The Advanced Technology Center (ATC), which opened last November in Virginia Beach City, is a rather remarkable place. It is home to hundreds of flat-screen Hewlett-Packard computers, 2,400 Internet ports, a distance-learning classroom outfitted by Compaq and some 4,000 square feet of economic development shell space. It is also the site for some of the most revolutionary and advanced technical courses available at the secondary and undergraduate level.
The $22.5 million ATC is a 137,000-square-foot facility jointly utilized by the public schools and Tidewater Community College (TCC). While many of classrooms serve primarily one institution or the other, others do double duty, home to secondary students during the day and TCC students during evenings. But what is perhaps most innovative about the ATC is that it also shares space with the business community.
Two spaces, which together comprise the ATC?s "economic development shell space," are designed expressly for the use of businesses. One is a large training room, the other an unfinished (but fully wired) space to be used for temporary operations by new or expanding businesses.
"We left it unfinished so there?d be a lot more flexibility," says Jerry Stewart, the workforce development coordinator for the Virginia Beach City Department of Economic Development.
The shell space will help the city to recruit new industries to the region and to encourage the expansion of existing businesses. The ATC?s operating committee has left open the question of whether or not to charge rent for the use of the two spaces; the first priority will be to use them as a magnet to draw jobs to the area.
The students of the ATC are an equally important part of the draw, which is what makes the idea of combining classroom space and the economic development shell space in one building pure genius.
As Stewart explains, a tour of the shell space would hardly be complete without a look at the rest of the building. "Right away we can tour the building and see high school kids taking advanced computer classes," he says. "That?s the future workforce."
At the same time, the significant industry presence inside the ATC is intended to help "encourage businesses to take some responsibility in identifying the skills they need," says Stewart.
Some see the potential for industry contribution as even larger. Among those is J. Lyle Bagley, dean of engineering and industrial technology for TCC?s Virginia Beach Campus, who is already working with such companies as STILH, IMS Gear and MILCOM, as well as with the US Navy and Marine Corps, on projects ranging from curriculum development to student internships.
Other unique features of the ATC include a spacious technology theater and a local cable station. The technology theater, which will be used by TCC, Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) and businesses alike, features a 10-foot screen and seating for up to 250, with 65 ported seats. It will be an ideal space for symposiums and teleconferencing.
Part of the Tidewater Community College Virginia Beach Campus, the ATC is also located adjacent to a higher education center run jointly by Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University, and just across the street from a new public high school. Together, these institutions form what officials are heralding as an "academic village."
Such a setup is convenient for students as it allows them to move more easily from one level of education to another. In addition, some students may benefit by enrolling concurrently in more than one institution. According to Dean Bagley, the ATC configuration will facilitate "a great expansion in the degree to which we do dual-enrollment."
Another important benefit of the academic village configuration is that it facilitates articulation agreements and the sharing of resources and expertise among educators and students at different institutions.
This has been crucial to the development of the secondary courses that are being offered at ATC, says Patrick Konopnicki, director of technical and career education for VBCPS. Many of these courses are based on classes that are routinely offered only at the postsecondary level. For example, a modeling and simulation class that will be offered next year to juniors and seniors is based in large part on a graduate-level course offered by Old Dominion University.
The class will cover fairly advanced skills used in the field of engineering design, as students work their way through all the design phases of a system to solve an engineering problem. Konopnicki believes strongly in the need to "cascade these competencies down to the secondary level."
The benefits for graduates will be tangible. If they choose to begin work right out of high school, they?ll be qualified for better jobs than might otherwise be available. And if they choose to continue their educations, they will be able to follow an articulated pathway to certain associate?s degrees offered by TCC. In addition, program staff members are working to develop similar opportunities for articulation and/or dual enrollment with Old Dominion?s Modeling and Simulation Center.
For those who remain skeptical as to whether such advanced topics can be meaningfully taught at the secondary level, Konopnicki need only point to the district?s award-winning Computer Network Administrator (CNA) program.
Linda Lavender teaches the two-year CNA course, which she developed in 1994. It was the first secondary course, nationwide, to prepare students for industry certification as a Novell CNA and has since evolved to focus on other operating systems as well. Students still test for Novell certification but are also prepared for certification as a Microsoft Certified Professional.
The program has proven that high school students are capable of learning skills once thought appropriate only for older students?and it?s done so with flair, earning, in 2001, the designation of "Exemplary Program" from the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education.
For this program, as with other existing programs that have been relocated from other facilities to the ATC, the changes are subtle, but real. At first, Lavender says, she wasn?t sure how or even if being in the ATC would affect her teaching and her students? learning?though she appreciated the "space to grow" afforded by the large facilities.
But since the move took place in November, she?s already noticed a number of significant effects. Her students, she says, are inspired by the college students with whom they share the building and have a more future-oriented outlook.
Business interest in the program has skyrocketed. "I got so many donations this year," Lavender notes, attributing industry enthusiasm to the high-profile nature of the ATC. "They want to be a part of this product."
And, says Lavender, the ATC facility and its placement as part of an academic village have contributed to her professional development. "I have been able, as a teacher, to interact with my colleagues in the community college. I can make sure I?m on par; we can do more brainstorming; and they?re seeing that we?re not just doing some little fluff classes."
TCC students benefit from Lavender?s presence as well. She has brought to the ATC, not only her CNA class, but also a Prometric testing center. Prometric is an independent testing agency that administers the certification exams for which Lavender?s students train.
Having the center has allowed students to receive discounts in testing and to avoid the hassles of traveling to an inconvenient testing site.
The center has also raised nominal funds to pay for equipment and scholarships for Lavender?s students. Now that the center is located in the ATC facility, TCC students and other community members are able to take advantage of these benefits as well.
The ATC has its beginnings in a number of disparate initiatives. Beginning in the late 1980s, the Tidewater Community College was beginning to draw up plans for a new academic facility for its Virginia Beach Campus. Around the same time, the Virginia Beach City Public Schools began discussing its need for an additional technical and career facility to meet a burgeoning demand for courses in this area.
Many delays and budget cuts later, Timothy Jenney, the superintendent of VBCPS, brought the two organizations together with the visionary idea of creating a single high-tech facility that would be shared by TCC and VBCPS. The idea, first broached in the mid 1990s, took off and began winning supporters.
From the beginning, VBCPS had worked in partnership with the city department of economic development, wanting to develop programs that met the city?s needs and would prepare students for jobs that were in demand. As discussions about a joint facility progressed, the department of economic development continued to play a role.
This led eventually to the adoption of three general areas of focus at the completed ATC: information technology, telecommunications, and high-performance engineering/manufacturing.
These are all fields of high growth that Virginia Beach City is targeting. "Rather than increasing the variety" of courses offered, Bagley says, the ATC "will intensify the focus on what is needed."
(Career and technical education in other fields at both the secondary and community college level will continue to take place at other CTE facilities throughout VBCPS and TCC.)
Because of the wide coalition of support and what Konopnicki describes as the "overwhelming value-added nature to education and economic development," funding was more forthcoming than might have been expected. In November of 1997, the city council passed a resolution committing up to $13 million in funding to the construction of a new TCC-VBCPS career and technical education center.
The council urged maximum state funding for the project as well, and in December of that year, that wish was granted. Governor Allen allotted $10 million in state grants from the 1998-2000 state budget.
In 1998, the ATC received another major boost from the state when House Joint Resolution (HJR) 124 was adopted. This resolution urged the study of the feasibility of creating other technology centers throughout Virginia and named the ATC as a model. Despite the fact that the ATC was still a few years from opening, HJR 124 called it "the most advanced public school/community college partnership in Virginia."
By all accounts, it looks as if the ATC will maintain that position for some time. The ATC is bringing together diverse participants in the field of technology education?from traditional CTE educators at the secondary and community college level to those involved in graduate programs, as well as business leaders and city leaders with an eye on economic development. The result, as Bagley describes it, is "a really solid education system that is continuous and almost seamless."
The ATC has its own Web site (maintained by high school students in the digital design class) that can be accessed at http://www.vbatc.com.
Sara Wright is in her final semester at Yale University, where she is majoring in anthropology. She has taught English as a second language and this past summer spent six weeks teaching English in Ecuador. She has been a part-time employee of Print Management, Inc. since first interning for the company as a high school student.
