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An educational crisis has been reported from many scholarly platforms for the last quarter century. The United States is faced with the challenge of providing a secondary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, especially in secondary pre-engineering, that will lead its students to the fulfillment of academic and domestic success. Educational reform is paramount in defining goals for the future and in reaching those goals both in secondary education institutions and in the nation. The educational crisis addressed in this research is characterized by K-12 public education not producing students who have the necessary skills or inclination to be successful in college and university engineering programs across the nation. Today, there are many programs available for public schools to participate in pre-engineering. The purpose of this study was to examine one of these programs–“Project Lead the Way” (PLTW). The PLTW pre-engineering program at the secondary school level consists of curricula for three tiers of education. The first tier includes two foundation courses, introduction to engineering design (IED) and principles of engineering (POE). After successful completion of the tier one courses, students may then take one or more of the tier two specialization courses, which include digital electronics (DE), aerospace engineering (AE), biotechnical engineering (BE), civil engineering and architecture (CEA), and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). The last course in the program is the tier-three capstone course, engineering design and development (EDD). In addition to providing curriculum for the classes, PLTW contracts with the school to provide program support and training for teachers and counselors. The PLTW curriculum emphasizes the nature of engineering and presents an engineering educational track. It teaches students and teachers how to engage in the field of engineering. Achieving this purpose will include creating a theoretical framework for identifying and implementing successful pre-engineering programs in Utah secondary public schools. Examining these controllable factors may lead to stronger success of the program upon implementation or improvement of existing programs, making them more successful by manipulation of these factors. This research and its recommendations is useful as it provides information to help facilitate the implementation of successful PLTW programs or improve existing programs.