Category: Celebrating CTE

The school year is wrapping up and you know what that means?! Summer reading season! Read Techniques. ACTE’s flagship publication addresses the issues ACTE members care about most, providing input you can trust when making decisions for your classrooms, programs and school systems — in print and on the web.

Articles published in Techniques are crafted to inspire and enrich the career and technical education (CTE) experience for all.

Find a comfortable spot in the shade and read Techniques.

In January 2019, business and community partnerships took center stage. Nicole Carter wrote “Colorado Partners Educate a Strong, Prepared Workforce.”

To meet the need for a more equipped labor force, communities, local businesses and national industry companies have come together to partner and support the growing requirement for skilled trades workers. …Widefield and Peyton School Districts purchased a 46,000-square-foot building known now as the Manufacturing Industry Learning Lab (MiLL) National Training Center.

Overall, the ultimate goal of the partnership is to promote a stronger and more consistent workforce in Colorado.

The February 2019 issue of Techniques focused on engaging students through CTE. In a centerpiece on career and technical student organizations (CTSOs), readers will “learn more about these nine organizations as they enhance student learning to address workforce development challenges and increase global competitiveness.”

A 21st century education for 21st century students

Dale Winkler and Scott Warren, of the Southern Regional Education Board, strongly recommend a whole school approach to increasing access and equity. Their article appeared in Techniques in March 2019.

We believe that career pathway programs that blend quality CTE and college-preparatory academics offer a way to increase readiness, postsecondary attainment, career advancement and economic stability for youth of all genders, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and ability levels.

States are using career pathways as an essential element of college and career readiness initiatives that satisfy the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act and Perkins V.

We made the case for family and consumer sciences in April 2019. With innovation at the forefront, Lori Wahl introduced fashion students to direct 3D printing on fabric. 3D printers are a versatile tool that can do more than print figures, parts and things. “While used predominantly for rapid protoyping and small-scale production of objects, 3D printing can also be used directly on fabrics to enhance the surface, dramatically change the appearance, or add a built-in feature.”

The future is bright! The future of career development, that is. Monica Amyett explored the important role of instructional coaching for CTE teachers in her article for Techniques in May 2019. “Quality teacher professional development is essential to the outcome of student achievement. In their careers, teachers must be challenged with new ideas in order to foster a classroom culture of student engagement that will lead to achievement.”

At the end of yet another school year, Techniques took a break.

Dear reader, will you share your experience from ACTE’s CareerTech VISION 2019? Leave a comment below. Techniques’ September issue gave association members a sneak peek at the innovative professional development to be undertaken in Anaheim, California. Consider Shannon Sheldon’s work on “Supporting the Gender Expansive Student.”

Students who blur the lines between masculine and feminine are considered to be gender expansive (Baum >amp; Westheimer, 2015; Murchison, 2016.) Pushing the boundaries of what is generally accepted as appropriate is not a new concept; at one time it was considered unacceptable for a female to wear pants to school.

But what about students who choose to express their gender outside of the norm? As educators, how can we make all students, regardless of gender identity or expression, feel welcome, included and supported in our classrooms?

October 2019 asked, “What is postsecondary success?” And our leaders in CTE answered.

Nzingha Williams, a fellow in the Postsecondary Leadership Success Program at ACTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation, wrote, “Postsecondary success is about the holistic success of the student and the institutions that serve them. Students come with a variety of different goals and aspirations. We must be able to help students achieve their goals. We also must be able to serve the economy and make sure that industries have enough skilled labor. True success comes when there is an intersection between our students, livable wage and economic mobility.”

California is stepping it up, shifting instructional focus from STEM to STEAM. So wrote Elizabeth McKinstry for the November/December 2019 issue of Techniques. Read more about how the Antelope Valley Unified School District has integrated art and engineering. “As the engineering students were tasked to train their classmates on equipment and use of tools, both groups improved their communication skills. Engineering students, typically focused on optimal and acceptable solutions, began to view their projects through a creative and emotional lens.”

Assessing the future of work

Ah, 2020. What a ride it’s been. The January issue of Techniques laid the foundation for developing effective work-based learning experiences. Consider the following from the Educational Development Center on “The Future of Work.”

A major transformation is taking place in America’s workplaces. The National Science Foundation calls it the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (Mervis, 2016) — a future that is driven by combinations of machine learning, artificial intelligence, the “internet of things” and robotics. Today’s students will need new sets of skills, knowledge and dispositions to succeed in workplaces. The CTE community is already giving students a head start in preparing for the future of work. But one key challenge involves predicting the multiple directions in which the workplace is heading and reconfiguring CTE to keep pace.

What has happened since the passage of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act? What steps are being taken toward implementation? In February 2020, CTE professionals from around the country answered these questions and more. Heather M. Jones, a FACS teacher in Virginia, wrote, “Perkins V’s expansion to include middle grades CTE presents opportunities for those launching new initiatives and expanding existing programming. New funding streams create opportunities to reach more students earlier, educate them about future career options, and help dispel long-held myths about CTE in our schools and communities.”

A commitment to high-quality CTE

Data and Program Improvement is element No. 12 in ACTE’s Quality CTE Program of Study Framework. Gene Bottoms asserted our students’ voices are the key to program improvement. “Students can provide valuable insight into CTE courses. Consider the following data from surveys conducted on two groups of students. Their responses demonstrated that students can discern the type of rigorous CTE assignments that will prepare them for good jobs in the 21st century economy.” Read the March 2020 issue to learn more.

On land, out of this world… and in the watery depths as well. CTE offers opportunities for career success in and around the water. In April 2020, Techniques featured model programs in diverse pathways such as agriculture, STEM, health science, transportation and more. Emily Kuhn wrote “The Future of Hydroponics.” “To grow food (and economies) in and around cities, water-driven indoor farming methods like hydroponics are expanding rapidly, creating a favorable job outlook for students interested in what’s becoming an emerging industry of high-tech greenhouses, vertical farms, hydroponics and aquaponics.”

Learning is a lifelong process. In these unprecedented times, the traditional forms of instruction are being challenged. We’ve all been forced to rethink our strategy for teaching our students, and also for delivering quality professional development in CTE. While the majority of our May issue was developed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, consider the following words from Nancy Trivette, ACTE’s board of directors president.

Our personal, social and professional interactions will be shaped as a result of the pandemic of 2020. Working, teaching and learning from home, just weeks ago, was uncommon for many of us. Today, as I write this, it is a reality for most, if not all of us. Everything we know, have done and will do in the future may be different. It is 2020, and our everyday lives have been reinvented and will continue to be reinvented at a speed that is hard to imagine. It is a time of change and a bit of uncertainty. However, it is also a time of great opportunity to change the way we teach, learn and do business! What will not change is the need for quality career and technical education.

ACTE members can read full issues of Techniques online.

As the year 2018 draws to a close we’re taking a look back at the articles in Techniques that made us think, helped us learn, and inspired pride in our profession as career and technical educators. Helping “Young Minds Take Flight” and “Filling the Educator Pipeline,” Techniques addresses the issues ACTE members care about most, providing input you can trust when making decisions for your classrooms, programs and school systems — in print and on the web.

• Russell Peterman wrote about his personal experience to follow a passion and how he has leveraged that passion to help “Young Minds Take Flight” in the January 2018 issue of Techniques.“Dan Weyant, a high school engineering teacher for Georgetown Independent School District, contacted me with an idea: He wanted, and had obtained approval to start an engineering class, to build a flying airplane in the school’s new CTE lab. If only I had had that opportunity when I was young!”
• In February 2018, Ozarks Technical Community College went “Up, Up and Away! Using Comic Books for Program Promotion,” encouraging excitement and engaging students through career and technical education.“Once considered juvenile, the medium [comic books] is now considered mainstream, acceptable entertainment. As a self-proclaimed comic book evangelist, [Techniques contributor Craig W. Schutt] pronounced the once-beleaguered funny book an effective and engaging tool for instruction and promotion.”
• Patrick Cain, assistant superintendent for Enterprise City Schools in Enterprise, Alabama, understands that to educate the workforce of tomorrow, we must begin today. “WeeCat Industries: Educating the Future” appeared in Techniques in March 2018.“The heart and true success of any CTE program lies in its ability to prepare students for success. In Enterprise City Schools, in southeast Alabama, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking and positive work ethic transformed the instructional framework of WeeCats Preschool into the emerging WeeCat Industries.”
• With an eye toward the future, the April 2018 issue of Techniques gave readers an inside look at the work that must be done: “Building America’s Skilled Technical Workforce.”“In response to the broader need for policy information on this important issue, an expert committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine prepared a study outlining the structure, scope, challenges and opportunities for building a more agile and skilled technical workforce.”
• CTE spells success! Most especially, perhaps, in the May 2018 issue of Techniques themed “CTE Success Stories.” One such story, of Zachary Flowers’ “Survival on the Horizon,” you should hear from the source:“How does one become a successful teacher? Are they born into it? Do they happen to take the right classes and get lucky? Does it take a lot of work, dedication and continued education? These are all questions I, Zachary Flowers, have asked myself more than once… The only thing I know at this point is that meeting and learning from others in my field can only help me.”

Summer break was a breath of fresh air. Techniques took a brief hiatus and we launched our PAGES blog to offer expanded opportunities for engagement and even more stories of CTE success.

• With the start of each new school year, Techniques arrives again at VISION. (Did you catch our word play on the September 2018 cover?) Inside, CTE professionals provide a glimpse of the value to be found at ACTE’s CareerTech VISION.Osceola Technical College Principal Thomas Ott wrote on “Transformational Leadership in the First and Second Year” (>amp; gave a presentation of the same name at VISION 2018), “There are many ways to change the trajectory of an organization. The most effective depend on what that institution needs and if leadership is willing to listen and be flexible when it comes to implementing change.”
• Technology is ubiquitous. And CTE educators everywhere are leveraging technology and its concepts to reach students where they are: online. One such educator, a computer science instructor in Georgia, wants readers of Techniques in October 2018 to know you can “Run Your Classroom Like a Software Development Incubator.”“Where Agile programming teams work to solve problems by developing software for clients, this is not a software development company in Silicon Valley. It’s my classroom. Excited teams gather at programming tables around the room, ready to engage in student-led development meetings, taking on projects that build practical applicability.”
• And, finally, we have come to the end of the year with Techniques‘ November/December issue. The CTE teacher shortage is an issue we all face — not only for the future of our programs but in the development of a skilled workforce. Recruitment programs such as “iTeachU” at South Dakota State University build upon national and state efforts to fill the educator pipeline.“Statewide recruitment efforts are underway to recruit the next generation of CTE teachers in South Dakota… In addition to the traditional means of recruiting, SDSU implemented iTeachU in 2011. The one-day, annual event on campus is a join effort between the agricultural education and family and consumer sciences education faculty, and introduces participants to a career in teaching while simultaneously providing a glimpse into college life.

ACTE members can read full issues of Techniques online.