By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News
January 31, 2010
It was a smorgasbord of career choices at an event Saturday that showcased several redesigned Dallas high schools.
Parents and students who attended the event, targeted at eighth-graders, received information on current and new "career pathway" offerings at nine high schools. The magnet-like programs include a performing arts academy at Woodrow Wilson High School to a public safety academy at Madison High School.
"We're talking about having pockets of excellence in a school system," said Jose Torres, DISD's executive director of parent services and school choice.
The Dallas Independent School District came up with the idea to redesign the campuses as a way to provide parents and students with more educational options. Typically, Dallas students who wanted to focus on a career while attending high school had to compete for a spot at the district's coveted magnet campuses.
"It just gives you more choices and more alternatives," said Lavina Durman, who attended Saturday's event at Woodrow Wilson with her daughter, Michaela Durman.
District officials hope even more students take advantage of the program next year, when it will expand to nine campuses from the current seven.
Last year, the district enrolled 263 applicants in the program, said Carroll Morgan, DISD's coordinator for parental public choice.
Students interested in entering one of the career programs at their home campus can do so without applying, unless the program is grant-financed, Morgan said. Campuses have been agreeable to providing at least 5 percent of their space to outside enrollees, she said.
District officials said that space in the programs is limited and that a lottery system will be used if needed. The application period for students entering the ninth grade in the 2010-11 school year runs Monday through Feb. 26.
The district plans to add more schools to the program each year until all 22 high schools have the classes, Morgan said.
Transportation will not be provided by the district, which some parents took into consideration Saturday.
"When you're short on time, you really want it to come down to location, and you want your school to be close," parent Kimmy Wright said.
At some of the campuses participating in Saturday's showcase students were already taking part in the career classes.
Conrad High School students Misty Ramirez and Jordan Prasifka were at the event to discuss why they like their school's career offerings. Ramirez talked about the school's culinary program and student-managed restaurant. Prasifka, who is in Conrad's science, technology, engineering and mathematics program, demonstrated the use of a robot that reacts by sound.
"It's a really good choice, a good beginning," Prasifka said of the career program. "I see it opening up a lot of opportunity."
Showing posts with label career education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career education. Show all posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Coalition for Multiple Pathways (California)
Here's a group out of California that appeared in 2008 that advances Career and Technology Opportunities.- Angela
As California seeks to improve its high schools and better prepare its students for the future, many see “multiple pathways” as a solution.
The Coalition for Multiple Pathways is a statewide alliance of education, industry, and community organizations dedicated to improving California’s high schools and preparing students for postsecondary education and career, both options and not just one or the other. Over 140 organizations have joined to date.
The Coalition brings a collective voice and coordinated effort to expanding access to multiple pathways—programs of study that connect learning in the classroom with real-world applications outside of school. Pathways integrate rigorous academic instruction with demanding technical curriculum and work-based learning—all set in the context of an industry sector.
Description of Coalition
The Coalition for Multiple Pathways is a statewide alliance of education, industry, and community organizations dedicated to improving California’s high schools and preparing students for postsecondary education and career, both options and not just one or the other.
Purpose of Coalition
The Coalition aims to bring a collective voice and coordinated effort to expanding access for California’s young people to multiple pathways—programs of study that connect learning in the classroom with real-world applications outside of school. Pathways integrate rigorous academic instruction with demanding technical curriculum and work-based learning—all set in the context of one of California’s 15 major industry sectors such as arts, media, and entertainment; building and environmental design; engineering; health science and medical technology; information technology; and law and public services, to name just a few.
Goals of Coalition
The Goals of the Coalition are to:
Build awareness and understanding of multiple pathways
Present unified support for multiple pathways to encourage state, regional, and local decision makers to expand and improve pathway programs
Optimize resources and expertise to help promote multiple pathways
Establish state and local policy priorities that support multiple pathways
Boost Coalition membership to engage more education, industry, and community partners who can strengthen multiple pathways throughout California
As California seeks to improve its high schools and better prepare its students for the future, many see “multiple pathways” as a solution.
The Coalition for Multiple Pathways is a statewide alliance of education, industry, and community organizations dedicated to improving California’s high schools and preparing students for postsecondary education and career, both options and not just one or the other. Over 140 organizations have joined to date.
The Coalition brings a collective voice and coordinated effort to expanding access to multiple pathways—programs of study that connect learning in the classroom with real-world applications outside of school. Pathways integrate rigorous academic instruction with demanding technical curriculum and work-based learning—all set in the context of an industry sector.
Description of Coalition
The Coalition for Multiple Pathways is a statewide alliance of education, industry, and community organizations dedicated to improving California’s high schools and preparing students for postsecondary education and career, both options and not just one or the other.
Purpose of Coalition
The Coalition aims to bring a collective voice and coordinated effort to expanding access for California’s young people to multiple pathways—programs of study that connect learning in the classroom with real-world applications outside of school. Pathways integrate rigorous academic instruction with demanding technical curriculum and work-based learning—all set in the context of one of California’s 15 major industry sectors such as arts, media, and entertainment; building and environmental design; engineering; health science and medical technology; information technology; and law and public services, to name just a few.
Goals of Coalition
The Goals of the Coalition are to:
Build awareness and understanding of multiple pathways
Present unified support for multiple pathways to encourage state, regional, and local decision makers to expand and improve pathway programs
Optimize resources and expertise to help promote multiple pathways
Establish state and local policy priorities that support multiple pathways
Boost Coalition membership to engage more education, industry, and community partners who can strengthen multiple pathways throughout California
Monday, May 26, 2008
Vocational education war erupts
Vocational education war erupts
05.26.2008
The Sacramento Bee
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
The old axiom about evil thriving when good people do nothing has a political corollary in the law of unintended consequences.
Single-purpose, shortsighted political decisions made by voters and/or their elected officeholders often interact with each other to create negative impacts that no one really intended.
One of California's more egregious examples has been the erosion of job-oriented high school teaching, what used to be called "vocational education" but more recently has been updated to "career technical education" or CTE.
Educators' professional bias toward college, parents' natural desires for their offspring to have white-collar careers, fears among minorities about discriminatory "tracking," and the political mania for academic testing combined to create a negative atmosphere for continuing to teach high schoolers auto repair, carpentry, metalworking and other skilled crafts. The state's high school dropout rate soared even as employers began experiencing acute shortages of skilled workers.
The good news is that after years of neglect, CTE has become trendy, thanks in large measure to having a champion in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had high school job training in Austria. The state even had a brand new set of CTE curriculum standards.
The bad news is that a bitter, three-sided political war has erupted over what path renewal should take, threatening to stall progress on an issue that's vital to the state's economy and to countless thousands of at-risk students who might remain in school if given educations that match their interests and aptitudes.
Sensing, it would seem, that popular support for technical education is growing, the education establishment has created a glossy, foundation-supported "Coalition for Multiple Pathways" to push the superficially appealing notion that CTE can be combined with academics to qualify graduates for both jobs and admission to four-year colleges.
Jack O'Connell, the superintendent of public instruction and the embodiment of the establishment, kicked off the coalition's official launch last week by declaring that it embraces "a new philosophy" of instruction that eliminates the divide between vocational and college-prep curricula. "The two are not mutually exclusive," he said.
The coalition is pushing its concept on a broad front, including legislation, and that alarms the advocates of traditional vocational classes, who contend that "Multiple Pathways" will bypass students who aren't interested in and/or capable of college-prep academics.
As Multiple Pathways was being launched, the California Industrial and Technology Education Association issued a bulletin denouncing the pending legislation as "scary stuff" and worrying that if it's passed, O'Connell would complete the destruction of traditional vocational classes by redirecting money to the establishment's new framework.
The group says that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' Assembly Bill 2648 would "turn CTE into delivery models that can focus on college prep at the expense of CTE programs that really prepare students for careers they can enter after high school."
A third technical education advocacy group called "Get Real," created by business and labor groups, is caught in the middle of the crossfire. Its co-chair, Jack Stewart, says there's nothing wrong with Multiple Pathways for many students but it's "too narrow" to deal with the entire problem. "We don't think Multiple Pathways is the right way to go," says Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.
Stewart and Get Real make a valid point that Multiple Pathways could love vocational education to death. It's an issue Schwarzenegger is in a unique position to resolve, and he should do it as a legacy for his otherwise so-so governorship.
© 2007 California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley
05.26.2008
The Sacramento Bee
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
The old axiom about evil thriving when good people do nothing has a political corollary in the law of unintended consequences.
Single-purpose, shortsighted political decisions made by voters and/or their elected officeholders often interact with each other to create negative impacts that no one really intended.
One of California's more egregious examples has been the erosion of job-oriented high school teaching, what used to be called "vocational education" but more recently has been updated to "career technical education" or CTE.
Educators' professional bias toward college, parents' natural desires for their offspring to have white-collar careers, fears among minorities about discriminatory "tracking," and the political mania for academic testing combined to create a negative atmosphere for continuing to teach high schoolers auto repair, carpentry, metalworking and other skilled crafts. The state's high school dropout rate soared even as employers began experiencing acute shortages of skilled workers.
The good news is that after years of neglect, CTE has become trendy, thanks in large measure to having a champion in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had high school job training in Austria. The state even had a brand new set of CTE curriculum standards.
The bad news is that a bitter, three-sided political war has erupted over what path renewal should take, threatening to stall progress on an issue that's vital to the state's economy and to countless thousands of at-risk students who might remain in school if given educations that match their interests and aptitudes.
Sensing, it would seem, that popular support for technical education is growing, the education establishment has created a glossy, foundation-supported "Coalition for Multiple Pathways" to push the superficially appealing notion that CTE can be combined with academics to qualify graduates for both jobs and admission to four-year colleges.
Jack O'Connell, the superintendent of public instruction and the embodiment of the establishment, kicked off the coalition's official launch last week by declaring that it embraces "a new philosophy" of instruction that eliminates the divide between vocational and college-prep curricula. "The two are not mutually exclusive," he said.
The coalition is pushing its concept on a broad front, including legislation, and that alarms the advocates of traditional vocational classes, who contend that "Multiple Pathways" will bypass students who aren't interested in and/or capable of college-prep academics.
As Multiple Pathways was being launched, the California Industrial and Technology Education Association issued a bulletin denouncing the pending legislation as "scary stuff" and worrying that if it's passed, O'Connell would complete the destruction of traditional vocational classes by redirecting money to the establishment's new framework.
The group says that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' Assembly Bill 2648 would "turn CTE into delivery models that can focus on college prep at the expense of CTE programs that really prepare students for careers they can enter after high school."
A third technical education advocacy group called "Get Real," created by business and labor groups, is caught in the middle of the crossfire. Its co-chair, Jack Stewart, says there's nothing wrong with Multiple Pathways for many students but it's "too narrow" to deal with the entire problem. "We don't think Multiple Pathways is the right way to go," says Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.
Stewart and Get Real make a valid point that Multiple Pathways could love vocational education to death. It's an issue Schwarzenegger is in a unique position to resolve, and he should do it as a legacy for his otherwise so-so governorship.
© 2007 California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Schools changing to meet students' interests
Daniel Perry / The Monitor
September 11, 2007
The challenge looms as large as the steel school initials at the front of their campuses: changing the high school atmosphere to provide more courses tailored to students’ interests and providing additional information for teachers to do their jobs.
Six high schools in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, Weslaco and Zapata school districts are doing this with the help of the Region One Education Service Center in Edinburg and nationwide education organizations. The schools started last month their first year of the High School Redesign Project, which breaks up student bodies, teachers and counselors into small learning communities geared toward specific topics. The districts planned for a year before launching the project.
The McAllen school district is also in the planning stage and will implement it at its three high schools and Lamar Academy for the 2008-09 school year.
The idea is to have 18 high schools revamped in a five-year period. The money to do this will come from the U.S. Department of Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Texas Education Agency. Also partnering in the effort are the Institute for School Excellence and the Institute for Reform and Research in Education, both national entities providing project research and guidance.
Leaders at the districts said they hope redesigned schools can improve student completion rates, lower drop-out rates and improve academic performance.
In the PSJA district, PSJA North High School had the lowest completion rate among its three high schools with 78.2 percent. But, PSJA High School had the largest number of dropouts with 93 students. Both figures are from 2006, according to the state education agency.
In the Weslaco district, Weslaco East High School had the highest number of dropouts with 27 and the lowest completion rate with 91.5 percent for 2006, according to the education agency.
The participating high schools must still abide by state education guidelines and have students pass required standardized tests to graduate. The number of learning communities is contingent on the size of campuses and the range of student interests. Zapata High School only has three communities for law, criminal justice and government; health sciences and business and engineering and technology.
PSJA Memorial High School has eight communities in subjects ranging from performing arts to legal professions and public service. Some new courses in music theory, medical microbiology, sociology and courts and criminal procedures were added to give students more themed courses to take in their junior and seniors years.
“That area of interest can hopefully be articulated in their senior year when you are looking at dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, project-based learning,” said Claudia Rodriguez, Region One’s administrator for the division of instructional support. “I think the intent is more to go that route and the schools, like in PSJA, creating some classes you can see in college. We applaud their efforts.”
PSJA Memorial junior Francisco Gonzalez, 16, is in the business and technology community. Some of his classes this year include introductory computer maintenance, geometry and orchestra. He is looking forward to learning about Web design and software repairs this year.
“They (teachers) do get you ready for what you will be used to in college, but now, I don’t really feel like they are doing that,” Gonzalez said.
Dalila Garcia, PSJA Memorial’s school improvement facilitator, said staff is still tweaking some student schedules because of some classes either having not enough or too many students. She said staff will start thinking about the next school year’s scheduling in November.
PSJA Memorial junior Dulce Gonzalez, 16, is in the health science track and is taking orchestra, second-year Spanish, medical microbiology and third-year English. She is not related to Francisco Gonzalez.
“I thought we were going to stay in one wing and not see our friends,” she said.
PSJA North has also dealt with scheduling issues the first few days of school.
”From my perspective, we didn’t put enough time and effort in the planning stage,” said Barbara Mahan, an English dual credit teacher at the school. “I’m not saying it can’t work, but it was sort of my perception we needed another year to plan.”
Weslaco East added Advanced Placement physics and debate courses this year along with block scheduling. Principal Sue Peterson said more courses will be added in upcoming years along with opportunities for students to graduate with professional certifications. The school already offers a nursing assistant certification.
“What has made it work is the extreme amount of teamwork and support by everyone,” Peterson said.
The school has not had to add mathematics and science classes because there were already enough for students to take for each year of high school. This year’s freshmen class is the first to be required by the state to take and pass four years of mathematics and science courses.
The traditional homeroom and advisory periods at the participating schools are being transformed into advocacy time for teachers and small groups of students, depending on the campus size, that will meet weekly. The teachers will keep these advocacy students for the duration of their high school careers.
PSJA North is expected to begin advocacy periods each Wednesday starting this week. The high school had not had regular homeroom-style classes the last few years, school staff said.
Advocacy time will also be an opportunity to study student progress, with academic and behavioral profiles being compiled for each student. The profiles detail absences, test score information, grades and other information and can be accessed online by teachers.
“You want to build relationships,” said Alban Benavides, a junior and senior American history and psychology teacher at PSJA North. “You want to know what you’ve got.”
September 11, 2007
The challenge looms as large as the steel school initials at the front of their campuses: changing the high school atmosphere to provide more courses tailored to students’ interests and providing additional information for teachers to do their jobs.
Six high schools in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, Weslaco and Zapata school districts are doing this with the help of the Region One Education Service Center in Edinburg and nationwide education organizations. The schools started last month their first year of the High School Redesign Project, which breaks up student bodies, teachers and counselors into small learning communities geared toward specific topics. The districts planned for a year before launching the project.
The McAllen school district is also in the planning stage and will implement it at its three high schools and Lamar Academy for the 2008-09 school year.
The idea is to have 18 high schools revamped in a five-year period. The money to do this will come from the U.S. Department of Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Texas Education Agency. Also partnering in the effort are the Institute for School Excellence and the Institute for Reform and Research in Education, both national entities providing project research and guidance.
Leaders at the districts said they hope redesigned schools can improve student completion rates, lower drop-out rates and improve academic performance.
In the PSJA district, PSJA North High School had the lowest completion rate among its three high schools with 78.2 percent. But, PSJA High School had the largest number of dropouts with 93 students. Both figures are from 2006, according to the state education agency.
In the Weslaco district, Weslaco East High School had the highest number of dropouts with 27 and the lowest completion rate with 91.5 percent for 2006, according to the education agency.
The participating high schools must still abide by state education guidelines and have students pass required standardized tests to graduate. The number of learning communities is contingent on the size of campuses and the range of student interests. Zapata High School only has three communities for law, criminal justice and government; health sciences and business and engineering and technology.
PSJA Memorial High School has eight communities in subjects ranging from performing arts to legal professions and public service. Some new courses in music theory, medical microbiology, sociology and courts and criminal procedures were added to give students more themed courses to take in their junior and seniors years.
“That area of interest can hopefully be articulated in their senior year when you are looking at dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, project-based learning,” said Claudia Rodriguez, Region One’s administrator for the division of instructional support. “I think the intent is more to go that route and the schools, like in PSJA, creating some classes you can see in college. We applaud their efforts.”
PSJA Memorial junior Francisco Gonzalez, 16, is in the business and technology community. Some of his classes this year include introductory computer maintenance, geometry and orchestra. He is looking forward to learning about Web design and software repairs this year.
“They (teachers) do get you ready for what you will be used to in college, but now, I don’t really feel like they are doing that,” Gonzalez said.
Dalila Garcia, PSJA Memorial’s school improvement facilitator, said staff is still tweaking some student schedules because of some classes either having not enough or too many students. She said staff will start thinking about the next school year’s scheduling in November.
PSJA Memorial junior Dulce Gonzalez, 16, is in the health science track and is taking orchestra, second-year Spanish, medical microbiology and third-year English. She is not related to Francisco Gonzalez.
“I thought we were going to stay in one wing and not see our friends,” she said.
PSJA North has also dealt with scheduling issues the first few days of school.
”From my perspective, we didn’t put enough time and effort in the planning stage,” said Barbara Mahan, an English dual credit teacher at the school. “I’m not saying it can’t work, but it was sort of my perception we needed another year to plan.”
Weslaco East added Advanced Placement physics and debate courses this year along with block scheduling. Principal Sue Peterson said more courses will be added in upcoming years along with opportunities for students to graduate with professional certifications. The school already offers a nursing assistant certification.
“What has made it work is the extreme amount of teamwork and support by everyone,” Peterson said.
The school has not had to add mathematics and science classes because there were already enough for students to take for each year of high school. This year’s freshmen class is the first to be required by the state to take and pass four years of mathematics and science courses.
The traditional homeroom and advisory periods at the participating schools are being transformed into advocacy time for teachers and small groups of students, depending on the campus size, that will meet weekly. The teachers will keep these advocacy students for the duration of their high school careers.
PSJA North is expected to begin advocacy periods each Wednesday starting this week. The high school had not had regular homeroom-style classes the last few years, school staff said.
Advocacy time will also be an opportunity to study student progress, with academic and behavioral profiles being compiled for each student. The profiles detail absences, test score information, grades and other information and can be accessed online by teachers.
“You want to build relationships,” said Alban Benavides, a junior and senior American history and psychology teacher at PSJA North. “You want to know what you’ve got.”
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Vocational education can keep students hooked on school
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Career Education: Jack Scott
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap26
From the Los Angeles Times
GEORGE SKELTON CAPITOL JOURNAL
Vocational education can keep students hooked on school
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
April 26, 2007
Sacramento — Sen. Jack Scott, a career educator, remembers when his daughter broke the news that she was going to marry a commercial fisherman.
"This guy was not too happy," the Altadena Democrat says, referring to himself.
His daughter's suitor "was not highly educated; he'd never gone to college," recalls Scott, who at the time was dean of instruction at Orange Coast College, and later would become president of Cypress College and then Pasadena City College.
Scott's attitude reflected the typical academician's mind-set of the day — indeed, much of society's. If you weren't a rock star, a big league athlete or a rich heir, you needed a four-year college degree to become a success. Short of that, you were doomed to be second class, if not a failure.
The senator's view has changed, in no small part by watching his son-in-law Paul, whose father and grandfather also had been commercial fishermen.
Paul went to Alaska, bought his own boat, then another, and acquired an interest in a third. He fished for cod, pollock, halibut and crab in the Bering Sea. He worked and froze his rear off and "made enough to retire at the early age of 42," Scott says with admiration and amusement.
"The lesson is," the lawmaker continues, "we find our own self-fulfillments. We make a real mistake if we think everyone is going to receive their self-fulfillment by studying humanities or pure math. They may get self-fulfillment by being good plumbers or auto mechanics or nurses. Or commercial fishermen. We've got to design our courses to meet the needs of these people.
"If not, they'll just drop out."
And that is what they've been doing.
In California, roughly a third of ninth-graders eventually drop out of high school. In L.A., it's around one-half of blacks and Latinos.
A Gates Foundation survey of high school dropouts nationwide found that 88% were getting passing grades. So most must have left school because they were bored.
One major reason they're bored in California is that classwork doesn't seem to bear any relationship to whatever they envision as their life's work. It relates primarily to getting them qualified to enter the state university system, which many either aren't interested in or consider a pipedream. Only around 20% of ninth-graders ever will graduate from a four-year college.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of students each year who could be learning middle-class job skills — as future nurses, auto mechanics, computer programmers, home builders. Name it. There are some successful school-business training partnerships, but not nearly enough. There's a shortage of skilled workers in California, business groups contend.
Our public schools used to offer many vocational education courses — metal shop, drafting, etc. — that have been drastically reduced in recent decades. In 1987, three-fourths of high school students took at least one voc ed class. By 2005, only one-third did.
"Those great shop classes have disappeared," says state Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), a former teacher who intends to run for state superintendent of public instruction in 2010. "That's a tragedy. Because those classes motivated students to stay in school."
The classes have disappeared because of two primary reasons: First, the elitist attitude that it's on to the university or bust; everybody else just get out of the way. Second, voc ed courses, with all their equipment that constantly needs updating, aren't cheap. They're among the first to land on the chopping block whenever state politicians face one of their periodic budget crises.
"The notion of voc ed went out of favor with many education bureaucrats," says Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Escondido). "What's tragic is that while all other industrialized nations have highly developed systems, our existing system has been battered.
"It was replaced by a notion that was well intentioned, but utterly foolish and communicated incessantly that the only thing of value for a young person is a college degree. Not only that, the message was that you're not of value unless you're going to college. The name 'voc ed' connoted being less worthy."
But voc ed now is making a comeback under a new euphemism: career tech.
It's not the top priority at the Capitol, but it is a priority. Scott, Torlakson and Wyland all have introduced legislation aimed at upgrading career tech.
Scott has a bill to simplify credentialing for career tech teachers and provide more flexibility in what they can teach. Wyland wants to eliminate the requirement that voc ed teachers have a bachelor's degree. Torlakson proposes requiring every high school student to take at least two career tech courses.
The $10.4-billion school construction bond approved last year by voters contained $500 million for career tech facilities.
There's also $52 million in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for various career tech programs. The trick will be keeping it there, since the state is spending with red ink and tax revenues have been falling below expectations.
But the public will back the politicians' spending on career tech. A poll being released today by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 67% of adults consider career tech curricula to be "very important." The figure is even higher, 71%, for parents with kids in school.
Schwarzenegger has been promoting voc ed. "I myself," he told a "summit" on the subject last month, "am a product of career tech education. Between the time I was 15 and 18 I went to school in Austria to learn how to be a salesman."
He learned very well.
George Skelton
Career Education: Jack Scott
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap26
From the Los Angeles Times
GEORGE SKELTON CAPITOL JOURNAL
Vocational education can keep students hooked on school
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
April 26, 2007
Sacramento — Sen. Jack Scott, a career educator, remembers when his daughter broke the news that she was going to marry a commercial fisherman.
"This guy was not too happy," the Altadena Democrat says, referring to himself.
His daughter's suitor "was not highly educated; he'd never gone to college," recalls Scott, who at the time was dean of instruction at Orange Coast College, and later would become president of Cypress College and then Pasadena City College.
Scott's attitude reflected the typical academician's mind-set of the day — indeed, much of society's. If you weren't a rock star, a big league athlete or a rich heir, you needed a four-year college degree to become a success. Short of that, you were doomed to be second class, if not a failure.
The senator's view has changed, in no small part by watching his son-in-law Paul, whose father and grandfather also had been commercial fishermen.
Paul went to Alaska, bought his own boat, then another, and acquired an interest in a third. He fished for cod, pollock, halibut and crab in the Bering Sea. He worked and froze his rear off and "made enough to retire at the early age of 42," Scott says with admiration and amusement.
"The lesson is," the lawmaker continues, "we find our own self-fulfillments. We make a real mistake if we think everyone is going to receive their self-fulfillment by studying humanities or pure math. They may get self-fulfillment by being good plumbers or auto mechanics or nurses. Or commercial fishermen. We've got to design our courses to meet the needs of these people.
"If not, they'll just drop out."
And that is what they've been doing.
In California, roughly a third of ninth-graders eventually drop out of high school. In L.A., it's around one-half of blacks and Latinos.
A Gates Foundation survey of high school dropouts nationwide found that 88% were getting passing grades. So most must have left school because they were bored.
One major reason they're bored in California is that classwork doesn't seem to bear any relationship to whatever they envision as their life's work. It relates primarily to getting them qualified to enter the state university system, which many either aren't interested in or consider a pipedream. Only around 20% of ninth-graders ever will graduate from a four-year college.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of students each year who could be learning middle-class job skills — as future nurses, auto mechanics, computer programmers, home builders. Name it. There are some successful school-business training partnerships, but not nearly enough. There's a shortage of skilled workers in California, business groups contend.
Our public schools used to offer many vocational education courses — metal shop, drafting, etc. — that have been drastically reduced in recent decades. In 1987, three-fourths of high school students took at least one voc ed class. By 2005, only one-third did.
"Those great shop classes have disappeared," says state Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), a former teacher who intends to run for state superintendent of public instruction in 2010. "That's a tragedy. Because those classes motivated students to stay in school."
The classes have disappeared because of two primary reasons: First, the elitist attitude that it's on to the university or bust; everybody else just get out of the way. Second, voc ed courses, with all their equipment that constantly needs updating, aren't cheap. They're among the first to land on the chopping block whenever state politicians face one of their periodic budget crises.
"The notion of voc ed went out of favor with many education bureaucrats," says Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Escondido). "What's tragic is that while all other industrialized nations have highly developed systems, our existing system has been battered.
"It was replaced by a notion that was well intentioned, but utterly foolish and communicated incessantly that the only thing of value for a young person is a college degree. Not only that, the message was that you're not of value unless you're going to college. The name 'voc ed' connoted being less worthy."
But voc ed now is making a comeback under a new euphemism: career tech.
It's not the top priority at the Capitol, but it is a priority. Scott, Torlakson and Wyland all have introduced legislation aimed at upgrading career tech.
Scott has a bill to simplify credentialing for career tech teachers and provide more flexibility in what they can teach. Wyland wants to eliminate the requirement that voc ed teachers have a bachelor's degree. Torlakson proposes requiring every high school student to take at least two career tech courses.
The $10.4-billion school construction bond approved last year by voters contained $500 million for career tech facilities.
There's also $52 million in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for various career tech programs. The trick will be keeping it there, since the state is spending with red ink and tax revenues have been falling below expectations.
But the public will back the politicians' spending on career tech. A poll being released today by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 67% of adults consider career tech curricula to be "very important." The figure is even higher, 71%, for parents with kids in school.
Schwarzenegger has been promoting voc ed. "I myself," he told a "summit" on the subject last month, "am a product of career tech education. Between the time I was 15 and 18 I went to school in Austria to learn how to be a salesman."
He learned very well.
George Skelton
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Career classes make a comeback
Career classes make a comeback
High-tech centers, expanded programs fuel enrollment boom
06:06 PM CDT on Monday, March 12, 2007
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
jparsons@dallasnews.com
After almost two decades flirting with a one-size-fits-all dose of liberal arts instruction, school districts are bringing back – and vamping up – vocational classes.
Classes such as wood shop and auto mechanics began disappearing from traditional high schools in the 1980s, but they're reappearing at district-run trade schools alongside new classes such as advertising design, computer repair, engineering and health sciences.
Three area districts – Denton, Irving and Mansfield – opened stand-alone career and technology schools in recent years. Birdville, Frisco and Grand Prairie have plans to build them.
And Lewisville ISD, with long waiting lists at its career center, hopes to build a second. Others, including Dallas, have added career magnets to traditional high schools.
"There's been a real resurgence in opening career centers," said Alan Strong, principal of Lewisville's Dale Jackson Career Center. "They're finally realizing that not all kids go to college, but all kids go to work."
Statewide, vocational enrollment jumped 170 percent from 1996 to 2006 – three times the rate of enrollment in bilingual courses and nine times the overall enrollment growth, according to a state report.
"That's pretty significant," said Karen Batchelor, the Texas Education Agency's director of career and technology education. "School districts are offering more engaging CTE programs, ones where students can see the benefit of education."
School officials said the concentrated setup helps kids find their niche and understand practical uses from core classes – a combination they say lowers dropout rates.
But the concept is still not widely accepted, as proponents of vocational education fight to make over an image of stitch-and-stew blow-off classes.
"Even when I was in high school in the '80s, those vocational programs were thought to be just for the dumb kids who weren't going to college," said Lisa Karr, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD's director of career and technology education.
"It's not like that anymore," she continued. "They're great, industry-focused programs in state-of-the-art buildings. You're not just going to bang a hammer anymore."
Some of the changes spurring growth are cosmetic. Educators have pushed away from the vocational label, re-branding as career and technology education. Wood shop is now referred to as construction systems, and auto mechanics as auto technology.
But the changes go deeper. Modern vehicles require mastering numerous small computers – often more than 20 – and that means learning advanced math in auto technology.
And no longer is vocational education only for those not headed to college. Districts have added classes such as media tech, health sciences, law, finance, engineering, electronics and computer maintenance.
How do those information-age careers fit alongside traditional vocational classes that don't require college degrees? They're all jobs in demand.
For kids not heading to a four-year college, schools offer credits toward an associate's degree and professional trade certifications that lead to better-paying jobs.
In cosmetology, students earn certifications through two classes – an education that private trade schools charge thousands of dollars for.
"I'm not going to college," said Laura Fuentes, a Lewisville senior and cosmetology student. "This is what all my family does, and this is what I want to do."
The classes help students get jobs with high-end salons that pay $45,000 a year and more, according to industry data.
Irving goes so far as to tailor its core curriculum to students' career focus. For example, a health sciences student takes science and math classes customized for the practical demands of nurses and doctors. Students attend The Academy of Irving ISD full time. In most districts, students are bused to and from career centers for classes.
But even in districts without customized core classes, educators said, students perform better once engaged in a career track with clear expectations of what it takes to get a job.
"We have fewer students who drop out if they see a purpose to why they're in school," said Marty Thompson, dean of Denton's $22 million Advanced Technology Complex, which opened last fall. "TAKS performance is better because it makes sense. They know how to apply it."
Mansfield ISD officials said students taking at least two classes at its Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, which opened in 2005, outperformed their peers at traditional high schools in math and language arts.
The career schools hire teachers with work experience in the fields they teach. That makes it tough to find good teachers willing to give up higher salaries, but districts make do by finding professionals tired of long hours or just eager to teach.
The centers also give students real-world experience. Many offer haircuts and manicures and vehicle tune-ups. Mansfield culinary students will soon open a restaurant.
And in Lewisville, media tech students film and produce programming for the city's cable station.
Michael Garza, a Lewisville senior, plans to go to a one-year trade college next year in Houston to pursue a career as an auto technician, where salaries average $58,000 – significantly more than the salary for a starting teacher with a bachelor's degree.
"I didn't know what an engine was, and you really do learn everything here," he said. "I saw I could make money doing it, and now my future is set on it."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-vocational_12met.ART.State.Edition1.44989e0.html#
High-tech centers, expanded programs fuel enrollment boom
06:06 PM CDT on Monday, March 12, 2007
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
jparsons@dallasnews.com
After almost two decades flirting with a one-size-fits-all dose of liberal arts instruction, school districts are bringing back – and vamping up – vocational classes.
Classes such as wood shop and auto mechanics began disappearing from traditional high schools in the 1980s, but they're reappearing at district-run trade schools alongside new classes such as advertising design, computer repair, engineering and health sciences.
Three area districts – Denton, Irving and Mansfield – opened stand-alone career and technology schools in recent years. Birdville, Frisco and Grand Prairie have plans to build them.
And Lewisville ISD, with long waiting lists at its career center, hopes to build a second. Others, including Dallas, have added career magnets to traditional high schools.
"There's been a real resurgence in opening career centers," said Alan Strong, principal of Lewisville's Dale Jackson Career Center. "They're finally realizing that not all kids go to college, but all kids go to work."
Statewide, vocational enrollment jumped 170 percent from 1996 to 2006 – three times the rate of enrollment in bilingual courses and nine times the overall enrollment growth, according to a state report.
"That's pretty significant," said Karen Batchelor, the Texas Education Agency's director of career and technology education. "School districts are offering more engaging CTE programs, ones where students can see the benefit of education."
School officials said the concentrated setup helps kids find their niche and understand practical uses from core classes – a combination they say lowers dropout rates.
But the concept is still not widely accepted, as proponents of vocational education fight to make over an image of stitch-and-stew blow-off classes.
"Even when I was in high school in the '80s, those vocational programs were thought to be just for the dumb kids who weren't going to college," said Lisa Karr, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD's director of career and technology education.
"It's not like that anymore," she continued. "They're great, industry-focused programs in state-of-the-art buildings. You're not just going to bang a hammer anymore."
Some of the changes spurring growth are cosmetic. Educators have pushed away from the vocational label, re-branding as career and technology education. Wood shop is now referred to as construction systems, and auto mechanics as auto technology.
But the changes go deeper. Modern vehicles require mastering numerous small computers – often more than 20 – and that means learning advanced math in auto technology.
And no longer is vocational education only for those not headed to college. Districts have added classes such as media tech, health sciences, law, finance, engineering, electronics and computer maintenance.
How do those information-age careers fit alongside traditional vocational classes that don't require college degrees? They're all jobs in demand.
For kids not heading to a four-year college, schools offer credits toward an associate's degree and professional trade certifications that lead to better-paying jobs.
In cosmetology, students earn certifications through two classes – an education that private trade schools charge thousands of dollars for.
"I'm not going to college," said Laura Fuentes, a Lewisville senior and cosmetology student. "This is what all my family does, and this is what I want to do."
The classes help students get jobs with high-end salons that pay $45,000 a year and more, according to industry data.
Irving goes so far as to tailor its core curriculum to students' career focus. For example, a health sciences student takes science and math classes customized for the practical demands of nurses and doctors. Students attend The Academy of Irving ISD full time. In most districts, students are bused to and from career centers for classes.
But even in districts without customized core classes, educators said, students perform better once engaged in a career track with clear expectations of what it takes to get a job.
"We have fewer students who drop out if they see a purpose to why they're in school," said Marty Thompson, dean of Denton's $22 million Advanced Technology Complex, which opened last fall. "TAKS performance is better because it makes sense. They know how to apply it."
Mansfield ISD officials said students taking at least two classes at its Ben Barber Career Tech Academy, which opened in 2005, outperformed their peers at traditional high schools in math and language arts.
The career schools hire teachers with work experience in the fields they teach. That makes it tough to find good teachers willing to give up higher salaries, but districts make do by finding professionals tired of long hours or just eager to teach.
The centers also give students real-world experience. Many offer haircuts and manicures and vehicle tune-ups. Mansfield culinary students will soon open a restaurant.
And in Lewisville, media tech students film and produce programming for the city's cable station.
Michael Garza, a Lewisville senior, plans to go to a one-year trade college next year in Houston to pursue a career as an auto technician, where salaries average $58,000 – significantly more than the salary for a starting teacher with a bachelor's degree.
"I didn't know what an engine was, and you really do learn everything here," he said. "I saw I could make money doing it, and now my future is set on it."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-vocational_12met.ART.State.Edition1.44989e0.html#
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