Hands-on education
Sacramento Bee 1/10/07
"I'm going toward the engineering field, so whatever I learn here I'll use in college," Lee said as she gestured to her work in progress, a jewelry box with two sliding drawers.
Moving back and forth between a design table and the power saws Tuesday morning, Lee embodied the cutting edge of vocational education. Her school's Manufacturing Production Technology Academy teaches students both traditional and high-tech hands-on skills in a way that links them with academic standards in math, science and English.
Students learn a concept in geometry, then use it to build a project in shop. They learn a theory in physics, then build a device that proves it. They learn composition skills in English, then write business plans for the products they're making.
The approach on this Elk Grove campus -- blending vocational training and academic skills with an eye toward the 21st century job market -- is one that education leaders would like to see at high schools across California.
The state Board of Education today will vote on -- and is expected to approve -- curriculum frameworks for "career technical education," the term in vogue to describe vocational programs, such as the one at Laguna Creek.
The board's vote on about 500 pages of documents that detail how schools should teach skills related to 15 growing industries will mark more than an administrative hurdle, educators say. It will establish, for the first time in California's schools, a systematic approach to teaching occupations -- the kind students can enter right out of high school as well as those that will require more training in college.
Previously, when it came to vocational training in the state's public schools, "there were no strategies or suggestions or ways to implement what you wanted to teach," said Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent.
"This will provide a road map for teachers to help their students better understand the standards," he said.
The completion of the curriculum framework comes as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ratcheting up his support for career technical education. His 2007-08 budget proposal includes $52 million to improve the quality of vocational courses and increase teacher recruitment and training.
Schwarzenegger reiterated his "love" of career tech education Tuesday night in his State of the State speech.
In March, he is scheduled to host a summit on career technical education, bringing government and business representatives together "to review existing career technical education curricula, outline industry needs over the next decade, identify how curricula can meet these needs and evaluate how schools can best prepare students for the workforce," according to a statement from the Governor's Office.
The summit will also give school districts advice on applying for bond money approved by voters in November. As part of Schwarzenegger's Proposition 1D, $500 million has been designated for construction of shops and other facilities that schools need to teach technical occupations.
Still, critics say, the revolution in vocational education is far from complete.
"What I fear is that rather than creating choices for students, these are going to be gatekeepers, they're going to limit their options for success," said Russlynn Ali, director of Education Trust West, a group that advocates for academic rigor in schools serving poor and nonwhite students.
Because the state's new standards and frameworks prepare students for a range of jobs -- from working at the front desk of a hotel to becoming a civil engineer -- Ali sees the potential for limiting opportunity.
"I'm afraid that even though the frameworks range in their rigor ... that most of the kids that we care most about aren't going to have access to the really, really high standards," she said.
Ali told the stories of two Los Angeles high school students who were put on track a few years ago for low-wage jobs and not given access to college-prep classes: A boy who received a certificate in floor covering from his school, but couldn't land a job because he couldn't identify a right angle. A girl whose school offered nine sections of cosmetology but just one class in chemistry.
And those stories won't necessarily disappear with the adoption of the state's new frameworks, Ali said. While the standards set the bar high for what schools should be doing to teach vocational skills, they do not require that schools teach courses tied to the 15 prescribed industries, nor do they prohibit schools from teaching courses related to other fields, such as cosmetology.
But the frameworks do achieve a lot, even critics acknowledge. They are rich and substantive, providing specific descriptions of industry trends and concrete sample assignments. They list numerous jobs available within 15 broad industries, and detail the level of education required for each position. And they show teachers how to connect academic standards with job training.
For example, an assignment in a certified nursing course -- in which students take each other's blood pressure, then write a manual on the appropriate way to do it -- would hit academic standards in writing, technology and application of learned knowledge.
The frameworks have the potential to advance the quality of career technical education in California, said Gary Hoachlander, president of ConnectEd, a Bay Area group that tries to expand programs that link college and career preparation, such as the one at Laguna Creek High.
But the impact of the frameworks and standards will depend on how districts implement what remains, in most places, a new and unusual approach.
"Overall I think it's a very positive step," Hoachlander said. "But there's certainly much more to do."