Stories
Keeping Our Programs Alive
Making the Most of the Middle
QuizMaster
Summer Youth Academy at Moore Norman Technology Center
Needing a Second Chance
Emergency Telecommunicator Training Hits High Schools
Departments
Executive Directions - January 2003
In Washington - January 2003
Front and Center - January 2003
Forum - January 2003
Technology Update - January 2003
Teacher's Toolbox - January 2003
Sometimes it may be a struggle to keep career and technical programs alive and well in high schools and middle schools, but it?s a battle worth fighting.
By Susan Reese, Techniques Contributing Editor
Sarah Raikes is one career and technical educator who has already proven herself a strong champion in defense of our programs. She has managed to rejuvenate not one, but two family and consumer sciences education programs in Kentucky.
After rebuilding the family and consumer sciences (FCS) education program at Campbellsville High School in Taylor County, Ky., Raikes moved to the high school in Washington County where she now teaches. The move was not made for reasons of money or prestige. She went there, says Raikes, because she was needed.
The program at Washington High School was without a certified teacher and was on the verge of being closed, but when Raikes arrived, she began implementing the same changes that had been so effective at Campbellsville High School. She upgraded both the name (it was still being called home economics) and the curriculum. She established career paths and career interest inventories?and she began a campaign of community service.
As her student volunteers became involved in numerous community projects, they created greater awareness of?and respect for?the high school?s FCS program. Raikes had also employed community service in strengthening the Campbellsville program. But, at both schools, she made a point of connecting community service projects with the core content and curriculum of her classes.
Today, the FCS program at her high school is strong, and Raikes says that she knows her principal would not consider closing it because of its importance to the school and the students.
?If it was closed,? states Raikes, ?no one else could meet my students? needs. I know on a daily basis that I touch my students in a way that no one else does. I can tell you how my students feel about things and whether or not they are having a good day or a bad day.?
It is the family and consumer sciences education content that allows her to achieve such a remarkable rapport with her students. ?We have the perfect curriculum to do that,? Raikes notes.
?Right now I have a student whose sister is battling cancer,? she explains. ?She can come to me anytime because she knows I?m there for her. The curriculum I teach is what allows that.?
Her dedication to her students, her community, and career and technical education earned Sarah Raikes a very special honor last December. At the ACTE convention in New Orleans, she became the first recipient of a new award when she was named the ACTE-McDonald?s Outstanding Teacher in Community Service.
One County?s Story
When the board of education in St. Mary?s County, Maryland, began considering elimination of family and consumer sciences classes in schools there, a campaign to keep the program in county schools was launched, and it soon spread beyond the borders of the Eastern Shore county.
On January 15, 2002, an article entitled ?Home Ec Programs Fall on Hard Times? appeared in The Washington Post. The article centered around a pending decision by the St. Mary?s County Board of Education to eliminate the family and consumer sciences classes to make time for an extra period of reading.
The Washington Post cited the eighth-grade reading test scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program as a prime factor in the school officials? plan. Three out of four St. Mary?s eighth graders have not been able to read at the level considered satisfactory by the state of Maryland, and the 1998 Maryland State Task Force on Reading found that many middle and high school students are nonreaders. Adding to the argument for eliminating FCS was the fact that few teachers were becoming certified in the subject area.
But many teachers and parents wanted to keep the classes, and even the board members were split in their opinions.
Presenting the Case for FCS
While it was hard to dispute the need for improving the reading of the county?s students, there were numerous arguments in favor of the classes. For one thing, there was the possibility that FCS classes could play their own role in improving the eighth graders? reading. After all, family and consumer sciences education has strong academic components as well as life skills components. FCS teachers point out that their students have to read and analyze food labels. They write essays on topics such as conflict resolution, and they write research papers on nutrition. They use math skills for calculating calorie content and in learning to balance checkbooks and budgets.
The difficulty for FCS may come from being able to document its benefits in a way that proves its case.
?In Congress and with the powers-that-be who provide the funding, they want statistics,? says Sue Shackelford, the vice president of ACTE?s Family and Consumer Sciences Education Division. ?We can?t prove that our students manage their finances better or have better health because they manage their nutrition better.?
It may be difficult to prove because productive and responsible citizens tend to not have the statistical documentation that follows those with health, economic and social difficulties. Statistics are not difficult to find on people who have developed chronic health problems due to poor nutrition habits or for individuals who have to declare bankruptcy by the time they are out of college.
Mary Ellen Saunders with the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences suggests inviting parents, teachers and administrators into the classroom to see what is being taught. She says that, ?There are myriad benefits to FCS, but the teachers may assume parents and other decision makers will understand the benefits sort of by osmosis.? She also cautions against what she calls the ?retroactive reactionary process going on,? and advises doing a better job of marketing a program before it gets into trouble.
One suggestion Saunders offers is taking the students to school board meetings and to visit legislators. ?Take the students who have accomplished something special and have them testify about what they have learned in FCS,? suggests Saunders, ?because they are the ones who can become the best marketers for the program.?
Another argument, one that has been presented before in the pages of this magazine, is that middle school is a time for exploring new interests and potential future careers (see ?A Time for Exploration? in the October 2001 Techniques). FCS classes offer middle school students the chance to explore some of the options life has to offer.
According to the Washington Post article, parents of special education students in St. Mary?s County were especially concerned about elimination of the classes, because it meant a lost opportunity for their children to learn with students in a mainstream class.
?For my son, it was an opportunity to interact with his nondisabled peers,? one parent of a developmentally delayed student told the newspaper.
While they also acknowledged that reading scores were in need of improvement, some parents questioned whether the answer was just another reading period.
The FCS Community Rallies
The Washington Post article prompted a letter to the editor from Barbara McFall of Roanoke, Va. She pointed out in her letter that, ?many of the school reform documents currently embraced by the powers that be are advocating for precisely the types of learning that FCS provides ... experiential, personally relevant, community and family connected, hands on, and involving emotional and physical intelligence as well as mental.?
Although those who teach family and consumer sciences education know about this and the other contributions made by the field, she wrote, ?Our public sees only the stitchin? and stirrin?.?
McFall, who has a master?s in resource management from Virginia Tech, spent many years working in the business world and returned to family and consumer sciences about six years ago. ?When you run a business, the problem is not teaching people how to do a specific thing but how to function as competent humans,? she says. ?You can teach a competent person to do almost anything.?
That is the role that she thinks FCS is starting to take and needs to continue taking even more seriously. ?I would like to see FCS reposition itself as one period during the day when students would work on real-world applications?when they could take all of the information they picked up in math, reading and science and use it to learn how to become real, functioning adults.?
Even the Post article acknowledged that this is not the same old-fashioned course that was once called home economics, saying that everything about today?s curriculum is different.
Another letter, this one penned by then-Maryland Association of Family and Consumer Sciences President Mary Ellen Shachat with help from the national association, was sent to Dr. Patricia Richardson, the superintendent of St. Mary?s County Schools. In it, she expressed dismay at the possibility of cancellation of the FCS programs in county middle schools and stated her belief that the programs could actually be a part of the solution to the very problem that had prompted the board to consider their cancellation.
?We understand the need to improve students? reading capability,? wrote Shachat, ?and we reiterate that FCS programs reinforce and build academic skills through interactive programs that also teach critical life skills.?
She then made her case with a list of life skills taught by FCS courses and detailed how reading skills are reinforced by the way those courses are taught. Furthermore, she raised the question: If FCS does not teach those important life skills, where will the children of time-challenged, dual-career parents learn them?
Urging the superintendent to consider the importance of an inclusive and well-balanced education for the county?s students, Shachat said, ?Pure academics without the integration of basic life knowledge and skills classes fall woefully short of preparing a student for the realities of higher education, lifelong learning, employment and family life.?
Battles Are Won
When the St. Mary?s County Board of Education met on January 24, 2002, the decision was made to maintain the FCS program for another two years.
There are probably a number of lessons to be learned from the St. Mary?s story. We need to strengthen our efforts in publicizing the benefits of career and technical education programs such as family and consumer sciences so that crises such as these do not become more common.
The new accountability provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act may cause other school districts to look at eliminating career and technical education programs in favor of more teaching-to-the-test classes. But leaving no child behind should apply not only to reading and mathematics but also to life, and FCS courses play an important role in providing the skills that help young students grow into responsible citizens.
It is also important to bring more FCS-certified teachers into the classroom, so that programs are not eliminated simply because there is no one qualified to teach them. The year before Sarah Raikes moved to Washington County High School, there had been no certified FCS instructor from December until the end of the school year.
?There are fewer and fewer people going into our profession,? notes Raikes, ?and we are all struggling to get people to go into it.?
That is a major hurdle in maintaining FCS programs in schools because, as she points out, ?There has to be an energetic and dedicated person to keep a program going.?
These are battles we will continue to face in keeping career and technical education programs alive. But at least for now, thanks to the strength of the case presented by family and consumer sciences educators and advocates, the program in one Maryland county has been saved. And thanks to the dedication of one outstanding teacher, two family and consumer sciences programs in Kentucky are alive and well.
With educators, administrators and industry representatives working together, it?s possible to not only keep a career and technical education program alive, but to facilitate a rebirth that makes it better than ever. That?s what happened in one Milwaukee school.
By Susan Reese, Techniques contributing editor
If it?s true, as the saying goes, that timing is everything, then Tyrone Dumas must have it all. Dumas, the former director of Milwaukee County Public Works, joined the Milwaukee Public School District in January 1999 as the director of the Technical and Trade Education Division.
His first bit of good timing was that he had arrived at about the time the district decided to build a new technical and trade high school. That decision led the district to take a good look at its existing programs in the field. It was apparent to Dumas that the downsizing of the programs over the past two decades had left many in need of updating.
?I had an idea,? says Dumas, ?So I went to Custer High School. When I looked at the shop and the equipment, I saw that the kids were training on the oldest equipment. I met with then-principal Gail Sanders about my vision, and she bought into it.?
He decided to begin implementing his new vision for the district in the Custer High School HVACR (heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration) program. That proved to be another display of excellent timing on his part.
The Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), the trade association representing manufacturers of more than 90 percent of U.S.-produced central air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment, was looking for ways to promote careers and competency in the field. With the demand for skilled installation and repair technicians in the HVACR industry rising much faster than the supply and an estimated 22,000 new workers needed each year, the association needed to make middle school and high school students aware of the opportunities the industry offered.
A Campaign Is Launched
Dumas began looking for donations to make his vision a reality. ?I did a lot of industry research and sent out letters to every major manufacturer I could come up with,? he says.
Quite fortuitously, one of those solicitations ended up in the hands of Tom Mikulina, the vice president of industry relations for Trane Company, who is also a very active member of ARI and has served on a number of the organization?s committees. Just a few weeks earlier, Mikulina had been in Washington, D.C., at an ARI meeting where he was given an assignment as chair of an ARI education subcommittee to find a way to raise awareness of the industry with high school teachers, students, parents and guidance counselors.
?When I got the letter,? says Mikulina, ?I thought, ?Wow! Here?s a school district that wants to start a program like this in a high school.??
It was just the opportunity he was looking for because, he says, ?When you do something like this, you want a pilot high school so you can find out if it works before you put it into a thousand schools.?
He also knew some other people in the industry who would be willing to help?among them Keith Coursin, the president of Desert Aire Corp. (and a graduate of the Milwaukee Public Schools), and Lev Goldberg, the marketing manager for Standard Refrigeration Co.
The Custer High School HVACR program planning was also well timed with regard to a new partnership for industry standards. The Partnership for Air Conditioning, Heating, Refrigeration Accreditation (PAHRA) program includes HVACR educators and the industry. Representatives from ARI, the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the Council of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Educators (CARE), the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the North American Heating, Refrigerating & Air Conditioning Wholesalers Association (NHRAW), and the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC) support the program and assist in the validation process. With programmatic accreditation from a recognized organization such as PAHRA, HVACR training programs could obtain federal, state and local funding.
Leslie Sandler, the director of education for ARI, says that as the Custer program was being developed, ?We made sure it was set up to meet PAHRA requirements so it could be PAHRA accredited down the road. We used the PAHRA curriculum guide and PAHRA standards to develop the program.?
The measurement tool used by PAHRA is based on student graduation data, Sandler explains, and since the Custer program is still too new to have a graduating class, that accreditation has not yet been obtained, but thanks to ARI and the other partners, all of the elements are in place to do so.
The New Lab Opens
Spearheaded by Dumas and Mikulina, a partnership between the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and the ARI resulted in the creation of the MPS/ARI HVACR Initiative. Mikulina says of his collaborative effort with Dumas, ?He solved my problem by having a high school to use as a pilot site, and I solved his problem by having the strength of the industry to back it up.?
On March 29, 2001, the new HVACR lab opened with a dedication ceremony attended by parents, teachers and students, as well as industry representatives and state officials. The ceremony included a continental breakfast, music by the Jazz Ensemble and the Custer High School cheerleaders leading the way to the new lab for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
After two years of planning, a new national pilot for industry training was launched. It had been accomplished with the help of industry partners that include major manufacturers such as Trane, Lennox, Bryant, Honeywell, Desert Aire, Carrier, Johnson Controls, Rheem, York and a number of other corporations and organizations. Donated equipment has now replaced the old, outdated equipment. Retired members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Wisconsin Local 494 donated their work to install the new equipment. Milwaukee Area Technical College donated an instructor to teach junior- and senior-level courses. Desert Aire President Keith Cousin, the Milwaukee Public Schools graduate, took over as what Mikulina calls ?the point guard? overseeing the program.
The program includes an initial nine-week survey course that introduces students to the HVACR industry and home rehabilitation. It then provides four years of instruction in the operation, maintenance, sales and diagnostics of HVACR systems, and during their junior and senior years, students choose a specialty area and take upper-level courses. The Custer HVACR program offers its students the opportunity to learn about plumbing, carpentry, electricity, fossil fuels, systems design and repair, types of equipment, airflow, temperature control and troubleshooting. In the old Custer HVACR program, only students in grades nine and 10 could take the course. In the new program, they can continue through grade 12, when they perform actual installation of equipment in a home.
When they graduate from the Custer High School HVACR program, students should be prepared to enter the workforce effectively or go on to earn a certificate or diploma in postsecondary education?a point that is emphasized by Dumas and the Custer administrators.
Promoting Success
In an effort to assist other schools in implementing a program such as Custer?s, ARI prepared a how-to guide. Sandler says that 60 copies were handed out at a workshop given at the 2001 ACTE Convention in New Orleans. ?We got a big response at the ACTE meeting last year,? she notes. It probably helped that one of the attendees at the workshop was Dumas, who surprised ARI staff by standing up and confirming the validity of what they were saying.
As an additional effort to promote the HVACR program, Custer High School had a video made, and counselors went to middle schools in the district to promote the program.
?Middle schools are the last saving ground for career tech programs,? notes Dumas, who adds that they are hoping to start a program in Daniel Webster Middle School in Milwaukee in which students would actually assemble an entire engine and then start it up. It would be an academically integrated program in which students would use math, science and reading in a technical education program. A corporate sponsor and partner, Briggs and Stratton, has donated the materials, but there are some modifications to be made on the room, such as installing proper ventilation, before it can be implemented.
Dumas strongly believes in such programs and the role that career and technical education plays in academics. For example, he explains, ?If I have students build a widget and then write up how they did it, they have to use math, science and reading.?
In his school district, Dumas notes, ?We?ve used Perkins money to institute programs in our middle schools in CAD?computer assisted design?and family and consumer sciences.?
At Custer, they have also held open houses for parents to make them aware of the HVACR program. ?You have to promote programs to parents who sometimes believe they don?t want their kids in these programs,? Dumas says. ?Parents are your next tier of convincing.?
Another way to make technical education programs more valuable to a district is to make them more available to the community.
Dumas points out that, when you build a lab such as the one at Custer, it can also serve as a catalyst for adult training programs. ?We?ve had a couple of community-based organizations interested in using it to train adults,? he says.
That?s a concept that Dumas supports. ?It shouldn?t be that you have to lock up the labs before 7:30 or after 3:30,? he says. ?The school of today and tomorrow should not be limited to use only during the day.?
The more people know about such programs?and the more they take advantage of them?the better it is for everyone. ?We fight the continual demise of tech ed programs because all kids are expected to go to college,? says Dumas. ?College is one of the ways you can make it, but a skill will also take you a long way. Kids need to know all of their options for careers.?
Some Growing Pains
Even during its rebirth, the Custer HVACR program has had what Dumas calls ?a few hiccups? along the way, and the main one has been staffing. The teacher who was responsible for the program retired, and recruitment of instructors is made difficult by the starting salary as compared to what an experienced tradesperson earns. ?For tech ed teachers we need to find replacements early,? Dumas cautions, ?because, like in all of industry, there are a series of retirements happening.?
In his area, at least, Dumas has found that some professions?among them the plumbers and sheet metal workers?will underwrite part of the salary of a journeyman from their industry who teaches high school. They will also help that person secure a job for the summer.
These industry partnerships will help in keeping our programs alive in high schools and middle schools. Without the ARI participation, it would have been much more difficult for the Custer High School HVACR program to have been reborn into such a technologically advanced program.
And despite what Dumas calls its growing pains, he believes that, ?In the end, things will be fine.?
Custer High School?s new principal, Willie Jude, is also determined that things will be fine. ?We know we?re going to promote the program and develop it into a first-class venue,? he says. ?We have great support from the businesses, and we?re working to get the staff in to provide a product we can be proud of.?
Dumas?who has two degrees in architecture, which he sees as the source of his ability to develop a vision and then build upon it?recognizes that support came from a number of sources.
As an architect he explains, ?You never say it can?t be done, and you dream about things that are different.? But, he adds, ?I also give credit to the principals who saw my vision and let me execute it. Now it is successful.?
Sandler says, ?The main thing about Milwaukee?s success is that they had a grassroots effort.?
Other school districts and state departments of education are interested in implementing HVACR programs such as the one at Custer, and Sandler reports that more than 600 of the how-to guides have now been sent out.
Mikulina gives out the guide whenever he speaks to groups across the country and says that, ?If one out of every 20 that we give out ends up in a program, we?ve accomplished a lot.? He believes the single most important result of the Custer program is that other schools can now learn how to do it.
As more schools learn about the Custer High School HVACR program and how they can replicate it in their own schools, perhaps it will herald the rebirth of many more programs that will be supplying much-needed technicians for a profession that has much to offer them in return.
Sidebar to article:
The Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute
The Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute (ARI), a member of the ACTE Business-Education Partnership, is the trade association that represents manufacturers of more than 90 percent of North American-produced central air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration equipment.
Through its Education and Training Committee, ARI works to strengthen heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) training nationwide. ARI assists career and technical education in preparing entry-level technicians who install, service and maintain HVACR equipment. The organization enlists the resources of manufacturers, contractors, wholesalers and educators in an ongoing program of upgrading technician competency.
The ARI Education and Training Program includes three industry competency exams (Residential Air-Conditioning and Heating; Light Commercial Air-Conditioning and Heating; and Commercial Refrigeration), the EPA Technician Certification Exam, a curriculum guide and textbook. ARI member companies have donated thousands of pieces of equipment to schools participating in the exams.
ARI also participated in the development of the HVACR National Skill Standards and is active in career recruitment for the industry. ARI?s Instructor Workshop is held yearly, and the seventh annual workshop will be held in Arlington, Va., March 13-14, 2003.
For more information about the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, contact ARI Director
of Education Leslie Sandler at
lsandler@ari.org, or visit www.ari.org.
The experience of middle school can often suffer from being just that?a time in the middle. Beyond the exuberance of elementary school and not yet at the challenges of high school, middle school students can at times find themselves unable to pursue an education that is particularly interesting and appealing to them. However, there is a remarkable new program in Wisconsin that aims to introduce relevant and challenging concepts at the middle school level. The Brown Deer Middle School Technology Center, in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, is set up to challenge students with new and creative ideas in order to spark their interest in studying and using technology.
At Brown Deer, Instructor Jeff Thielke has designed and put into place one of the premier middle school technology facilities and programs in the state. The intention is to offer the best and most advanced technology education in various modules, covering the areas of communications, transportation, construction and manufacturing.
Technology education is certainly not new in Wisconsin, but it takes a sincere commitment from the community, school board, administration and instructor to develop an outstanding program such as this.
Model Modules
During the 2001-02 school year, Thielke was recruited to Brown Deer to begin to design and implement five new technology education courses. These include Exploring Technology Education for sixth graders; Introduction to Technology I (Communications and Construction) and II (Manufacturing and Transportation) in the seventh grade, and Technology Systems I (Communications and Construction) and II (Manufacturing and Transportation) in the eighth grade.
The technology center facility was completed in preparation of the 2002-3 school year and this was the first major task in beginning the program. According to Thielke, the next step became the application of the equipment and software plan. The final step has been the implementation of curriculum, equipment and software throughout this new facility using ?modular? (individualized) instruction.
The Modules cover the following topics:
- Communications: TV Production, Communication Systems, Radio Production, Computer-Aided Design, Digital Photography, Advertising and Computer Graphics;
- Construction: Structural Analysis, Construction Systems, Superstructures, Structural Design, Infrastructures and Construction Planning;
- Manufacturing: Material Analysis, Manufacturing Systems, Packaging Design, Product Design and Robotics Programming;
- Transportation: Flight Simulator, Transportation Systems, Power Systems, Energy Conversion, Propulsion Systems, Aerodynamics and Alternative Energy.
Thielke says that the integration of the modular curriculum, along with a top-notch facility, equipment and software plan, better enables the students ?to grow in their knowledge, understanding, ability to utilize and integrate, and apply appropriate technologies.?
Offering More
Brown Deer is located in a down-to-earth, blue-collar community where many students will find a bright future in jobs working with new technologies. The concept of offering more such education at the middle school level was an idea that fit well with the area and the needs of the community.
In 2001, Thielke was recruited from a high school technology program to renovate and revamp Brown Deer?s traditional industrial arts program. One clear reason for the overhaul was the desire to create an exemplary program that would attract attention?and attendance.
?Kids can elect to go to any school they want in our district,? says Thielke. ?What we want to say is ?Here?s a reason to go to Brown Deer.??
Students who like a challenge are tailor-made for this program. According to Thielke, ?there?s no doubt that this is a high school curriculum being offered as an opportunity for the middle school kids. My eighth graders are now doing the same work as my tenth graders did.?
Not Doing It Alone
The support of local industry has been invaluable in seeing the Brown Deer Middle School Technology Center become a reality. More than $100,000 was donated for the facility and equipment, in addition to other hardware?including 29 computers.
Several grants from the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) were vital, as well as more than $10,000 in material donations from others in the manufacturing industry.
According to Ken Starkman, Technology Education Consultant with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Instructor Jeff Thielke is ?always providing links between his school and the community and industry.
?He weaves a web to support his program? says Starkman, ?which has helped strengthen what he does with the students.?
Furthermore, Starkman notes Thielke?s ability to empower his students to find knowledge on their own is a helpful addition to the middle school environment.
?So many students have requirements to meet beginning at middle school. We really need dynamic teachers like Jeff to inspire kids with activities and initiatives. It really helps gear [the students] up for high school.?
Sidebar to Article
A look at the high-level, challenging courses offered by Brown Deer Technology Center to students from sixth grade through eighth grade:
EXPLORING TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
(Communications, Manufacturing, Transportation and Construction)?Modular
This course is divided into four segments: six weeks of communications, four weeks of construction, four weeks of manufacturing and four weeks of transportation. Areas of emphasis in communications are computer-aided graphics/design, digital photography and printing. Area of emphasis in construction will be tower design. Areas of emphasis in manufacturing will be structural design in packaging and plastics recycling. Area of emphasis in transportation will be critical thinking and problem solving involving mechanical devices.
INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOLOGY I
(Communications and Construction)?Modular
This course is divided into two segments: 12 weeks of communications and six weeks of construction. Areas of emphasis in Communication Technology will be computer-aided drafting/design, computer-generated graphics, advertising, radio and television commercials, scanning and digital photography. Areas of emphasis in Construction Technology will be architectural design, residential model and commercial bridge design. Critical thinking and problem-solving activities are incorporated in both areas.
INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOLOGY II
(Manufacturing & Transportation)?Modular
This course is divided into two segments: six weeks of manufacturing and twelve weeks of transportation. Areas of emphasis in manufacturing will be research & development, product development and material and processes in the area of wood technology. Plastics Manufacturing is introduced in the areas of: thermoforming, vacuum forming, static casting, simple casting and slush casting. Areas of emphasis in transportation will be cars, rockets and boats. Critical thinking and problem-solving activities are incorporated into both areas.
TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS I
(Communications and Construction)?Modular
This course focuses on two areas in Communications and Construction. The first area in Communications is graphic design, where students produce a multicolor T-shirt transfer and business cards, in addition to a calendar that incorporates digital, scanned and clip-art graphics. Working in teams in the area of advertising design is also emphasized. The second area is electronic communications, where students produce audio and video programs in a studio setting. In the area of Construction, architectural model design is emphasized.
TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS II
(Manufacturing & Transportation)?Modular
This course provides the students with the opportunity to simulate processing procedures used in industry. Areas of emphasis will be: manufacturing computer simulation, research & development, management, quality control and engineering. The class will function as a company and manufacture a product in the area of wood technology. Plastics Manufacturing is broadened in the areas of vacuum forming, static casting, dip casting, rotational molding, expansion molding and hand lay-up laminating. In the area of Transportation, students are provided a broad overview of both energy sources and transportation. Students will design, construct and test working a land vehicle (car), a marine vehicle (boat), and air vehicle (powered airplane).
QuizMaster
A winning game for a career tech educator and his students
It began with a request for assistance in repairing an academic quiz game, but success became the name of the game for an Akron, Ohio, career and technical educator and his students.
By Phyllis Bernel
In December 2001, the Akron Public Schools Career Education Tech Prep Engineering program at East High School received the Young Entrepreneurs Award at the Young Inventors? Hall of Fame luncheon. The event is held each year in Akron, Ohio. The award was presented to instructor Fred Weiss and his students for the invention and manufacture of the game, QuizMaster.
A History of QuizMaster
In 1986, when Weiss was teaching Allied Technology (the forerunner of Tech Prep Engineering) at Garfield High School in Akron, he was asked if he could make repairs to a relay control for an academic-challenge type of game. This particular game was totally mechanical, big, bulky and heavy and could not be kept in good working condition. Weiss and his students were able to fix the game but knew there could be a much better version.
In 1992, when Weiss was teaching Computer Robotics at East High School in Akron, he was asked if he could make a new kind of quiz game. It was that request that set the wheels in motion for a new, computerized quiz game.
In a matter of time, presenters from Akron?s Children?s Hospital asked for a couple of these game units to be used in conjunction with health program presentations made to Akron Public Schools students. Children?s Hospital had learned that one of the best ways to keep the attention of a young audience is to engage them in interactive, game-like activities that coincide with presentations. As presentations continued throughout the Akron schools, more teachers became aware of the quiz games and began to ask how and where they might obtain one.
A somewhat low-key, in-house advertising program was launched via the Office of Career Education?s coordinator, Dick Hoover. Advertising flyers were circulated, and soon there were about 40 quiz games within the Akron system. These sites served as a ?study group? for Weiss to ascertain how the invention held up in the classroom and to learn about possible design flaws.
One major flaw in the construction of the unit was that, when dropped or knocked off a surface, inertia drove the game transformer through the circuit board causing it to break. This sent Weiss and his students back to the drawing board. The result was a design change that placed the power source outside of the unit, thus eliminating the problem.
In the mid-90s, Nick Frankovits from the Akron-based organization Partnership for America?s Future began making presentations to Weiss? classes, which were by that time Tech Prep Engineering classes. He included pep talks about becoming inventors and emphasized the fact that inventors receive royalties from the sales of their inventions.
In addition, Frankovits contacted Frey Scientific to encourage the idea of adding the quiz game to their catalog. Frey Scientific, a large educational product wholesaler, very much liked the idea of the quiz game. During the second half of the 1996-97 school year, a partnership was formed between the East High School Tech Prep Engineering program and Frey Scientific.
Student Involvement Grows
Needing an official name for the quiz game, Weiss enlisted the English Department at East High School. A name-the-game contest was held for students, from which the name QuizMaster was selected. Once the name was chosen, a product logo and the advertising ?blurb? were developed by Weiss and his students. Frey began to advertise QuizMaster in its national catalog, and the orders began coming in. During the last three quarters of 1997, 22 units were sold.
It soon became clear that Weiss and his students could not keep up with orders. Again, it was back to the drawing board for his students to examine ways to speed up production, to eliminate bottlenecks and to find ways to meet the increasing demands for QuizMaster. Would it be prudent for the students to continue to manufacture circuit boards for the QuizMaster, or would it be better to have the circuit boards made by someone else?
One major item to consider was the number of inconsistencies from one board to another. Holes and corresponding parts would not properly align, which would greatly slow down production. It seemed nearly impossible to skillfully assemble the units. A time/cost analysis that students did on making their own circuit boards vs. having them made by a professional circuit board manufacturer revealed that the in-house cost was $15.50 per game with an estimated 1.5 hours to make the board. Through outsourcing, the cost was $10.50, with an added bonus of the elimination of manufacturing inconsistencies.
Sales of the game began to skyrocket, as did production. In 1998, sales increased to 65 units; in 1999, the number rose to 120; and in 2000, the number soared to 175. In 2001, the number of QuizMaster units grew to 245, making the total sales upwards of 700. Now, Weiss and his students faced yet another dilemma. Ever-increasing orders made it nearly impossible to keep up with demand. Weiss considered recruiting students from East High, but these students were unskilled, and too much time would be spent teaching the necessary manufacturing skills.
The most feasible solution seemed to be to enroll the services of another electronics program. The Career Education Electronics Technology program at Akron?s Garfield High School (John Macak, instructor) and the electronics program at Kent Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio (Jeff Leseur, instructor), were recruited to manufacture QuizMaster. Both Garfield High School and Kent Roosevelt have been participating for the past couple of years. During the 2001-02 school year, Weiss enlisted students from the Electronics Program in Parma (Joe Delio, instructor). In addition, Garfield?s Machine Technology students drill and rout the boxes in which QuizMasters are mounted.
Though assembling the QuizMaster has been outsourced, Tech Prep Engineering students inspect every single QuizMaster before shipping from East High. After inspection, the games are packed and shipped?all by the students.
Shipping costs seemed extremely high, which led to another assignment for Weiss? class: finding the best and least expensive way of shipping QuizMaster to customers. Students contacted UPS, FedEx, the U.S. Mail, etc., but from information found on the Web, they discovered that by banding the game in clusters of up to five, the cost of shipping was just slightly more than the cost to ship one unit of QuizMaster.
Another cost-cutting option was to contact a supplier to inquire about getting discounts on electrical components. Since QuizMaster did so much business with the supplier, the discount was given.
More than Inventors and Entrepreneurs
Winning the Young Entrepreneurs Award truly is an honor for Weiss and his Tech Prep Engineering students and is a source of great pride for the Office of Career Education, East High School and the entire Akron Public Schools system. This is a premier example of education being extended beyond the classroom.
During every phase of the creation of QuizMaster, students were given the opportunity to ?think outside the box.? In so doing, they developed sophisticated thinking processes: mastery of problem-solving skills, becoming more inventive and analyzing costs. Equally significant is that they learned the importance of providing a quality product.
Through QuizMaster, Weiss has encouraged students to partner with nearly the entire East High School community: the student body, school staff, community organizations and area businesses as well as other high schools within the Akron Public Schools and surrounding community.
Finally, the Young Entrepreneurs Award put them in touch with fellow student inventors and other people from across the entire nation. Weiss? holistic approach to his Tech Prep Engineering program and to his students clearly proves that the whole is equal to the sum of ALL of its parts.
Phyllis Bernel is the administrative secretary in the Office of Career Education for the Akron Public Schools in Akron, Ohio.
Story and photos courtesy of Moore Norman Marketing Communications. Photos appear only in Techniques print edition.
Education still goes on during the summer months at one technology center in Oklahoma. The students may be a little younger, but they are having a large amount of fun while learning things in a different way.
While many schools and technology centers turn out the lights and lock the classroom doors each year at the end of May, Moore Norman Technology Center (MNTC) in Oklahoma is just getting started.
One of MNTC?s employees started looking at summer educational programs for her three daughters. Most of what she found was ?glorified babysitting.?
She wanted to develop summer classes at MNTC that would challenge kids, keep them in a learning mode and let them have fun at a whole new level. So the concept of Summer Youth Academy was born. Seven years later and with 1,141 enrollments just this past summer, MNTC calls this program a success.
Hair Rage, Easy Electronics and Raving Robotics are just a few of the summer classes nine- to 16-year-olds can experience during their summer months off from school.
An Enriching Summer
The Summer Youth Academy is an educational enrichment program that challenges children in their specific areas of interest and gives them the opportunity to explore programs not available during their regular school year.
Students meet for one week either in the morning or afternoon, and if they enroll in three classes ($65 per class), they get a fourth class free. Materials for the programs are provided by MNTC.
Classes are age appropriate, and instruction is delivered through guided activities, hands-on practice and lab activities. Instructors come from the Moore, Norman and Oklahoma City areas and are usually teachers, former students and local professionals.
Aside from all the experience the children get while in their programs, many of the class projects they are involved in meet Girl and Boy Scout merit badge requirements.
Students learn concepts that can put them ahead of their classmates through the introduction of new ideas and reinforcement of past knowledge. For example, in Awesome Astronomy, students experience outer space while learning the major constellations. They make constellation creations, spots on the sun, golf ball moons, water-propelled rocketry, a visible planet model and track the sun for a day.
Youthful Testimonials
McKinley Elementary fifth-grader Stephen Meiller enrolled in Carpentry, Raving Robotics, Awesome Astronomy and Advanced Robotics. He made a wooden bench in carpentry using different sanders and drills and points out that students are required to wear goggles and masks while working with the machines.
?I like these classes because I have a better understanding of the different machines carpenters use and how they work. Our instructor said he has to be around us while we use the machines, and then he lets us finish out our project,? says Meiller. ?My parents are really interested in my classes?every evening my dad asks me about the things I learned in class. The classes also make us use our brains differently than other summer camps.?
In Vigorous Volcanoes, kids explore all of the sizzling, oozing and exploding facts about volcanoes through the creation of edible experiments and constructing a volcano.
In Easy Electronics, kids learn electric safety and build their own project using capacitors, transistors, resistors and IC sockets.
Fishing for Fun Instructor Katherine Turner says that, within three days, her students had caught more than 600 fish at the MNTC campus ponds.
McKinley Elementary fourth-grader Hayley St. John enrolled in a course called Acting Out. ?We learned how stage productions are made, all about props and words like center stage, stage left and stage right,? she says. ?I like getting to make up skits by ourselves?it?s fun.?
The future for Summer Youth Academy is in the classes offered. MNTC keeps up with trends in technology and careers and will continue to introduce children to these industry concepts as early as possible.
It seems that Moore Norman Technology Center has found a way to utilize buildings and taxpayers? money during typical ?down times? and teach kids that education can be fun.
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) can offer recipients a second chance for success, but just how good that second chance will be depends upon what the next version of the legislation contains. If the work requirements don?t allow for sufficient career and technical training, achieving success may be much more difficult for those in need.
By Lou Ann Hargrave
The March 2000 edition of Techniques magazine featured an article titled, ?Back on Track,? which highlighted a program that provides one year of career and technical training to welfare recipients. This program is part of a statewide system that has been funded through a contract between the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (ODHS) and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education (ODCTE). The contract outlines partnership parameters that were initiated as a result of the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P. L. 104-193, PRWORA).
The major differences between the Work Opportunity Act and the previous act that governed federal welfare programs are: 1) time limits, 2) work requirements and 3) caps. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients can receive financial assistance only five years in their lifetime under the Work Opportunity Act. The TANF section of the Act replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) section. TANF is a privilege, while AFDC was considered an entitlement.
All TANF recipients who are able to work must participate in work activity (i.e., job search, work experience program, job-readiness class) for 30 hours per week. They can no longer stay at home and receive benefits unless they have a physical reason or an infant at home. The educational work activity allowed is one year of vocational education. If states are unable to reach their TANF recipients? participation minimum rates, they are penalized by reduction of their annual federal funds. If they are able to stay within federal caps (minimum allowable participation rates), they receive additional federal funds.
Training for Work
Ultimately, the state contract provides that funded programs in technology centers will provide life skills training, employability skills training, academic remediation, vocational training, job search services, and employment follow-up retention services. According to the ODCTE, the purpose of the TANF programs is to provide career and technical training that enables TANF recipients to receive the necessary skills training that leads to quality occupations (Welfare to Employment Vocational Training Program Planning Guide, 2001).
However, the previously mentioned requirements are considered by the ODCTE and the ODHS to be essential components for most TANF recipients to complete in order to be successful in their career and technical training and employment. Actual progression through these components is to be based on individual needs. No students are to be required to enter any component in which they were already proficient.
TANF recipients receive pressure from many well-meaning individuals worried about recipients? five-year lifetime limit. TANF caseworkers encouraged and sometimes required TANF recipients to adopt a ?work first? approach to employment rather than training. Those caseworkers started seeing a revolving door of TANF recipients who found jobs but lost them because of poor preparatory skills (i.e., job-readiness skills, basic academic education, life skills) and/or inability to live on their low earnings. At the same time, employers who were desperate for employees frequently encouraged only job-readiness skills training, promising that they would provide the occupational skills once the TANF recipients were hired.
However, a study I conducted as TANF coordinator for the ODCTE proved that career and technical training paid in two ways. TANF recipients who received career and technical training earned a significantly higher wage at the first point of employment and sixth-month point of employment when compared to those who only received preparatory skills, and their rate of employment was significantly higher as compared to those who only received preparatory skills.
A Proven LINC
The LINC (Linking Individuals to New Careers) program described in Techniques featured two TANF students? struggles to find employment. Donnie Dennis graduated from the LINC program as an LPN and found employment with Quality Enterprises of Lawton, a medical facility that treats people with developmental problems and disabilities. Although she started working for only $6.75 an hour, she recognized that it was a huge step up from the $238 per month she received from TANF. She also knew that it was only the beginning. The second TANF student was J. R. Villicana. He was studying to be an electrician.
Where are they now? Dennis is still employed with Quality Enterprises and working long weekend shifts so she can pursue her registered nursing degree during the week. Villicana is working for the Comanche Nations Housing Authority as an electrician earning $11 per hour.
?It?s the best choice I ever made,? Villicana states. ?LINC gave me a starting place, a base, and it helped me make the decisions in my life of what I wanted to do. I had a rough time in life. I am a single parent with four kids. My pride had been in the way of letting me ask for help. I realized I needed to make the decision to either go back to school or go to work. I decided I wanted to go to school so I could get a better job. I am setting a good example for my kids. They respect me, and I?ve showed them to respect others.?
Recently the LINC Coordinator, Krystal Brue, asked Villicana whether or not he would have been able to complete his electrician training without the support of the LINC program. His response was, ?Absolutely not!?
He also said that he would not have been able to become an electrician within the four months? time limit that is currently being considered by Congress. He needed a full year of training to begin his career as an electrician. He also stated that it would have been much more difficult to participate in a 40-hour work activity, go to school, and take care of his children.
The success of these two individuals can be seen repeated in the performance statistics collected by the student accounting system of the ODCTE. The last completed fiscal year (2000-2001) reported that the TANF program had an employment rate of 81 percent. This performance outcome is substantial when you understand the difference in characteristics between today?s TANF recipients and the TANF recipients of 1996.
One could conclude that TANF recipients with the highest potential for employability have already discontinued the use of financial assistance, thereby leaving clients with the lowest potential for employability on the active caseload. Oklahoma?s caseload consists primarily of individuals with characteristics that make employment very difficult, according to Marguerite Keesee in Who Will Hit the Five-Year Wall? Characteristics of Recipients Who are at Greatest Risk of Being Unsuccessful in Meeting the TANF Challenge.
The following?from Profile of Multi-Challenged TANF Recipients and Challenges They Face in Achieving Lifetime Self-Sufficiency by Marguerite Keesee and Linda Williams?presents an overall profile of Oklahoma?s TANF population considered to be the most challenged in terms of achieving employment and lifetime self-sufficiency.
The most commonly occurring challenges facing the multi-challenged population include: clients? refusal to cooperate with work activities and/or child support enforcement in establishing paternity (37.9%); Child Welfare Services involvement in the case (35.7%); spouse/partner with criminal records (25.8%); current illness (24%); lack of reliable transportation (21.5%); lack of education and training (18.7%); spousal assault (17.7%); lack of desire to work (15.1%); chemical dependency of payee (14.3%); chemical dependency of payee?s spouse/partner (13.4%); mental health problems of payee (13%); payee caring for a disabled family member (12.3%); and payee?s criminal record (10.2%).
Even when education levels of TANF leavers are compared with their earnings, there is strong support for education. Yet, very little education is allowed under the PRWORA. The following table is from Leaving Welfare Behind: The Oklahoma TANF Leavers Report by Kenneth Kickham, Angela Harnden, Kim Sasser, Neury Effendi and Robert Bently. It shows the direct impact education has on earnings and continued dependence.
Although the highest levels of employment are found among respondents with associate?s (80.4 percent) and bachelor?s (77.8 percent) degrees, vocational training and trade school completers were a close third at 72.4 percent. However, vocational training and trade schools completers? earnings were the highest.
Two good examples of this are Cristina Kempster and Tammy Dunigan. Dunigan and Kempster are graduates of Central Technology Center. Kempster completed telecommunication training and is able to take care of her two children with her annual earnings of $45,000 from Southwestern Bell. Dunigan, mother of two, attained her GED and completed telecommunication training and is now earning $35,000 annually.
Pending Legislation
Now the president wants to provide even less education and supports H.R. 4737. The following is a summary of legislation that would affect the opportunities of TANF recipients? access to education.
? On May 16, 2002, H.R. 4737 was passed by the House by a predominately party-line vote (Democrats opposed and Republicans for it). The bill requires states to involve 70 percent of TANF adult recipients in 40 hours of activity each week. At least 24 hours would have to be in direct work activities, which no longer would include job search, and one year of vocational education as under current law. The time allowed for education and job training would be reduced to four months during any two-year time span.
? Congressional Democrats have introduced bills that would redirect TANF?s primary objective from reducing caseloads to reducing poverty.
? Draft bills expand the type of allowable activities that would meet the existing work requirements to include two years of education and training activities rather than increase more rigid numerical work participation rules; count postsecondary education as work activity; modify the current cap on the percentage of a state?s caseload that can be engaged in training activities; and reward states for moving recipients into higher-paying jobs. Also, they propose a number of ways to increase funding. Furthermore, they prevent TANF-funded wage subsidies from counting against the five-year lifetime limit.
As career and technical educators, we need to actively work together to assure that TANF recipients are not blocked from the one activity that has the potential to pull them from the depths of poverty, and that is career and technical training.
Many TANF recipients were our at-risk public school students who have learned through ?hard knocks? that education is important. Now that they are ready to learn, let?s do everything in our power to help them. We all need a second chance.
Lou Ann Hargrave is the TANF coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education and recently completed her doctorate in education. She can be reached at louhargrave@okcareertech.org. For more information about TANF and other federally funded programs or to participate in advocacy efforts, contact the ACTE Public Policy Department webpage or call 800-826-9972.
By Jeff St. Onge
?9-1-1, what?s the address of the emergency??
?You?ve gotta help me,? comes the frantic reply.
?What?s the address and the problem, M?am?? asks the dispatcher in a calm voice as he observes the computer screen in front of him.
?I?m at 39 Spruce. It?s my baby... she?s fallen down the stairs... she?s crying. I think she broke her leg.?
?Please stay on the phone while I dispatch rescue.? Leaning toward the microphone, the dispatcher pushes the transmit button and in a calm voice says, ?Dispatch to Rescue Four.?
?Rescue Four on,? comes the reply.
On the other side of the ?dispatch center? are another computer, set of telephones and a radio. Sitting at this station are two instructors. One is a female who appears very frantic as she holds the phone and waits.
The other instructor listens as the following radio transmission comes over, ?9 Spruce St., we have a child injured in a fall.?
The male instructor stands and calls an end to the scenario. ?What did he do wrong??
Several hands shoot into the air.
?Shandrease.?
?He spoke before pushing the transmit button.?
?A common error until you get used to the radio,? responds the instructor. ?A good technique is not to use the number of the address first. Start with, ?Go to,? or ?Proceed to,? so you will not cut off the number, which in this case would have dispatched emergency responders to 9 Spruce Street instead of 39 Spruce Street.?
So, starts another simulated training session in a Tampa Bay area high school.
Putting the Components in Place
In a growing trend that puts high school students in real-life job-training situations, Hillsborough County School District in Tampa, Florida, has started a new program in three of its high schools. The program marries the OMNI-COMM Simulator System with a new Emergency Telecommunicator course from the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch (NAED) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).
?In the span of just a few short years, emergency communications has undergone dramatic changes,? says Robert Martin, NAED executive director. ?With more than a half million 9-1-1 calls being made daily, technological advances have established today?s emergency telecommunicator as the first person ?on the scene? of any police, fire or medical emergency.?
Both the NAED and NENA encourage proper training and certification for all emergency telecommunicators to help protect callers and responders, preserve evidence, save time and save lives.
According to Cosette Whitmore, supervisor for health and public safety programs for the Hillsborough County School District, the ?goal of the training is to achieve a national certification for our students.? She further states that this certification ?will allow our students to walk right into a profession upon graduation from high school.?
Instructors from three Tampa schools?Hillsborough High, Jefferson High and Leto High?became certified trainers for the NAED Emergency Telecommunicator course in April of 2002. The teachers will offer the 40-hour course to their third-year criminal justice students. The school district added the OMNI-COMM Simulators, according to Whitmore, to ?enhance and add realism to the training.?
The simulators?which are comprised of a student and instructor station, each containing a computer for computer-aided dispatch (CAD), a telephone system and a radio-dispatch console?come in several models (both digital and analog).
According to Paul Schwartz, criminal justice instructor at Hillsborough High School, the ?OMNI System?s computer screen is exactly like that of TPD?s (Tampa Police Department). This will prove very beneficial for those students who may want to seek a job in Tampa upon graduation.?
Judy Cashwell of Leto High School likes the system because of ?the added features that allow us to turn up the heat on the dispatch student.? She is referring to the extra telephone line and tape deck in the instructor console. This allows the instructor to place extra calls and add background noise effects in radio transmissions, such as sirens and gunshots. ?That really heightens the stress level of the students,? Cashwell adds.
A Good Match for High Schools
Tony Sanders of Sanders Audio Visual, who distributed the simulators to the school district, sees several benefits to training high school students. First, ?high school students are less disturbed by stressful situations,? making them better equipped to handle the rigors of a telecommunicator. Sanders further states that, ?Many students wish to be in law enforcement but not necessarily front-line service. This course can provide a pool of certified applicants for communication centers. Qualified high school students can walk into a $20,000-plus-a-year job upon graduation.?
Sanders believes that one of the best benefits high school students bring with them is their connection with computers. ?Today?s communication centers have more complex types of equipment than just 10 years ago. E-911, phase II cell phone location, mapping programs, and tenfold channel radio systems are all state of the art with new technology being introduced daily. Being raised in this age of technology makes it much easier for the high-school-aged student to grasp the changes than a technophobe veteran.?
Jefferson high school criminal justice instructor Antonio Rodriguez believes the marriage of the Emergency Telecommunicator course and the Simulator is perfect for Jefferson?s students. ?They will be receiving 40 hours of excellent classroom instruction, with added hours of training on the simulator to bring it all home.?
The 40-hour Emergency Telecommunicator course includes instruction in current technologies, interpersonal communication skills, call processing, radio broadcast procedures, legal aspects and stress management. Recognized experts in public safety telecommunications from both the NAED and NENA organizations have approved the curriculum. To achieve national certification as an ?ETC,? students must attend the Emergency Telecommunicator course taught by an NAED-certified instructor, pass the ETC Certification Exam with a score of 80 percent or better and must agree to abide by the NAED Code of Ethics.