Career clusters is not a program; it is an initiative. That is the one point consistently driven home by its directors and proponents, who say that it has helped to pinpoint and integrate critical academic and employability skills, without ignoring the technical knowledge necessary for today?s workforce. Within each cluster, these occupations have been organized into clear pathways from secondary school to further education and careers that students and workers can follow.
Less than a year ago, it seemed that the career clusters initiative was in serious jeopardy. Originally a Clinton administration priority, last April the U.S. Department of Education (ED) chose not to go ahead with the initiative?s second year of funding, which would have provided an expected $2.5 million to pilot-test the clusters in 110 high schools across the country and begin developing national assessments and certifications. But with a new organization providing leadership and policy direction, work continues on the remaining 11 clusters, and pilot site implementation is expected to begin next year for at least two clusters: Law & Public Safety and Agriculture & Natural Resources.
?We?re just at the beginning of this long initiative,? says Kimberly Green, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEC), the organization that has taken over development of clusters. Currently, they are focused on creating a business plan and securing revenue sources, setting up a regular updating process, and continuing to form strategic partnerships that provide the research behind the clusters.
The one major change to have come about since ED cut the initiative?s funding is the shift from testing to implementing clusters at pilot sites, says Charles Losh, director of the States? Career Clusters Initiative. Now, the emphasis is on seeing how?not if?clusters work in schools, and what further tools they need to make implementation successful.
Here?s how it works: In South Carolina, for example, students begin to explore clusters in the sixth grade, where they complete a career assessment and plan, and may participate in school-to-work activities like job shadowing. By the eighth grade, they review and revise their plan, choose a career major, and take part in a mentorship or internship. Finally, high school is the time when students focus on academic and career preparation, complete the career major, and choose their next step, whether it be a four- or two-year college, a job within their cluster, or other postsecondary options.
All in all, clusters proponents claim that their students become more involved in their education by learning to solve real-world problems, working with adults and experts in the field, participating in interdisciplinary study, and being part of small learning communities.
Not surprisingly, the ?evolutionary process? of the initiative has seen many changes over the years, Green says, as it has transitioned from career counseling to career pathways and majors, and then to the current focus on skill standards. ED?s Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) originally identified 16 clusters, funding five separately: Health Science; Manufacturing; Arts, A/V Technology & Communications; Information Technology; and Transportation, Distribution & Logistics.
?There was a feeling, ... especially on the part of career tech educators, that the world of work had changed in the last 40 to 50 years,? explains Pam Stacey, coordinator of the States? Career Clusters Initiative. And so, clusters were developed to address the demands of the new ?gold collar worker,? who needs both academic and employability skills.
In fact, clusters have presented a unique opportunity to expand career and technical education ?in a number of areas,? Stacey says. Clusters allow workers and students to move both vertically and horizontally within a cluster, and address the need for adult retraining and employee cross-training. ?If career tech expects to survive and prosper, this needs to be a component of what we do,? she argues.
Although much ongoing work remains on the career clusters initiative, the ?definitive piece? already has been completed, Stacey says. The cluster and pathway models have been identified, with up to seven pathways delineated within each cluster. Detailed brochures outline the knowledge and skills structures for each of the 16 clusters, and lists of sample occupations and existing credentials are available on the Career Clusters Web site.
Recently, the knowledge and skill statements were validated by national and state cluster advisory committees made up of members of business and industry, associations, government agencies, and secondary and postsecondary education. The results were corroborated online as well, as more than 1,000 people participated in the validation process online.
?It was not ideal, but it certainly was a good start,? Stacey says.
Indeed, clusters seem to be taking hold across the country, despite a challenging year of transition.
One of the initiative?s strengths is that it enables broad thinking about educational areas and occupational skills, not just specific jobs, explains NASDCTEC?s Green. ?[Some felt] our system had become much more reactive than proactive,? she says. ?States saw clusters as a framework ... to start piecing together a clearer picture.?
Recently, some state systems?including those in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Oklahoma?even have started aligning themselves around schools. This phenomenon may result in ?pilot states,? Green remarks. ?We have had overwhelming interest in clusters.?
Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
One of the first clusters to be developed, Transportation, Distribution & Logistics (TDL) has seen impressive growth over the years and continues to use problem-based scenarios to help students learn as they experience real-world situations.
In 1999, administrators identified 10 foundation areas ?that crossed all of the clusters,? explains Frances Beauman, project director for the TDL cluster. From there, they developed skill statements and performance elements, measurement criteria, and seven different pathways: Transportation Operations?People and/or Freight; Logistics Planning and Management?People and/or Freight; Warehousing and Distribution Center Operations; Facility and Mobile Equipment Maintenance; Transportation Systems/Infrastructure Planning, Management and Regulations; Risk Management and Health and Safety Management; and Sales and Service?People and/or Freight.
Nine national pilot sites were identified across the country, including Ballard High School in Seattle, a comprehensive institution with approximately 1,300 students in grades 9-12. Like each of the TDL pilot sites, Ballard?s Maritime Academy identified five problem-based scenarios, developed in conjunction with business and industry partners, which students then had to solve while working together as a team, Beauman says. Their concentration addressed all career pathways under all five transportation modes, with preference given to two areas?Transportation Operations and Logistics Planning & Management.
In one scenario, ninth-graders set out on a boat to determine how to contain a fictitious oil spill. Broken down into different teams for logistics, command, science, safety, and prediction and planning, students mapped the trajectory of the spill and predicted the direction it would take. When they discovered that the spill was jeopardizing a group of seals in its path, they had to reconfigure their plans to contain and clean up the oil.
Finally, students made a report on their progress to the scenario?s business partners: the Maritime Administration, Port of Seattle, American Waterways Operators and Foss Environmental.
Beauman praises the U.S. Department of Transportation for being instrumental to the development of the TDL cluster. ?They have been our partner all along,? she says. ?They?ve been just wonderful.
Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
As one of nine pilot schools selected for the clusters initiative in 1999, Miami Senior High School in Miami-Dade County, Florida, produces a 10-minute live news show every week called ?Stingtown News,? named after their mascot, the Stingray. Students in the ARTEC (Arts Related Technology for Entertainment Careers) academy learn digital editing on computers, how to use different equipment and run the control room, and even have worked on writing, producing, shooting, editing and scoring 16 mm. films, says lead teacher of the V-TECS pilot school at Miami High, Joe Underwood.
The weekly program covers ?mostly school stuff,? but since Miami High has a partnership with USA Today, they report on outside news that affects the school population as well, like the recent study that found a decrease in drug use across the country, Underwood says.
The school?s interpretation of the cluster?s strands has expanded over the years, from an initial focus on television production, to film, sound engineering, and now cosmetology, as students recently learned makeup techniques for TV, film, and special effects. ?We?ve just sort-of branched out in these areas,? he says. Some students even have participated in ?Radio Disney,? a nationally broadcast, weekly program for eight- to 14-year-olds. When the corporation was looking to reach out to the Hispanic community, the school held tryouts, and those accepted now talk on air with different officials about concerns affecting kids across the country. The undertaking required a major commitment for Underwood?s students, who had to meet the demands of an entertainment giant. ?That?s a real corporate structure. They had to plan nine months of shows in advance,? he says. ?They represent us very well.?
With a motto of ?Real Experience for Real Careers,? Underwood says that although his students go off in different directions after graduation, most eventually will need some form of postsecondary education, even if they go straight into industry. The career clusters model has helped prepare them for rigorous achievement, both in and outside of the classroom.
?It keeps you focused,? he says. ?There?s a higher level of expectations because of standards.?
Health Science
From February to April 1999, the National Consortium on Heath Science & Technology Education (NCHSTE), with funding from OVAE, designated pilot sites in 17 states within the Health Sciences cluster. Schools included all secondary education levels and a cross-section of urban, rural, suburban and frontier communities, says Carole Stacy, executive director of NCHSTE.
Based on the National Health Care Skill Standards, a variety of activities in language arts, science and math were created for students participating in the pilot sites ?so that kids see the connection between what they?re learning now and a career,? she says. Activities included career fairs, writing exercises, biomedical debates and seminars.
At Edison Elementary School in Kalamazoo, Michigan, second-grade students were taken to a microbiology lab at a local hospital to learn about germs and how to prevent their spread.
Afterward, they visited a high school health science program, where students taught the children how to wash their hands properly and prepare for surgery. On another day, older students visited physical therapists to ?show how [they] use math in everyday life in the hospital,? Stacy explains. This lesson reinforced the relevance of their studies, and that ?math was an important subject to take,? she says.
At the frontier town hospital, where limited facilities included space for just five beds, the challenge was to get students interested in health science. And so they were taught about rapid water rescue and other emergency procedures??the kind of things they had to depend on to get health care,? Stacy explains.
Although it has been almost four years since the initial pilot sites were designated, the strategies implemented by career clusters remain. ?The teachers there are continuing to call the hospital ... to send someone over to talk about careers,? she says. Perhaps more importantly, reciprocal interest has grown on the other side as well. ?Now we?re seeing a number of hospital associations sponsoring the clusters materials.?
The enthusiasm for career clusters is such that a conference on the initiative will be held this June in Phoenix, providing a toolkit of practical tips to implement career clusters in your school. In addition to implementation sites in potentially seven clusters, the next year also will see more work on student assessments, credentialing and certification, and hopefully ?further validation work,? Director Losh says.
NASDCTEC plans to continue bringing together the employer and education communities, while working language about career clusters into the legislative picture. ?Clusters will be a big part of our [Perkins] reauthorization priorities,? Green says.
Furthermore, states have volunteered to continue to report student enrollment information to ED, Stacey says, and rumor has it that a new federal grant will be awarded this year to an as-yet-unidentified recipient?though the initiative would be referred to as ?broad occupational areas? instead of ?career clusters.? Simply put, career clusters is no project. ?We believe that this initiative is an ongoing activity,? Losh affirms.
For more information, visit the Career Clusters Web site at http://www.careerclusters.org.
Susan Brown is the former editor of Career Tech Update, ACTE?s bimonthly newsletter. She now works as a freelance writer and editor, and as the artist/owner of Sass Brown Designs, specializing in jewelry made from recycled game pieces and Asian charms.
