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Crafting a New Vision for High Schools Join Academic and Technical Studies to Promote Powerful Learning Gene Bottoms Southern Regional Education Board
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- 1. Crafting a New Vision for High Schools Join Academic and Technical Studies to Promote Powerful Learning Gene Bottoms Southern Regional Education Board [email_address]
- 7. Too Few Kentucky Graduates Are College- and Career-Ready Kentucky 9-21-11 Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, Comprehensive Database, September 2010 Why Join Academic and Technical Studies % Not College Ready in… Fall English Math Reading 2002 29% 31% 22% 2004 26 32 20 2006 23 30 18 2008 22 28 17 Common Core Analysis 2010 47 69 62
- 17. National Instruments data acquisition (myDAQ)—the industry standard for virtual instrumentation Motor/generator set serves as steam turbine/generator or water turbine/generator 9v battery serving as a Power Plant (nuclear-fossil-hydro ) 3 houses with LEDs—Electrical Load And Blue switches to engage electrical loads, simulating circuit breakers Solar collector providing supplemental power. Transmission Lines
- 18. Kentucky 9-21-11 Common Core Standard: Create equation that describes relationships. Rearrange numbers in formula to highlight a quality of interest using the same reasoning as in solving an equation. For example, rearranging Ohm’s Law V = IR to highlight resistance R.
- 21. Research on Shared-Time Technology Centers Source: 2008 and 2010 HSTW Assessments, SREB Kentucky 9-21-11 Joining Academic and Technical Studies Works Change in Achievement Percentages of Students Meeting Readiness Goals 2008 2010 Change Reading 41% 56% +15 Mathematics 38 54 +16 Science 41 55 +14
Notas do Editor
- In June of 2008, state superintendents of schools, career/technical education leaders and policy and education decision makers from 12 states met to explore the significant contributions career/technical education can make to high school reform. This Forum was sponsored by the Southern Regional Education Board and the Council of Chief State School Officers prior to the SREB Annual Board meeting. The report from this forum called on states and school systems to break free of long-held beliefs about the sharp division between academic and career/technical education and weld the strongest elements of both into a powerful engine of high school reform. This report outlines challenges and actions that states can take to join the strongest elements of both into a high school reform initiative. This can only be accomplished when you bring academic and career/technical education leaders together to work in partnership.
- The August 29 issue of Bloomburg BusinessWeek carried this headline: “Employers are increasingly giving up on the American Man.” Michael Greenstone, an MIT Economics Professor states, “When counting for inflation, median wages for men between 30 and 50 dropped 27 percent to $33,000 a year from 1969 to 2009.” Today, 81 percent of the men between 25 and 54 hold jobs, compared with 95 percent in 1969. Part of this is due to the recession. But according to Greenstone, it is also because the skill sets possessed by many men today are not congruent with the jobs that are now available and that will emerge as the economy picks up. Source: “The Slow Disappearance of the American Working Man.” Bloomberg Businessweek , August 29-September 4, 2011.
- In 1969, less than 50 percent of the women age 25 to 54 had jobs. For the past three decades, women have made up a majority of college students and now account for 57 percent. Women are simply better adapting to a data-driven information-centered economy that values education, collaborative skills more than muscle. Why the drop in college participation rate among men? Some speculate that college graduation rates essentially stopped growing for men in the late 1970s shortly after the Vietnam War ended, perhaps in part because draft deferments were no longer an inducement. Women, on the other hand, continued to pursue college degrees in greater numbers and have been more responsive the changing economy. The long-term fix is simple to say, but tough to achieve: Get more students, and particularly men to pursue hihg-demand career pathways that require advanced training, an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree; improve their academic skills; and improve their ability to analyze data, draw inferences from data in a range of economic sectors and communicate that information orally and in writing. We need more students — male and female — to have high school experiences that introduces them to those high-skill, high-demand and high-wage jobs. Source: “The Slow Disappearance of the American Working Man.” Bloomberg Businessweek , August 29-September 4, 2011.
- In 2009, Americans accounted for more than one in every four of the people with a postsecondary degree in G-20 countries, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Now, the U. S. is the only country among the G-20 OECD members whose incoming workers are less educated than those retiring. Americans make up more than one-third of all postsecondary degree holders for ages 55-64, but only one-fifth for ages 25-34
- A sharp disconnect exists between the skills employers need and what unemployed workers have to offer. According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute survey, one out of three employers indicates it cannot find qualified workers, even in today’s economy. Findings from ManPowerGroup’s 2011 Talent Shortage Survey of nearly 40,000 employers across 39 countries are comparable. Jobs have structurally changed and the skills needed have too. Workplace skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and a broad academic and technical foundation needed for mental agility are critical to generate productivity and innovation in a changing work environment. You are doing the right thing — first, to focus on high school; and second, to join academic CT studies to form a more engaging, meaningful and intellectually demanding learning experience for the many high school students who are bored with high school. Talent simply cannot be manufactured in the short term; it can, however, be manufactured in the long term, and that is what you are about. Today’s students need experiences that enable them to behave and think like engineers, scientists, researchers and data analysts and to experience habits of behavior and mind needed by workers in a range of mid-level and advanced-level jobs.
- According to the middle-skill jobs in the American South’s economy, in 2009 over half (54 percent) of all jobs in Kentucky were middle-skill jobs; however, only 44 percent of the state workers were trained to the middle-skill level. Middle-skill jobs require more than a high school education but not necessarily a four-year degree, and they currently make up the largest segment of jobs in the U.S. economy and will continue to do so for years to come. Educational projections for Kentucky suggest that the state is likely to face a continued shortage of middle-skill workers in the future. During the 15 years between 1995 and 2010, the state saw an increase in residents with educational attainment at the high-skill level but only a very slight increase in residents at the middle-skill level. The state’s projected education trends for the next 15 years (2010-2025) indicate that there will be a decrease in middle-skill education attainment, suggesting that middle-skill worker shortages will continue unless the kind of actions you are contemplating are taken. Source: Driving Innovation from the Middle: Middle-Skill Jobs in the American South’s Economy. National Skills Coalition, 2011.
- Since 2002, using current ACT college-readiness standards, Kentucky has slightly decreased the percentages of students who are not ready for continued study. College readiness was determined using an ACT score of 18 or higher in the appropriate subject exam , or an equivalent score on another standardized placement exam. How would your students fare if their readiness for college was measured against the new Common Core State Standards for college- and career-readiness? A recent ACT study suggests that about one-half to two-thirds of the 11 th -grade students were not reaching college-readiness levels of achievement in English, math and reading. For example, 62 percent could not understand complex text and 69 percent did not reach the readiness level in math Common Core Standards. English Benchmark = 18 Math Benchmark = 22 Reading Benchmark = 21 Science Benchmark = 24 We can debate whether college readiness and career readiness are the same thing. SREB’s commission on the next generation of school accountability basically said we don’t know whether they are the same or not. There is not enough empirical evidence. We said being college-ready means that high school graduates have the reading, writing, mathematics knowledge and skills to qualify for and succeed in an entry-level, credit-bearing college-degree courses without the need for remedial classes. Similarly, being career-ready means ready to enter in and advance in a job or succeed in advanced training for a good job. It means that high school graduates can read, comprehend, interpret and analyze complex technical materials; can use mathematics to solve problems in the workplace; and can pass a state-approved industry certification or licensure exam in their field. My personal view is the academic foundations and the intellectual demands required are not too different. Some students may just learn these in a different context.
- Set ambitious goals for graduation and for having students earn some type of credential — associate’s degree, baccalaureate degree or recognized credential. Give equal weight to graduation and achievement in determining school performance Set minimum accountability targets for high school graduation, but also set beyond minimums for college- and career-ready standards and broaden the range of indicators used to measure college and career readiness. Provide incentives to high schools that increase the percentages of students annually meeting these higher standards. See The Next Generation of School Accountability: A Blueprint for Raising High School Achievement and Graduation Rates , pages 12 – 15 for more detailed information. These are ambitious goals. SREB does not believe that these goals can be achieved unless we provide multiple pathways through high school that join a solid academic core with high-quality, school-based or work-based career/technical studies. Such a pathway that is intellectually demanding provides a different framework for learning than a pure academic approach. If we are serious about graduating 90 percent of the students, having 80 percent college- and career-ready and having 60 percent or more eventually earning a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree or recognized credential, then we have to provide more engaging ways of learning to motivate more students to make the effort to master the academic and technical skills and habits o minds needed for the 21st century
- SREB’s position and those taken in the Harvard report embrace multiple pathways to help young people transition successfully from high school into further study and into adulthood. We both agree that a single pure academic approach to preparation for college, advanced training and careers is too narrow to engage and motivate many of our students. However, we do not believe that just adding career-focused pathways to high school is adequate to open vistas of opportunities for continued learning beyond high school. The addition of multiple career-focused pathways, whether offered at a shared-time technology center, at a full-time technical high school or at a comprehensive high school, must be implemented with other conditions in mind.
- State policies must be clear that both academic and career/technical teachers are accountable for creating learning experiences that add value to students’ mastery of the Common Core academic standards in both academic and career/technical classes. SREB strongly believes that the Common Core State Standards should become the central focus for students, whether through a pure academic pathway or through a career-focused pathway that is joined to a college-ready academic core. We are not talking about lowering the standards. We are talking about using different instructional pedagogy in both academic and career/technical classrooms that uses students’ interests to motivate and engage them in mastering the essential technical and academic standards needed to be prepared for continued learning in work and postsecondary studies. SREB noted in its Next Generation of School Accountability report that a pure academic approach for all students provides a very narrow concept of rigor and has resulted in too many students taking a weak college-prep curriculum geared toward minimum-level state high school tests. For many students, this approach seems irrelevant to their future and greatly reduces their motivation and engagement in school. A rigorous curriculum and instructional approach is not necessarily more work — but more thoughtful, purposeful and intellectually demanding. If students learn academic content through project-based applied methods, they are able to use it in new situations, as well as in the context in which they originally learned it. Many students are also more interested in mastering academic content when they have opportunities to use knowledge and skills to complete authentic projects.
- Today, high school reform is often limited only to the curriculum areas of reading and mathematics. That must be broadened so that literacy becomes a tool that all teachers are equipped to use — not just English teachers, but social studies, science, career/technical and other elective teachers. The focus on improvement is limited primarily to mathematics classes. Any genuine high school reform that is going to give more students a deeper understanding of mathematics and the ability to reason with mathematics must involve the mathematics, science, and career/technical teachers in planning STEM-like learning experiences. Such experiences make mathematics a toolbox of strategies that students learn to draw upon to solve complex problems. Today, too many principals in very low-performing schools view test prep, rote memorization as a primary learning strategy. Students are bored, and they are disengaged. We need school leaders who see a broader vision of school reform — one that connects academics and career/technical together; one that uses students’ interests to form programs of study, rather than using the old way to sort students. The challenge for state departments of education is to bring together the expertise and learning approaches of career/technical educators with those of academic educators in reforming high schools. Operating in separate domains does not bring about the desired results. You have a number of illustrations in this state where the academic teachers deepened their working relationship with career/technical teachers and the career/technical teachers began to embed more academics. Let me be clear about what we mean by college-ready core. We mean four years of language arts where students read and comprehend a variety of materials, write short and long papers. But we also expect students to read and comprehend, write and express their understanding of content in all classes, not just in English/language arts. Four years of mathematics. Give schools special recognition through state accountability systems for helping more students successfully complete Algebra II or an equivalent mathematics course. For those students who plan to pursue further study but fail to demonstrate readiness at the end of grade 11, provide a transitional mathematics course the senior year. At least three lab-based science courses. At least four courses in a career/technical area or advanced placement or International Baccalaureate courses. We believe that everybody ought to have a focus in high school. That should be part of the policy for high school reform in any state.
- Develop scalable career/technical curricula for career pathways, built around authentic problems and projects that require the use of Common Core academic standards, particularly literacy, mathematics and science. Today, there are virtually only two high school career/technical curricula that can be transportable from one school to another with some integrity of quality. These are the PLTW engineering curriculum and the biomedical science curriculum. These curricula have a well-developed set of instructional material. There is a process for training for teachers to teach the courses, and there is formal common assessment at the end of the courses to assess student learning. Two years ago, SREB decided that if we were to reach the target goals that we have outlined, we had to have well-developed, intellectually demanding curricula for high school career/technical programs. We sought to work with two other organizations to do this, and neither wanted to take the initiative on at the scale we believed was necessary. Thus, we will invest over the next few years more than $3 million of our own resources to develop a series of transportable career/technical curricula in high-skill, high-demand fields, particularly those middle-level fields that require a strong base of literacy, mathematics and science as well as technical knowledge and skills. We seek to develop at least four courses in each of the broad career pathways. We have put together a multi-state consortium as part of what we call Preparation for Tomorrow to develop project- and problem-based curricula that will prepare students for college, advanced training and 21st-century careers through career/technical courses that join college- and career-readiness standards.
- As you can see, each state has selected a different career area. Each state has agreed to develop a sequence of four high school courses in a career area that is aligned with current and future economic and workforce needs of the state. Such courses as we envision them will require students to do considerable reading and reflection in their career field; describe orally and in writing what they have learned through class projects, problem solving activities, lab work; develop analytical thinking skills; develop trouble shooting and problem-solving skills; develop research and organizational skills to address the problem or task; use mathematics to support decisions and complete class projects or authentic work outside the school; and learn the habits of the mind for invention, experimentation and design. The sequence of courses will align to postsecondary continued learning opportunities in advanced training, community colleges and four-year college. The four courses will be taught at each grade level so that each year students will have an opportunity to go to a lab-based course where they will draw upon their core academic skills to do authentic work on a problem or project area in which they have an interest. The courses will have an end-of-course exam that will be given online to assess academic and technical achievement and to get students’ perceptions about how the course was taught. States have agreed to have a two-week summer training institute for teachers who will teach each course. The principal, the counselor and the mathematics and science teachers will receive three days of training on how they can build common planning time for the teachers of these career pathway courses to meet and plan with core academic teachers. Part of the process for developing these courses included having key people from the private sector in each of these pathways, persons who teach in these pathway areas at two- and four-year colleges, and key mathematics, science and literacy teachers from two-year colleges and high schools involved in the course development. We have recently received a modest grant from The Gates Foundation to support this curriculum development work in one state. Two states — Ohio and Maryland — have committed up to $2 million each to develop the curriculum in their state. Kentucky is a key player in this process. It is essential that we develop new kind of career/technical courses linking pathways to the common college-ready core.
- Both academic and career/technical faculty, along with the principal, must feel a sense of accountability to increase annually the percentages of students who meet college- and career-readiness standards. For the career pathway programs of study to have rigor, they must be linked to a college-ready core and have embedded in them the Common Core academic standards. Students who complete these programs would meet the readiness standards for continued learning, advanced training program and career at increasingly larger percentages. Students who have completed a pathways and met the standards for entrance into a two-year a four-year college without having to take remedial courses must be treated the same as students who met those standards on the ACT. Recognize students who met college-readiness by the 11th grade and who earned postsecondary credit in a career pathway program that will count toward their work at the community college. Study the Florida system. Florida has maintained its minimum standards that all students have to meet in order to graduate from high school. However, these do not represent readiness for careers or postsecondary study. The state has developed incentives to encourage schools to accelerate student achievement, and high-quality CT studies are recognized as an accelerated approach. They have value in the state school grading system equivalent to other types of accelerated learning such as increased percentages of students who pass the SAT or ACT, who complete advanced placement courses and make a “3” or higher on the exam. Further, Florida has set standards for career-readiness, which it defines as a student who passes an employer certification, meet readiness standards for advanced training and carries the same weight as a student passing an AP exam or who meet the readiness standards as set by the local community college for advanced training or an associate’s degree.
- SREB agrees with the Harvard pathway report about the need for extended work-site opportunities for students to do job shadowing, internships and preparation opportunities. However, we haven’t found the will to create policies necessary to achieve work-site learning opportunities to the scale we find in some of the European countries. One notable effort to study is the youth apprenticeship legislation passed in Georgia when youth apprenticeship was being promoted by the Clinton administration. Data from HSTW schools show that students who participate in the program in Georgia have a higher quality work-site learning and school-based learning experiences than do students in other states. I have already alluded to the development of the new kind of career/technical curricula. The work you are doing in this state in developing an informatics curriculum has drawn expertise from the private sector, higher education, two year community and technical colleges, and high school. This is a model for curriculum development. By partnering with other states, you will get their products as well as your own; but at a minimum, four fully-developed courses with training materials for states will cost about $1.5 million.
- National Instruments has committed over $500,000 in time of engineering and investors to help develop miniature systems for teaching academic, technical and problem-solving skills.
- Mini-Device Power Grid
- Creating Equations. A –CED Create equations that describe numbers or relationships. Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems. Include equations arising from linear and quadratic functions, and simple rational and exponential functions. Create equations in two or more variables to represent relationships between quantities; graph equations on coordinate axes with labels and scales. Represent constraints by equations or inequalities, and by systems of equations and/or inequalities, and interpret solutions as viable or nonviable options in a modeling context. For example, represent inequalities describing nutritional and cost contraints on combinations of different foods. Rearrange formulas to highlight a quantity of interest, using the same reasoning as in solving equations. For example, rearrange Ohm’s law V – IR to highlight resistance R.
- You cannot achieve multiple pathway programs of study that offer a broader concept of rigor unless you locate high school CT studies organizationally in the state education agency. There are some guiding principles for CT placement in the department of education: First, locate it at the level at which it can be a true partner and participant in helping to shape the high school reform agenda in the state and in carrying out that agenda. Develop within the department a shared vision of how a college-ready core will be joined with intellectually-demanding career/technical pathways; how there will be embedded in academic courses more authentic projects and problems as a vehicle for teaching academic learning; and how mathematics, science and literacy will be embedded into career/technical courses as ways to add value to students’ academic achievement. Two states that you might wish to study would be Maryland and Florida. Placement of high school CTE with the state department of education will result in: A common philosophical approach regarding the role of secondary CTE Better alignment of resources to serve local and state programs A single state agency to make a more coherent case for resources CT leaders become full participants in shaping a high school reform agenda A common vision of CT being linked to broader high school reform will provide similar goals for CT programs in comprehensive high schools and area technology centers
- SREB studied results from 35,000 students who had completed at least four courses in a career/technical concentration. Students who had these six experiences met college- and career-readiness standards at much higher rates. The most powerful experience for advancing CT students’ readiness for work and further study was completion of a solid academic core, including four years of mathematics. Based on the NAEP-like exam, students who frequently read and use mathematics to complete assignments in career/technical classes had academic achievement gains equivalent to about one grade level. CT teachers who engage students in solving problems, thinking critically, analyzing data and communicating effectively both orally and in writing add value to students’ career and college readiness. CT teachers who hold students to high expectations and require them to redo work until it is done correctly teach a degree of professionalism, a work ethic and a commitment to do quality work, which is expected by employers. Many students enrolled in CT programs need added support to meet readiness standards both for career preparation and postsecondary studies. Students who got assistance in planning a career-focused pathway program of study, are more successful than those students who did not get such assistance. These six proven ideas have been tested and refined during two decades of active research in hundreds of urban, rural and suburban high schools across 30 states.
- Forty-five TCTW sites participated in both the 2008 and 2010 HSTW Assessments. While 28 sites experienced an increase of at least five points in reading or mathematics, this study focuses on the 11 sites that increased their mean scores in reading and mathematics by at least five points. The purpose of this study is to determine what factors may have resulted in their increased student achievement. In terms of the percentage of students meeting college- and career-readiness goals, these tech centers experienced a gain of 15 points in reading, 16 points in mathematics and 14 points in science. This resulted in more than one-half of their students being ready for college and careers in 2010 — up from approximately 40 percent of students in 2008.
- What drove this improvement in the 11 tech centers? First, in 2010, about two-thirds (62 percent) of teachers strongly agreed that preparing all students for the dual objective of employment and further study is an important goal for the center (a jump of 17 points from 2008). Second, about 15 more of every 100 students complete a college ready-core in English/language, mathematics and science. Third, 15 more of every 100 teachers reported requiring students to complete more demanding assignments. Fourth , about 25 more of every 100 teachers reported that their center assisted them to plan lessons that help students master the academic content embedded in career/technical assignments.
- Fifth, from 2008 to 2010, more students reported that their teachers set high standards for them and helped them meet them Sixth, these centers make a special effort to involve students’ parents. More students reported that school worked with them and their parents on college and career readiness. Seventh, these centers provided their teachers with targeted professional development on raising expectations and embedding academics into CT.
- Oklahoma has a large number of shared-time technology centers. They have created STEM academies that involve the PLTW curriculum with mathematics, science and language arts teachers being located on the campus to teach those subjects. Starting in the 10th grade, students now take four class periods a day at the center. This is to facilitate joining academic and career/technical studies. As a consequence, they have a steady flow of graduates who are going into engineering programs, associate engineering programs and other mid-level jobs requiring STEM-like skills and ways of thinking. One institution, Tulsa Technical School, works with 12 partner high schools. They now have more than 500 students enrolled in STEM pathways and last year produced 50 graduates who continued further study in engineering at higher education institutions. Under former Governor Kaine of Virginia, the state established nine STEM academies in different regions of the state linked to STEM-related jobs that were important to the economies in those areas of the state. These were developed by high schools in partnership with postsecondary institutions, business and industry. The intent was for students to acquire the STEM literacy and other critical skills and to have opportunities for internships, job shadowing and mentorship projects in local industries in their region. The Virginia effort is worth studying.
- Delaware has six such high schools. About 25 percent of their high schools are full-time technical high schools that prepare students for work and further study. These are schools that students choose to go to at the end of grade eight. Most of the six technical high schools teach a solid college-ready core joined with high-quality career/technical studies. Two schools that we have worked with choose their students from a lottery. They are among the highest-achieving high schools in Delaware and in our network of HSTW schools. It is certainly an example worth viewing and clearly points out the power of joining demanding academic studies with high-quality career/technical studies. These two high schools have organized into small learning communities where academic and career/technical teachers meet weekly to plan blended academic and career/technical studies.
- At SREB, through the HSTW program, we have learned that if you change the quality of the high school experience — regardless of whether it is in a shared-time center, full-time technical high school or a comprehensive high school — you can graduate 90 percent of students and graduate them ready for some form of postsecondary study or career. The data from these two sets of 20 HSTW schools make the case for joining academic and CT studies. One set of high schools implemented the 10 HSTW Key Practices, including quality CT studies, at a higher level than the other 20 high schools. You can see the differences in the results. Similar demographics About 35 percent of parents had no education beyond high school. High schools’ enrollment ranged from 100 percent to 9 percent minority. Combination of urban, suburban, small town and rural high schools. Sizes range from very large schools (2,500+ students) to small high schools of 300 students. Why do students at one set of schools have higher achievement?
- One set of schools more effectively implemented the HSTW Key Practices, including the Key Practices of quality CT studies with embedded academic standards. Rigor/relevance – Students have a goal and can see a reason for leaning the academics. Less tracking – Schools teach more students to college- and career-readiness standards. Students’ programs of study are driven by their interest and goals and not by past performance. High-graduation schools more fully implement the HSTW model, which calls for students to complete a concentration in a career field, mathematics/science or the humanities. At high-graduation schools, more students took four CT courses in a CT concentration.
- Why do students at one set of schools have higher achievement? High-graduation schools more effectively engage students in: Using reading and math to complete assignments in CT classes Using reading and writing strategies to advance learning in all courses Making greater use of applied learning strategies and real-world problems to advance students’ mathematics and science achievement Reading/mathematics embedded into career/technical courses Reading and writing for learning across the curriculum – reading and writing become tools for learning in both academic and CT classes Mathematics and science classes place much greater emphasis on giving real-world problems/projects that engage students in using mathematics to solve problems related to student interest. These students gain, through application, a deeper understanding of mathematics concepts.
- Why do students at one set of schools have higher achievement? High-graduation and high-performing schools more effectively provide students with guidance and advisement and with the extra support needed to meet course standards. Sixty percent of students at high-graduation schools reported receiving intensive assistance in setting goals and aligning courses as well as receiving the support needed to achieve their goals. More teachers in high-graduation/high-performing schools believe their principal is focused on continuous improvement toward the twin goal of improved graduation and achievement. Effective school leadership is another HSTW Key Practice.