
  • Complete manuscript to disseminate project
  • Complete final report