Making the Grades.

Making the Grades. Career and technical education is becoming a haven forcollege-bound students with impressive academic resumes and leadershipcredentials. Whoever thinks there's a "typical" careertech student anymore had better think again. "Back when I started in vocational education vocational education,training designed to advance individuals' general proficiency, especially in relation to their present or future occupations. The term does not normally include training for the professions. in 1959 as astudent, we called it `terminal education,'" SkillsUSA-VICAExecutive Director Steve Denby recalls. "We had this horribleterminology. You went to `terminal education,' which sounded likeat the end of it you died." If students didn't actually expire, they didn't typicallycontinue their education past high school graduation, either. They movedimmediately to jobs in their vocational field, and their studies ...well, terminated. But times--and the profile of the career techstudent--have changed dramatically in recent years. "What I see among students now," Denby says, "is anawareness that career and technical education opens up opportunitiesrather than closes them. Today the students we're working with seeall kinds of further education opportunities." Janel Humpton is a prime example. The straight-"A"student came to Sussex Technical High School Sussex Technical High School is a public high school in Georgetown, Delaware. Its enrollment at last count was roughly 1200 students. As a choice school, each year over 600 eighth-grade students in Sussex County apply for 300 openings. in Georgetown, Del., not tolearn a trade but to get a leg up on a career--and for greater academicchallenges than she was getting at her home high school. Though thesenior doesn't plan to make health professions her career, she saysexcitedly that "everything I've learned [in that program]--andit's a lot--I'll use" in college and beyond. At Diamond Oaks Career Development Campus in Cincinnati, anotherstraight-"A" student, Myra Monnier, is savoring the computerskills she's acquiring in her art and printing program and likesthe idea of heading off to college this fall with both a job skill and apossible career direction: desktop publishing desktop publishing,system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, . "Diamond Oaks hasbeen great for me," she says--though an English teacher at her homehigh school had insisted that the tech center had nothing to offeroutstanding students like her. For Micah Stinson, it was a matter of logistics. The solid academicperformer wanted to get his A+ computer-repair certification and theKenneth A. Foster Applied Technology Center in Farmington, Maine, wasthe only local school offering it. "It's a first-rate program,very hands-on," says Stinson, who also plans to take a course incomputer-aided design computer-aided design(CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting(CADD), form of automation that helps designers prepare drawings, specifications, parts lists, and other design-related elements using special graphics- and calculations-intensive at Foster this spring. He's set his sights onWentworth Institute of Technology Wentworth's educational philosophy consists of a three-part experiential learning model: theory-based classes, practical labs and studios for examining theory, and a co-op program in which students obtain internships in a field relating to their major. in Boston and, beyond that, a careerin architecture. Students like Stinson are helping to dispel any lingering stigmathat career tech is still "terminal education." In fact,Foster Tech Director Ann DeRaspe notes, "Most of the kids in ourcomputer technology program are in the top 5 percent of their class [attheir home high school]. They're saying `[Foster Tech's] gotwhat I want.' And they're showing through their example thatit's OK to go to the tech center." Taking flight Jean Ciancio, public relations public relations,activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most coordinator at Great Oaks Instituteof Technology in Cincinnati, has her own painful 1950s memory. But she,like Denby, has a happier postscript. "I remember back in the '50s when I was in high school,[vocational education classes were] where they put the dumb kids,"Ciancio says. "Down in the back of the building with the auto shopand the wood shop and that kind of stuff." Today, Great Oaks, with its high-tech programs in electronics,aviation, digital television production and other fields, is in theforefront of career education for teens and adults in southwest Ohio.Students with credentials and goals like Monnier (Diamond Oaks is one ofGreat Oaks' campuses) are not unusual. Nearly a quarter of theclass of 1998 went directly to two- or four-year colleges, surveys show.And that figure doesn't include graduates who sought work initiallybut ultimately will get their employers to foot their college bills,Ciancio notes. What has changed between the 1950s and today is that business andindustry now badly need better-trained, better-prepared employees, andare therefore working with schools to offer students professionalcertifications, increase academic standards and encourage greater careerand technical-academic integration. Students, for their part, areseeking out programs that can give them a jump start on college andcareers in an increasingly high-tech world. Federal legislationquickened the pace in the 1990s. "Certainly the changes that are embodied in Perkins II [theCarl D. Perkins For other people named Carl Perkins, see Carl Perkins (disambiguation).Carl Dewey Perkins (October 15, 1912 - August 3, 1984), a Democrat, was a politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Kentucky. Vocational and Applied Technology Act of 1990] started arevolution," says Thomas Henry This article is about the illustrator. For the Pennsylvania Congressman, see Thomas Henry (Pennsylvania). Thomas Henry (born Thomas Henry Fisher , director of the New JerseyDepartment of Education's Office of School to Career and CollegeInitiatives. That law emphasized vocational-academic integration tobetter prepare students for a complex and highly competitive workplace.It also provided federal funding for tech prep to link high school andpostsecondary instruction. "The idea with tech prep was thatit's not `college or not college,' but lifelong learning Lifelong learning is the concept that "It's never too soon or too late for learning", a philosophy that has taken root in a whole host of different organisations. Lifelong learning is attitudinal; that one can and should be open to new ideas, decisions, skills or behaviors. andcontinual learning," Henry notes. The results of these shifts can be seen at tech centers and careerand technical high schools across the country, where programs incomputer network administration, telecommunications and radiologictechnology are being offered alongside traditional offerings like autotech (itself now highly computerized), construction trades andcosmetology cos��me��tol��o��gy?n.The study or art of cosmetics and their use.[French cosm��tologie : cosm��tique, cosmetic; see cosmetic + -logie, -logy. . And the Southern Regional Education Board's13-year-old High Schools That Work initiative--which now encompassesmore than 800 sites in 22 states--has given the "academicrigor rigor/rig��or/ (rig��er) [L.] chill; rigidity.rigor mor��tis? the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers. " movement a major boost, with its emphases on college-prepacademic standards, higher-level math and science, hands-on teachinglinked to real-life scenarios and high standards in career tech courses.At scores of High Schools That Work sites--Delaware's Sussex Techis one--standardized test results, attendance, graduation andpostsecondary enrollment figures have risen, while dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rates anddiscipline referrals have declined. Far from being a dumping ground for low-achieving and problemstudents, "you [now] have the cases like what's happening inNew Jersey, where the best and the brightest students are going into thevocational schools, which presents a conundrum for a lot of people--`Whyare they going into that vocational program Noun 1. vocational program - a program of vocational educationeducational program - a program for providing education ?'" says Kim Green,executive director of the National Association of State Directors ofVocational Technical Education Consortium. "It's [because]kids see the relevance of what they're learning, and they see thatthey're getting skills they can use on the job and in postsecondaryeducation." At two different career academies in just one New Jersey county(Monmouth), nearly all students take the Scholastic Aptitude Test ap��ti��tude testn.An occupation-oriented test for evaluating intelligence, achievement, and interest. forcollege entrance and their average scores have consistently been in the1200 range for the past several years. (For more on one of thoseschools, the Marine Academy of Science & Technology, see the sidebarbelow). "Our vocational schools in New Jersey are rapidly moving toestablish a number of different delivery systems," Henry says."Some of them are centered around the idea of magnet schools andcareer academies--a la the New American High American High School may refer to the following: American High School (Fremont, California), the school in Fremont, California American High School (Miami-Dade County, Florida), the school in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida Schools program,"which spotlights schools where challenging academic standards andcollege preparation are combined with career preparation. "Severalof our programs have been identified by High Schools That Work and BlueRibbon blue ribbondenotes highest honor. [Western Folklore: Brewer Dictionary, 127]See : Prize Schools" (another Education Department program thatidentifies innovative and outstanding schools). In a sense the New Jersey system has been a victim of its ownsuccess. Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of a number ofhigh-achieving students across the state whose home school districtshave sought to prevent the teens from attending county vocationalschools. "[Home school districts] don't want to lose theirbest students," Henry explains, "and in our state fundingsystem a system or scheme of finance or revenue by which provision is made for paying the interest or principal of a public debt.See also: Funding the money follows the student. So if 10 of your brighteststudents walk out the door, there go 10 [state] tuition [allotments] outthe door, too." But as the stories of Humpton, Monnier and Stinson show, the influxof high achievers into high school career and technical programs ishardly just a New Jersey phenomenon. Ben Worden has a 3.8 grade-pointaverage, is in the National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS), established in 1921, is a recognition program for American high school students who show achievement in scholarship, leadership, service, and character. and is a student councilmember at his home high school. But he's also training to become aNovell-certified network administrator at Capital Area Career Center inMason, Mich. He's looking forward to being "part of thegrowth" in the high-tech economy. "Getting started early is abig thing," Worden says. Tim Kingsley was senior class president and a student councilpresident at Lone Pine High School Pine High School is currently located in Franklinton, Louisiana. Its current principal is Geary McKenzie. The school was damaged during Hurricane Katrina but work is currently underway on a new facility for the school. The school mascot is the Raider. in Lone Pine, Calif. After completingthe school's fire science program last spring, he spent the summerworking on an engine crew for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Now afreshman at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, he's glad hemade the effort to fit the career tech program into his crowded highschool schedule. He's got a bankable bank��a��ble?adj.1. Acceptable to or at a bank: bankable funds.2. Guaranteed to bring profit: a bankable movie star. skill and is mullingfirefighting as a possible career. Allen Powell, executive director of the NationalVocational-Technical Honor Society honor societyn.An organization to which students are admitted in recognition of academic achievement. , has recent inductees like Kingsley,Monnier and Sandra Soto in mind when he says, "The quality of thepeople who are walking across that stage [at NV-THS inductionceremonies] really impresses me. We've got a lot of great peopleout there." Soto, a junior with a 3.8 grade-point average atChicago's Curie Metropolitan High School Curie Metropolitan High School is located in the community area of Archer Heights on Chicago's Southwest Side. Named after Maria Sklodowska-Curie, the school has a Technical, Performing Arts, & IB program. , is headed for college anda possible career as a graphic designer at a magazine after shecompletes the school's graphic arts graphic arts:see aquatint; drawing; drypoint; engraving; etching; illustration; linoleum block printing; lithography; mezzotint; niello; pastel; poster; silk-screen printing; silhouette; silverpoint; sketch; stencil; woodcut and wood engraving. program. SkillsUSA-VICA Region I Vice President Aldo Martinez, meanwhile,will graduate from Aviation High School in New York City New York City:see New York, city. New York CityCity (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. this springwith Federal Aviation Administration-certified licenses in two areas ofaircraft maintenance. A member of the National Honor Society andPegasus, a technical honor society, Martinez elected to vie for one ofthe highly competitive spots at Aviation High because, he says, theschool "gives you the skills necessary--technical, academic andemployability--to go out and be yourself become a leader." Martinezhopes to get into Georgia Tech's aerospace engineering program andone day work for Boeing or the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), . Raising the bar Recruiters from Moore Norman Technology Center Moore Norman Technology Center is a public career and technology education center located in Norman, Oklahoma and is part of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education system. lured strongacademic students Brandie Candelaria and Seth Tate from their home highschools to the Norman, Okla., facility. Tate was captivated cap��ti��vate?tr.v. cap��ti��vat��ed, cap��ti��vat��ing, cap��ti��vates1. To attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence. See Synonyms at charm.2. Archaic To capture. by thepromise of a computer program "technologically in the realworld." For Candelaria it was personalized, hands-on instructionand the chance for a full-paid ,engineering scholarship at OklahomaState University Oklahoma State University,at Stillwater; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1890, opened 1891 as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1957. after completing the tech center's precisionmachining program. Through marketing and other inducements, students across thecountry are getting the message that this isn't their parents'voc ed VOC ED Vocational Education anymore. Career tech's burgeoning muscle was the subject ofa Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia InquirerMorning newspaper, long one of the most influential dailies in the eastern U.S. Founded in 1847 as the Pennsylvania Inquirer, it took its present name c. 1860. It was a strong supporter of the Union in the American Civil War. article last year headlined, "TechnicalSchools Rethink Curricula and Revise Reputations." The piece citedthe pitch one technical high school director in Pennsylvania made toparents of rising ninth-graders. His three-page letter pledged thatincoming students would gain not only practical career skills, butnothing less than "the very best secondary education that Americansociety has to offer." In Central Michigan This article is about the geographic region, for the university of the same name, see Central Michigan University.Central Michigan, often called Mid-Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. , Montcalm Area Intermediate School District isawarding $1,000 college scholarships to 10 career tech students toencourage strong academic achievers to check out technical programs."I remember in high school they used to hand out vocational awardsand you knew those kids weren't going anywhere," says ScottCrosby, the district's director of career and technical education."Now that's not the case. We're hitting gifted andtalented technical students and giving scholarships to kids to continueon in college." But no one is advocating that career and technical educationabdicate ab��di��cate?v. ab��di��cat��ed, ab��di��cat��ing, ab��di��catesv.tr.To relinquish (power or responsibility) formally.v.intr.To relinquish formally a high office or responsibility. its historical mission of teaching both occupational and"soft" skills (such as responsibility and teamwork) to allstudents-regardless of their ability level or their plans beyond highschool. Denby, for one, is wary of any "temptation to couchourselves, our classes and our type of training as just [being] for thevery best." Career and technical education, he stresses, "overthe years has taken students from wherever they are--and many of themwere terribly unmotivated--and shown them a whole industry and a wholecareer path, to where they have taken off, both in their occupationaland their academic training." The trick, notes Paul Christopher, principal of the Marine Academyof Science & Technology in Sandy Hook Sandy Hook,low, sandy peninsula, NE N.J., projecting 5 mi (8 km) N toward New York and separating Sandy Hook Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. At the northern end is a Coast Guard station and the former Fort Hancock, which was built to protect New York harbor and was , N.J., is to raise the bar,academically and in terms of technical training, for all students. Ifyou do that, he reasons, the academic whiz kids will come, andtraditional career tech students will be better prepared for thechallenges of the 21st-century economy, whether they continue theireducation or go straight into the workforce. "The `vocational' piece of [career and technicaleducation] is still there, but there's got to be a higher standardnow," Christopher says. "You've got to raise the bar,with academic requirements that are more rigorous and an emphasis onhigh technology. That's really where it's at." RELATED ARTICLE: Shipshape on the Jersey Shore When Lisbeth Blaisdell and Ryan Sullivan were in middle school, theyoung scholars took stock of the central New Jersey high schools theywere preparing to enter and didn't much like what they saw.Blaisdell's prospective high school didn't offer some of thehigher-level math she wanted, and Sullivan craved hands-on instructionand better college preparation than he felt his local high school coulddeliver. So they assessed their options and did something about it. Nowthey're both seniors at the Marine Academy of Science &Technology (MAST) at Sandy Hook, where they're literally takingstock--of fish, aboard a school-owned research vessel that's packedwith hightech oceanographic equipment. After collecting, measuring and weighing their catch, MAST studentsshare their data with the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and . And talk about hands-on learning: marine biology meanstrawling For fishing by dragging a baited line after a boat, see .Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats, called trawlers. for and identifying various species of marine life. Chemistrymeans measuring the salinity, dissolved oxygen and other properties ofseawater seawaterWater that makes up the oceans and seas. Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5% water, 2.5% salts, and small amounts of other substances. Much of the world's magnesium is recovered from seawater, as are large quantities of bromine. . Physics means studying changes in the sea floor, and howtemperature and density affect ocean currents. Physics also can spur the occasional big-city "road"trip. "Last year, we were learning about different types ofbridges," Blaisdell enthusiastically recalls, "and we got totake the boat out around Manhattan and look at the Brooklyn Bridge, theManhattan Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge and all the different bridgesaround there. That was really neat." MAST has evolved dramatically since its beginnings as a shared-timefacility for marine trades students in 1981. "Back then, it was theplace for kids who couldn't function in the regular schoolsystem," says Principal Paul Christopher. But now it is afour-year, diploma-granting high school with a highly regarded collegeprep curriculum centered on marine sciences and marine technology andengineering. (Students also are required to participate in the NavalJunior Reserve Officer Training Corps all four years.) MAST wasdesignated a New American High School and a Blue Ribbon School by theU.S. Department of Education in 1998. Three years earlier, Redbookmagazine named it one of the nation's top 20 high schools forclassroom innovation. "We've done a complete about-face," Christophersays. "And the kids have responded to it, very frankly."Admission is highly competitive, based on middle school grades,standardized test and MAST-administered writing and mathematics tests.about 250 students apply. Seventy are admitted. The average ScholasticAptitude Test score for the class of 1999 was 1184. Blaisdell's and Sullivan's postsecondary plans andemployment goals reflect the abilities and ambitions of MAST students.Blaisdell, ranked first in her class academically, is eyeing a career incivil engineering and looking at programs at various colleges. Sullivan,ranked fourth among MAST seniors, hopes to get an ROTC scholarship tothe Naval Academy and work toward a career in environmental engineering. Both students see their MAST experience as a rare opportunity tohave it all. They savor the education they're getting and theesprit de corps esprit de corpsGraduate education The degree of happiness of the 'campers' in a place they find in a smaller school. Yet the state'seducational system allows them to play sports, go to dances andparticipate in other activities at the local high schools. They acknowledge that the coursework and the logistics of attendingMAST can be demanding, but they say the payoff extends well beyond thecolleges they'll get into and the salaries they may one daycommand. Blaisdell recounts with pride how she's shared her expertisewith New Jersey and Connecticut schoolteachers and local elementaryschool students who've taken rides on MAST's boat. Sullivantalks about the toothpick toothpick,n a wood sliver used to cleanse the interdental space.toothpick, balsa wood,n a triangular wedge of balsa wood used to clean the teeth interproximally and stimulate the interdental gingival tissues. bridge he designed that held a 20-poundweight. And then, too, the school's beachfront beach��front?n.A strip of land facing or running along a beach.adj.Situated along or having direct access to a beach: beachfront hotels; beachfront property.Noun 1. setting isn't hardto take. "You're out on Sandy Hook between classes on abeautiful day," Sullivan says. "It's nice."--E.R