Category: Innovation in CTE

Growing a supportive community around my programs has been essential to ensuring their success. Here are some examples of connections I’ve made in and outside my school that have improved opportunities for my students:

1. Local Businesses: Growing partnerships with local businesses is hard work, but I believe well-worth the extra effort. As a result of the connections I’ve made, many of my students have gone on to internships in their field of study. I particularly enjoy hearing about how great my students have been as interns when I open my inbox and receive rave reviews from these companies I’ve partnered with for several years.

2. Local Banks: A few years ago, I began working with the local Municipal Credit Unions’ (MCU) Business Development Relations department. They host a “youth empowerment event” annually that incorporates professional lawyers, judges, celebrities and local leaders who once walked the tough streets of those many students in the audience. I attend this event every year with 25-50 students who depart the event amazed at how much they can use the event discussions to advance their CTE careers. Additionally (and for free), MCU has had one of their professionals come to my school for the past four years to present “Financially Fit,” an appealing and enlightening presentation on credit awareness for students with a specific focus on the credit pitfalls when entering college.

3. The School Administration: Your school administrators can be strong allies in bringing engaging CTE programs outside your curriculum into your house of education. While I was at ACTE’s CareerTech VISION in Las Vegas several years ago, I was able to connect my principal with representatives from the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) and proposed starting a chapter at our school. Unlike the National Honor Society, this student-led organization specifically benefits and honors the academic and technical accomplishments of CTE students. My principal agreed, and five years later many of our students have won the NTHS Jon H. Poteat scholarship to help ease the burden of college costs. Additionally, via consultation and approval from the school principal, the students of the NTHS organization and I have put together several high school fair events where CTE student presenters of varying disciplines share their learned experiences with middle school students and their parents on each event date.

4. The Local Teacher’s Union: I am very happy that I made the conscious choice to not only sign on to be a union member many years ago, but also to become a steadfast advocate, representative and elected delegate. You truly learn so much about the business of education and advocating for yourself, your fellow staff members and of course, your students. I have met and learned from members of the American Federation of Teachers, New York State United Teachers, and United Federation of Teachers over the years. Because of these affiliations, my footprint far extends the classroom. UFT hosts various events that directly advance CTE, i.e. the annual UFT Spring conference, which includes CTE exhibits—all NYC CTE schools are welcomed to present their specialized programs to hundreds of citywide visitors. If, feasible, your participation in union activity absolutely gives you a greater ability to advance your CTE agenda to help your students.

Finally, I always encourage my students to consider giving back to the field by considering a future in education. I’m proud to say our school has a record of drawing our alumni back through our doors, including two former students of mine who are teachers and another who is now our school principal. Across several generations, our school has become a strong community with many stories of young lives changed, enhanced and empowered.

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Alexander C. Bell

2015 ACTE Region I Teacher of the Year

Teacher, Thomas A. Edison CTE High School

Jamaica, New York

abell3@schools.nyc.gov

#PublicSchoolProud

I teach computer technology and CompTIA A+ certification at Thomas A. Edison CTE High School in the New York City public school system.
Here are some of the strategies I’ve used to make my program successful:

1. Hands-On Performance Exams: I use official and approved online course data to give my students the best possible chance to be certified just like professionals. When it comes to testing my students though, I add fun, teamwork, and critical thinking to my course by creating what I call “Hands-On Performance Exams.” Teams of 2-3 students must show, discuss and prove a given learned task to me in response to surprise question on a topic they have prepared for. I always put a primary focus on making these exam scenarios as “real-world” for my students as possible while challenging their critical thinking skills.

2. Technical Notebooks: To help my students foster good organization habits, I have them create a “Tech Manual” that includes their classmate names; teacher names; a grading/comments page; index; signed documents by student and parent illustrating commitment; course data with graded assignments and homework; and vocabulary. I inspect their books for completeness and organization 2-3 times per marking period. As a result, my students leave proud of themselves for making a useful resource that they can use to reflect on at the end of the year.

3. Student-Run Services: The MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools >amp; Education) Squad is an engaging CTE program that I have advised at my school since 2004. This program is an in-house help desk paid internship via the Department of Education’s Work-Based Learning program. The top students enrolled in my program are recruited to join the MOUSE Squad, where they develop their IT and leadership skills by directly responding to incoming live service calls throughout the school for assistance with printers, smart boards, internet, and other computer-related problems. Beyond making our school’s staff members really happy by resolving computing hardware problems within minutes, this program also saves our school thousands of dollars annually in IT support.

4. Marketing CTE Accomplishments: Display, display…display!!! I like to hang motivational accomplishments in my classroom, including student certifications, posters, partnership posters/promotional data, awards, and other CTE accomplishments. I also currently have three themed billboards outside of my classroom that I use to promote my A+ Certification course, the National Technical Honor Society which I advise, and the MOUSE Squad. This strategy is a very effective way to market your program(s) daily toward the students, staff, visiting parents, and political guests, and allows your programs and activities to market themselves even when you’re not in the building. Be sure to frequently update the data and images.

Feel free to email me for examples of any of these activities, or read my next post about the important partnerships I’ve created for my program.

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Alexander C. Bell

2015 ACTE Region I Teacher of the Year

Teacher, Thomas A. Edison CTE High School

Jamaica, New York

abell3@schools.nyc.gov

#PublicSchoolProud

In my many years as a teacher of technology in the New York City public high school system, I’ve found that my drive to not follow the status quo—whether it’s
integrating something new into my classes each school year or finding fresh ways to advocate for my program—has been a constant underlying factor to my success as a CTE instructor. Not only that, “innovating” has truly made – and continues to make—my teaching career vastly engaging, tremendously satisfying, and even therapeutic in the midst of the hard-lined politics that surround the business of education.

Despite the challenges we face as teachers, I thrive on the success stories of my students. I’ve lost count of how many of my former students have created rewarding careers and comfortable lifestyles because of the technology skills they directly acquired and still utilize from their tenure in my CTE classroom.

“Innovation” to me has been integral to two main areas of my role as an instructor:

1. Developing learning components that are unique to my class
2. Finding new opportunities to partner and expand my program’s reach

I’ve provided detailed strategies that have helped me succeed in these areas in the two posts linked above.

One of my keys to success is that I love my discipline. Passion and a willingness to innovate are crucial for a great program, but more fundamental and equally as important is taking the time to stay on top of the changes in my field. I’ve found it critical to stay current with my skillset and the state of CTE nationally, and I’ve done this by attending professional development conferences, local seminars and online webinars to stay up to date on the newest trends.

If you love your discipline, know your discipline, and are willing to try new things, then you can be fearless in making a difference every day in those lives that sit before you in your classroom!

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Alexander C. Bell

2015 ACTE Region I Teacher of the Year

Teacher, Thomas A. Edison CTE High School

Jamaica, New York

abell3@schools.nyc.gov

#PublicSchoolProud

The Kokomo Area Career Center (KACC), which is operated by the Kokomo School Corporation in Kokomo, Indiana, never stops looking outside of the box for meaningful learning experiences for its students from nine different high schools.

I have been teaching Culinary Arts and Baking Pastry at the KACC for 12 years. In May 2012, I shared with my Kokomo Schools Superintendent, Dr. Jeff Hauswald, that I wanted to find more real-life opportunities for my KACC students.  We have a restaurant called ‘Glass Canopy’ as part of our career center that is open to the public. However, the restaurant is still inside a school building, and people act differently inside a school than they would in a normal restaurant. What I really wanted was a student-run venture that would be more authentic to the world outside our campus.

Apparently, my superintendent was listening, and he took my idea seriously. In August 2012, I was asked to visit Dr. Hauswald’s office, and he took me on a field trip to downtown Kokomo and we stopped in front of an older building that had been recently renovated. The building, which had once housed a candy store, was serving as a residence hall for our high school International students from around the world.  As we entered the building, I saw an amazing storefront, just as Dr. Hauswald surprised me and said, ”Welcome to your new candy/pastry store!” I couldn’t believe he was serious!

In October 2012, the KACC students opened the “Kokomo Confectioners’ Company,” a candy store/pastry shop, where everything in the store is made by students (except our bulk candies). The shop is student-run and opens after school hours Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3:00-6:00pm. We also open on select Wednesdays from 4:00-7:00pm, and also participate in the community’s downtown First Friday event each month from 5:30-9:00pm.  Each and every student in the baking and pastry class works at the shop, and the KACC students learn costing, marketing, and even what to create based on their customer base.

I must commend these students for working unbelievably hard at advertising their store, while showing off their culinary talents to our community.  Our students have created ads for our local radio stations and posted signs throughout downtown Kokomo. Our shop is located in downtown Kokomo, which is approximately 5 miles from our career center campus.  I cannot think of a better way to teach students real life than with a real, live, working store.  We continue to search for creative ideas so we can teach real-life experiences as we seek the very best learning opportunities for our KACC students.

Submitted by:

Shelley Rust
Indiana ACTE President
Culinary Arts/Baking Pastry Instructor
Kokomo Area Career Center (KACC)
Kokomo, Indiana

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CTE is enjoying renewed attention in education policy and practice, however, the body of CTE research to guide decision-making is relatively small. This has become more noticeable under the requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), as districts and states are using CTE in their education plans as a way to increase the career readiness of their students. Across the country, as CTE programs and policies continue to grow, there is a critical need for high-quality, independent research on various CTE programs and practices to provide evidence-based strategies.

Last year, the National Center for Education Research (NCER) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) introduced a new “special topic” on CTE to encourage more researchers to focus on CTE. For those not familiar, IES is the independent research, evaluation, and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Each year, we fund millions of dollars of research on a broad range of educational topics. Following the peer review process, IES awarded its first three grants in the CTE special topic in 2017:

• New York University will study the impact of New York City’s Career Technical Education programs on students’ career and work-related learning experiences, social and behavioral competencies, high school completion, and transitions to college and the work place;
• The Education Development Center will lead a study that compares three different ways that CTE is delivered in California—career academies, career pathways, and elective CTE courses. The researchers will examine relationships between CTE delivery mode and student outcomes; and
• A study of Florida’s CTE certification program will be conducted by Research Triangle Institute (RTI). The study will identify which high school certifications are associated with a higher likelihood of passing certification exams and whether obtaining a certification leads to better attendance, graduation rates, and postsecondary enrollment and persistence.

Last year, IES funded a CTE research project under a different topic, Improving Education Systems. In this project, the University of Connecticut is examining the impact of attending a CTE-focused high school on students’ achievement, high school graduation, and college enrollment.

As these studies progress, IES will share findings with ACTE members. You can learn more about these projects and other research on the IES website, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. IES hopes to continue to fill the research gap in CTE to ensure strong programs and policies in this growing area.

Questions? Contact Corinne Alfeld (corinne.alfeld@ed.gov) or Dana Tofig (dana.tofig@ed.gov).

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Corinne Alfeld, Ph.D.
Education Research Analyst
Institute of Education Sciences
U.S. Department of Education