Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Plan for career and technical education

From the PG:

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/10062/1039811-298.stm

11 comments:

Questioner said...

In the east region at least, except for adding information technology to the university prep school, the plan seems to mainly remove program locations- placing culinary arts and health sciences at Westinghouse instead of at both Peabody and Westinghouse, and apparently no more cosmetology at Westinghouse.

Re: the shuttle, it would be hard in 45 minutes in the middle of the day for a shuttle to go from Westinghouse to Peabody to Milliones to Allderdice and back to Westinghouse, leaving time at each stop for students to get on and off; difficult even if Peabody is cut out; but it probably won't matter. Many students are at Allderdice as an alternative to Westinghouse and U Prep and will not opt to leave Allderdice to go there in the afternoon. And if a student is interested in information technology it would make sense to just attend university prep rather than shuttle from Westinghouse. Here's a prediction- 5 years from now, and probably 3 years from now, there will not be a shuttle in the east region.

Anonymous said...

I am sure some dry runs have been done, don't you think? Our topography makes 45 minutes a challenge. Exploring weekends and summer for some programs makes sense and if done properly is sellable to students, perhaps work/study.

Questioner said...

This program involves hiring an outside consultant ("The Big Picture"). It would make sense to evaluate what has worked and not worked with other outside firms- Kaplan, CEP, deJong- and apply those lessons this time around.

The deJong community dialogues found that the CTE most people wanted to see was engineering technology and construction trades. Culinary arts and cosmetology were at the very bottom of the list. However, each region will now have culinary arts, while engineering and
construction are in limited locations. How was the deJong exercise useful in this process?

whatnext said...

http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/14311059122535553/lib/14311059122535553/Education%20Committee/2010/March/CTE.pdf

It might help for readers here and elsewhere to see the presentation done for the Education Committee. Don't know if the blog moderators have been able to provide more (The Big Picture explanation)than is in the presentation because they actually attend the meeting, but if so, WOW...and thanks.

Anonymous said...

Ironically we used to have "career/tech" programs and they for all intents and purposes did away with them in favor of "college-bound" curriculum for all.

The 3 "clusters" reveal the future of the high school athletic programs also. For example: Allderdice, Westinghouse, and Peabody would be 1 team. Put that "team" in a nearby WPIAL section such as the one with Penn Hills and Gateway. Our teams would be more competitive and it would save money also. You can't continue to run a high school athletic program with 8 separate high schools (money) and such low enrollment in some of the schools.

Anonymous said...

It makes little sense to hire THE BIG PICTURE team given our circumstances and the number of students to be served under such a plan. By circumstances I mean the size of the district overall, the fact that the money for development will eventually run out or dwindle, and more. Could it be that we see such support from Washington for these great new innovators we think that is how to keep the ship sailing and the money coming in?

Questioner said...

Honestly, how many of these arrangements will be around in 10 years? The triad based CTE, U Prep, Big Picture, early college, 6-12, summer camp, gender based classrooms, etc?

Wouldn't it make more sense to invest in a sturdy, attractive, versatile school for each area of the city that offers each student the instruction they need to bring them to proficiency and then challenge them in core subjects, with special programs according to the demand of the student body at that time? To keep schools from feeling too big, students could also be part of "houses" (think Gryffindor and Slitherin).

Questioner said...

This approach might not be "innovative" enough to win anyone national recognition, but it could be a good, solid, cost effective way to educate our students.

anon1 said...

Questioner, what you describe sounds like a comprehensive neighborhood school. Days ago when I first read the post I thought it might be imprudent to offer it as a suggestion or, predict that in 10 years we would return to that model.

Questioner said...

It's like a neighborhood school but with added programs that evolve over time to fit changing needs. And students could be offered the choice of going to a school in a different area, for example to participate in a particular program. This model would probably best stand the test of time.

tilly said...

THE BIG PICTURE? Was the last outside specialized source, CEP, so successful? What kind of spell is the Board under to even entertain the idea of another service provider like this for such a small number of kids?

I wonder if there is some entity out there looking for a place to start a CTE/VOCATIONAL charter school.