An evaluation of planned activities to change attitudes of educators and parents toward career education

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a program of planned attitude change. Specific objectives were: (1) to determine if attitude change occurred, (2) to identify groups that responded differently, and (3) to note difference in influence of activities. Six school districts, located in a South Texas county, were included in the study. Districts were composed of thirty-eight campuses. To obtain data from educators and parents, two instruments were used. Osgood's Semantic Differential Attitude Scale was used to survey educators, while a Likert Scale was developed to survey parents. Subjects were administered a presurvey in October, 1973. Educators were divided into five groups, so subsequent surveys were accomplished in January, February, March, April, and May of 1974. Patrons received a postsurvey in May, 1974. Five hundred and fifty educators (82 per cent) returned usable paired responses. Nine hundred and eight parents (64 per cent) furnished usable paired responses. Analyses of data were performed by: (1) t tests of means to determine significance of attitude change, (2) nested analysis of variance to determine difference in attitude change among groups, and (3) Chi-square to relate attitude change to groups. There was a significant change in attitude toward career education by the educators, as their mean attitude increased .13 on a seven increment scale. Patron attitude mean increased .02 on a five increment scale, but was not significant. The groups that scored in the lowest quartile on the October survey made a very positive net gain. Groups that scored in the highest quartile on the October survey, made a significant negative net change. People with varying characteristics may have a low or high attitude toward career education. No relationships were found between characteristics and attitude change. Osgood's Semantic Differential Attitude Scale proved to be a very reliable instrument in determining attitude toward career education. Advisory Councils can be very effective in an attitude change program. There was no difference in selected activities among districts or among campuses