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
Showing posts with label vocational education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vocational education. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, February 07, 2009
High school diplomas should prepare students for future - which may or may not include college
Here's an editorial piece from today's Statesman. Pretty concerning if you ask me...
-Patricia
For me, a concern here is whether developing the other tracks will equate to large investments by the state of Texas producing resource-rich tracks. It also seems that it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. You could have Voc-Tech tracks that also prepare students for college. Finally, stratification by race, class, and gender will be another hardly trivial consideration that should be taken into account should this move forward.
Plus generally, how many students really know at age 14 what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Very likely only a small minority. Lots and lots of children are late bloomers and so it's good to prepare for this type of student in a non-restrictive manner, and ideally, in a way that exposes them to a range of opportunities.
-Angela
High school diplomas should prepare students for future - which may or may not include college.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff asked this question during a recent discussion with us about public schools: Which is more difficult to find, a doctor or an electrician?
With that, Ratliff pointed out a glaring deficiency in Texas public education. Public schools aim at preparing all children for college and university courses that lead to careers in white-collar professions such as medicine, engineering, business, teaching, law, science, politics or high tech.
There is no doubt that public schools must prepare students for college. We live in an information age in which ideas and innovation are our most valuable commodities. Texas public schools are conveyor belts that move high school students into college preparatory diploma programs.
But that approach leaves very little room for fine arts, electives or any other field of study. And it ignores the need for workers to fill good-paying jobs as electricians, auto mechanics, plumbers, medical technicians, firefighters, police officers, carpenters and more recently, jobs in an emerging green energy sector.
Ratliff and former Texas Education Commissioner Mike Moses are lobbying the Legislature on behalf of Raise Your Hand Texas to secure changes for public schools that are relevant to today's job market. Should high school students pursuing a fine arts program be required to pass calculus? Or is that best suited for students pursuing science and math programs? What is best for students headed for community college or jobs directly after high school?
Relevancy is the driving force behind the Raise Your Hand proposal, which would create three paths to earning high school diplomas. It is a realistic approach the Legislature should adopt.
Under the proposal, students could choose a traditional college preparatory curriculum that includes four years of math, science, English and social studies (including history and economics). That would be similar to the current Recommended High School Program that requires students to pass upper-level math courses, including precalculus or calculus, physics and advanced science courses, and economics.
Currently, all incoming ninth-graders are steered to that curriculum no matter what their future plans. If Ratliff and Moses are successful, there would be two other pathways to earn a diploma in Texas public schools. One would be a college preparatory curriculum that emphasizes fine arts. The third would be a career and technical curriculum that would prepare students for community college or jobs upon graduation.
The proposal offers flexibility, and all programs would be rigorous. Parents and students would select the diploma program best for them. The cost to change the current high school diploma program would be minimal. However, the cost of not changing it could be enormous in two years when high school dropouts are counted.
The unwise decision to steer all students to the Recommended High School Program (with some exceptions) won't be fully felt for another two years, when those students are seniors. Texas should brace for a potentially huge spike in the number of students who drop out of school because they fail to pass calculus and advanced science courses.
Also, many students who do stay in school might be denied diplomas because they fail to pass advanced math or science exit-level exams. Certainly it is sensible and beneficial for students seeking careers in medicine and engineering to undergo such preparation. But for students who want a career in politics or those who want to become electricians, such courses are superfluous.
Multiple diploma pathways that are relevant to students as well as the job market make sense. The Legislature can — and should — lead in making that a reality.
-Patricia
For me, a concern here is whether developing the other tracks will equate to large investments by the state of Texas producing resource-rich tracks. It also seems that it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. You could have Voc-Tech tracks that also prepare students for college. Finally, stratification by race, class, and gender will be another hardly trivial consideration that should be taken into account should this move forward.
Plus generally, how many students really know at age 14 what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Very likely only a small minority. Lots and lots of children are late bloomers and so it's good to prepare for this type of student in a non-restrictive manner, and ideally, in a way that exposes them to a range of opportunities.
-Angela
High school diplomas should prepare students for future - which may or may not include college.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff asked this question during a recent discussion with us about public schools: Which is more difficult to find, a doctor or an electrician?
With that, Ratliff pointed out a glaring deficiency in Texas public education. Public schools aim at preparing all children for college and university courses that lead to careers in white-collar professions such as medicine, engineering, business, teaching, law, science, politics or high tech.
There is no doubt that public schools must prepare students for college. We live in an information age in which ideas and innovation are our most valuable commodities. Texas public schools are conveyor belts that move high school students into college preparatory diploma programs.
But that approach leaves very little room for fine arts, electives or any other field of study. And it ignores the need for workers to fill good-paying jobs as electricians, auto mechanics, plumbers, medical technicians, firefighters, police officers, carpenters and more recently, jobs in an emerging green energy sector.
Ratliff and former Texas Education Commissioner Mike Moses are lobbying the Legislature on behalf of Raise Your Hand Texas to secure changes for public schools that are relevant to today's job market. Should high school students pursuing a fine arts program be required to pass calculus? Or is that best suited for students pursuing science and math programs? What is best for students headed for community college or jobs directly after high school?
Relevancy is the driving force behind the Raise Your Hand proposal, which would create three paths to earning high school diplomas. It is a realistic approach the Legislature should adopt.
Under the proposal, students could choose a traditional college preparatory curriculum that includes four years of math, science, English and social studies (including history and economics). That would be similar to the current Recommended High School Program that requires students to pass upper-level math courses, including precalculus or calculus, physics and advanced science courses, and economics.
Currently, all incoming ninth-graders are steered to that curriculum no matter what their future plans. If Ratliff and Moses are successful, there would be two other pathways to earn a diploma in Texas public schools. One would be a college preparatory curriculum that emphasizes fine arts. The third would be a career and technical curriculum that would prepare students for community college or jobs upon graduation.
The proposal offers flexibility, and all programs would be rigorous. Parents and students would select the diploma program best for them. The cost to change the current high school diploma program would be minimal. However, the cost of not changing it could be enormous in two years when high school dropouts are counted.
The unwise decision to steer all students to the Recommended High School Program (with some exceptions) won't be fully felt for another two years, when those students are seniors. Texas should brace for a potentially huge spike in the number of students who drop out of school because they fail to pass calculus and advanced science courses.
Also, many students who do stay in school might be denied diplomas because they fail to pass advanced math or science exit-level exams. Certainly it is sensible and beneficial for students seeking careers in medicine and engineering to undergo such preparation. But for students who want a career in politics or those who want to become electricians, such courses are superfluous.
Multiple diploma pathways that are relevant to students as well as the job market make sense. The Legislature can — and should — lead in making that a reality.
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
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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