CTE
IMPROVEMENT PLAN
EDG6931
OCCUPATIONAL COMPLETERS IN
CAREER AND TECHNICAL HIGH
SCHOOL
BUSINESS EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS
April 24, 2006
Victor Hernandez-Gantes
Created in collaboration by
Linda Morris-Henry, Business Education Teacher, Deland
High School, Volusia
County
Christina Smith, Business Education Teacher, Chiefland
High School, Levy County
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction..................................................................................... 3
CTE PROGRAM
CTE
Program.................................................................................. 5
Core
Indicator................................................................................. 5
Benchmark...................................................................................... 5
Analysis........................................................................................... 5
DATA
Volusia
County OCP....................................................................... 6
Levy
County OCP........................................................................... 6
Volusia
and Levy OCP Comparison.............................................. 7
State
of Florida OCP ..................................................................... 7
Business
OCP’s Chart.................................................................... 9
Percentage
of OCP’s.................................................................... 10
Trends
in Enrollment.................................................................... 10
Workplace
Readiness Skills........................................................ 10
Overall
Employment Trends........................................................ 11
Areas
for Improvement................................................................ 13
Career
and Technical Education.................................................. 13
Establishing
Improvement Priorities and Data Quality.............. 13
Data
Quality Criteria.................................................................... 15
Alignment...................................................................................... 15
Scope............................................................................................. 15
Reliability...................................................................................... 16
Coverage....................................................................................... 17
Reflection...................................................................................... 17
PERFORMANCE GAPS
Possible
Causes............................................................................ 18
Possible
Solutions......................................................................... 22
Sources.......................................................................................... 25
APPENDIX
Attachment
A................................................................................ 26
Attachment
B................................................................................ 27
Career and Technical Education Business Program
Completers
Introduction
In this final report of potential solutions to closing the
gap of CTE Business Program Completers that currently exist in Volusia and Levy
County School Districts we have documented the information that we have
gathered from both school districts including information obtained from the
Florida Department of Education (FLDOE).
Currently the State of Florida is holding all schools
accountable for test results and in Module 1 we looked at the area of
accountability and the use of data collected from test results for improvement
by both school districts and the FLDOE.
Initially we thought that emphasis should be put on the teachers for
setting the goals and improving themselves to be the answer to improvement and
accountability. But, even though it is
still relevant in the improvement process for teachers to improve themselves as
part of the improvement process, we found that teachers are not the most
important accountability and improvement factor. We found that for the past three to four
years both Levy County and Volusia County School Districts has been collecting
data on CTE and has used those results to implement new ways to deliver CTE
program content, and in light of the emphasis being placed on students passing
the FCAT, both school districts have incorporated ways into their CTE programs
to improve reading and math on the FCAT.
In Module 1 we also looked into the
quality of CTE in both Levy and Volusia County School districts and believe
that the overall quality of Career and Technical Education in both school
districts is good but still has room for improvement. CTE or Vocational Education as many still
call it, is a program that can benefit all of our students, whether they plan
to pursue a career in CTE upon graduation from high school or pursue a
post-secondary education. .
In Module 2 we were given the
challenge of documenting student performance results for a specific area of a CTE Program of our choice. This was by far one of our most difficult
tasks, researching and gathering information.
We originally started out by wanting to examine why students were not
Program Completers in CTE, but found the topic to be overwhelming for the
amount of time we had, and we were forced to narrow it down to a single
program, even though we narrowed it down it still proved to be a huge task. We
chose to do CTE Business Program Completers in BST for 2001 to present. We encountered lots of difficulty in getting
the required information from the individuals responsible for monitoring the
CTE programs. In Volusia County it was
extremely difficult locating Benchmarks for CTE programs but after encountering
many obstacles, we were able to get much of the information that we needed for
our research. A much more difficult and
challenging task than we anticipated, but a learning process for us. In this module we also researched Core
Indicators for student attainment and Sub Indicators for Secondary Vocational
and Technical Skill Attainment. Not
surprising to us involved in CTE, we found proof that the CTE programs provides
the necessary benchmarks of workplace skills and standards by integrating and
incorporating them into the programs and making sure that the students master
those skills.
In Module 3 little did we know
beforehand that we would have to truly re-evaluate our programs and identify
root causes for the low number of students currently being CTE Business Program
Completers, and to find ways to improve the gaps that we had previously stated
existed in our programs. Finding ways to
close those gaps caused us to revisit some of the factors that we had
previously stated or thought contributed to the gap that exist in the cause of
students not being CTE Business Program Completers. We had to examine each obstacle or root cause
we listed and honestly re-evaluate if they were the root cause of why we had
such low numbers in CTE Business Program Completers. We had to categorize them
even further into root causes within my
control and root causes out of my control?
Surprisingly enough it resulted in us producing a list of things that we
as teachers can do to help our students become CTE Business Program Completers. We also found that there were areas that we
had no control over at the current time but can continually keep trying to
change the root causes that create many obstacles for us as CTE Business
Program Teachers.
In
Module 4 we developed solutions to the performance gaps of why students were
not enrolled in CTE Business Programs.
It was not difficult to find solutions, but as with root cause that are
within are control and out of our control, the same is true for solutions. We cannot always implement a solution if it
isn’t within our control. The many solutions we have found to promote CTE
Business Program Completers will provide students with the necessary tools to
be successful in the workplace.
Career and Technical Education Business Program
Completers
Analysis
CTE Program Analyzing:
Business Education Technology Programs
Core Indicator 1 Secondary School Level: Student Attainment
Sub Indicator 1S2:
Secondary Vocational and Technical Skill
Attainment
Benchmark:
Career and Technical Education provides benchmarks of
necessary workplace skills and standards and integrates those benchmarks with
every Career and Technical Education program in a planned sequential order.
Business Systems Technology (BST) is required for 16 out of the 20 Business Education
Programs offered by the State of Florida Department of Education. BST is an Occupational Completion Point of and is
the equivalent of the workplace skills competencies of a General Office Clerk.
Analysis:
We
examined OCP data from 2001 to present for Levy County School District,
(including Chiefland High School), Volusia County School District (including
Deland High School), and Florida Department of Education. The data shows the program completers
since 2001 indicating the programs need to retain students in the business
programs through completion in a program are a critical area for improvement. Over the past three years the enrollment
numbers in occupational programs such as Medical or
Legal Secretary through out the state of Florida have dropped significantly
while enrollment in web internet/intranet services has increased
dramatically. Both indicate that the needs in the workplace
skills and standards has changed from the original keyboarding/typing classes
taught in the 20th century to the use of internet technologies in the 21st century.
The report will compare the number
of Business Educational Technology
Occupational Completers and Programs for
Levy County School District, Volusia County School District and the State of
Florida for three years (2001 through 2004).
Career and Technical Education Business Program
Completers
Data
Table 1, 2, and 3 shows the FETPIP Occupational Completers statistical
numbers for Volusia County and Levy County converted to graphs and Table 4 shows
the FETPIP Occupational Program Completers for the State of Florida
Volusia County -TABLE 1
Program completers
441 program completers in 2001-02
658
program completers in 2002-03
895 program completers in 2003-04
|
|
Found Work
322 program completers in 2002-02
363 program completers in 2002-03
556 program completers in 2003-04
|
Found employment related to their training
101 program completers in 2001-02
169 program completers in 2002-03
141 program completers in 2003-04
|
|
Continued
on with their education
321 program completers in 2001-02
410 program completers in 2002-03
506 program completers in 2003-04
|
Entered the military forces
31 program completers in 2001-02
31 program completers in 2002-03
23 program completers in 2003-04
|
Levy County-TABLE 2
Program completers
35 program completers in 2002-02
53 program completers in 2002-03
99 program completers in 2003-04
|
|
Found Work
14
program completers in 2002-02
34 program completers in 2002-03
62 program completers in 2003-04
|
Found employment related to their training
7
program completers in 2001-02
13 program completers in 2002-03
14 program completers in 2003-04
|
Continued on with their education
12
program completers in 2001-02
24 program completers in 2002-03
57 program completers in 2003-04
|
Entered the military forces
2
program completers in 2001-02
2 program completers in 2002-03
7 program completers in 2003-04
|
TABLE 3
Volusia and Levy Counties
Summary of Tables 1, 2, and 3 (above) and table 6 (below).
Both Volusia and Levy counties showed a steady increase in
program completers for the same period of time.
Ø
In Volusia County there were 441 program
completers in 2001-02 and 658 completers in 2002-03 a 32.98% increase.
Ø
In Volusia County there were 658 program
completers in 2002-3 and 895 completers in 2003-4 a 26.48% increase.
Ø
Volusia Counties increase in all areas of their
programs including Accounting Operations, Administrative Assistant, Business Computer
Programming, Business Supervision and Management, Digital Design, Network
Support Services, and Web Design Services.
Ø
In Volusia County more than half of the
occupational completers went on to continue their education.
Ø
In Levy County there were 35 program completers
in 2001-02 and 53 in 2002-03 a 34% increase.
Ø
In Levy County there were 53 program completers
in 2002-3 and 99 completers in 2003-4 a 46% increase.
Ø
Levy County increased in all areas of their
programs including Accounting Operations, Customer Assistance Technology, and
Digital Design
Ø
The only decrease in program completers were in
both counties of Volusia and Levy and that program was PC Support Services, but
very little to effect the State’s 17.62% decrease from 2001-2 to 2002-3.
Ø
In Levy County by 2003-4 they had been increase
to more than half of the occupational completers that went on to continue their
education.
State of Florida
Summary of Table 4 and 7 (below)
.
State of
Florida had a decrease from 2001-2 to 2002-3 to an increase in 2003-4.
Ø
The State of Florida had 28465 program
completers in 2001-2 and 23450 completers in 2002-3 a 17.62% decrease.
Ø
The State of Florida had 23450 program
completers in 2001-2 and 26578 completers in 2002-3 an 11.77% increased.
Ø
The Programs that caused the decrease from
2001-2002 to 2002-3 were less occupational completers in Accounting Operations,
Administrative Assistant, Business Supervision and Management, Customer Service
Technology, Digital Design, Legal Secretary, Medical Secretary, and PC Support
Services.
Ø
The programs that continued to decrease in
2003-4 were Accounting Operations, Business Supervision and Management, Customer
Service Technology, and Medical Secretary,
Ø
The Programs that increased the most from 2002-3
were Academy of Information Technology, Academy of International Business,
Academy of Marketing, Administrative Assistant, Digital Design, Legal
Secretary, Network Support Services, New Media Technology, PC Support and Web
Design Services.
Ø
More than half of the State of Florida occupational
completers went on to continue with their education with an increase every
year.
TABLE 4
Program completers
28465 program completers in 2002-02
23450 program completers in 2002-03
26578 program completers in 2003-04
|
Found Work
17298
program completers in 2002-02
12487
program completers in 2002-03
15733
program completers in 2003-04
|
Found employment related to their training
4956
program completers in 2001-02
4484
program completers in 2002-03
4652 program completers in 2003-04
|
Continued on with their education
17410
program completers in 2001-02
13288
program completers in 2002-03
15745
program completers in 2003-04
|
Entered the military forces
1236 program completers in 2001-02
857 program completers in 2002-03
819 program completers in 2003-04
|
|
|
State of Florida, Volusia County and Levy County Business
Education Occupational Programs that are offered that require students to take
Business Systems Technology (BST).
Table 6 and 7
Ø
Programs that are high in occupational
completers as shown in the table 6 and 7 below are Academy of Information
Technology, Accounting, Administrative Assistant, Business Supervision and
Management, Digital Design, Medical Secretary, Network Support Services, and Web
Design Services.
Ø
The following depicted in table 6 and 7 are the
16 programs out of 20 offered through the Business Education Technology through
Career and Technical Education are required to take BST.
Percentage of student
participation in Business Education Technology Programs per high school student
enrollment.
TABLE 8
Business Education Program Trends in Enrollment
Ø
Both Volusia
County and Levy County show a steady increase over the last three years.
Ø
Volusia County
has an increase in enrollment as well as Levy County, but Levy County shows the
greatest growth in participation in Business Education Technology.
Ø
State of Florida
has a decrease from 2001-2 to 2002-3 and increase in 2003-4, but not as much
participation of enrollment in Business Education Technology overall in the
state of Florida compared to Volusia and Levy County,
Ø
Secondary CTE
Nationally
·
60% of these go
on to college (50% of these in pre-baccalaureate technical programs)
·
25% of all
students are CTE concentrators
·
Students with a
career goal are more likely to graduate at secondary & post secondary
levels
Workplace Readiness Skills
As we mentioned
previously, BST must be taken as a pre-requisite to 16 of the 20 Business
Education Programs offered. BST an
Occupational Completion Point of an A is the equivalent of the workplace skills
competencies of a General Office Clerk. BST class is designed to teach students
the basic skills that employers require for entry-level job in today’s business
environments. Emphasis is placed on the
skills listed below, and these skills will also help the students meet the
standards required by industry:
Ø
Communications
Skills
Ø
Problem Solving
and Critical Thinking
Ø
Information
Technology Applications
Ø
Business and
Organization Systems
Ø
Leadership,
Management and Teamwork
Ø
Ethics and/or
Legal Responsibilities
Ø
Safety, Health
and Environment
Ø
Employability
and/or Career Development
Overall CTE Employment Trends
Charts 9 through 14 below show
the fastest growing industries and occupations in CTE, by percentage, from 2002
through 2012. You will note that the six
fastest growing areas are health and computer related.
Table 9 Table
10
Overall Employment
Trends:
Ø
The data shows that as the labor force grows, so
will unemployment. It is projected that
unemployment will rise to a high of approximately 5.2%, but not as high as it
was in 1959 and 1979.
Ø
It is projected that the growth in employment
will result in approximately 165.3 million new jobs.
Ø
Service-providing industries continue to lead in
employment growth
Ø Education,
health services, professional and business services account for nearly half of
the projected total employment growth
Ø Utilities,
mining and manufacturing, are the three industries where the data indicated
there would be a decline in employment.
Ø Six
of the ten fastest growing detailed occupations are health related, three are
computer related
Ø Three
of the 10 fastest-growing detailed industries over 2002-12 are computer
related, two are health related
Ø
There are 26 occupational jobs that will grow to
more than 200,000. The top three by
14.8% are registered nurses, postsecondary teachers, and retail salespersons.
Ø
In 2002 there was not much difference to the
percentages from people having bachelor degrees compared to just high school
graduates.
Ø
Almost 60% had some form of college education.
Ø
The unemployment rate is constant with people
who have degrees and with salaries. The
higher the education the higher the pay the less chance of unemployment. The lower the education, the lower the pay,
the higher the chance of unemployment. Education
and training does pay, see table 11
Ø
College occupations that are relatively high paying
and in high demand
Ø
“Technical workers make up the fastest-growing
and most economically promising segment of the employment market. Employers
rank attitude and communication skills as the two most important factors they
consider when making hiring decisions. “ What
Employers Want; U.S. Census Bureau 1995
Ø
SCAN SKILLS EQUAL WORKPLACE SKILLS EQUAL
BUSINESS EDUCUTION TECHNOLOGY EQUAL CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. As technical jobs grow so will technical
education.
Ø
Emerging Career Fields: (from Top 28 Career
Opportunities In The Next 10-25 Years by S. Norman Feingold and Norma R.
Miller, see Table #16
|
Table #16
Emerging Career Fields
|
|
Artificial intelligence technician
|
Cryonics technician
|
Job developer
|
Retirement counselor
|
|
Aqua culturist
|
Electronic mail technician
|
Leisure consultant
|
Robot technician
|
|
Automotive fuel cell battery technician
|
Fiber optic technician
|
Materials utilization specialist
|
Shyness consultant
|
|
Benefits analyst
|
Fusion engineer
|
Medical diagnostic imaging technician
|
Software club director
|
|
Bionic medical technician
|
Horticulture therapist
|
Myotherapist
|
Space mechanic
|
|
Computational linguist
|
Image consultant
|
Relocation counselor
|
Underwater archaeologist
|
|
Computer microprocessor tech.
|
Information center manager
|
|
|
Areas for improvement
Ø
Students who enroll in the BST 1 course are
eligible to receive college credit. Very
few students are aware of this unless we in the CTE department tell the
students. We need to improve the communication
with the guidance departments so that they can help us do more to promote this
program. After all the guidance
personnel have access to enrolling the students in all the various programs. Success in doing this could help to increase
enrollment.
Ø
We both feel very strongly that by increasing
enrollment in the BST course would also result in greater numbers of overall
program completion numbers, number of completers that find employment, number
employed related to training and number continuing their education.
Ø
We also believe that the codes for the CTE
program could be updated so that it is not quite so difficult to locate
information for the CTE programs.
Career and Technical Education
Ø
High school students who have a solid career and
technical education program incorporated as part of their overall educational
plan cannot be considered just an ‘average student’ because they have the
advantage of acquiring the current skills that are in high demand in the
workforce as well as life long learning skills.
Career and technology education teaches the students all the skills that
are needed to succeed for life: technical skills, academic skills and
employability skills. In addition, career and technical education helps
students see how what they are learning in the classroom applies to the very
real needs of employers.
Ø
Through the CTE type of education, high school
students can prepare themselves for their futures, whether they decide to
continue onto a postsecondary institution or enter the workforce with a
full-time job. In fact, college-bound students can acquire work experiences
that will help then get a job that can help them define their career plans,
identify an appropriate course of study and help them pay for tuition.
Ø
Just think of the benefits your son/daughter
will receive: They will gain not only a
solid foundation in academics, but also a solid foundation in their CTE program
of study that includes hands-on experience, technical experience as well as the
‘know-how’ experience.
Ø
Finally, schools have become more accountable
because of FCAT and are taking whatever steps are necessary to help improve the
FCAT results for their schools. We have
already begun to see students who have low reading scores pulled from the BST
classes and enrolled into reading classes to concentrate on taking remedial
reading. If we do not do something to
stop this trend the end result could be that all the CTE classes eventually
will begin to feel the impact.
Establishing
Improvement Priorities and Data Quality
A
gap in performance, if improved, is likely to raise student performance more
than others?
Ø
Gap would be that not that many students take
CTE programs. It stated that 75% of all students enroll in at least one CTE
Program. I don’t see that with our student
population, Volusia County student population or the State of Florida. student
population.
Performance
gaps that are “most likely” to raise
performance to “least likely” to raise performance.
Most likely:
Ø
To raise performance we would have to increase
our enrollment of our CTE Programs.
Ø
To raise performance of highly skilled CTE
programs that requires continuing their education, such as nursing or
accounting. The Chiefland High School
Health Academy, which doesn’t show how successful it is on the FETPIP reports,
but I know for a fact has increased performance and interest in students.
Ø
To raise performance of a more highly skilled
program. Provide certification in
certain vocational programs. Possibility
of apprenticeships or job shadowing. Get
students interested in the programs you offer.
Ø
Raise number of students enrolling in CTE
programs will increase performance, through more guidance counseling and career
development.
Ø
To increase performance offer students programs
they want or want to become when they grow up.
Ø
To add programs students are interested in and
consistent with the demanding jobs in the job market.
Ø
For teachers to hook their students in the
program, sell it you could say, get them interested and keep them interested,
motivated and engaged.
Ø
To raise performance would be to raise
enrollment. I would have to say through communication, guidance, and career
counseling then would most likely raise performance.
Ø
To delete non-functioning CTE programs, that is
not aligned with the demanding job market.
Least likely:
Ø
To stop a CTE program with high enrollment
consistent with high occupational placement.
Ø
To add a CTE program with low enrollment
consistent with low occupational placement.
Ø
Major Gap in the FETPIP report is that out of
all the Occupational Completers not all of them were found, so the number of
students that found employment, found employment with their training field,
continued on with their education, and those that went into the military.
Justification
of Performance Gaps
Ø
There is still a large gap for students that are
enrolled in high school and not in Career and Technical Education Programs like
Business Systems Technology.
Ø
The percentage performance gap increased in
Volusia and Levy County vs. a decrease percentage of students per high school
that are enrolled in Career and Technical Education Programs.
Ø
Supply vs. Demand, the need for technical
skilled jobs grows at a faster rate then we can supply because not a 100% of
the students are not enrolled in CTE Business Programs.
Data
Quality Criteria
The
quality criteria provide a set of objective criteria you can use to assess the
credibility of your data. These criteria are intended to ensure that you have
chosen a data collection strategy that will yield data that are both valid and
reliable. You can assess each core indicator in relation to five quality
criteria:
Alignment
The
extent to which a measure directly and fully measures intended student
outcomes. Measurement is aligned when
assessment and other data collection instruments are unbiased and have strong
content validity; that is, when they accurately measure what they are supposed
to evaluate. Attainment measures are aligned (validity) to state established,
industry validated skill standards--both content and performance standard
Ø
I believe it is aligned with what we are trying
to point out students are taking CTE programs that will best suit them in their
career choice. The highest enrollments
in CTE programs are health, business, computers and technology. The highest demand for jobs is also in the
field of health, business, computers, and technology.
Scope
This
is the breadth of measurement with respect to state-identified performance
outcomes. The measurement is of sufficient scope when it quantifies students’
performance in all state-identified measurement areas. Attainment measure
provides a representative coverage (validity) of state established, industry
validated skill standards.
Ø
The scope is within the Volusia County, Levy County
and the state. The state has identified
over 170 CTE programs, including 16 of the Business Education Technology
Programs mentioned in our analysis. They
are all offered in high school to benefit a student workplace skills based on
certain occupational requirements. I think the data quantifies student’s
performance in Occupational Completers, number of students that found
employment, number of students that found employment in their trained area,
number of students that continued their education and number of students that
joined the military. The scope entails
only the number of occupational completers that they could find using their
social security numbers. Many times by
the data there were where many occupational completers that were not found to
be included in the data.
Reliability
The
degree to which measurement is conducted consistently using standardized or
comparable data collection instruments and procedures. Measurement is reliable
when repeated measurements yield similar results and when it is conducted
consistently across student groups and educational agencies. Attainment is
measured using reliable assessment instruments.
Ø
I believe that data to be reliable, but
inconsistent recording methods every year.
Before 2002 FETPIP reports of Occupational Completers were recorded in
every school’s accountability reports.
Since the new NCLB accountability reports, they do not include FETPIP
data. It also doesn’t contain all the
data we wish to analyze, like graduation rate, which Occupational Completion
Point A, B, C, D etc., or it doesn’t break down by race, low income or
free/reduced lunches. I believe those
things somehow effects a person in taking CTE programs and become an
occupational completer.
Ø
Linda said it well when she said is BST a
dumping ground, for some yes, for others it is just the beginning to something
that they might find interested in pursuing.
I believe the teachers enthusiasm leads to continue pursue of a CTE
Program. I will take all students as a
dumping ground because I know they will come back again next year and again and
again!!
Ø
Another point is that FETPIP for two years
recorded each high school and in another year they recorded them all together
for their particular county, making the data for me to compare Deland High
School and Chiefland High School impossible for three years. There was so much information and charts that
the final conclusions with massive amount of data and CTE programs being
offered we just contained the data to Volusia County, where Deland High School
is located and Levy County, where Chiefland High School is located. I think the
data clearly states all the programs being offered and how many students were
Occupational Completers.
Ø
The question of reliability of the data in using
FETPIP for Occupational Completers of a program states that an occupational
completer is anyone in a particular program that completes one Occupational
Completion Point. I think the data
should contain how many students took each Occupational Completion Point. For example:
BST is an OCP A, Digital Design I is an OCP B, Digital Design 2 and 3 is
an OCP C. If a student takes BST which program are they in seeing it is a
prerequisite to many business programs such as Accounting, Office
Administration, and Digital Design, and many other business occupations.
Ø
The new accountability reports do or FETPIP
Reports did not tell me if the students attained a high school diploma.
|
Measurement Definition
|
Numerator: Number of secondary vocational job preparatory
students who achieved an OCP and attained a high school diploma or its
recognized state equivalent
|
|
Denominator: Number
of secondary graduates in the reporting year.
|
|
Measurement Approach
|
National/State Standards and Local Assessment Systems
|
This
relates to the relationship between performance measurement and student
participation in vocational programs. Measurement is well timed when it is
conducted at appropriate intervals; that is, when it is concurrent with or
follows student participation in or completion of vocational programs.
Attainment is measured concurrent with or after concentrated participation in
vocational education
Ø
An Occupational Completer’s only performance
measurement is at the end of the school year when a CTE course has been
completed. This is recorded on a timely
basis by each high school and each county and report to the DOE.
Coverage
The
base of students included in measurement.
Measurement has sufficient coverage when it includes all or a
representative group of targeted students within a state. Performance
measurement reports attainment data for all students reaching state-defined
threshold levels in the state.
Ø
It does not have a base of what types of
students it is measuring. It doesn’t
specify race, low-income, or free/reduced lunches. It covers the whole student population of
each school, each county and throughout the state. Population would be the only significant
difference in the enrollment of any CTE programs. Of course Volusia County has
more OCP’s based a higher population than Levy County.
Reflections/Discussion on Performance Results
The data was
difficult to find and then took many days to
input. Data was found last semester on
current career and technical trends from Dr. Blank’s class. Currently that website no longer exist. When Linda and I asked our county office for
data, no one had any answers. I even
e-mail Diane V, State Business Coordinator and she never responded. No one even wants us to find the data. My director worked hard to help me and no one
would help her. I am very happy with my
data, but entering it was a complete nightmare and took hours and hours to
do. I knew we had to put a lot in the
class but finding the data was ridiculous.
I really believe finding the data was to time consuming and wasted a lot
of time see there is no data out there.
Career and
Technical Education Business Program Completers
Performance Gaps
Possible Causes
The data used in
this report for root causes of performance gaps was gathered from information
obtained from Levy and Volusia County School Districts. The information contained in the root causes
charts (See Attachment B) grouped data by indirect root causes and direct root
causes, both grouped within my control and those out of my control.
Because we were
most interested in finding solutions that would help in closing the gap of
students currently completing Occupation Completers of our Career and Technical
(CTE) programs. We looked at indicators that could possibly be used to help us
close the gap that currently exists with students completing our Career and
Technical Education (CTE) programs.
The first step in
being an Occupational Program Completer is to enroll in a CTE program, and in
order to enroll in the program students must be aware that the program exists
or have some knowledge of the programs available to them. You will note that the performance gap chart
shown in attachment B indicates various theories of why students may not be
enrolled in any CTE programs. Within the
top two leading performance gaps of indirect root causes are related to the
fact that guidance departments are not promoting CTE programs and students have no knowledge of
the programs.
A simple survey of some of the incoming 9th
grade students who anticipate attending Deland High School (copy of survey
attached as appendix A) and the results showed that the majority of students
would take a CTE class if they were aware of it and if the class was of
interest to them. A total of 1000
questionnaires were distributed. 897 questionnaires were returned. Results
showed that students have interest in the following CTE classes: Computer
class: 794, Agriculture 437, Cooking/culinary 663. I only listed the above three CTE classes
because they are all pre-requisite or entry-level classes student can take. The
results show that more students would take CTE/vocational programs if they were
well informed. We did not have a
question on the survey asking the students their race but the data collected
from current students enrolled in CTE programs, shows that more white students
take vocational programs then any other race and this is also a theory that is
based on personal experiences with the enrollment of students taking CTE in the
classroom for the past 10 to 15 years.
The most important data that we wanted to focus on was the
percentage of Occupational Completers compared to student enrollment within
Levy County, Volusia County and the State of Florida. There is not 100%
participation among high school students in Business Education Vocational
Programs. (See Table 8)
Our top three direct root causes performance
gaps within our control over would be to increase number of students becoming
program completers are:
1)
to engage our
students, motivate students through related stimulated instructional practices
and classroom environment.
2)
Filling out the OCP
paperwork correctly seems to be tied directly to the data that has not been
entered correctly in schools database, consequently some of the relevant data
is then thrown out. Which recently seems to be the case in Levy County.
3)
Professional
development, continued pursuit of interesting lesson plans does increase better
instructional practices and teaching strategies that can engage students to
stay within the programs.
Other
indirect causes within my control would be
1)
Classroom Environment
2)
Teacher is not
motivating students.
3)
Teacher is not
engaging students.
4)
Program not engaging
enough.
5)
Time on task
6)
Instructional
Practices
Levy
County has a high percentage of students enrolled in vocational programs, and
it could be due to the fact that the two business teachers at Chiefland High
School have more than half of the student body enrolled in a vocational
program. All other schools in Levy
County have one business teacher per school.
It would seem that Chiefland High School is able to offer more variety
of CTE classes for the students to choose from, and they offer the CTE classes
that the students are interested in taking.
The CTE
class that is prerequisite for all students enrolling in various business
vocational programs is Business Systems Technology (BST). In Levy County Digital Design (Table 6) is on the rise and this is due in
part to the increase in technology in the real world of work, motivation and
interest. In Volusia County students
also have a high interest in Digital Design (Table 6), overall in the State of
Florida enrollment in technology programs seems to be on the rise. It is our belief that students will complete
programs if they have interest in the program they are enrolled in, if they are
kept engaged in our programs and if we motivate them in the program itself as
well as continually promoting a positive classroom environment students will
want to take our classes. Providing that our teachers are certified in their subject
area and the need to become more involved in the professional development
available to them, learning new teaching strategies, and keeping updated of
changes in their subject area. Through this the teachers become more involved
in the curriculum/subject resulting in students becoming more interested, more
engaged and motivated in to continue in our vocational programs and become
Occupational Completers.
The top three performance gaps of indirect root causes
are guidance departments are not promoting CTE Business programs, students have
no knowledge of the programs, and non-participation by minorities that are
aware of the programs, but are not interested in them. Other performance gaps that are direct root
causes include:
1)
The high school drop
our rate is high,
2)
Same students are
consistently failing classes,
3)
Minorities are not
enrolled,
4)
Students have very
poor attendance.
5)
OCP paper work is not
filled out properly.
6)
Students barriers to
learning, example ESE students or students with other disabilities.
Additional
performance gaps as a result of indirect root causes such as
1)
Student motivation and
engagement. Possible indirect root cause for this would be that student comes
from a low -income community, parents not involved lack of student interest and
students have high-risk behavior.
2)
Lower income families,
that are usually our black and Hispanic population, do not foresee vocational
programs as necessary to the life skills of their children. Because they are not well informed about CTE
classes and they want better than they have for their children they tend to
encourage their children to take the core subjects that they think will get
their children into college and not the CTE classes which are elective classes.
3)
Through guidance
students are not aware of programs being offered or not correctly informed of
the CTE vocational programs being offered.
4)
Lack of interest due
to the limited amount of vocational programs being offered or dislike of
teacher.
5)
Student’s prior
learning-have students been taught previously,
6)
Budget concerns,
cutting of funds.
7)
Dropping CTE classes
with low enrollment.
The data we have provided (see Chart
3) shows that vocational programs are growing.
Therefore, under the performance gaps of removing students out of
classes to take remedial reading math classes, has not yet affected business
education vocational growth. What has
helped keep the enrollment numbers steady over the past couple of years is the
increase of mainstreaming (inclusion) ESE students. We also believe that the
increase in dropout rate of high school students also reflects a percentage of
students that were enrolled in vocational programs, but never became
occupational completers. The numbers included in the data are actual
occupational completers of a specific business program. All of which is a direct cause of why not
all students are enrolled in vocational programs.
It is obvious that for CTE to survive we must get more
involved in promoting our programs regardless of the budget and funding cuts,
this just means that we have to be more creative. The only way to keep vocational numbers up
is to motivate students through engaging them, incorporating real life
activities into our programs and start to chip away at the barrier that exists
with the guidance department promoting our CTE programs. At Chiefland High School, Christina Smith,
Business Education Teacher is very lucky to be able to have control over how
she wants to teach the Florida Educational Student Performance Standards. In Volusia County the teachers do not have
that kind of individual control.
Some CTE programs still continue to teach our students
based on the old vocational methods and old adage of learning theories. We must continue to keep our programs,
equipment and teaching methods up-to-date so that our students learn the skills
that are still useful for all of today’s students to learn. With the learning styles changing over the
years students are not able to focus on such things as just reading text and
taking tests. Student’s minds are actively engaged in many more stimulated
processes such as computers or video games.
Students need their minds stimulated, therefore learning must also
stimulate them and motivate them to become actively engaged so that they will
want to learn and apply what they have learned.
Pavlov developed this theory of conditioning, students are now
conditioned to stimuli especially something that can hold there attention.
Students will become bored, distant, loose motivation, and not be engaged
without the same stimuli they have grown up with. Technology is continually changing as changed
and therefore teaching and vocational programs have to change; the theories
will remain the same.
To approach the most critical need
is to inform students of the programs that we offer, consult with the guidance
counselor and make it a priority when talking to students and inform them how
OCP’s works. Another way is to make it a
priority for professional development of all teachers, provide them the tools
that are needed to teach the new technology.
And finally make sure the paperwork is filled out correctly for
enrollment into the CTE classes.
We can do all three but must reach
as many students as possibility to give them the opportunities to know what
business education programs can offer them and to be able to apply it the to
the real-world.
Career and Technical Education Business Program
Completers
Performance Gaps
Possible Solutions
In summarizing our report we would like to mention the
research article called “The 2005 Skill Gap Report” located at http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=89&DID=235731&DOC=FILE.PDF. There are many
points in the report that we need to take into consideration.
1.
“Today’s skill shortages are extremely broad and deep, cutting
across industry sectors and impacting more than 80% of companies surveyed.”
2.
“When asked whether K-12 schools are doing a good job preparing
students for the workplace, 84 percent of respondents indicated “no”. The compares to 78 percent indicating “no” in
2001, and 81 percent in 1997.”
3.
“When asked to elaborate on the specific deficiencies of the
public education system in preparing students for the workplace, the top three
most frequently cited responses were: basic employability skills (attendance,
timeliness, work ethic, etc.) at 55 percent, math and science at 51 percent,
and reading and comprehension at 38%.”
4.
The report states that “Effort should focus on better
understanding the policies and practices that may have hindered schools in
turning out students ready to work-from the types of teachers and career
counselors that are hired, to disincentives that are in place holding students
back even when they are qualified for advancement, limited parental interest in
education, and a lack of school board awareness in changes workplace skill
requirements.”
In
our minds this validates our argument that we not only need to increase the
enrollment of students into our CTE Business Programs but the results should
make it mandatory that students enroll in CTE Business Programs to master
workplace skills and standards.
Technology is ever changing and we as CTE teachers have to
change as well. Our students today are
accustomed to technology and it is up to us to keep them engaged. We believe that active engagement in the
learning process best promotes student learning and it is one important
solution that we have control over, and one that we can incorporate into our
programs, because keeping the students engaged, making the program of interest
to them all will eventually reflect the type of workers they will be when they
enter the workforce. The article
mentioned earlier, also states that the shortage of skilled workers and workers
who are focused and engaged shows a picture that emerges as both complex and
disturbing, because it shows that there is a broadening gap between the
availability of skilled workers and the employee performance requirements.
Some other factors that we have
control over to help in our goal to increase CTE Business Program Completers is
to increase parental involvement in our schools, get our administration and
local county school board to support technology related staff development
Student achievement information generally
demonstrates an upward trend in the performance of our students. It is based on a number of indicators
including, state, national, and international assessments, graduation and
drop-out-rates, and attendance information
An emphasis at both high schools should be in closing the achievement
gap between students and in encouraging students to remain in school. Incorporate varied alternatives in our CTE
classes to assist potential dropout students in staying in school, completing
programs they are enrolled in and achieving their high school diploma.
It
is obvious that for CTE to survive we must get more involved in promoting our
programs regardless of the budget and funding cuts, this just means that we
have to be more creative. The only way
to keep vocational numbers up is to motivate students through engaging them,
incorporating real life activities into our programs and start to chip away at
the barrier that exists with the guidance department promoting our CTE
programs. At Chiefland High School,
Christina Smith, Business Education Teacher is very lucky to be able to have
control over how she wants to teach the Florida Educational Student Performance
Standards. In Volusia County the
teachers do not have that kind of individual control.
Some
CTE programs still continue to teach our students based on the old vocational
methods and old adage of learning theories.
We must continue to keep our programs, equipment and teaching methods
up-to-date so that our students learn the skills that are still useful for all
of today’s students to learn. With the
learning styles changing over the years students are not able to focus on such
things as just reading text and taking tests. Student’s minds are actively
engaged in many more stimulated processes such as computers or video
games. Students need their minds
stimulated, therefore learning must also stimulate them and motivate them to
become actively engaged so that they will want to learn and apply what they
have learned. Pavlov developed this
theory of conditioning, students are now conditioned to stimuli especially
something that can hold there attention. Students will become bored, distant,
loose motivation, and not be engaged without the same stimuli they have grown
up with. Technology is continually
changing and becoming more challenging, therefore teaching and career and
technical education programs have to change; if not they will become stagnant
and boring for the students.
To
approach the most critical need is to inform students of the programs that we
offer, consult with the guidance counselor and make it a priority when talking
to students about CTE programs to inform them accurately how OCP’s works. Another way is to make it a priority for
professional development of all teachers, provide them with the tools that are
needed to teach the new technology. And
finally, make sure the paperwork is filled out correctly for enrollment into
the CTE classes.
We can do all three but must
reach as many students as possibility to give them the opportunities to know
what business education programs can offer them and to be able to apply it the
to the real-world.
Career and Technical Education Business Program
Completers
Sources of Information
FETPIP Reports
21st Century Skills, A Process of
Bringing 21st Century Skills You’re your Schools.
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/process.htm
Florida Department of Education
Florida Department of Labor
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://www.nccte.org/webcasts/description.aspx?wc=117
http://www.skillsusa.org/
Secondary CTE Nationally
Ken Gray, PDK, Oct. 2004
2005 Skills Gap Report, http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=89&DID=235731&DOC=FILE.PDF
Attachment A
Career and Technical
Education Questionnaire for Incoming 9th Graders
Please answer Yes or No to the
questions listed below:
1. Have
you ever heard the term ‘Career and Technical Education?’ Yes____ No___
2. Have
you ever heard the term ‘Vocational Education?’ Yes____
No___
3. Has your parent/guardian spoken to you about your course of
study
for
the 2006-2007 school year when you start high school? Yes____ No___
4. Has
your guidance counselor discussed with you the subjects/courses?
that
you can enroll in when you get to high school? Yes____
No___
5. Have
you heard the term ‘core subjects’? Yes____
No___
6. Do
you know what it means? Yes____
No___
7. Have
you heard the term ‘elective subject’? Yes____
No___
8 Do
you know what it means? Yes____
No___
9. Since
you have been in middle school have you taken any of the
following
classes:
Agriculture
Class Yes____
No___
Culinary
(Cooking) Class Yes____
No___
Computer
Class Yes____
No___
Keyboarding
Class Yes____
No___
10. If you had the opportunity to take any of the classes listed
below next year? Yes____ No___
Place
a check next to the class you would be interested in taking
Agriculture
Class ____________
Culinary
(Cooking) Class ____________
Computer Class ____________
