Transcript Connecting Core Academics into Career and Technical Education

Connecting Academics into
Career and Technical
Education
Presented by:
Travis Ridley
Colonial Heights High School
Problems
► Preparing
students for the Workforce
► Providing students with technical literacy
► Providing 21st century skills across the board
“The United States does not face a worker
shortage, but a skills shortage.”
Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Futurework: Trends and Challenges for the 21st Century,
Integrating Academic and CTE
Content
Why the need to Integrate
► To
help meet student demand for training
► To help meet short term labor market
demand for trained workers
► To help meet long-term strategic goals for
human resources and economic
development
What We Know
► To
help all students reach common, high
standards, the one-size-fits-all approach of
today’s high school must yield to a system
that presumes students will learn through
different pedagogies, institutional
arrangements, and amounts of time. . .
► We must provide students with multiple
learning options and pathways and varied
lengths of time
What We Know
“CTE courses inherently provide contexts for applied
or experiential learning . . . delivery of content
area curricula within a relevant, authentic, and
presumably more motivating context . . . the
creation of explicit connections between situations
is critical if students are to transfer their
knowledge and skills outside the classroom,
whether it is to another context or to an abstract
testing situation.”
Stone et al. (2006)
CTE Trends
► Academic/CTE
► Career
integration
clusters
► Secondary/postsecondary articulation
► High tech
► Rigorous academic & technical skills
Academic
Technical
Technical Literacy
Employability
Technical Literacy
► 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
Integrating
st
21
Century Skills
► Essential
“21st century” knowledge and
skills are not the focus of traditional
academic courses:




Professionalism/work ethic
Oral and written communications
Teamwork/collaboration
Critical thinking/problem solving
Are They Really Ready to Work? (2006)
Integrated 21st Century Curriculum:
21st Century Skills and Content







Communication skills
Thinking and problem-solving skills
Creativity and innovation skills
Collaboration skills
Interpersonal and self-directional skills
Information and communications technology (ICT) skills
21st century content (e.g., global awareness, financial
literacy, civic literacy, health and wellness awareness)
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Definition of Career Academies
Small-Learning
Community
Career
Academy
Partnerships
with Employers,
Community, and
Higher
Education
College-Prep,
Career-Related
Curriculum
Benefits of Academic and CTE
Teacher Partnerships
► Academic
teachers learn contextual applications
which allows them to engage all their students
► CTE teachers demonstrate how their programs
contribute to student academic achievement
► CTE no longer seen as an alternative to
postsecondary education but an achievable goal
for all high school students
► Partnership brings relief from high-stress testing
environment
Professional Development to Support
Integration: Lessons Learned
► Common goal(s)
► Understanding of
how this will benefit both teachers
(and not just the students)
► View of integration of academics as an enhancement
and not a threat to what teachers already do
► Maintenance of the integrity of the CTE curriculum so
the academics emerge from the existing curriculum and
are not superimposed onto it
► Teacher discretion in choosing their partner
► A true partnership (neither teacher is subjugated by the
other)
► Proximity and accessibility
► Support from administration
In conclusion we must . . .
► Prepare
students for full-time employment
► Have strategies for teaching academics
► Eliminate in favor of a common academic program
for all students
► Provide an occupational sequence integrated with
rigorous academic coursework