Increasing Academic Rigor in CTE Panel Discussion NASDCTEc April 10, 2006 Joanna Kister, Ph'D' jkist

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Increasing Academic Rigor in CTE Panel
DiscussionNASDCTEc April 10, 2006Joanna
Kister, Ph.D.jkister_at_pageville.com
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Commission Reports

• Reinventing The American High School for the 21st
  Century (ACTE)
• The Silent Epidemic Perspectives of High School
  Dropouts (Civic Enterprises)
• Results That Matter 21st Century Skills and
  High School Reform (Partnership for 21st Century
  Skills)
• Crisis at the Core (ACT)
• Remaking Career and Technical Education for the
  21st Century. (JFF/Aspen Institute)
• Using Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships to
  Improve Student Achievement How Some Schools Do
  It. (SREB)

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Commission Reports

• Breaking Ranks II (NASSP)
• Crisis or Possibility Conversations about the
  American High School (High School Alliance)
• Transforming the American High School New
  Directions for State and Local Policy (JFF/Aspen
  Institute)
• Lost Opportunity of the Senior Year (Senior Year
  Commission)
• High Schools of the Millennium (AYPF)
• Rigor and Relevance A New Vision for Career and
  Technical Education (AYPF)

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Rigor - As a nation, we appear to have come to a
consensus that all children deserve a
challenging and rigorous education. The problem
is, we have no common agreement about what
constitutes rigor. Source Tony Wagner
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Key Practice 1Set high expectations and get
students to meet them.
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Percentages of Ninth-graders FailingCollege-prepa
ratory and Lower-level Courses by Eighth-grade
Achievement Quartiles
Highest Quartile
Lowest Quartile
1
2
3
4
C-P English 23 16 10 4 L-L English 47 31 23
8 C-P Math 47 31 16 9 L-L Math 42 37 25 16
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Cited in Education Trust, A New Core Curriculum
for All, Winter 2003
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What explains variance in student achievement?

• The powerful 24/49 statistic
• Economics, ethnicity, language 24
• Teaching qualifications and practice 49
• Conclusion Teaching effectiveness is more
  important than demographics.
• Linda Darling-Hammond, Education Week,
  January 12, 2000, p. 3

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Encourage Faculty/Staff to Examine Beliefs and
Assumptions

• Reflection on individual assumptions

Knowledge of current research

• Inquiry and dialogue with colleagues

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HSTW Triangulated Data
NAEP-based Reading, Math, Science
Student Survey
Teacher Survey
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Expectation Practices andHigher Achievement
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Reinventing the American High School for the 21st
Century Recommendation 6Dramatically improve
how academic content is taught
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1964
TIME
1984
CONTENT
2004
Knowledge EXPLOSION
Adapted from Billie Donegan
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Strategies to Increase Academic Rigor in CTE -
Standards

• Develop power standards based on industry or
  state CTE standards
• Prioritize and move standards into
  curriculummore than crosswalks
• Make academic connections explicit in course
  syllabus.
• Develop essential questions to organize
  instructional units or lesson plans.

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Technical Literacy

• Read, understand, and communicate in the language
  of a career field.
• Use mathematical reasoning and understanding to
  solve problems found in a career field.
• Understand scientific and technical concepts,
  principles, and processes for application in a
  career field.
• Use technology to complete projects and authentic
  tasks in a broad career field.

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High-Achieving Sites Gave Students Challenging
Assignments Technical Literacy
High- Low-Students
said they Achieving Achieving
Sites Sites

• Used mathematics in 73 57
• CTE assignments weekly
• Read technical manuals to 85 65
• complete assignments
• Used computers to 77 64
• complete assignments
• Met standards on a written 92 36
• exam to pass a course

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Strategies to Increase Academic Rigor in CTE -
Instruction

• Require students to read technical materials in
  the career field weekly and teach comprehension
  strategies
• Require students to write in the language of the
  career field weekly.
• Writing to learn
• Writing to demonstrate learning
• Authentic writing

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Strategies to Increase Academic Rigor in CTE -
Instruction

• Require students to solve contextual mathematics
  problems weekly.
• Design courses using problem- and project-based
  learning.

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Strategies to Increase Academic Rigor in CTE -
Instruction

• Create challenging assignments.
• Students can do no better than the assignments
  theyre given.

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RIGOR / RELEVANCE FRAMEWORK
BLOOMS
APPLICATION MODEL
Adapted from W. Daggett
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Strategies to Increase Academic Rigor in CTE -
Instruction

• Assess academic and technical skills.
• What we assess signals what we value. How it is
  assessed signals how it should be taught. Jay
  McTigue
• More formative assessments assessment for
  learning

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So What for State Leadership?

• CTE at the table - high school reform
• Require explicit academic integration in local
  plans
• Technical assistance for prioritizing and moving
  standards into curriculum
• Instructional leadership as a component in
  leadership training

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So What for State Leadership?

• Standardized technical assessments
• State conferences focus on teaching and
  learning with business input
• Target help to low performing CTE
  programs/schools
• Be an advocate for real world world class
  standards for academic and CTE

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Ohio High Schools That Work

• HSTW Sites
• 34 career centers
• 71 high schools
• Four Regional Offices
• Annual Ohio High School Improvement Institute

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Ohio Data 2002 2005 Of 69 HSTW sites in
network for four years

• 94.3 are in top three local report card
  categories compared with 52.9 in 2002
• All of the 21 schools (30.4) that were in
  academic emergency moved out of that category by
  2005
• (69 schools 56,820 students)