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Career and technical education as a driving component of

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Career and technical education as a driving component of whole school reform Marisa Castellano and Sam Stringfield Johns Hopkins University Today we will provide a ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Career and technical education as a driving component of


1
Career and technical education as a driving
component of whole school reform
2
Marisa CastellanoandSam Stringfield
  • Johns Hopkins University

3
Today we will provide a review of research on
the intersection of whole school reforms and
CTEand first-year observations ofpromising
practices at work
4
Purpose of the Study
To examine and report on programs that are
attempting to improve education for all students
using CTE as their focus.
5
Outline of Presentation - I
  • Review of Studies of Selected Reform Efforts
  • Tech Prep
  • Curriculum Integration
  • High Schools That Work
  • Urban Learning Centers
  • Career Academies
  • Career Pathways

6
Outline of Presentation - II
  • Selected Reform Practices Presented
  • Implementing reform - first steps
  • Curriculum integration examples
  • Which career academies or pathways should we
    choose?
  • The role of the middle school
  • Making tech prep work

7
Methods - I
  • 4-Level Sampling Frame
  • Promising CTE/whole school reform designs
  • Serving high at-risk populations
  • 3 middle school - high school - community college
    feeder patterns (nominated and verified)
  • At each site, following 3 cohorts of students for
    four years1st cohort grades 7-102nd cohort
    grades 9-123rd cohort grade 11- two years
    post-HS (some to CC)

8
Methods - II
  • Replication Sites
  • Similar reforms, similar demographics
  • Control Sites
  • No reforms, similar demographics
  • Data Collection
  • Quantitative outcomes measures and qualitative
    longitudinal case studies (2000-2004)

9
Methods - III
  • A more detailed description of the research
    methods is available at
  • http//www.nccte.org/programs/index.asp
  • Look under What Makes it Work

10
Tech PrepEssential Features
  • An articulation agreement among consortium
    members such as schools, school districts, and
    community colleges
  • Sequence of secondary and postsecondary courses
    (or apprenticeship) leading to a degree or
    certificate
  • A common core of required proficiency in math,
    science, and communications
  • Placement in employment

11
Tech PrepImplementation Challenges
  • Parents and students often balk at strictly
    defined sequences of courses explicitly preparing
    youth for a CC education
  • Lack of confidence by CC faculty that high school
    courses are equivalent to CC courses
  • Lack of student awareness

12
Tech PrepOutcomes
  • Compared to non-Tech Prep graduates, graduates of
    mature Tech Prep programs are more likely to
  • Enter two-year postsecondary education
  • Be employed and more likely full time
  • Hold more highly skilled jobs
  • Receive larger wage increases

13
Curriculum IntegrationEssential Features
  • Increase the relevance and utility of
  • communication skills
  • mathematics
  • science
  • by teaching them in the context of occupations
    that students are studying

14
Curriculum IntegrationImplementation Challenges
  • Teachers do not have enough time to work on
    integration
  • Resistance among some academic and vocational
    teachers to the concept
  • High school graduation and college admission
    requirements often do not recognize or grant
    credit for integrated courses

15
Curriculum IntegrationOutcomes
  • There have not been rigorous studies that assess
    the effectiveness of integration
  • There is anecdotal evidence that suggests
    increased engagement and achievement

16
High Schools That WorkEssential Features
  • Rigorous vocational courses and more required
    academic coursework
  • Common planning time for teachers to collaborate
    on curriculum integration
  • High expectations
  • Extra help for students
  • Individualized advising system
  • Use of assessments to improve student learning

17
High Schools that WorkImplementation Challenges
  • About half of vocational teachers report they
    need professional development in integrating
    academic and occupational content
  • Most academic teachers lack knowledge of and
    skills in the vocations, and will need
    professional development as well to be full
    partners

18
High Schools that WorkOutcomes
  • Evaluations show that schools that implement the
    model faithfully usually see improved
    achievement, and higher retention and
    postsecondary enrollment rates
  • Evaluation reports show improved NAEP scores for
    students who complete a HSTW vocational
    concentration

19
Urban Learning Centers Essential Features
  • Houses pre-K through grade 12 in one building to
    develop collaborative, articulated communities
    across the grades
  • Emphasis on interdisciplinary curriculum,
    project-based learning opportunities, and school
    to work transitions

20
Urban Learning Centers Implementation Challenges
  • Some parents and teachers may resist the change
    to K-12 all in one building, especially if the
    building is not new and has a history of being an
    elementary, middle, or high school
  • Takes a great deal of physical space,
    coordination, and scheduling prowess

21
Urban Learning CentersOutcomes
  • High percentage of graduates go to 4-year
    colleges and universities
  • 62 of the graduates of the school in our study
    go to 4-year colleges, many to the nearby
    prestigious private university
  • Most of the rest enroll in other postsecondary
    education or the military

22
Career AcademiesEssential Features
  • School within a school where students stay with a
    core group of teachers over 3 or 4 years
  • Academy students take several courses together,
    both within academy and academic core courses
  • Academic and vocational curriculum is integrated
    around a career theme
  • Partnerships with businesses build connections
    between school and work
  • Teacher autonomy in curriculum development

23
Career AcademiesImplementation Challenges
  • Some secondary and postsecondary faculty question
    the rigor of an integrated curriculum
  • Teachers require professional development to
    develop integrated curricula
  • Teachers need to spend time in the workplace to
    understand how their subjects are applied at
    work, requiring release time and common planning
    periods
  • Scheduling challenges

24
Career AcademiesOutcomes
  • Reduced drop out rates, increased attendance, and
    more credits earned for at-risk students
  • Increased likelihood of on-time graduation for
    those minimally at risk of dropping out
  • Appropriately structured, academies lower risk-
    taking behavior, increase school engagement and
    performance, and lower absenteeism

25
Career PathwaysEssential Features
  • A strategy to organize high school curricula
    around a cluster of occupations that share
    similar skills and knowledge, although they may
    differ in length of education and training
    required
  • Replace traditional college prep, vocational, and
    general tracks
  • Form the context for interdisciplinary or
    integrated activities, e.g., senior projects
  • Need strong connections with business/industry

26
Career PathwaysImplementation Challenges
  • Unknown, but we can assume there might be
    resistance from
  • Some academic subject teachers, as with
    curriculum integration
  • Some parents and students,who might see pathways
    as narrowing students post-high school choices

27
Career PathwaysOutcomes
  • No major studies have been undertaken on student
    outcomes in schools implementing career pathways
  • Several states are now requiring schools to adopt
    pathways or career majors, so more information
    should be forthcoming

28
Comprehensive High School- Demographics -
  • Implementing career pathways
  • A rural comprehensive HS of 2200 students, some
    400 of whom are migrant students
  • 49 Hispanic, 43 White, 4 African American, 3
    Asian
  • 48 free/reduced-price lunch program

29
Vocational High School- Demographics -
  • Implementing High Schools That Work
  • Urban vocational HS serving 1550
  • 51 Hispanic, 29 African American, 18 White
  • Over 57 free/reduced-price lunch program

30
Academy High School- Demographics -
  • Implementing Urban Learning Centers
  • An urban core HS of 700 students
  • 69 Hispanic, 31 African American
  • 94 free/reduced-price lunch program

31
Implementing Reform - First Steps
  • These schools began by reflecting on where they
    were and where they wanted reform to take them
  • student achievement was central for all of them
  • but also a collegial atmosphere for staff
  • a professional development community
  • participatory decision making
  • They selected reforms and elements of reforms
    that fit their vision and context

32
Implementing Reform - First Steps
  • One school chose a Total Quality approach. Some
    principles
  • bring all stakeholders together--involve everyone
  • identify and focus on problems, not on blame
  • measure everything (pre-test, post-test) to
    document improvement
  • Use results as feedback for further improvement

33
Curriculum Integration General
  • Start with the teachers who want to collaborate
  • Provide them with common planning time
  • Provide them with an extra stipend for their time
    developing curriculum
  • Circulate the stipend to other teachers as one
    group has implemented and refined, and another is
    becoming interested

34
Curriculum Integration Computer Literacy and
Health
  • Almost any other subject matter will work
  • Reports for the subject matter class become the
    content for learning word processing and Internet
    researching in the computer literacy class
  • Students complete the course requirements while
    at the same time learning to use the computer for
    two common school tasks

35
Curriculum Integration English and Health
  • Teachers discuss some aspects of required
    literature through public health issues
  • Issues relevant to teens are in Romeo and Juliet
    premarital sex, gang violence
  • Differences between then and now lend themselves
    to compare and contrast papers

36
Curriculum Integration Math and Carpentry I
  • Math teachers introduce concepts of area and
    perimeter through activity of redecorating
    students bedrooms
  • students measure the area of their bedroom to
    determine the amount of paint needed to paint it
  • students measure windows to determine type and
    size of window coverings desired
  • students dont actually redecorate their rooms

37
Curriculum Integration Math and Carpentry II
  • Trebuchet Contest
  • Three high schools competed to create the best
    working version of this medieval war machine
  • Kids learned the math concepts behind it
    relationship between mass and angle of release
  • At the high school in our study, kids made theirs
    adjustable because they understood the math
  • They used the adjustment to beat the other
    schools

38
Curriculum Integration - in Academies I
  • Academic teachers still cover their topics but
    bring in issues and themes from their academy
  • Finance, Social Studies, and English
  • in World History discussion of era of colonialism
    and slavery, discuss doctrine of mercantilism and
    how it could lead to trade in human beings
  • in World Lit, read Machiavellis The Prince

39
Curriculum Integration - in Academies II
  • It is not critical that your teachers have
    Masters degrees in Finance, etc.
  • They must be educators willing to work on
    refining the curriculum
  • The technology academy teachers have moved the
    curriculum down year after year as students come
    in more sophisticated, and as the teacher becomes
    more sophisticated

40
Which Career Academies Should We Offer?
  • Find out what jobs are available in the local
    labor market
  • One theory holds that it hardly matters which
    academies are offered the goal is to provide
    smallness and connectedness for students and
    teaming opportunities for teachers
  • Students are sophisticated enough to choose among
    the academies offered

41
Which Career Pathways Should We Offer?
  • The U.S. Dept. of Education identified 16 career
    clusters that high schools can choose from in
    developing their pathways, depending on local
    labor market opportunities. Look for clusters
    at http//www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE
  • Schools tend to select 5 or 6 total
  • Again, all students can work within the options
    provided

42
Building Partnerships with Business
  • A good way to begin is with civic or cultural
    institutions like museums or symphonies
  • These organizations have boards of trustees made
    up of local businesspeople
  • They will hear of the good works your students
    are doing for the organization
  • This can open the door to businesses that would
    otherwise not participate in school partnerships

43
The Role of the Middle School
  • CTEs primary focus is in the high school and
    beyond. But middle schools can help kids explore
    careers through
  • job shadowing (at this age, their parents
    workplace is often easiest and best place)
  • self-directed modular labs on the computer as one
    unit of technology education/industrial arts that
    kids cycle through, along with more traditional
    units
  • Career awareness courses/units

44
Making Tech Prep Work
  • Articulation agreements with high schools are not
    yet yielding a greater flow of students to
    community colleges. To address this, high schools
    in our study are
  • granting college credit upon completion of the
    course in high school, rather than waiting until
    student enrolls at CC
  • tracking student progress through the tech prep
    sequence, inviting these students to visit CC
    campus and work with students and faculty

45
Thank You!
  • Our work is continuing for three more years
  • We hope to be back to report further findings and
    suggestions to take back to your schools
  • If you have any questions, contact us at
    marisa_at_csos.jhu.edu sstringfield_at_csos.jhu.edu
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