Transcript Integrated Academics - National Association for Workforce

Measuring Academic
Achievement in CareerTechnical Education
Presented by:
Sandra Pritz, Senior Consultant
National Occupational Competency Testing Institute
Rationale for Standardized
Assessments—
technical and academic
• External objective data of student
achievement
• Comparative data for schools, districts,
states, and across states
• Perkins and NCLB core measures
• May be used by employers and
postsecondary institutions
Value Added To Change What
Is Taught and How to Teach
• “The administrator sits down with teachers and
goes over the results to determine changes that
may be needed in the curriculum.” (Teacher
Sandra Himes, PA)
• “I love the data and detail to be able to improve
instructional strategies.The results are charted,
show technical gains. If the group shows highs
and lows, you can work on the lows. Teachers see
where they missed and work on different
approaches.” (Administrator Ed Haynor, MI)
Why should career-technical
programs assess academic
skills?
• State/national academic standards demand
attention.
• Career-tech is accountable for academic gains.
• High school students must pass academic tests
for graduation.
• Academics in context tend to be student-friendly
• Workplace demands for technical literacy are
increasing.
Technical Literacy:
integrated academics and technical content
at basic, proficient,and advanced levels
• Read, understand, and communicate in the
language of a career field
• Understand technical concepts and
principles
• Use academic knowledge and skills to
solve problems
• Use basic technology
Academic Skills
Measured in Context
Academic Skills
+ Technical Skills
Academic
Skills
Employability
Skills
Technical
Skills
+ Employability
Skills
Comprehensive
Assessment
How Should Career-Technical
Programs Assess Academic
Skills?
• In the context of the students’ careertechnical program
• In alignment with state and national
academic standards
• In alignment with post-secondary program
requirements
• Embedded In their career-technical tests,
such as end-of-course or program
Testing Academic Skills in
Context
• Math, science, and language arts are
required to complete most occupational
items and performance tasks.
• NOCTI tests occupational competencies,
but also tests embedded academics.
• Embedded academics are correlated to
national standards (NCTE, NCTM,NSES).
• Student scores can be isolated by
discipline.
Academics Identified
• Written tests contain embedded
academics that match standards in all
three disciplines.
• Performance tests contain a higher
percentage of embedded academics
than written tests.
• Students tend to score lower on the
written than on the performance test,
and the items most often missed involve
technical literacy.
Ways NOCTI can help
• By providing performance as well as written
tests, NOCTI can help assess academics at
higher levels.
• NOCTI can respond to the need to reinforce
academic instruction through assessment,
can customize tests and test reports.
• NOCTI can provide states the service of
cross-correlating its tests to their state
standards.
Agricultural Mechanics Example from the Agricultural
Electrical Power & Processing Duty:
The completed path through which electricity flows is
called the
A. fuse B. circuit C.circuit breaker D. ground wire
- NCTE Language Arts: Apply strategies to comprehend,
interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. Use experience,
interactions with readers/writers, meaning of words, word
identification , and features, e.g., sound-letter
correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics.
- National Science Education (NSES) Standards:Transfer of
energy
Workplace Readiness Example: You earn $8/hour and
work 40 hours/week. You receive time and a half for
overtime and you worked five overtime hours last
week. What was your gross pay last week?
A.$350 B.$360 C.$380 D.$390
- NCTM Math: Select/use various types of reasoning and
methods of proofs; Apply/adapt a variety of appropriate
strategies to solve problems.
- South Dakota Math, grades 9-12:Use numbers in a variety
of equivalent forms to solve problems; Use properties of the
number system to solve problems.
- South Dakota Language Arts, grades 9-12 :Use various
reading cues/strategies to comprehend text
PA Assessments…
• Math Standards
Alignment
– 8th, 11th, and National
Standards
– Standardized paper
and pencil doesn’t fit
everyone—use
written and
performance.
– Students show
improvement using
CTE methodologies.
• Criterion
Referenced Scores
– Advanced, Proficient,
Basic, Below Basic
– Aligns with State
Assessment
– Top 20 Tests & 200
Pennsylvania
Employers
Other IA Assessments in
demonstration projects…
• South Dakota
– Workplace Readiness
and Carpentry
– Language arts, math ,
and science
– State and national
standards
– 8th and 9-12th grade
standards
– Written and
performance
• Oklahoma
– 27 different tests on
11 campuses
– 14 math and 10
science selected
– State standards with
national as available
– 9-12th grade
standards
– Written at all sites,
performance at sites
per their selection
What Do I Receive
from NOCTI?
•
Score Reports
– Coordinator’s Report
– Individual Student Reports
– Customized Reporting Available—
e.g. embedded academics
•
Statistical Information
– Group Data
– Site Data
– State Data
– National Data
•
Student Certificates
•
Personalized Contact Assistance
Note:
All results,
including
integrated
academics, are
broken down into
duty, category
and total scores.
0.0
Pre-Test Scores
Post-Test Scores
Total
Welding Costs
Welding Qualifications &
Procedures
Measuring Instruments
Gas Tungsten Arc
Welding
Gas Metal Arc & Flux
Cored Arc Welding
Shielded Metal Arc
Welding
Oxyfuel Welding &
Brazing
Power Source Principles
Safety
Welding Consumables
Welding Inspection
Welding Terms/Blueprint
Reading
Heat
Treat/Metallurgy/Distortion
Control
Thermal Cutting
Processes
Pre and Post Test Gain Analysis
Job Ready Welding Written Assessment
100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
Program Improvement
• Focus on industry standards
– Plan program and curriculum changes
– Assign “just-in-time” lab projects
• Expand emphasis on technical literacy at
proficient levels
– Reading career -technical material
– Interpreting technical information
– Calculating in technical problems
Student Achievement
Improvement
• Identify gaps—group and individual-and target instruction to them
• Heighten awareness of responsibility
for learning per strengths/weaknesses
• Focus on academic and employability
skills
Workplace Readiness Test
• NOCTI Workplace Readiness Test
measuring employability skills is
now up-scaled.
• A large and stellar Subject Matter
Expert Team has culled and rated
the critical competencies.
• Career Cluster Foundation Skills
are assessed.
Workplace Readiness Assessment
Communications
Systems
Information Technology
Applications
Problem Solving and
Critical Thinking
Safety, Health and
Environmental
Leadership, Management
and Teamwork
Ethics and/or Legal
Responsibilities
Employability and/or
Career Development
Workplace Readiness Assessment

82 item multiple-choice assessment;
parallel forms with .94 internal
consistency/reliability

41-item version to accommodate
single-period schedules; no subscores; .96 reliability

Career Skills middle school 41-item
version

Online delivery format available for all
versions
Thank You
To discuss your interests,visit
www.nocti.org, call 1-800-334-6283, or
write [email protected]