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The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) and the US Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) requested an external evaluation of NRCCTE's Technical Assistance (TA) with a specific emphasis on TA provided on green-focused programs of study (POS). The evaluation was undertaken by the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. NRCCTE's TA is intended to link the NRCCTE's TA work with practice by responding to state accountability and program needs related to the improvement of career and technical education (CTE) for secondary and postsecondary students. The NRCCTE's TA centered on green-focused programs of study (POS) in Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon. Specifically, these states received help in developing replicable 'POS models that prepare secondary and postsecondary students for high-skill, high-wage, high-demand employment in positions associated with green-focused jobs in any of the 16 Career Clusters, including those aligned with the President's priorities for green technology in energy, housing, and construction'. Primary questions of interest included: What value does TA add in the context of POS in the five participating states in comparison with value added for those applicants that did not receive TA services? Is the TA facilitator model a good model for change? Can significant change as a result of TA be identified? How can the TA be improved? Overall, the NRCCTE's TA can best be characterized as a centralised effort to overcome discrepancies attributable to the decentralisation of the US educational system. States welcome the model because it increases cohesion without disregarding the uniqueness of individual states and state-level governance. In comparison to nonparticipating applicant states, participating states received value from the NRCCTE's TA in several important ways. First, the group of stakeholders included in the process was larger, more diverse, and more cohesive. Second, efforts were more focused and goal-oriented. Third, the POS development process was substantially more efficient. Fourth, it yielded an increased understanding of and compliance with OVAE's prescribed model for POS.

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