By Ivan A. Shibley
The NO VACANCY sign has been hanging out at the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School (CMAVTS) for the past several years. A variety of reasons may have contributed to the building being at full capacity. A new administrative director, Steve Walk, was hired in 1999 to change the image of the school. Since his arrival, High Schools That Work has listed CMAVTS as one of the top 50 career-technical schools in the nation. Other incentives for students to attend include the dedicated faculty and staff available to meet the students’ everyday needs.
Special needs students at CMAVTS are not only educated by five special education teachers, but also by the career area faculty. Marginal students—those who are not labeled special needs but still require support—have a host of tutors to help in academic and career areas.
An English teacher team teaches with the building reading specialist for three periods of ninth grade. The reading specialist does pre/post reading level tests to monitor the progress of those ninth graders.
The guidance department offers ongoing advisement and support whenever and wherever needed. Annually, the guidance staff visits the eighth graders in the seven sending school districts to market the advantages of attending CMAVTS.
The faculty sponsors a summer careers program for elementary-age students. The faculty and staff annually conduct open houses for students, parents and the community. Shortly after the school year starts, the students in food preparation run a restaurant that is open to faculty, staff and the community. The school always participates in the Bloomsburg Fair with competitive booths.
Recently, a new, young, energetic principal, Cosmos Curry, was hired. Curry has a strong background in sports, and he often uses motivational techniques with the entire school population.
All of these are among the reasons that this career-technical school has a waiting list.
CMAVTS is located in Bloomsburg, Pa., in Columbia County. The school is supported and administered by seven sending districts—six in Columbia County and one in Montour County. It maintains a student population of slightly more than 670 students. It is a comprehensive school with academics, career areas and extracurricular and co-curricular opportunities. Fourteen school board members, two each from the sending schools, meet monthly to conduct the business of the school.
Academically, the students receive instruction in mathematics, English, social studies and science. Special needs students receive their core academic program directly from a special education teacher with support from the academic teachers. There are a total of 17 career areas divided into four cluster areas—Transportation/Manufacturing, Technology, Service and Construction.
Additional student support is provided by two full-time guidance counselors, a school nurse, a librarian, a blended person (an intervention specialist funded through a grant) and a vocational evaluator who has the responsibility of providing career assessment and occupational counseling for special education students.
All of the positive aspects of CMAVTS had the faculty and staff really tuned into the needs of the students. Then along came this new federal law called No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The law requires that all students in grades three, five, eight and 11 be tested annually in reading and mathematics with a state-designed test called PSSA (Pennsylvania State System of Assessments). Students in grades six, nine and 11 were mandated to be tested in writing annually, and these testing results were to be reported to the public in what the state calls a building report card. The results brought mixed reactions from the faculty and staff, but little reaction from the parents or public.
After some soul searching, blaming the sending schools for the students they send to the school (20 percent special needs), focusing on lack of preparation, and discussing the lack of student motivation and drive, the overall reaction of the faculty was that we could do better.
Administrative Director Steve Walk took those comments and that opportunity to provide direction for the faculty and staff. Walk enlisted the help of a professor from the University of Scranton to initially provide an in-service on the salient points of NCLB. During that five-hour in-service, the professor highlighted the various requirements by showing the faculty and staff where CMAVTS ranked among 17 Pennsylvania career-technical schools that had scores reported independently of their home schools.
After the rankings were displayed, participants worked in small groups to brainstorm what could be done to improve the PSSA scores in the future. Administrators, guidance personnel, academic and career area teachers, tutors and secretaries worked side by side during the in-service to tackle the questions and make suggestions for the future. While participating in the in-service, the faculty and staff never lost focus of the mission and belief statements of CMAVTS.
The in-service was the starting point for making changes necessary to comply with NCLB, but the administrative staff, after debriefing with the university professor, went even further. It was agreed that the University of Scranton would complete a multiple regression statistical analysis of the CMAVTS student PSSA scores. The administrative team, working with two professors, would determine variables to analyze in relation to the PSSA test results. The predicted variables selected were ninth grade Stanford Achievement Tests, gender, student attendance and special needs students.
After completing the analysis, a professor met with the administrative team and reviewed the results. Based on the findings, a second in-service was planned to start the 2003-04 school year. At this time, the statistical results were shared, and the faculty/staff had time to digest and discuss those results.
NCLB regulations require that all schools will make adequate yearly progress resulting in 100 percent of the students scoring proficient or above by the year 2014. The two key subject areas in which to strive for proficiency are reading and mathematics. A 95 percent graduation rate, meeting the needs of limited English proficient students, and employing highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals are other components of NCLB, but the focus for this article is on reading, mathematics and writing. Writing, at the present time, is not required under NCLB, but is required in Pennsylvania.
In the first round of PSSA testing (2001-2002), which established the baseline test scores, 33.6 percent of the CMAVTS students scored proficient or advanced in reading. Pennsylvania had established 45 percent as the target score for all Pennsylvania schools.
To make a fair assessment of what that 33.6 percent score meant in relation to other career-technical schools, a table was displayed showing how CMAVTS ranked among 17 similar schools. Dependent on the ranking, CMAVTS was shown among the top five schools, two neighboring schools (Carbon County and Westside AVTS) and the school that scored 18th.
After viewing these results, the faculty and staff were asked to work in groups to answer this question: CMAVTS ranked third in reading when listed with 17 other AVT schools. What do you think the staff should do to be ranked number one?
The focus initially was on what was being done successfully that staff/faculty wanted to maintain. Having a full-time reading specialist in the building and paraprofessional tutors were two positive aspects of the current operation.
The staff talked about individual support of the at-risk students who did not have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The tutors took a very active support role in making sure assignments were completed, offering instant help with assignments and monitoring those students assigned to them. The tutors would not let any student “slip through the cracks.” The academic and career area teachers were very satisfied with the level of support those students with an IEP received from the various special education teachers.
One of the English teachers and the reading specialist served as co-instructors with ninth graders. As part of their program, they wrote a grant to institute Teen Read Week. Gaining grant funds, the teachers were able to go to a local bookstore and purchase a collection of books recommended by the National Library Association for Young Adult Readers. In some instances, they were able to purchase multiple copies of the higher interest books.
The Friday before Teen Read Week was to start, the students spent a period perusing the collection to see what they might like to read. Every minute the students were to scan another book and write the title of possible reads. After making their final decisions, on Monday the students started reading in class. At the end of the week, they were to have read at least one book and written a small reaction paper to the book. This Teen Read Week project was so successful that it still continues today.
Pennsylvania established a mathematics proficiency rate of 35 percent, and Columbia-Montour scored slightly lower than the state benchmark at 23.6 percent. After viewing these results, the faculty and staff were asked to work in groups to answer this question: CMAVTS ranked third in mathematics when listed with 17 other AVT schools. What do you think the staff should do to be ranked number one?
This question posed more of a challenge for the faculty/staff, but once again they focused on what was working at the present time. Having students complete problems similar to those presented on the state assessment was acknowledged as crucial. Not only did the students practice the types of questions, but they also were required to write a brief explanation of their work. This written explanation is a segment of the state assessment.
The second comment focused on the successful tutoring program. If any student is having a problem with mathematics, that student can go to a specific tutor (for example in algebra) for help.
A more elusive discussion focused on student attitude. What could be instituted to convince students, especially female students, that they can succeed in mathematics class?
During Read Across America the past two years, the mathematics teacher had the students complete an Internet search of famous mathematicians and write a paper about their findings. Also, each teacher read a Dr. Seuss book, after which the students had to write a creative story using math concepts. The mathematics instructors try to show the students how reading, writing and mathematics are all interconnected.
NCLB does not have testing requirements for writing, but Pennsylvania does test writing skills in grades three, six, nine and 11. This is an area in which CMAVTS placed 10th out of the 18 career-technical schools. The 11th grade students had a 32.8 percent proficiency rate.
After viewing these results, the faculty and staff were asked to work in groups to answer this question: CMAVTS ranked 10th in writing when listed with 17 other AVT schools. What do you think the staff should do to be ranked number one?
The major focus for the staff was to allow the newly instituted Integrated Writing program to work for a while to see the impact on the scores. The Integrated Writing project involved the career-tech teacher selecting an article to read every other week. The English department developed a summary worksheet requiring the students to respond to four items.
- Students are to pick five vocabulary words from the article that are career related and/or other words they don’t know. They are then to list the words and write the definitions.
- Each student is to write a complete sentence citing the main idea of the article.
- A summary paragraph is to be written with a topic sentence, main body and conclusion.
- Students are to write a sentence or two as to how the article relates to the career area.
The reading specialist corrected the first sets of papers, until the career teachers felt comfortable doing the grading. This process expanded to the point where the reading specialist corrects one set of papers in each career area marking period.
Prior to the start of the testing period, Principal Curry uses the morning television program to address the students about the importance of the test and encourages each student to have a positive attitude about successfully taking the test. In addition, breakfast is served to all students, and at breaks juice and snacks are provided. Also, during the breaks, students go to the gymnasium to play ping-pong, volleyball, or just to relax.
The reading specialist and resource room special education teacher responsible for English help the 11th grade IEP students practice for the tests. They use writing prompts, practice reading and comprehension skills, and refresh terms that students may not remember such as thesaurus and atlas. They show the students how the test will be presented so they have some exposure as to style and substance. In addition, all math and English teachers help prepare the students by giving practice tests similar to the PSSA exams in the weeks preceding the tests.
The English teacher and reading specialist use the concept of contextual vocabulary to help the students learn words they have read in print.
Teaming appears to be the key to why the NO VACANCY sign is still out at the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School. Administrative Director Steve Walk sets the tone and the expectations high, and Principal Cosmos Curry provides the motivation and inspiration. The academic and career area teachers integrate learning, while the guidance counselors, nurse, librarian and other support staff monitor the progress of students and provide supplemental services. The paraprofessional tutors provide one-on-one help and make sure that no student goes unattended.
All of the teamwork at CMAVTS is working to making this a very successful school.
Ivan A. Shibley is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at the University of Scranton. He can be reached at shibleyi2@Scranton.edu. For more information about the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School, visit www.cmvt.tec.pa.us. For more information on the Pennsylvania school statistics cited in this article, visit www.paprofiles.org.
- Techniques April 2005 Issue - 
