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The Core Connection
Water, Water Everywhere Yet Do I Dare to Drink?
Improving Reading Proficiency Through CTE
Making the Case for Tech Prep
Working Smarter, Not Harder (Part IV)
Vital Virtual Hands-On Learning
A Role to Play in School Reform
An Interview with Neil Howe
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CTE and Academics: A perfect Fit
By Sandy Cutshall, Techniques Contributing Writer
We?re all unfortunately familiar with the idea that career and technical education (CTE) is inferior to good old reading, writing and ?rithmetic and that it is suited only for those students who can?t ?cut it? on the academic track. This view seems to spring from a faulty perception that CTE coursework is somehow distinct and separate from an academic education. The reality is that the best examples of CTE today demonstrate education that is challenging both technically and academically, integrating core skills directly into the curricula to best prepare our students for the workplace or further education.
A New Career Tech
Overcoming a negative public perception of ?voc-ed? is one of the biggest challenges facing our field. The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is strongly committed to educating the public on what is really taking place with teachers and students today within the many diverse and challenging subjects that make up CTE.
Career and technical education is about helping students, workers and lifelong learners of all ages fulfill their working potential. Central to that effort is providing students with academic subject matter taught with relevance to the real world, i.e. ?contextual learning.? Students in CTE also concentrate on employability skills and education pathways to help them explore interests and careers as they progress through school.
ACTE Agricultural Education Division Vice President Gary Moore, a professor at North Carolina State University, has created a model he calls ?Moore?s Hierarchy of Education.? (See chart on next page.) The pictured diagram demonstrates the basic theory that every level of education is integrated into the next level.
According to his theory, one level of education would include the fundamental skills needed to function in society, including reading, writing and calculating. Another would feature the fundamental skills needed to be a ?knowledgeable member of society,? such as literature, geography, history, government, science and work literacy. The next level would contain the fundamental skills needed to be a contributing member of society?that which we might term career and technical education and professional education. Finally, according to Moore, there are the skills and knowledge to enjoy life, such as the arts.
?People are constantly moving up and down within the hierarchy,? says Moore. ?There are always exceptions, but generally this is the way education works. Education should not be viewed as vocational versus academic. Vocational and academic are interrelated.?
In this model, even the term ?level? may be misleading, since there is fluid movement among all the different segments of knowledge-gathering.
Putting Students First
According to Dr. Ethan Lipton, dean of Educational Support Services at California State University, Los Angeles, education is all about meeting the needs of students.
?It?s not about teaching classes,? says Dr. Lipton, ?it?s about teaching students.? Realizing this concept, he says, will be those teachers who focus more on meeting the learning objectives for students and worry less about staking out subject matter territory between departments.
Dr. Lipton suggests that it need not be the case that only the math teacher teach math or only the English teacher teach reading. Instead, he says, there are many different educational models where core skills may be integrated into different CTE subjects. One example would be the academy model, where teaching may occur across curricula and within a team environment. Jackson Academy in Florida exemplifies this kind of interdisciplinary cooperation.
Successful integration might also occur in a traditional school setting if, for example, English, math and CTE teachers simply got together to discuss what topics that they needed to cover and then created units and projects that worked together. Timing and sequencing is an important part of making this type of cooperative effort work.
A further example could be an English teacher grading the writing assignment that is given in a CTE course, or a student producing a project that would meet the requirements for (and get credit in) two or more courses.
His own area expertise, printing and the graphic arts, offers intriguing possibilities such as integrating papermaking skills with chemistry.
?Most important? says Dr. Lipton, ?is that students see the relevance of academic subjects and understand how these skills are applicable in the real world.?
What Works
In many diverse subjects, core academic skills are being successfully integrated into CTE curricula. The advantage of this being done, when it is done well, is that career-oriented students may begin to appreciate the practical applications of academics and may improve in these areas as a result.
Teacher Becky Ayers at Jordan High School in Durham, N.C., has incorporated academic skills directly into her Animal Science and Biotech Research classes. For example, her biotech students write lab reports that demonstrate math skills, such as percentages and word problems. Math also comes into class with the use of measurements and conversions. Her animal science students create diets for animals, using math skills to balance rations.
Students also work on historical research projects, write papers on current topics and read supplemental materials such as The Hot Zone or Fast-Food Nation.
?Kids are surprised to read a popular book for an assignment in animal science?but they really like it,? says Ayers. Sometimes, an educational institution can help to foster integration between academic and CTE skills through its structure. For example, Mid-America Technology Center in Wayne, Okla., has hired math and science teachers to work directly with CTE teachers as a complement to the applied skills students are learning.
According to ACTE Health Occupations Education Division Vice President Gina Doyle?a practical nursing coordinator/instructor at Mid-America?this approach has worked in a number of interesting ways to incorporate academic skills into the teaching of nursing and biosciences.
?We find that many of our students need supplementation of academic skills,? says Doyle. ?But we also know that these students need to see real applications of such skills?not a theoretical approach.?
Doyle says that the practical result of working in partnership with science teacher Dan Cole is that students are better able to understand the scientific principles and limitations that influence the medical field. For example, last year in a high school pre-nursing course, students learned to build a skeletal joint that worked just like a real joint in that it was required to support weight and be moveable. This project integrated principles of physics and biology.
?It?s not a matter any more of students wondering, ?why do I need this?? When they do these projects, they see directly how to use the science in their chosen field,? says Doyle.
True Teaming
Dr. Wally Holmes Bouchillon, associate professor at the University of West Florida in the Division of Teacher Education-Special, Primary, and Career and Technical Education, has been involved with many schools where she has seen what she calls ?true teaming? between academic and CTE teachers.
She points to examples from the ?New Millennium Schools? effort in the state of Florida, where 10 secondary schools were selected in 1999 as having highly distinguished themselves through three main principles:
1) a challenging academic curriculum that demands a high level of achievement and assures a direct path through postsecondary education without the need for repetition or remediation;
2) a technical curriculum articulated with postsecondary education programs and invigorated by a strong linkage among schools, postsecondary education institutions and the local business sector; and
3) the power of a demonstrated return on investment in education.
The curriculum framework model designed for schools in Florida was based upon thorough research and identification of ?best practices? for each broad academic area. The frameworks for the career and technical programs and the academics had many common threads.
According to Dr. Bouchillon, integrating the ?real world-real life? context from applied technology provided a bridge in many secondary classrooms to motivate students to become more responsible for their own learning and success.
One of the notable characteristics of Florida?s millennium schools is that the faculty view themselves as members of curriculum teams with special skills which support each other and the students in their career and education goals. These schools were also successful because of committed administrative support.
Bouchillon says that barriers between academic and vocational programs have disappeared in most cases and been replaced by mutual respect for the contributions each makes to the full development and success of the students.
The article "Water, Water, Everywhere. Yet Do I Dare to Drinks?" by Dr. Bouchillon takes a look at one of these excellent schools. You can also check out the Florida Millennium High Schools on the Web at http://uwf.edu/pals.
Teaching Teachers
In recent years, a common educational trend has been to emphasize collaborative learning, promoting the concept of students working together in the classroom. However, according to many in the field, it is time to get even more teachers to think about collaborative teaching.
The process of career and technical educators teaming up with academic teachers can help to meet common goals and, ultimately, give students the best educational experience of all. According to Dr. Lipton, this is possible when teachers from various disciplines come to work together with mutual respect for one another. Unfortunately, there have been misperceptions in the past about the qualifications of CTE teachers versus academic subject teachers and this has been a stumbling block in true cooperation. However, this may well be changing as perceptions of CTE change.
One place to start to make this difference is in teacher training programs. At North Carolina State University (NCSU), for example, student teachers in agriculture carry out curriculum integration as part of their student teaching practicum in the field.
According to Dr. Beth Wilson of NCSU, pre-service teachers are more likely to conduct integration activities in their own programs if they practice the process during student teaching. For the past 15 years, Wilson, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences? Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, has been recognized for her approach of teaching agriculture as life science.
?All agriculture teachers naturally integrate science and other subjects into their program content,? says Wilson. ?However, we believe by conducting activities with other academic teachers the students become more aware of the application of academics in agriculture and vice versa.?
Such integrated activities have included team teaching, paired labs and switching classes. Wilson notes that many of the student teachers have undertaken some unique and outstanding integrated activities, such as Tara Runion at North Davidson High School, Lexington, N.C.
Runion conducted an animal science lab with a cooperating science teacher, integrating anatomy and physiology at the ninth and tenth grade levels. Students dissected and identified the parts of bovine digestion tracts, obtained from a local slaughterhouse. Runion used the tracts to teach and illustrate the ruminant digestive system; while the science teacher used the tracts to teach about different types of animal tissue.
Wilson lists other successful activities that teacher-students have conducted including: teaching the parts of the plant with plant processes such as respiration and photosynthesis; teaching about jobs in agriculture and learning to create a letter of application with an English teacher; teaching the history of agriculture with a U.S. history teacher; teaching land measurements with a geometry teacher; and teaching DNA extraction and analysis with an advanced biology teacher.
According to Wilson, integrated activities ?help students answer the old question ?Why do we need to learn this stuff?? and teachers learn from each other by sharing lessons, facilities and equipment. Integrating academics is a win-win situation for everyone involved.?
Technology Education: An Academic Subject in Its Own Right
The mission of technology education is to help students learn how to appropriately use, assess, and apply technology to make decisions effectively and contribute to a rapidly changing technological society.
According to Dr. Ethan Lipton of Cal State-Los Angeles, technology education may best be considered a core subject, along with reading, writing and mathematics. "Understanding and properly using technology is now a part of a student?s overall general education?a core skill," says Lipton.
Sandy Cutshall is a regular contributor to Techniques. She works as a writer/editor in Mountain View, California, where she also teaches adults English as a second language.
An example of excellence in integration and interdisciplinary education
By Dr. Wally Holmes Bouchillon
Career academies are not new in Florida. They can be found throughout the state in every possible locale. One rural career academy school with approximately 200 students, and a nine-year history, Jackson Academy of Applied Technology (JAAT) in Marianna, Florida, has modeled integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum activities that rival most others in the country.
In 2000, under the leadership of Principal Randy Free, Jackson Academy decided on a school-wide theme to be used in each of the five career academies and their academic teams. The integration theme centered around water (quality, quantity, accessibility and availability) has produced some great student and teacher experiences. Water quality, quantity, accessibility and availability is a theme that has been carried forward each year, offering different problems for student research.
Each of five career-focused academies, including criminal justice, art, technology, communications and health, career academy teachers to ensure their courses provided authentic activities that further improved the students? depth of understanding of the importance of water.
Mathematics and science teamed up with the environmental scientist on campus to conduct water experiments and write technical papers. The students in health, technology and other subjects studied every aspect of the Florida wetlands in their home county of Jackson, which has the Chipola River running through it. Students also interviewed old settlers to find out about ?yesterday?s? water problems and challenges and then wrote and performed plays, poems and essays related to water.
Curriculum interdisciplinary instruction took on a unique face as students and teachers thought of ways that water was important in their lives. Many of the water activities were student driven with the teachers coaching on the sidelines. Some of the projects and activities that students led included the research and input included in writing grants and obtaining funding for environmental water-related projects. The school has been able to secure at least one water-related grant every year since and has received several state and local honors and awards for its water initiative-driven projects.
Thus far, the students and teachers have brought in more than $50,000 in funding to be used in their water research and improvement projects. In one of their projects, students learned that the drinking water in Jackson County was the third MOST toxic in the state. They developed and expanded their partnerships with the community and state to study the problem and to come up with ways to improve the water.
Unexpected outcomes included the school being selected as a partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a data collection center. The students with their teachers reforested more than 40 acres of the wetlands around the Chipola River. They also planted more than 10,000 trees in the area wetlands in conjunction with the SunTrust Bank, local garden club, Department of Agriculture Conservation Service and Master Gardener program. The JAAT students studied water-related diseases, endangered species, landscaping, and built habitats for endangered species.
Communication arts created documentaries on different water-related activities and several short programs on the water-related projects. In addition, students taught other students in surrounding schools what they had learned through service-oriented presentations.
More than any other element, the tremendous partnerships and respect for the students and school through their community-based participation in providing service to their community have been amazing. The students have gained valuable lessons in life and the importance of being active in their community and protecting the environment.
Wally Holmes Bouchillon, Ph. D. is an associate professor in career and technical education at the University of West Florida. She has worked with the school as a mentor and coach on integrated learning for several years. She can be contacted at wholmesb@uwf.edu.
By George Vaites
Career and technical education (CTE) has enormous potential to develop the reading proficiency levels of its students. Significant strides toward this goal can be made through simple, yet fundamental, changes in teaching practices.
The decision to claim responsibility to improve the reading skills of students can be a difficult move for any program. Even more arduous, identifying a plan of action that addresses reading deficiencies can be downright perplexing. Ponder for a moment some of the available options that can be pursued.
The publishing market is a typical starting point. The lure of a ?research-based? program that guarantees success is nearly irresistible. A sales consultant who seemingly has the answers to the reading ills of your school is very enticing.
What about the latest software program that promises to customize practice to individual skill levels? Perhaps a 15- or 20-minute daily segment is all that is necessary to significantly improve your school?s test scores.
Undoubtedly, there are countless programs and remedial tools that are available for the purpose of improving reading skills. Learning about these choices can be a daunting task, while deciphering their claims of research (funny, they all seem to be successful) can be equally challenging. The issue, though, is not finding a prepackaged quick fix. Rather, what can be done differently in the CTE classroom to advance students toward reading proficiency?
The Value of Increased Reading Time
Increasing the amount of time students engage in reading during the school day is absolutely critical to any attempt at improving reading achievement. Before pursuing ?solutions,? administrators and teachers should first reflect on the volume of reading completed by their students.
Take a moment to consider the amount of time your students spend reading in a given day or in a one-week period. More likely than not, this time is miniscule and, in some cases, completely lacking. Can reading improvement honestly be expected in this scenario?
Developing the ability to read well can be compared to nearly any other skill or activity. A novice golfer will greatly improve his game by playing more golf. Culinary skills grow each time a new dish is prepared. Bands perfect a song by playing it repeatedly. Reading takes no exception.
While some CTE students falter with reading, most are able to decode basic text and apply effort toward comprehension. Above anything else, this group needs significant time to practice the skill of reading in order to move forward. Is there a better vehicle for this trip than the mere act of reading itself?
Richard Allington, a researcher from the University of Florida, discussed the strong connection between reading volume and reading achievement in his 2001 book entitled What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. In citing the Anderson, Wilson and Fielding study of 1988, he compared the number of minutes that fifth grade students read in a day to their scores on a reading achievement test. Impressively, those who read 40.4 minutes per day scored on the 90th percentile. Pupils who read 12.9 minutes per day fell on the 50th percentile. Finally, those students who read 1.6 minutes per day fell on the 10th percentile.
In this book, Allington states, ?Everyone has heard the proverb: Practice makes perfect. In learning to read it is true that reading practice?just reading?is a powerful contributor to the development of accurate, fluent, high-comprehension reading. In fact, if I were required to select a single aspect of the instructional environment to change, my first choice would be creating a schedule that supported dramatically increased quantities of reading during the school day.?
Many educators tend to overlook the correlation between reading achievement and the amount of reading volume. Instead, there appears to be an obsession with finding the one program that will magically turn around every non-proficient reading score with little inconvenience to the status quo. While the pursuit of this mythical anecdote will likely continue, it does not change the indisputable fact that most lower-achieving readers spend little time engaged in reading, and most higher-achieving readers do just the opposite. Acknowledging this, the first step to take on the path towards reading proficiency is to increase the quantity of student reading. The question of the day then, is how?
Literacy as a Tool For Learning
CTE teachers can substantially increase the volume of student reading by incorporating content literacy into the classroom. Content literacy, sometimes referred to as content area reading, uses the components of the reading process (reading, writing, listening and speaking) as tools for learning.
But why should a CTE teacher be concerned with content literacy? Simply put, it can be a powerful ally to educators who teach complex and highly technical concepts. When students read, write and communicate about their trades, vocabularies are significantly expanded and the scope of knowledge deepened. Integrated into the existing format of contextual learning, content literacy can feverishly aid the effort to become more academically rigorous.
A family and consumer sciences teacher, for example, needs to cover cognitive development as part of a child growth and development unit. Using content literacy, the teacher locates a relevant magazine article or textbook chapter for reading and uses this as a basis for instruction. However, the piece is not assigned for students to passively read. Instead, the teacher incorporates various writing, listening and speaking activities, which are integrated before, during and after the article is read. Greatly improving student learning, these methods also provide comprehension support to readers.
Content literacy, when done with quality, requires that readers are actively engaged with the text that is being presented. This is in stark contrast to the common method of utilizing reading in the secondary classroom. Typically, a reading assignment includes a textbook chapter along with corresponding lower-level questions.
The downside to the traditional assignment is significant. Most textbooks are at a higher readability level than their designated grade. Simply telling students to read a section without any instructional support will likely cause readers, even those who are more capable, to flounder. This often results in assignments that are incomplete or done with minimal effort. Here, teacher and student become utterly frustrated, and both derive little, if any, value from reading as an instrument for learning.
CTE teachers are not expected to transform into the reading specialist role and acquire additional duties as they implement content literacy. Instead, they capitalize on the benefits of active learning to improve student learning while simultaneously providing increased reading opportunities.
An Example of Content Literacy in a Machine Shop
Sitting among the hills of western Pennsylvania is Lenape Technical School, a comprehensive CTE program for juniors and seniors. The faculty of Lenape is diligently working to meet the needs of the student body, and included in this effort is a school-wide initiative to improve reading skills.
Todd Luke, a faculty member who has taught precision machining for 11 years, is one teacher who has embraced this effort. After encountering a professional development seminar conducted by Mark Forget of M.A.X. Teaching, Luke?s approach to instruction was dramatically changed. By listening to Forget?s message about the positive effects of content literacy strategies for both learning and reading, Luke was clearly inspired. When Forget modeled some of his ideas in a coaching visit, he was a born-again teacher.
Throughout the winter and spring months of the past school year, Luke toyed with the different reading and teaching methods he had discovered through M.A.X. Teaching. In a class period last May, he demonstrated his success by conducting a lesson where he taught a machining concept and also gave his students precious time to read.
During this period, Luke wanted his junior class to learn about tapers, or how to converge and hold metal together. Avoiding the temptation to first tell his students what they should know, Luke attempted to have his students grapple with the topic. He did this through a textbook chapter and the use of content literacy strategies.
?What do you know about tapers?? Luke asked his class in a serious tone. It is clear that he commanded respect from his students and exuded confidence in their abilities. Almost without hesitation, hands were raised and several students shared their knowledge. Luke recorded these statements in the first part of a K-W-L chart (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What I Learned).
The next phase of Luke?s lesson is what he refers to as a guided preview. Directions were given to skim through the chapter with the purpose of getting a sense for the major concepts and vocabulary to be presented. Students noted the headings, boldface print, and the different pictures and graphics. At times, Luke posed a question about a term and then demonstrated thinking skills by articulating his thoughts. Other times, students anxiously raised their hands to comment or question.
Energy was clearly buzzing in this machine shop as students discussed tapers. As a final step before reading, Luke asked the young men what they would like to learn while reading this chapter. After recording their responses in the middle section of the K-W-L chart, Luke instructed them to read with the purpose of finding the answers to the class?s questions.
Luke had essentially placed a roadmap in front of his students to use while proceeding through the text. This action cannot be overstated as an effective reading and teaching method. For readers, especially those who are weak, this is one of many support mechanisms that will be offered during the lesson to guide reading comprehension as well as content acquisition.
Each student read the chapter silently. However, Luke broke this into segments according to the sections of the chapter. At each interval, students paused to reflect on the material that had just been read. Working in pairs, one student verbally summarized the section while the other listened critically to ensure understanding had taken place for both parties. Students were encouraged to reread the passage for clarification if necessary. After each segment, the roles of listener and speaker were reversed.
Luke proactively moved around the room, monitored conversation, and even answered a question or two. Like a conductor of an orchestra, he merely provided the tempo for the class to follow. The music?or learning?was being performed by the students.
As the class finished the assigned reading, Luke revisited the K-W-L chart and elicited responses for the What I Learned section. Students offered answers to the questions that were originally asked by the class. A few additional thoughts were offered as well.
As a closure, students were given five minutes to write a summary on tapers. The purpose of this task was for them to convey what they knew and what they learned during the exercise. Writing had to be neat and punctuation correct, though the focus was clearly on content. If necessary, the textbook could be consulted. When completed, the assignment was collected and evaluated.
Luke?s lesson represents the foundation of what is known as content literacy. During this period he thoroughly covered an important concept from his curriculum through reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. By taking this route, student learning was greatly enhanced while reading comprehension was fostered. Furthermore, students were given precious time to practice the skill of reading.
As student John Rehak testified, ?I hate to read. I used to never read anything. Now I can read something and get more out of it.?
Additional Thoughts and Challenges
In addition to increased student reading through content literacy, there are other issues and challenges of particular importance that should be a part of any initiative to improve reading skills.
Providing teachers with a broad overview of the reading process is paramount. The purpose here is to help teachers become more efficient with the use of content literacy. For example, knowledge that comprehension occurs before, during and after reading is essential to the successful use of content literacy.
A challenge that must be tackled is the type of reading material found in the classroom, and its respective reading level. Students benefit little from text that is too difficult or at their frustration level. To combat this, teachers can make the effort to build classroom libraries that consist of various written work. Magazines, newspapers and trade publications are all possible options. Here an emphasis is placed on locating documents that differ in reading level as well as attract student interest.
CTE can play a significant role in moving students toward reading proficiency. Indeed, there are numerous considerations to make when pursuing this goal and developing a school-wide plan. However, the foundation of proficient reading scores is built on the amount of time students spend reading. For an impact to be made in the context of CTE, reading must become an integral part of the learning process. This can be accomplished in large part through content literacy. George Vaites recently completed a master?s program in reading at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. As part of his studies, he also completed an internship for the state education department?s Bureau of Career and Technical Education. In this role, he assisted with the Improving Literacy Through Career and Technical Education initiative. A former elementary school teacher, he is currently pursuing a doctorate with an emphasis in language and literacy at the Pennsylvania State University.
Books and Professional Development Resources
Professional Development Contacts
Dr. Mark Forget
www.maxteaching.com
6857 T.R. 215 Findlay, Ohio 45840
Phone #: 404-441-7008
Penn Literacy Network
www.gse.upenn.edu/pln/
Graduate School of Education
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6216
Recommended Books
What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, by Richard L. Allington; ISBN #: 0-321-06396-1; Copyright 2001; Published by Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.
Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who? (2nd Edition), by Rachel Billmeyer and Mary Lee Barton; ISBN #: 1-893476-05-7; Copyright 2002; Published by McREL.
As the evidence comes in, it may be building a strong case for tech prep.
By Susan Reese, Techniques Contributing Editor
Since 1985, when Dale Parnell, ?the father of tech prep,? wrote The Neglected Majority, tech prep has become another important element in career and technical education?s mission to prepare a skilled workforce for America. Parnell?s concept included applied learning programs, blended secondary and postsecondary programs of study, and emphasized math, science, communications and technology.
Career and technical education has diverse educational pathways for students to follow, and programs such as tech prep and career academies have helped to define those pathways while also helping to raise the academic achievement of career tech students.
But perhaps the most important result of the establishment of tech prep consortia is the marked increase in the number of articulation agreements between secondary and postsecondary institutions.
The 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act reinforced the tech prep model, and the 1998 Perkins reauthorization provided further support for articulation of tech prep programs with postsecondary education.
Now we are in an age of even greater accountability, when documented results are in continual demand. So, exactly what can an exemplary tech prep program accomplish? Is it possible to provide students with both a strong academic background and highly desirable technical skills? Can it encourage students to not only stay in school and complete their secondary education, but go on to postsecondary training as well? Could tech prep even help raise scores on standardized tests? Although considerable amounts of data are not easily found, some has been produced that helps make the case for tech prep and its role in education reform.
Gathering Data
Kathy Jo Elliott, 2002-2003 ACTE president, is tech prep director with the Georgia Department of Education. She notes that CORD?which founded and operates the National Tech Prep Network?has done some work in this area, but she acknowledges that more educators and institutions involved in tech prep should probably be working to build more definitive data and statistics.
Dan Hull, president and CEO of CORD, reports that his organization has recently been contracted by the U.S. Department of Education?s Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) to search out exemplary practices and showcase them. They have developed criteria for a Technical Programs of Study Clearinghouse.
According to National Tech Prep Network (NTPN) Executive Director David Bond, ?The criteria we will be using are similar to tech prep.? This includes transition from secondary to postsecondary, partnerships with businesses, and Technical Programs of Study, which Bond says is the new term being used by OVAE to designate a career path such as information technology or health sciences.
Bond points out that, ?NTPN is not a government agency so no one is required to send data; they do so voluntarily.?
He comments that sometimes it?s important to show what a successful tech prep program is and does. ?It?s not always successful, because it?s not always done right. If you?re not doing the proper research, finding career paths or teaching contextually, then it?s not going to be successful.? He adds that, ?You can put a label on something, but it doesn?t necessarily make it true?or successful.?
Bond agrees with Elliott that documentation is important in making the case for tech prep. ?It?s not just about success; it?s about how you document success,? he says. ?And now, with the No Child Left Behind legislation, if you don?t have data, you might end up not having funding for your program.?
Hull points out that many of the elements of tech prep were incorporated into the last reauthorization of Perkins, and that one thing tech prep was licensed to do was to promote more enrollments in community and technical colleges.
That seems to have happened in Georgia. ?Our enrollment numbers in the technical colleges in Georgia have dramatically increased,? notes Elliott. ?I think tech prep has done that. Tech prep was meant to raise career and technical education to the next level, and I think it has also done that.?
?Tech prep has really served as a change agent for CTE,? says Hull. ?Tech prep is not a big piece of the Perkins legislation, and Congress set it up to measure progress like it?s a second track. But if you look anywhere in the country and see courses set up as tech prep, they will have all kinds of students in them.?
It?s often difficult to even determine the actual number of students enrolled in tech prep (See ?Counting Tech Prep Students? by Elisabeth Barnett in the January 2002 issue of Techniques), and Elliott says, ?There?s not been a true, solid definition of tech prep and tech prep students.?
She points out that tech prep and the principles behind it fit in with some of the data from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) on High Schools That Work. ?Some key practices in High Schools That Work hold true to tech prep,? says Elliott. ?Tech prep also establishes high expectations, and because of increased opportunities, students gain the confidence to go on to postsecondary education.?
With the articulation between secondary and postsecondary institutions that is inherent in tech prep, students find that they can not only enroll in college-level courses, but they can succeed in them.
Anecdotal Evidence
When Elliott attended a meeting of the tech prep coordinators for the 37 tech prep consortia in Georgia, one topic of discussion was the role of the tech prep coordinator. ?They felt they were the liaison between secondary and postsecondary institutions and in bringing the community together,? says Elliott. She thinks that is perhaps the best thing about tech prep. ?It establishes partnerships and collaboration between institutions?high schools, technical colleges, universities?and with business and industry as well as with the community.?
Bond recently spoke about tech prep to a group of educators and businesspeople at a meeting in Washington State and relates this story.
?Somebody there said to me, ?It?s all about higher test scores, so what do you have to prove that?? I told him that when students get turned on to education because they?re interested in a particular field?like automotive technology or computer technology?then they?re more motivated to come to school. Then I asked, ?Do you think the student who comes to school will have higher test scores than the one who drops out???
Bond also sees teachers who are more excited about teaching since they became involved in tech prep. ?If teachers are more turned on to teaching, and students are more turned on to learning, something good has to come out of it.?
He admits that much of the evidence is anecdotal, but adds that, ?Most people in tech prep can tell you a story about a teacher or student whose life has been turned around.?
Documented Results
The Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium (MVTPC) in Ohio works with 58 area high schools covering a seven-county area. The programs emphasize mathematics, science, communication and technology, as well as hands-on learning, workplace experience, critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork. It is described by its director, Ron Kindell, as ?a fairly large consortium, both geographically and numerically, with close to 3,000 students.?
At MVTPC, they have done some studies that indicate this is a program with positive results. ?Performance of Tech Prep and Non-Tech Prep Students in Select Courses, 2001? is from the Office of Institutional Planning & Research at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. The study examined whether tech prep students perform differently than non-tech prep students in select courses at Sinclair Community College. The analysis showed that tech prep students did perform better than their classmates in some areas. The studies included general population students, so these results can be seen as positive for the field of career and technical education.
Among the findings: Business and engineering tech prep students received higher grades in English composition and elementary algebra and had higher overall cumulative GPAs than their non-tech prep classmates. Allied health tech prep students earned ?significantly better? grades in allied health mathematics and human biology than the non-tech prep students in those classes. It also noted that, with the exception of one course, the withdrawal rates were ?considerably lower? for tech prep students compared to non-tech prep students.
Also from the Office of Institutional Planning & Research at Sinclair Community College is ?Tech Prep: Pathways to Success? The Performance of Tech Prep and Non-Tech Prep Students at a Midwestern Community College? by Donna J. Krile and Penelope Parmer. This study found that, ?When compared to classmates who did not participate in a Tech Prep program prior to enrolling at Sinclair, Tech Prep students had higher entry assessment scores, were less likely to need remedial mathematics, were more likely to receive a passing grade in their first college-level math courses, and were more likely to be retained one year after their initial term of entry.?
While both of these studies are encouraging and offer positive indications for tech prep, both acknowledge that further research needs to be done.
In Ohio, tech prep is jointly managed by the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Board of Regents, and Kindell says, ?We are really quite fortunate with the resources we have been given.?
But he also points out that tech prep can differ widely from state to state. As he puts it, ?We have 50 different flavors of tech prep in this country.?
That adds another degree of difficulty in tracking and documenting the benefits of tech prep. But Kindell believes tech prep has done much to boost career and technical education in Ohio. ?In this state,? he says, ?tech prep has been of tremendous value to the career tech system because it is attracting an additional demographic to career and technical education.?
Sinclair Community College now offers a tech prep scholarship, which is a $3,000 merit-based award that goes to a student who completes the high school program, transitions into Sinclair and remains in the career path he or she started in high school.
Kindell sees this as another positive result of a good high school and college partnership. ?The college is committed to it,? says Kindell, ?because tech prep at Miami Valley is producing a perfect demographic for the college. It?s a demographic with a higher level of motivation, preparation and retention.?
More Positive Indications
Another study that produced positive results for tech prep students came out of Texas. ?A Comparison of Selected Outcomes of Secondary Tech Prep Participants and Non-Participants in Texas? is a five-year analysis that compared 10th through 12th grade students participating in tech prep, not just with other career tech students, but also with general population students. The tech prep students had slightly higher annual attendance rates, and lower dropout rates, and in their senior year, the tech prep students had slightly higher graduation rates. According to Carrie Brown, the director of the Texas State Leadership Consortium for P-16 Partnership, more recent statistics show that the percentage of tech prep students completing college preparatory plans has increased significantly.
Brown says that the biggest issue in producing documentation has been the identification of tech prep students at the postsecondary level. The technical colleges in Texas operate independently and the intake process varies widely from school to school; however, articulation agreements have flourished in Texas, and Brown notes that there were so many that they have transitioned into statewide articulation.
Like most tech prep professionals, she believes in the postsecondary component, but also believes that does not mean every student should be in a college prep program that eliminates career and technical education courses and leads straight to a four-year university. The fact that a number of the students in Texas community colleges already have baccalaureate degrees offers evidence that courses teaching technical skills are an important part of education that should not be eliminated in a push to send every student down the same purely academic path.
If tech prep can improve postsecondary preparation in Ohio and increase retention rates in Texas, then it probably can?and does?achieve similar results in other states. Hopefully, the body of evidence will be further documented and presented, thus making an effective case for tech prep. It will also offer further proof that career and technical education can play a role in leaving no child behind; therefore career and technical education should not be left behind when it comes to school reform and school funding.
Resources for Tech Prep Statistics
The following are resources and studies for further exploration.
Sandy LaBelle, the author of Teaching Smarter, returns this month with her fourth September article for Techniques. We hope these ideas help you begin your new school year with new ways to reduce teacher stress and fatigue and increase student responsibility.
By Sandy LaBelle
Our young adults do not see very far into the future. Two of their frequently asked questions go something like, ?Why do we have to do this? How is this going to benefit me?? Responding how it will be good for them in their adult lives does not seem to motivate them.
How to Increase Students? Desire to Complete Work and do Makeup Work Promptly
I?m going to share with you what works for me. However, it may require you to think differently. Ready? Change the focus of tests. After all, where does the learning take place? That?s right, in the daily work. If we can think of a way to get students to do their daily work with a concern for accuracy, the learning will increase. So, rather than using tests to check on the learning, use the test as a reward for the daily work.
All reward-for-daily-work tests are matching and fill-in-the-blanks. The questions are taken directly from the daily work. Students are allowed to use anything in their handwriting as a reference during the test. Tests are timed, one minute for each question. So, a 20-question test will be allowed 20 minutes. (My special education students have the option of finishing before or after school, or with their special education teacher.)
By amending tests in this way, there is a clear and immediately important reason for why work should be completed?and completed correctly?before test day. For the first time ever, I actually have students making corrections to their papers. The tests are easy to correct, so I can quickly give feedback, which is valuable for the continued on-time completion of papers. Tests are given about every two weeks.
So now if a student says, ?Man, I flunked Mrs. LaBelle?s test,? there is no compassion from the peers. Do you know how nice it is to hear the other students say, ?All you have to do is the daily work. What did you do, nothing??
The unsuccessful student then says something like, ?Hey, I had to work 40 hours last week and I didn?t sleep well, so I couldn?t concentrate on school.?
Now we are getting someplace. You see, as long as the mean old teacher can be blamed, the student is angry at the teacher and feels helpless. Now the student knows she or he is responsible and therefore she or he can be in control of change. The next test?s outcome depends on the student?s choices, not the mean teacher.
Responsibility Moving-Overmanship is a Sweet Thing!
With the reward-for-daily-work test, I know what I am testing. ?Did you do your daily work, did you correct it, and can you re-access the information?? These are school-to-work skills.
Test points comprise half the student?s grade in my class. In addition to the reward-for-daily-work tests, I assign ?test points? for reports, speeches and the occasional essay questions. If there is a real need for an essay test, make it a separate test from the reward-for-daily-work test. I?m not saying, ?Make all your test points a reward-for-daily-work,? but do include this type of test and I guarantee you will see an improvement in the quality of daily work and the quantity of daily work completed on a timely basis (or made up quickly in the case of an absence). Students become concerned because it will immediately affect their grades. And that?s about how far ahead some of our young adults can see?immediately!
Use a Grid to Show the Students? Test Results
When I return tests, I make a chart on the overhead that tallies class scores by letter grade. If I have more than one class of the same subject, I chart the results for all classes on one piece of plastic. This really helps me, because I can see at a glance how the whole group of students taking, for example, earth science is doing on the tests. If the reward-for-daily-work test system is implemented, grades will typically cluster around the A-B range or the D-F range, with very few C grades. Either students do the work and do well on the test, or they don?t do the work and do poorly on the test.
In the ?old way,? I would return tests and discuss them. Then the students who did poorly would gripe that the test was too hard, and all their buddies would agree. I would be on the defensive, and the students who did well would not speak up (you know, ?The Code?). By charting the results with no names attached, students can easily see where their scores fit into the totals for all students taking the test.
The Importance of In-Class Breaks
In the longer class periods many of us now experience, I have found it advantageous to structure an ?in-class break? into my schedule. My breaks are usually five minutes in length. There is a specific start time and a specific end time written on the overhead (write it down, write it down?they have to see it).
It?s amazing the difference a break can make. Students will watch the clock and continue working (or ?hold out?) for the break. We cannot stop students from taking a break during a long class period. The reality is, we can either structure a break, or students will take one on their own. I guarantee that students will not all take their breaks together on their own! First the group in the back right corner will begin talking off task, then the one in the other corner, and then?well, you get the idea. If you?re like most of us, you?ve lived this scene before.
During the in-class five-minute break, students may use the restroom, or just chat quietly, or get up and walk around the room. Most of my students get out of their seats and quietly talk among themselves. This is the appropriate opportunity for students to check grades or talk privately with me. (This ?opportunity? is handy to mention if we get the parent phone call that says Oglethorp never had time to find out his missing assignments?responsibility moving-overmanship.) It is also a nice time for me to gather my thoughts for the second half of the period or to take a deep breath or two.
How to Have Students Aware of Their Grades at Any Time and How to Make Them Aware of All Assignments That Make up Their Grades
The computer is a wonderful thing, and I know many of us use them for figuring grades. Please consider this. The computer can make our lives easier, but are we also using the computer combined with responsibility moving-overmanship? I have seen many teachers move into the computer age but maintain the same level of teacher responsibility. If we are to prepare students for the world of work, or the world of college or the world of life beyond school, we need to help them take responsibility. Sometimes, with the best of intentions for helping students, we are enabling them into total dependence on us. That?s not good for them, and it?s not good for us.
With that philosophy in mind, think about this. If all the grades are in the computer, and any time a student wants to know his or her grade, you have to access the program and give them a printout, who is responsible? If Mom or Dad says, ?Oglethorp, did you find out your grade in Mrs. LaBelle?s class today?? is Oglethorp in a position to say, ?I asked Mrs. LaBelle, and she didn?t give it to me?? If the answer is yes, there is a better way. You guessed it? responsibility moving-overmanship.
In my class, students are given a form I call the Personal Grade Book (PGB). This is just a piece of brightly colored paper with lines on it. In my classes, 50 percent of a student?s grade is the daily work (another encouragement to do the daily work?and a place where they have a lot of control over their grades), and 50 percent of the grade is test grades (this is made up of daily-work-reward tests, essay tests, presentations or anything else I want to give ?test importance? to). A vertical line is drawn down the middle of the page?one-half for daily work scores, one-half for the test scores.
Each time student papers are returned or a test grade is shared, I put a plastic sheet on the overhead showing my copy of what their PGB should look like. I tell them, ?These are the total scores possible in my grade book at this time. If someone were to ask what your grade is at this time, these are the scores I would base my answer on.?
With this method, no student has a right to act surprised at his or her grade. Even students who refuse to fill out their own PGBs have seen what they are responsible for on the overhead. If students want to compare their numbers with mine, they must first show me a completed PGB form with their scores entered. I keep extra blanks available, so if they ?lost? or ?left the PGB at home,? they can recopy it from a friend or from my plastic. Be very consistent here. Your ?responsibility resistant? student will try many times to get out of accountability. I have found that some students are very comfortable with having the teacher responsible, and it takes some ?cornering? and ?encouragement? to get them to buy into self-dependence. Keep in mind that some of our young friends are natural experts at shifting responsibility?but we are older and smarter!
Remember, workers know what the manager expects?but they also know what is really valued is what the manager inspects?so inspect the PGB often.
Other Uses for the Personal Grade Book
The PGB is also very handy when a parent wants to support me but has no idea what assignments the student has missed. In the past, I would sometimes feel I was putting more effort into certain students? work than they were! With the PGB, the student has to bring me a copy of his or her completed PGB. I will then highlight the assignments that are missing. Some students are very resistant, but eventually they realize, ?I might as well do this. If I don?t, Mrs. LaBelle will make me do even more work to make it up.?
Parents have been very supportive of this method, and I don?t have to be involved for more than about one minute?just enough time to highlight. By highlighting, I am not saying the student did not do the work; I am saying the work was not turned in. The highlighting also is a nice way for parents to see how much work is not highlighted, and thus they can also see the work that has been done, rather than just focusing on what has not been done.
I encourage students to keep their papers, not only for the tests, but also because, if my grade book does not show a paper?s score, and the student is sure it was done, the student simply shows me the paper. There is no way I will remember a paper on a day from a student. I make sure to share this fact with students early in the course. ?Keep your papers until you are SURE you will not need them.? I never collect notebooks, because different learning styles have different ways of accessing information. However, students quickly see the benefit of keeping papers where they can access them. This is a school-to-life skill. Those who cannot find papers in the home or at the office are in a world of hurt. With all the paperwork that comes to our work and our homes, there is no way we can remember it all. We are doing our students a great favor if they learn how to handle paperwork in a way that makes sense to them.
Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a concept I cover in the first day or two of each class. Sleep deprivation has become such a national problem one sees it featured in numerous national articles (Oprah devoted a whole show to it). In America, we have so much to fill our days.
Back when computers were first becoming popular, we were assured the computer would make our lives simpler. WELL, it didn?t quite work out that way! I once read that the average American receives more information in one day than the pioneers got in one year. Add to that the use of pagers and cell phones and it gets a little crazy. What happened to ?down time?? In order to get everything done, we only have one place to get more time. We rob from sleep time.
Students need to know the symptoms of sleep deprivation. They need to know the symptoms are slow to come on and slow to go away. We need to know it too. It is important for us all to know that maybe everyone else is not irritating; maybe we are just sleep deprived and irritable! I have not found that awareness reduces the number of people who are robbing from their sleep time. However, it does make a difference in how students and teachers react to deprivation symptoms.
I make a short formal presentation to my students the first day of school. Here are the two plastic sheets I put on the overhead:
Sleep Deprivation
- Have you had less than enough sleep for two weeks or more?
- Can you fall asleep in 10 minutes or less in the middle of the day?
A Short-Time Solution for a Long-Time Problem
- Young adults need 8-10 hours of sleep per night (more if they are in a sport or working out).
- One cannot ?make up? the lost sleep in a weekend.
Symptoms
- Impatient
- Irritable
- Less Logical
- Memory Dysfunction
When presenting these overheads, be sure to cover up the data and then uncover one part at a time. This keeps students focused on just what you are talking about.
One of the tests for sleep deprivation is, ?Can you fall asleep in 10 minutes or less in the middle of the day?? This question usually brings comments like, ?Oh no, I?ve got it!??as if it?s a disease. I guess in a way it is an American epidemic.
I have found that students are less reluctant to write reminders to themselves like, ?Test?Earth Science?Wednesday on Chapter 12,? if they feel it is because of sleep deprivation, rather than thinking writing it down implies they are too stupid to remember.
If we are all aware of the signs of sleep deprivation, at least we will realize we are seeing the world through tired eyes, and not how the world may really be. We also can take comfort in the fact that it may not always have to be this way. There is a cure. The cure is ample sleep for at least two weeks in a row. That?s why we feel so much more balanced about two weeks after school is out for the summer.
Use a Separate Manila Folder to Hold the Papers for Each Class.
One of the best ways I?ve found to organize paperwork is to keep a file folder for each class in the classroom on my desk. Inside the folder, I staple a class seating chart and notes from parents, as well as other important papers for just that class.
That way, things may go crazy during the ?doing? of the class period, but I at least have all the period-three papers in the period-three folder. I can sort the papers later. I rarely lose a paper with this method. To keep it obvious?during the sometimes-hectic times?I take a large permanent marker and label the front, back and tab of the folder. If you can use colored folders, all the better.
Epilog
It has been a great blessing to have an opportunity to share ideas with you over the last three Septembers. Your e-mails and notes on how Teaching Smarter ideas have impacted your classrooms have inspired me. Thank you for sharing, and please continue. Together, we can help keep teachers in classrooms doing a quality job?while also having a life outside the classroom.
In my four articles, I?ve shared 28 ideas designed to be easy to implement and to reduce your stress and fatigue. I hope these ideas have also served as a ?jumping-off point? for more ideas of your own. I know your wonderful teacher creativity can take it from here.
Sandy LaBelle has been teaching workshops and seminars to districts and state conferences for the last several years. She has also presented and keynoted at national conventions. Her first book, Teaching Smarter, was published in 1999, and her second book will debut at the five-day ?Teaching Smarter Seminar? in July of 2004. If you would like to order book one, get information about the seminar or arrange for a presentation, visit www.teachingsmarter.net or call 253-630-2907.
At a Massachusetts high school, a career and technical education teacher is working with other teachers at the school to create projects that bring scientific theories and principles to life.
By Steve Smith, Technology Coordinator and Robotics Instructor at Newburyport High School, and Susan Reese, Techniques Contributing Editor
Over the past few years, schools have responded to one budget crisis after another by cutting programs and shifting priorities. Steve Smith, a long-time technology education teacher watched with disappointment while his school, like many others, reduced or eliminated industrial arts classes such as carpentry, plumbing and automotive technology. To a certain extent, these moves have made sense. As high school has increasingly become a preparatory step on the path to higher education rather than an end in itself, high schools have shifted away from vocational apprenticeships programs.
Smith, who is now a technology coordinator and robotics teacher at Newburyport High School in Newburyport, Massachusetts, feels the educational shift handicaps students?and not just the kids who might have used the technology courses as a means of finding or learning a trade. He thinks that some students learn best by doing?putting theory into practice?which is exactly why curriculum in the sciences has laboratory work done in conjunction with the conceptual work done in the classroom.
Difficult concepts that are hard to master on paper can often be easily understood kinesthetically, by touching, feeling, manipulating and thinking. Smith also argues that the concept behind shop classes?finding out how things work through designing, testing and building?is at the heart of what stimulates the minds of young engineers-to-be, spurring these students to become engineers for life.
According to Smith, hands-on work captivates the students and holds their attention in a way that book learning cannot duplicate. So for Smith, who sits on the Massachusetts Board of Education?s Technology and Engineering Advisory Board, the question became: faced with cuts in technology education programs, how do you still give kids that vital hands-on experience?
In part, the answer is virtual shop classes. Smith realized that, if he could not use traditional hands-on methodology, he could use a technological equivalent?3D computer-aided design.
A Source of Support
For help, Smith turned to the Design and Technology in Schools Program sponsored by PTC, a Needham, Massachusetts-based software company that makes computer-aided design (CAD) technology. During a free two-day teacher-training program sponsored by PTC, Smith learned how to use a 3D design program called Pro/DESKTOP and received instruction on how to integrate Pro/DESKTOP into his school?s curriculum. Using 3D computer-aided design software programs like PTC?s Pro/DESKTOP, students can use the computer to make a 3D representation of any physical object.
At the end of the training session, PTC gave Smith free unlimited seat licenses to its 3D computer-aided design software package, Pro/DESKTOP (worth about $200,000 to Newburyport High School), course materials and, according to Smith, all of the help and support that he needed to introduce Pro/DESKTOP into the classroom.
Smith was so excited by the program that he asked the school?s physics teacher, Ken Cole, to take the teacher-training program as well. For the past few years, Cole has been teaching a physics session where his students designed and built their own catapults. In physics class, students learned about the theory behind launch angles, mass, force and acceleration, and they put their theories into practice, manufacturing catapults from scrap wood, duct tape and other odds and ends.
Armed with Pro/DESKTOP, Smith and Cole created a blended academic program where the students would learn the theories behind catapult design in Cole?s physics class and create 3D models of their catapults using Pro/DESKTOP in Smith?s robotics class, where they would also build the completed models.
?Sometimes there is no substitute for hands-on learning,? says Newburyport Superintendent Mary Murray. ?The robotics class does an excellent job in bridging the gap between theoretical physics and the actual application of those concepts. The keystone in the bridge is Pro/DESKTOP. By designing the robotics projects in 3D, the students can produce and see a visual representation of the machines that they are about to build.?
For ideas on how to build their catapults, Smith and Cole had the students begin by doing research on the Internet. Simultaneously, Cole taught the students the physics concepts behind the catapults. With the groundwork for good catapult design firmly in place, Smith had the students use Pro/DESKTOP to fashion 3D models of their designs.
?Previously, shop classes were designed so that kids could help out around the house,? says Smith. ?In this program, we use 3D computer-aided design classes to teach students advanced math and physics concepts, like simple machines, mechanical advantage, related mathematics and best of all, problem solving.?
Last year, the catapults were assembled using Lego?s plastic rods, epoxy and Plexiglas, milled by the students. This year, the base for the catapults was built with microprocessors from stampsinclass.com and materials machined with CNC milling equipment. In December, the high school received a new CNC milling machine, donated in part by a Newburyport Education Business Coalition.
Smith thinks the machine will make the milling and assembly process even easier, because the new machine can electronically enter the student?s 3D design files into the milling machine computer, and based on this data, the machine can cut out complex curves necessary to manufacture the catapult?s components. As Cole points out, anyone can build a catapult, but making it perform in a specific way is a lot more difficult.
In addition to learning basic design and engineering skills, Smith says that the catapult program teaches the students team-building skills. ?With this project, the students, who are working in groups of four, have to interact with each other,? Smith explains. ?They learn how to work as a team to get the job done.?
Students can also team up on other projects. The robotics course at Newburyport High School is now a one-semester course, but if students want to continue with learning about the subject, Smith gives them a project to do. Currently he has a student who is working on converting Pro/DESKTOP files for use in the milling machine. She is working with another student who is interested in taking robotics.
Smith notes that he has had a lot of girls in his previous classes?robotics is one area of technology that does tend to draw in more female students. But, he says, ?We are always campaigning to get more girls in class.?
He apparently has offered plenty of inspiration to at least one young woman?his own daughter, who is now in engineering school.
Launching Into the Future
Smith?s robotics engineering program is still very young, but it is growing quite well. Last year, the program had 20 students; this year, enrollment has tripled and he is looking for ways to add to the curriculum.
?One of our goals is that, as the program matures, we would like to bring the art teacher in more for the visual aspects,? notes Smith. Therefore, next year, Smith and Cole plan to work with the Newburyport High School art teacher, Michelle Walker, to help the students learn how to incorporate visually appealing elements into the catapult?s design.
In freshmen physics classes, students develop a water wheel project. Using Dixie cups, Styrofoam plates, duct tape and a dowel, the challenge is to construct a water wheel to lift the greatest mass, with a lab developed around the project that involves doing energy calculations. Cole says that honors-level students are learning Pro/DESKTOP to bring the project to the level of being done by computer.
Smith and Cole are still looking at more ways to benefit their students through their cooperative teaching. ?We?re right at the beginning of this,? says Cole. ?As a result of changes in our Science and Engineering Technology program, we?ve begun to offer a freshmen introduction to physics first, then slowly institute chemistry in sophomore year and biology in junior year. Then we can come back to physics and other electives in senior year.?
Support for the program has come from many sources, Smith notes?from the school itself as well as the Newburyport Education and Business Coalition, whose board is composed of teachers, school department administrators and local business people. He attributes much of the credit to a supportive school system administration and the training he received from PTC.
?I can?t say enough about how PTC has supported our program every inch of the way,? says Smith. ?It?s a real, genuine outreach from the business community to the education community.?
By continuing their own training, by connecting academics with career and technical education, and by finding solid sources of support for their programs, the teachers at Newburyport High School have found a way to catapult their students into success.
In a Virginia city school system, academics and career and technical education are working together to achieve a common goal.
By Susan Reese, Techniques Contributing Editor
In the public school system of Chesapeake, Virginia, career and technical education is not sitting on the sidelines when it comes to meeting the state standards for student achievement. Academics and career tech have been working together well in the city?s academic tech prep program, and now the Standards of Learning (SOL) are being integrated into the program as well.
SOL is the Virginia K-12 school reform that includes testing, accountability and a school performance report card. The academic areas included in the Virginia Standards of Learning are English (reading, literature, research and writing), mathematics, history and social studies (including geography, civics and economics), science, and computer technology.
A course developed by Assistant Principal of Deep Creek Middle School Jannette Edwards with state funds is set up to train teachers on how to integrate SOL into all subject areas, including career and technical education. There is no cost to the teachers, who also receive a one-hour college credit for the course.
At the ACTE convention in Las Vegas this past December, a group of educators from the Chesapeake Public Schools gave a presentation on the integration of the academic standards of SOL into their tech prep program. In addition to Edwards, the group included Robert Head, program administrator for career and technical education, and James Rayfield, the director of secondary curriculum and instruction.
They noted in their presentation that the overall goal of the teacher training is to ?combine challenging academic content and up-to-date technical and career education studies to raise the achievement of students.?
CTE Teachers Do Their Part
The resources used in the training course include Chesapeake Public Schools curriculum guides and teacher resource guides that contain essential knowledge, skills and processes.
Since the state was helping localities with training for teachers in integrating the academics involved in SOL into their curricula, Head says, ?We used the funds to make sure CTE teachers were not left out of this process.?
It was a two-year process, but all of the CTE teachers have now taken the training. Among the positive results already being noted: a rise in student test scores in English, math and history.
According to Head, another benefit is that core teachers and career and technical education teachers see how they can work together in raising the level of student academic achievement. ?The core teachers have felt that all of the pressure was on them, but now they see that the CTE teachers can help make connections for kids because they have concrete activities to connect to academics,? he says. ?And the CTE teachers now feel more a part of this.?
Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Rayfield also praises the training the teachers received, calling it the crucial component that showed everyone was taking responsibility for meeting the SOLs.
?We also heard many positive remarks from all of the CTE teachers,? says Rayfield. ?They said it was valuable time spent.?
Statistics confirm that the time was indeed well spent, since the academic achievement of the students improved according to the Standards of Learning end-of-course tests. In the 2001-2002 school year, the passing rates of students enrolled in career and technical education courses at Chesapeake Public Schools had improved dramatically since the 1999-2000 school year. In English, 73.83 percent passed, compared to 67.77 percent in 1999-2000. The passing rate for mathematics in 2001-2002 was 67.07 percent; while in 1999-2000, it was only 47.37 percent. History had a passing rate of 71.65 percent in 2001-2002 compared to 46.88 percent in 1999-2000. In science, 71.76 percent of the career tech students passed, as compared to 66.80 percent in 1999-2000.
Academics and Career Tech
Rayfield has observed the way career and technical education benefits the Chesapeake students with workforce skills?and the way it is now being used to help their academic progress.
?In one of our marketing education courses on travel and tourism, the instructor incorporated geography skills, and that has become very successful in several of our high schools.?
He also cites a principles of technology course that supports science curricula. ?We have more students taking physics because of that course,? he notes. ?The hands-on component is the hook that gets them inspired to go on to take physics and to excel in it.?
As a former guidance counselor, Rayfield appreciates the focus the Chesapeake program has brought to eighth and ninth graders when it comes to selecting their high school electives.
?In the past, some students just haphazardly picked electives,? he says, ?but tech prep has focused them on their selections.?
The Chesapeake Public School division is the sixth largest in Virginia and still growing. It has six high schools and 10 middle schools?with more than 10,000 students enrolled in more than 100 career and technical education courses. According to Rayfield, enrollment in career and technical education in Chesapeake public schools has continued to increase, and the number of students who complete the tech prep program there has also grown.
The Chesapeake academic tech prep program is offered at all Chesapeake high schools as well as the Chesapeake Center for Science and Technology. The courses of study include the gold academic tech prep sequence, in which students must complete the requirements for an advanced studies diploma (24 credits). Students may pursue the gold academic tech prep sequence in either business and marketing, engineering and technical, health and human services, or the fine arts career cluster. The silver academic tech prep sequence involves the same five career clusters but requires only 22 credits for a standard diploma.
Head notes that the world has changed, and students now need skills in areas such as math and communications in addition to their technical skills. Career and technical education has always given students the technical skills, but in their academic tech prep program, Head says they wanted to focus on making sure their students left the school system with the academic skills they will also need in order to be successful. He calls this ?an unbeatable combination that can take them wherever they want to go.?
Using the tech prep program to improve academic performance seems to make perfect sense to Head, who explains, ?The whole idea behind academic tech prep is the integration of academics into career and technical education.?
Rayfield says that the technology standards that are part of the Virginia SOLs, mean that workforce skills are becoming a part of academic studies, just as academic skills are becoming a more important part of career and technical education. In Chesapeake, the two fields seem to be developing an excellent working relationship that is paying off for the students there.
For additional information, please contact Robert Head or Jim Rayfield at teched@cps.k12.va.us.
Best-selling Generations author Neil Howe to speak and release new book at ACTE Orlando Convention
ACTE is proud to announce that best-selling author and national speaker, Neil Howe, will speak at the ACTE 2003 Annual Convention in Orlando in December, where he will release a new book in his best-selling series about generations in America. Howe?s first book, Generations: History of America?s Future, co-authored by William Strauss, won critical acclaim and was hailed by national leaders as politically diverse as former Vice President Al Gore and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The book to be released at the ACTE convention, Millennials in the Workplace, promises to deliver provocative insights about the youth of today, the Millennial Generation.
In his presentation at the convention on Friday, December 12, Neil Howe will share powerful insights into the Millennial Generation: what motivates them as consumers and workers, and how they will shape our national future. Following his presentation, attendees will have an opportunity to meet Neil Howe during a book signing. Copies of his new book to be released at the convention, Millennials in the Workplace, will be available.
With graduate degrees in economics and history from Yale University, Neil Howe's consulting firm ? LifeCourse Associates ? allows him to work with a wide variety of corporate and nonprofit groups. He is also Senior Advisor on Public Policy to the Blackstone Group and Senior Advisor to the Concord Coalition. In addition to Generations, Howe and Strauss have co-authored best-selling titles including 13th-Gen, The Fourth Turning and Millennials Rising.
ACTE's flagship member magazine Techniques interviews best-selling author Neil Howe about his upcoming book to be released at the 2003 Annual Convention in Orlando, Millennials in the Workplace.
Techniques: Who is the ?Millennial Generation??
Neil Howe: The Millennial Generation is the generation of Americans born in 1982 and after. They are the post ?Generation X? generation. Generation X was raised to discover the world for themselves, to learn by trial-and-error, and to see themselves as free agents. The Millennial Generation has been raised very differently. They are the protected generation, the ?baby on board? children, whose parents doted over them and gave them high expectations of being the best and having the best.
Theirs is a planned life, not just a balanced life. The Gen-X idea of what young people should do is try anything, and if it fails, to learn from the failure. The whole ethic of Gen-X is to solve it on your own. Millennials are different. They?ve trusted parents and society to solve their problems for them, and that expectation will continue.
Techniques: What else sets them apart from earlier generations?
Neil Howe: Unlike Xers and Baby Boomers -- the parents of today?s teens ? the Millennials believe they have a special role to play in America?s future. Rather than the Gen-Xers who were cut free and sent out on their own, the Millennials form their life goals and life decisions collaboratively with their parents, which has given rise to an interesting phenomenon that marketers call co-purchasing. Never in the history of postwar opinion polling has such a high percentage of teens said they agree with their parents? values and get along with their parents. Millennials have also been responsible for some very positive changes in youth behavior that have been under-reported by the media: 70% reduction in violent crime in the past 10 years, 40% reduction in teen pregnancy, an equivalent reduction in abortions, reductions in teen sex by 20% according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, and reductions in binge drinking and cigarette smoking.
They are more conventional than the last generation. They like structured situations with rules. They are the Harry Potter generation. Their lives are filled with exams, tests, contests, teamwork. Probably one of the biggest differences with their Boomer parents is that this generation believes in community. It?s a very different ethic from when the Xers were in school.
These kids are protected. Through their entire childhood, they have witnessed rising concern over movie and TV ratings, zero tolerance in the classroom, V-chips, urban curfews, and other family mechanisms to protect the children. More than ever before, schools and colleges have a priority to avoid harm to them. Parents have high expectations. They don?t want to see them fail. And the kids themselves have every expectation of success.
Unlike Gen-Xers, Millennials have plans. We are seeing a lot more grade-school kids with 5-year and 10-year plans. Some are trying to visit future employers in junior high school. They are confident. They believe they will succeed financially. As your members well know, the majority of these kids believe they will go to college. Even if many of them won?t go or will later drop out, a lot more Millennials and their parents simply won?t settle for second best.
Techniques: What effect did the changing generations have on career and technical education?
Neil Howe: During the so-called American High of the 1950s and early 1960s, when the Baby Boomers were growing up, we had an educational system that everyone thought worked well, not only for college-bound students, but for those who were entering the workplace after high school. But when the Baby Boomers came of age amid the Consciousness Revolution, the system began to be questioned. The whole idea of ranking, tracking and classifying people was discredited. ?Vocational education? soon became a backwater.
Techniques: What are the implications for education?
Neil Howe: There are huge implications for society and for our educational system, including the career and technical education system. As I said before, parents have high expectations and don?t want these kids to fail. The kids themselves don?t expect to settle for second-best. These expectations have given rise to great pressure for a new system to be put into place, one that won?t fail, that won?t leave anyone behind, that will guide people in the right direction. Society was comfortable telling young Gen Xers to go it alone, keep their distance from the system, and learn from individual failure. Society does not want to see Millennials going down the same path.
One of the biggest challenges facing career and technical education, which your members are already well aware of, is the pressure to reshape programs to help all kids become college-ready or to be their best, whatever they choose. We see it everywhere. A recent example comes from a policy paper issued by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation entitled ?Closing the Graduation Gap: Toward High Schools That Prepare All Students for College, Work and Citizenship.? There is pressure today for every program to incorporate academic rigor that not only colleges, but that employers expect. Unfortunately, both are often disappointed.
The answer lies in getting away from at-risk and damage control in education, and moving to a new model based on confidence and teamwork and mastery of the future. That?s what young Millennials want. That?s where we all should want to go.