Best Practices Guide by AchieveTexas College & Career Initiative

A Best Practices Guide for Educators and Local Partners

Big Ideas for Building Local College and Career Initiatives ▲ ▲ ▲

Success stories from across Texas Advice from students, counselors, and local partners Tips on how to make AchieveTexas work for your district

Amarillo ESC (Education Service Page 40

What Is This Guide? T

he AchieveTexas in Action Best Practices Guide collects some of the best of what Texas educators are doing to implement AchieveTexas, the state’s college and career initiative. This booklet is organized around the eight steps featured in the AchieveTexas Implementation Guide. Using the color-coded map to the right, readers can find specific examples of Texas school districts that have implemented the eight steps. The goal of the booklet is to provide educators and other AchieveTexas stakeholders around the state with step-specific, real-world examples of what their colleagues are doing to fulfill each step by featuring perspectives from students, counselors, and community partners. The core of AchieveTexas is the 16 career clusters (see back cover) that are divided into 122 programs of study. The programs of study provide a model of the courses and extended learning opportunities that secondary students should experience in order to prepare for more education or employment in a specific career. This guide is designed to spread the word about what schools are doing in implementing AchieveTexas, so that these best practices can spread across the state.

Elizabeth Garcia (left) and Haley Shaw (right), seniors in the Denton ISD, work together on an assignment during a meeting of a 911 dispatch course offered through the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program.

El Paso ISD Page 16

Lubbock ISD Page 36 Levelland ISD Page 23

STEP 5: Build Seamless Connections Frenship ISD Page 24 Lubbock-Cooper ISD Page 6

Socorro ISD Page 33 STEP 8: Offer Professional Development Upper Rio Grande College Tech-Prep Youth Consortium Page 39

Through hands-on training, students in Copperas Cove ISD’s Health Science program get the opportunity to learn an array of skills that can be used in a variety of careers within the medical field.

CONTENTS AchieveTexas Programs of Study Page 2 Step 1: Implement AchieveTexas Page 4 Step 2: Span All Grades Page 9 Step 3: Implement TAPs Page 14 Step 4: Enhance Guidance Page 19 Step 5: Build Seamless Connections Page 24 Step 6: Establish Extended Learning Page 29 Step 7: Build Strong Partnerships Page 34 Step 8: Offer Professional Development Page 39 What Does That Mean? Page 44 AchieveTexas Resources Inside Back Cover Copyright © Notice The materials are copyrighted © and trademarked ™ as the property of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of TEA, except under the following conditions: Texas public school districts, charter schools, and Education Service Centers may reproduce and use copies of the Materials and Related Materials for the districts’ and schools’ educational use without obtaining permission from TEA. Residents of the state of Texas may reproduce and use copies of the Materials and Related Materials for individual personal use only without obtaining written permission of TEA. Any portion reproduced must be reproduced in its entirety and remain unedited, unaltered and unchanged in any way. No monetary charge can be made for the reproduced materials or any document containing them; however, a reasonable charge to cover only the cost of reproduction and distribution may be charged. Private entities or persons located in Texas that are not Texas public school districts, Texas Education Service Centers, or Texas charter schools or any entity, whether public or private, educational or non-educational, located outside the state of Texas MUSTBobtain written approval from TEA and will be required to enter into a license agreement that may involve the payment of a licensing fee or a royalty. For information contact: Office of Intellectual Property, Texas Education Agency, Room 2-186, 1701 N. Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701-1494; phone 512-463-9270 or 512-463-9713; email: copyrights@tea.state.tx.us

e Center) MAP KEY

Motley County ISD Page 41 STEP 2: Span All Grades Denton ISD Page 9

Spur ISD Page 11

STEP 7: Build Strong Partnerships Frisco ISD Page 34 Frisco ISD Page 26

Fort Worth ISD Page 20

STEP 1: Implement Achieve Texas Copperas Cove ISD Page 4 Georgetown ISD Page 43

Irving ISD Page 42

STEP 3: Implement Texas Achievement Plans Irving ISD Page 14 Duncanville ISD Page 27

Belton ISD Page 32

Dime Box ISD Page 10

Austin ISD Page 40 Smithville ISD Page 22

South Texas ISD Page 17

Developed by A3 Creative Group, LLC (www.A3CreativeGroup.com)

Katy ISD Page 30

Diboll ISD Page 12 Vidor ISD Page 38 Galena Park ISD Page 13

Hitchcock ISD Page 37

Pettus ISD Page 28

Beeville ISD Page 25

Lead Story Big Idea Student Experience Teacher Experience Counselor to Counselor Partnership Spotlight

STEP 4: Enhance Guidance Longview ISD Page 19

STEP 6: Establish Extended Learning Opportunities Temple ISD Page 29

Lake Travis ISD Page 35

East Central ISD Page 18

Hughes Springs ISD Page 5

Coppell ISD Page 7

Birdville ISD Page 31

Albany ISD Page 8

This book is made up of sections based on the eight suggested AchieveTexas implementation steps. Each step includes a lead story, big idea, and spotlights on students, counselors, and partnerships, all of which feature a Texas school district and can be identified using the color key below.

Calallen ISD Page 15

Los Fresnos ISD Page 21

Denton ISD senior Logan Callahan works on a milling machine during a meeting of “Computer Numeric Control,” one of several engineering courses available through the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program.

Programs of Study

Helping Students and Parents Plan for the Future A chieveTexas is the name of Texas’ college and career initiative. The idea behind it is simple: Planning for the future helps students achieve lifelong success. Through AchieveTexas, students have the opportunity to follow programs of study (POS). They take courses, engage in extended learning experiences, and, in effect, take control of their future. To ensure that students and parents/guardians are crafting the best plans possible, the AchieveTexas model calls for POS to be associated with one of the 16 career clusters listed on the back cover of this booklet.

Demeatrice Peters (left), a teacher at Denton ISD, examines the inside of a computer with middle school students Blake Stewart (center) and Emily Muller (right).

Programs of study are the centerpiece of the AchieveTexas counseling system. Steve Frank, Coordinator, High Schools That Work

About AchieveTexas Concept: All students can succeed in school, career, and life if they have their own individualized plans to success. Philosophy: No option is intrinsically better than the other. Whether the choice is right or not simply depends on the personal objectives of the student. Goal: To prepare students for all options after high school, including college, and to allow them to choose the postsecondary programs that are best for them. For more information: Visit www.achievetexas.org, www.techpreptexas.org, or www.careerclusters.org.

Tools for Schools Texas has created 122 programs of study models to guide students to careers within the 16 career clusters. The POS documents are available for download from www. AchieveTexas.org. They give Texas schools and districts models from which to construct individual Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) for every student. A sample POS of Information Technology is presented on the opposite page. Think of this as a “menu” from which a student can choose courses and activities to complete a high school program in that subject. There are 122 “menus” for high school studies on the AchieveTexas website. Each POS includes ideas for postsecondary studies, so that students can see where they are going after high school when they construct their TAPs. The POS forms a basis upon which each individual district can create POS documents related to a student’s interest or career goal. Although each district may have different POS for its students, parents, counselors, and teachers to use, the common thread is the link with career clusters. A school might offer four different clusters, for example, with several different POS within them.

Guidance Reform “POS are the centerpiece of the AchieveTexas counseling system,” says Steve Frank, Coordinator of High Schools That Work, a Southern Regional Education Board program designed to accelerate student achievement. “The POS, as well as the sequence of courses that come with them, represent the basis for comprehensive guidance reform in schools and districts across the state.” Frank adds, however, that the key to creating successful POS in a district or school is aligning them with actual job opportunities available in the local community. If a region boasts a large number of engineering companies, for example, schools in the area should focus some programs on the STEM cluster and create POS that reflect classes and activities that prepare students to enter education or employment in the engineering sector of the job market. “POS provide students with a tangible product that will show them why they are sitting in a particular class,” Frank says. “A student might, for example, take Advanced Placement (AP) English if they plan to go into the Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications cluster. Career planning with POS helps students make the decisions for themselves.”

Senior Brandon Teplansky (left) and senior Terilynn Cotton (right), students in the Frisco ISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center, develop their knife skills during a meeting of a culinary arts course.

How Programs of Study Work • Texas has created 122 programs of study (POS) models organized within the 16 career clusters (see back cover). They are available from the AchieveTexas website at www.achievetexas.org.

• POS include suggestions for curricular and extracurricular activities related to the students’ chosen clusters, such as joining Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs).

• Local districts and schools adapt the state POS models to create their own POS reflecting the education and employment needs in their regions.

• POS also list postsecondary options such as on-the-job training, certificates, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and graduate degrees.

• Students, parents, teachers, and counselors use the local POS as “menus” from which to pick courses and activities to be recorded on the students’ Texas Achievement Plan (TAP).

• POS and TAPs give students a clear idea of how what they are studying leads to other education and employment in the future.

• TAPs should be reviewed and updated at least annually to reflect the students’ changing interests and career goals.

• All POS models are based upon the Recommended High School Program and can be adapted for the Distinguished Achievement High School Program.

Sample Program of Study Web and Digital Media

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Step 1: Implement AchieveTexas

AchieveTexas Begins with Buy-In

Karen Denney (left), Career and Technical Education (CTE) Coordinator for Copperas Cove High School, discusses career clusters with Copperas Cove student Breeana Edwards. Denney says that AchieveTexas has helped to get students like Edwards more interested in CTE courses than they would have been in the past.

Step Synopsis AchieveTexas organizes learning around the 16 nationally recognized career clusters and programs of study, such as Manufacturing or Finance, each with choices for multiple career paths. Texas school districts choose which clusters to implement based on student and community needs. For that reason, it is essential to work with educators, employers, policymakers and other community leaders from the beginning to get a true commitment to implement AchieveTexas, make a smooth transition, and ensure students can make the most of their opportunities under the program. 44

They could see what was available to the hen Karen Denney arrived at student, what tools were available to them; Copperas Cove High School as its and if they had questions, they could see Career and Technical Education where to find the answers.” (CTE) Coordinator, she and the school’s new principal faced the seemingly Parent Education at overwhelming task of implementing Copperas Cove’s AchieveTexas College and The “Dawghouse” Now it was time to introduce the program Career initiative. As part of the process, the to incoming freshmen and their parents, town’s high school, which serves more than few of whom had any experience with the 2,000 students, was redesigned to include all concept. In the spirit of fun, Denney and her 16 career clusters bundled into six institutes colleagues distributed invitations to “Sneak of study with 37 complementary programs Peek at the Dawghouse,” an open house of study. named for the school’s sports team, the But how would the administrators get the Bulldawgs. teachers, the students, and the parents all on The open house had an excellent turnout the same page? What would be the best way in the high school cafeteria where tables were to ensure that everyone knew how to take decorated with blue and advantage of what gold balloons tied to dog seemed a CTE was always treated as an bones. Visitors ate revolutionary new afterthought, some elective you hotdogs, checked out way to view need to graduate. Now I think display tables, and had the learning? people are understanding the opportunity to chat with different approach. representatives from each Earning of its organizations. A Teachers’ Trust Karen Denney, CTE Coordinator, short slide show was Copperas Cove High School Buy-in had to begin presented that examined with the teachers— today’s changing whose enthusiasm workforce, noted the increased need for would be crucial to the program’s success. more skilled workers, and detailed why And because so much information needed today one must have education beyond high to be shared, Denney would approach it in a school to succeed. Then students and novel way. parents were set loose to visit the classrooms. “I led the workshop over the intercom, “We had student performances such as while the teachers were all in computer labs choir, theater arts, band, ROTC, volleyball, throughout the school,” Denney recalls. “I and basketball,” says Denney. “Teachers had them go to the AchieveTexas website, so they could look at the programs of study, the talked about how their courses fit into the institutes and programs of study and the implementation guide, and the student certifications students could earn. We had guides for each of the career clusters.” high school students demonstrating various Denney put teachers on Bridges, a career class activities, including experiments by the planning system, and had them create their science department, as well as welding and own accounts. She then showed them the different assessments and the four-year plan, cooking demos. Students were also sharing information about their activities like as well as how to create a course plan, how yearbook and newspaper. Students were to look up a student’s information, and how available to discuss some of the dual credit to research and compare careers side-bycourses offered at Central Texas College, side. They also compared colleges so they such as aviation and automotive. Many could see what Bridges offers. “It was very productive,” she says. “I think classrooms, such as those devoted to Project Lead The Way and art, displayed student the teachers liked it because it wasn’t just projects.” someone talking at them. It was interactive.

Small Groups Get the Message Across As the new school year approached, Copperas Cove ISD went to the two middle schools during preregistration for incoming freshmen to speak with parents and students once more—this time with even more emphasis on the new program. “One of the first things we did was ask who attended Sneak Peek at the Dawghouse, and you wouldn’t believe the number of hands that went up,” says Denney. The parents and students were divided into groups of about 25 each. Each group was led by four experts: a graduating senior who shared his or her experiences in high school and gave advice; a teacher who explained the differences between regular, pre-AP, and AP classes; a CTE representative who talked about selecting a program of study; and a counselor who spoke about the registration process, the forms, and the course guide. The idea was to allow parents and students to ask more questions than would be possible in a large cafeteria group setting. In addition, the visitors were given a guide that listed each class to be offered under each program of study. “The students were really excited,” Denney said. “Some kids were saying, ‘I already know what I want to do!’ And it was also a great time to emphasize the importance of things like good attendance.

Copperas Cove High School teacher Barbara Considine works with student Nelson Santiago on a circuit board during one of his technology courses.

Because you don’t automatically get into just any course you want. I have 25 kids who want to take one culinary course, but only 20 slots. I have to look at everything about those students—grades, attendance, etc.—to choose those who want it most.” And although some of the parents were wondering why they didn’t have this opportunity when they were in school, Denney adds that much of what the schools offer now is similar to what was offered in the past; what’s different is the program focus and additional course offerings that reflect today’s labor market demands. “CTE was always treated as an afterthought,” she says, “As just some elective you need to graduate, rather than approaching it as, ‘What do you want to pursue? Then, let’s pick some classes that would help you with that. Do you want to do a dual-credit course or take an AP course in that?’ Now I think people are understanding the different approach.” Denney’s biggest challenge now? “It’s keeping up with the changes,” she says. “Sometimes just when we get a system going, the requirements change. I have to be flexible. We do have to tell the students that when they’re creating their four-year plan and selecting a course of study, they should remember that a specific class may not be exactly the same by the time they want to take it—and that’s okay. There might actually be something better by then and our counselors are great about helping students make the best choices. Scheduling is also a challenge, especially when a course is only offered in one period and it conflicts with something else the student wants to take. This is when the student has to make tough choices, but that is a life lesson too. “For example, say a student wants to be a tattoo artist,” Denny says. “I don’t have that course, but they could go into the arts category, take drawing, and then take some business or marketing classes and maybe even a health class. We try to pull from several different areas to create something valuable for that particular person.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION Copperas Cove ISD • Copperas Cove, Texas Karen Denney, CTE Coordinator mail to: denneyk@ccisd.com, www.ccisd.com

Big Idea

In addition, families were presented with a full-color booklet outlining each institute of study, and detailing which career clusters were included in each and which general programs of study were available. It also listed possible certifications, extended learning opportunities, and career suggestions.

Each year, it’s back to school at Hughes Springs High School (HSHS) in Hughes Springs. Not just for the kids— for the parents, too. To keep moms and dads on track with their children’s career plans, HSHS offers High School 101, in which the adults learn all about today’s education system. “We noticed that parents were generally unaware of all the new opportunities available for students to earn college credits and certifications while in high school,” says HSHS Counselor Heather McGregor. “And we can explain it to the kids all day, but many can’t project that far into the future. We realized the parents have to understand the programs available so they can help establish a long-term view. We put together this workshop to show them how to help their kids plan for the future using the AchieveTexas model.” Each parent is given an overview of the school’s cluster areas and a folder with his or her child’s Texas Achievement Plan (TAP)—which can yield some surprises. “If a student has education training on his TAP, the parents can see all the available options, such as dual credit, Tech Prep, and relevant coursework,” says McGregor. “The parents enjoy looking at the TAPs. Many of them may have never seen them before—and have no idea what their child is planning for the future. It’s a great format for conversation.” 5

The Student Experience

A Distinguished Career

paperwork for you,” Hill says. “All we have to do is take the Accuplacer test at the Texas Tech University Testing Center. Then the center prints out the score and faxes it over to South Plains.” With all the work Hill does for his advanced foundation classes, you’d think he’d have no time for fun. But he also plays trumpet in the LubbockCooper band, plays on the Pirates basketball team, and serves on the student council as its community service representative. “I lead the community service section for all the community work we do at LubbockCooper,” Hill says. “If a student suggests a community service project, I do all the calls to find out if we can help. Our first project is a community blood drive for students over the age of 16 that we’ll hold here at the high school.” Over the summer, he and the other council members attended a weeklong student council workshop in San Antonio to practice leadership skills. Hill says he is also looking forward to taking more courses in the Health Science cluster, including an anatomy and physiology course he is scheduled to take during his senior year.

t 15, Robert Alexander “Alex” Hill II is going for the gold: the Distinguished Achievement High School Program diploma and a career as an orthopedic surgeon. And with the help of AchieveTexas and the dedicated staff at LubbockCooper High School, he is well on his way. Hill entered Lubbock-Cooper as a freshman the same year that AchieveTexas was implemented in the district. And one of the first things he and his fellow students were directed to was the AchieveTexas website. “It’s a great system,” he says. “It helps you set up your schedule, telling what you should take and what you could possibly take. It also tells you about extended learning opportunities, like what student organizations you could join to help Keeping an Eye on the Ball further your career. Everything it gave me, like my With all his extracurricular activities, Hill still suggested coursework and suggested extended keeps his eye on the endgame—earning his learning, is what I am currently college credits—which this doing.” year come from courses The AchieveTexas website helps He’s doing a lot. For Hill to including pre-calculus and you set up your schedule, what qualify for the Distinguished trigonometry. Keeping his you should take and what you Achievement High School eye on the bigger goal also could possibly take. It tells Program diploma, all the core means applying for the you about extended learning classes he takes must be pre-AP National Honor Society opportunities. Everything it gave or AP. Luckily, he got a head (NHS), an academic honor me is what I am currently doing. start. group, as recommended by Alex Hill, sophomore, AchieveTexas. Lubbock-Cooper High School Getting Started Early At Lubbock-Cooper, Because Hill had taken Algebra I “You apply to be inducted in middle school in another the end of sophomore year state, he was able to take advantage of his first and you have to maintain at least a 92 average in dual-credit course, Algebra II, as a freshman and all your classes, which is pretty hard,” he says. “But pick up credits with South Plains College. being in NHS shows that you were in the elite of The process of getting the credits was easier than your school, and that can help you get into a good one might think. college and eventually get you a better job. I want “If you tell your guidance counselor that you to go to Texas A&M University, and standards are want to take the test for dual credit, they do all the very high for that school.” 6

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX The 16 AchieveTexas in Action guides cover the state’s career clusters in general terms, but are not tailored to individual schools. On the AchieveTexas CD are Microsoft Word templates that can be customized to be handouts that show what programs your school specifically offers. If you don’t have or don’t want to use these documents, create handouts yourself that educate students and parents about what your school has to offer. If possible, make the handouts available online, as well as in the main office and counselors’ offices. Parents will appreciate the convenience of being able to review their student’s course choices from their computer if they lose the paper version. Visit www.AchieveTexas.org to download the handout templates or get the CD as part of the set of AchieveTexas in Action guides. AchieveTexas College and Career Planning Guides

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Counselor to Counselor

Getting the Career Ball Rolling

hen Debra Fruithandler, Lead Counselor, and her counseling staff were asked to implement AchieveTexas at Coppell High School (CHS) in the Coppell ISD in 2006, they jumped in with both feet. They took every resource the state program had to offer and embarked on a three-tier program designed to familiarize CMS’s 2,700 students with each of the 16 career clusters—and keep them on schedule through graduation. “In our student services office, we have an entire wall that displays all the AchieveTexas brochures categorized by program of study and career interest,” says Fruithandler. “Our CTE [Career and Technical Education] teachers consolidated the AchieveTexas information into a simplified pamphlet that includes all the programs of study. You would not believe the number of parents who come through the office and pick up those brochures.” Tier One Because the concept was new, CHS began by requiring incoming first-year students to take a Teen Leadership orientation class, the first tier of the program. There, each student explores career clusters, creates a four-year program of study, then writes a report and makes a presentation on his or her career direction. Career exploration is done using the AchieveTexas website, links, and materials to help narrow down career choices. “The beautiful thing about AchieveTexas is that it exposes kids to all of the programs of study in business and industry, as well as the education level required for particular careers,” says Fruithandler. “It also gives you the job outlook, the fastest-growing careers, and the top-paying careers in that program of study.”

“Our community expects a lot of one-onone counseling, so we meet with every junior student and parent for 45 minutes in a college, career, and course planning meeting,” she says. “We talk about longterm goals and how they are going to get there, including the academic and college components. We also share information and the links AchieveTexas provides as additional tools for the family.”

Today, it’s taking five years for a student to get through college. You’re talking about $100,000 at a Texas public university, and probably $200,000 at a private university. That’s a huge investment and parents want to make sure their investment is going to have payback. Debra Fruithandler, Lead Counselor, Coppell High School

Tier Three All of this career information is reinforced through the school’s CTE courses, the third implementation tier. “When you’re a teenager, your knowledge and interests are constantly evolving, so you have to tweak your plan,” Fruithandler points out. “The CTE teachers follow up with students and encourage them to keep building their portfolio of what they’ve learned and where they want to go. Every child is required to take a CTE course to graduate, so every one of them has it reinforced at that point.” Thus far, Coppell families seem pleased with the AchieveTexas initiative.

“Parents want their kids to be well prepared and informed regarding the careers they want to pursue,” says Fruithandler. “Today, it’s taking five years for a student to get through college. You’re talking about $100,000 at a Texas public university and probably $200,000 at a private university. That’s a huge investment, and parents want to know what their child is being educated for and that they are going to like what they have chosen. They want to make sure their investment is going to have payback.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX Under a career cluster system, education, business, and industry form true working partnerships focused on aligning learning with workplace skills. The problem, however, is that business and education are two very different cultures. Education is based on public services, while business is focused on profit. Education values process, while business wants results. Education often works on consensus, while business uses top-down management. You will know when your partnership with business is in trouble when the top executives stop coming to meetings and send lowerlevel staff members instead. Be aware of the need of both education and business partners to compromise and learn to bridge the gap between the two cultures.

Tier Two The second tier, says Fruithandler, takes place each spring when the counseling staff schedules private interviews at the junior level, which take a solid six weeks to complete. 7

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

It Takes a Village To Build A Career O

f the roughly 1,110 students attending Albany High School (AHS) in the Albany ISD, 190 participate in its Agriculture program, making the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources cluster an important focus for the school, teachers, and the community at large. So in 2008, when AHS wanted to enhance its Agricultural program with a fish farm management program that necessitated a stocked fishpond, the whole community pitched in. “This is a very tight community and there is an outpouring of support, whether it’s money, equipment, or time, to help these students achieve their education goals,” says Christopher Beard, AHS’s sole Agricultural Sciences Teacher.

his time to make pouring the concrete foundation affordable. The end project is a beautiful example of what is possible when the community pulls together. The pond, complete with a fountain, is surrounded by landscaping designed and planted by the students, a complete fish nursery barn, and a covered outdoor classroom with studentbuilt tables and a student-created rock and gravel walkway—all of which glows in the evening thanks to solar lighting.

Applied Experiences “We raise channel cat, bass, perch, and Help From All Directions feeder fish, and the kids weigh them every Before long, the Texas AgriLife Extension month to see how much they’ve grown,” Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife says Beard. “They test the water, judging the Association were giving advice on which pH difference between runoff water and roof tanks were needed to fill the pond and what water, seeing where lawn chemicals are going kind of system was appropriate for the sump and comparing pond water to tap water. pump, air filters, and biofilters. This year, we’ll also tag fish and see how far The National Resource Conservation they go upstream to the Service (NRCS) and a lake.” bulldozing company This is a very tight community and Beard stresses, worked for free to there is an outpouring of support, however, that the pond prepare the site. A whether it’s, money, equipment, and tanks do not benefit retired local wildlife or time, to help these students only the Agriculture biologist helped design achieve their education goals. students. Other classes the horse-shoe-shaped Christopher Beard, take advantage of the pond and a bulldozer Teacher of Agricultural Sciences, area for a change of company was hired to Albany Junior/Senior High School pace or as part of their dig it. own lesson plans; for “The county and city example, science classes use the tanks to test hauled sand and dirt for us to put around water quality or study the aquaculture our pond,” Beard says. “The oil field environment. company Synergy let us use their backhoes “Eventually, we’ll have to harvest some and Bobcats to clean areas out, and Arms fish, so we’re planning a Fish Day where we Bait Company sold us the fingerlings [young incorporate the elementary and junior high fish] for a discount price to put in our new kids and let the high school kids mentor the pond and in our four nursery tanks.” younger kids and teach them how to fish,” When Beard let it be known that the Beard says. “That way, it becomes an students also could use an outbuilding for ongoing community cycle.” raising fingerlings, a local concrete contractor stepped up to the task, donating

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step One—Implement AchieveTexas—by checking off below the efforts it is already making. ❏❏ U.S. Department of Education career cluster designations are being used. ❏❏ Cluster(s) are implemented based on student interests and career goals. ❏❏ Cluster(s) are implemented based on community input. ❏❏ Cluster(s) are implemented based on state/regional economic considerations. ❏❏ Learning is organized around career clusters, programs of study, or career fields. ❏❏ Career clusters are part of a robust college and career program. ❏❏ Necessary approvals are obtained supporting the sustained development of a local career cluster system. ❏❏ Leadership is building community commitment.

Step 2: Span All Grades

Building Career Experiences on One Another H

Denton ISD senior Sachi Barrantes dusts a wine glass for fingerprints during her Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) course. “I either want to be a CSI or a detective,” she says. “In class, we learn about the basics of being a CSI. We get to do lots of lab work and learn about the industry.”

Step Synopsis Throughout all grades, career development under the AchieveTexas model is best achieved by creating a progression of college and career preparation experiences that engage students at all grade levels. This process starts in elementary school with building a simple understanding of careers. Then, while in middle school, students should begin to explore their career opportunities. In high school, students focus on specific career goals by taking targeted courses and participating in curricular experiences as set out by the local district’s programs of study. By the time students reach postsecondary education or training, they should be making the final preparations to enter the careers they began discovering while still children in elementary school.

elping students achieve success through an integrated series of career preparation experiences spanning elementary school through postsecondary education is the main emphasis of the Denton Independent School District (ISD). “Students making good choices does not magically happen,” says Marty Thompson, Career and Technical Education Director for Denton ISD. “The key is maintaining sequential activities and programs that ‘begin with the end in mind.’ As a result of providing purposeful career planning resources, most students in Denton will have chosen their programs of study before entering high school. They are assisted in this process with the guidance of the district’s three career counselors who provide information and mentorship at every grade level.”

outreach program is “Career Days,” an event in which employees from various occupations meet face-to-face with students to introduce basic career concepts. Elementary schools in the district also orchestrate a “Career on Wheels” day, where students interact with City of Denton employees and their vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances. “This is an excellent way to partner with the City of Denton and provide ‘Real World’ experiences. We are very fortunate

Career Awareness The career awareness component process begins in elementary school and focuses on assisting students in learning more about themselves, Police officer Jason Snailer works with Denton ISD senior Gregg practicing positive interpersonal Barr during his 911 dispatch class. The course gives students like skills, understanding the world Barr a chance to explore the career by allowing them to work with the of work, and developing respect computer technology and software used by actual 911 dispatchers. for all types of work. Jeanie Bragg, Career Counselor, that our students have so many says support materials that suggest opportunities to learn about their career developmentally appropriate career choices,” says Denton Career Counselor activities are provided to each elementary Jeanie Bragg. counselor to further expand career understanding among Denton elementary Career Exploration students. Teacher resource packets are Transition points are critical to making provided to each elementary teacher and the AchieveTexas initiative span all grades. Parent Career Activity calendars are That is why it is crucial for districts to distributed to the more than 10,000 consciously plan out the process by which elementary students. students move through each level of “Teamwork is the key to this program’s education. success,” says Bragg. “The involvement of “Our programs of study start in the sixth elementary counselors, teachers, parents, grade,” says Thompson. “We want to make students, and community is the foundation sure students have as much time as possible of this initiative.” to decide on the career that is right for The district’s most impressive elementary 9

AchieveTexas Career Development Ladder Postsecondary Education or Training—Preparation High School—Concentration Middle School—Exploration Elementary School—Understanding 10

Big Idea

them. That’s why we continuously inform Career Planning students and parents of the opportunities Every entering ninth grade student available.” in Denton ISD completes an interest/ When students make the transition aptitude assessment. Using the results, from elementary to middle school, all career counselors, in conjunction with parents in the district are strongly urged to their high school guidance counselors, attend a meeting at which they watch a work with each student to develop a Texas short infomercial on career clusters and Achievement Plan (TAP) based on his/ the importance of education for their her interests or career goal. Each year children. The presenters of this the career and the high school guidance information include representatives from counselors create planned events with higher education as well as a Denton ISD activities to help students focus on their career representative, so parents and college and career plans. Additionally, students can see that advanced courses secondary and postoffer opportunities We always say, secondary educational for internships, “Is this best for students? entities are aligned. professional When you implement new When their parents are certification/ programs or add onto existing involved, students are licensures, and programs, it is so important that more likely to have a college/university you ask this question.” positive experience in credit. planning for their “All these Marty Thompson, CTE Director, Denton ISD educational future. resources, “says The district has Jeanie Bragg, implemented middle “involve bringing school classes that can help “jump-start” together various stakeholders from the the process by which students earn dual community to offer experiences at all credit later in high school. The semestergrade levels.” long courses are taken in both the seventh By the time Denton ISD students reach and eighth grades, and a shorter six-week high school, they are fully engaged with course is also offered in sixth grade. internships and other applied learning In addition, the district has a program opportunities. called “Computers4Kids,” which targets “We saturate the students with fifth-grade students from low income information,” says Thompson. “The families and provides them with a intentional sequential career planning and reconditioned computer to take home, as CTE programs of rigorous and relevant well as career guidance and training for study provide optimum opportunities for both students and parents. Additionally, developing the leaders of tomorrow.” Denton ISD reaches out to the community by providing a career summer camp for FOR MORE INFORMATION fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students. Denton ISD • Denton, Texas Any district student can attend the Marty Thompson, CTE Director weeklong camp, where they explore all mail to: mthompson2@dentonisd.org, career clusters available at Denton ISD’s www.dentonisd.org La Grone Advanced Technology Complex.

Much of what you will read in this Best Practices Guide shows the complexity of getting a range of people to work together toward a given curricular goal. Some smaller districts around Texas, however, have limited CTE staffs. For those districts, getting personnel on board to offer Career and Technical Education experiences in all grades is not quite as difficult because there are far fewer people to coordinate. That’s why when Dime Box Independent School District (ISD), a PK–12, single-campus district located east of Austin, received the AchieveTexas College and Career Redesign grant, its focus was primarily on improving the district’s technology infrastructure. “One of the key benefits of the technology,” says Dime Box Superintendent Donnie Reagan, “is that it provides research-based information in the areas of CTE.” In addition to supporting CTE courses, the new technology has helped integrate technology into the core subject areas. “Our goal was to spread technology into the academic core areas of all middle school and high school classes, both academic and Career and Technical Education,” says Reagan. To do this, the district purchased Smartboards, Elmos, and laptop computers, all of which were used in the instructional programs for teacher and student presentations. Among the technological advancements made possible by the grant to the small district was a new school-wide network server to provide support for the district’s entire technology system, something most Texas schools already had in place.

The Student Experience

Never Stop Learning

From Middle School to n the Spur ISD, making the district’s High School AchieveTexas program span all grades Middle school is a time for students to start is somewhat simplified by the fact thinking about the actual coursework they that the entire district is located in one will need to reach their career goals. Norriss building. One result: the district has was first exposed to technology courses generated strong interest in the Business at the junior high level, where she took Management and Administration (BMA) keyboarding, as well as a handful of basic cluster from young students in the district. technology applications courses. “Because our elementary school is In high school, Norriss began to move connected to the high school, I get quite a beyond the classroom, engaging in applied, few younger students who start talking to curricular learning experiences that have me early about whether or not they can help shape her general business skills. take certain courses in the BMA cluster,” During her says Spur ISD Career freshman year, Counselor Lea Howell. Being able to take business Norriss joined “They know what is courses every year was a big Business going on in high school advantage for me. The classes have Professionals of from the time they start shown me the importance of being America (BPA), a school. To them, this is able to communicate with people. Career and natural. This is normal.” I am so much more confident, Technical Student especially in front of groups. Organization in the Elementary School Kourtney Norriss, junior, BMA career cluster. One such student is Spur High School And Norriss says it Kourtney Norriss, a Spur was the High School junior who encouragement she received from her has developed her interests and skills in teachers that led her to join the business since elementary school. organization. “I’ve always been interested in that “My teacher, Ms. Ball, told us that BPA subject,” she says. “And I guess I just always would expand our skills, and give us a knew I wanted to take business classes.” chance to practice them,” Norris says. “The Under the AchieveTexas model, experience has really paid off.” elementary school is the time when Through her high school coursework, in students should begin to understand the classes such as business information patterns of work and economic activity in management, Norriss has developed the the community. One of the most popular skills she now practices outside the ways in which the district spreads the word classroom. Those include proficiency in about career clusters is “Career Days,” Microsoft Access, Excel, Word, and which are held in both elementary and PowerPoint. In fact, in her sophomore year, middle school. For those events, students Norriss competed in the Fundamental take time to research their career interests. Word Processing portion of the annual Older high school students from the district state BPA student competition. then come and speak to their younger peers “Being able to take business courses every about careers. year was a big advantage for me,” says “We want students to know about their Norriss. “The classes have shown me the career options as early as possible,” says importance of being able to communicate Howell. “And they are much more likely to with people. I am so much more confident, learn from an older student they can look especially in front of groups.” up to.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX There is an often-overlooked career guidance resource that is available in every school district, large or small, rich or poor—and that resource is students. In Texas, a particularly useful student resource is the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population. To bridge the gap between middle school and high school, involve Spanish-speaking high school students in educating younger Spanish-speaking students about the career clusters. Teachers and counselors oftentimes do not speak fluent Spanish; hearing about programs of study from older kids in their first language is sure to get elementary and middle school students excited about AchieveTexas. Also, be sure to check out the AchieveTexas Spanish guide by visiting www.achievetexas.org.

Counselor to Counselor

Helping Students Understand

mid all the talk in the state about college and career preparation under the AchieveTexas initiative, it can be hard to imagine that in many places students do not begin their career planning until well into high school. Texas counselors, however, are increasingly helping students focus on their future earlier. “In the past, particularly with freshmen, the attention and dedication to career planning by students was simply not there,” says Carol Mettlen, Career Counselor for the Diboll ISD. “They thought it was too early to think about careers. But with the help of counselors, more and more students are realizing how important early career planning is.” Mettlen says that in recent years she has begun to see a change in students’ attitudes about the need for career planning. She attributes that growth in understanding in part to the fact that more guidance resources are available to students today than there were 10 years ago. Interest Inventories One such critical resource, says Mettlen, is the interest inventories students begin taking while in middle school. Mettlen credits much of the success of career guidance in the Diboll ISD to the information that students glean from the assessments. “After being exposed to programs of study and career options, students start spending time [looking into them] on their own,” she says. “They can see how much their education will cost. And, as a result, they actually listen to us. They sign up for what we counselors suggest. I didn’t have one student say ‘no’ this year.” Communication is Key Kevin Swor, Diboll’s Career and Technical Education Director, says that establishing a strong focus on career planning through the AchieveTexas initiative is also improving attendance and graduation rates in Diboll ISD. “We are in the infancy stages of the program in terms of making big changes for attendance in the district,” says Swor. Students in Montwood High School’s Culinary Arts Program have an opportunity “But it’s clear that students are buying into their future. They are to gain hands-on kitchen experience thanks to the school’s partnership with the El Paso-based Upper Rio Grande College Tech-Prep Youth Consortium, which serves seeing what school is all about, and what is in it for them.” several districts in West Texas. Swor credits the addition of Mettlen as a Career Counselor with having a big effect on student achievement in the district. Mettlen’s position, designed to serve 480 students, was created after Diboll received the AchieveTexas grant two years ago, although the majority of the grant money After being exposed to programs of study and was used to grow the school’s Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources cluster. career options, students start spending time Like many career counselors, Mettlen manages tasks that exist outside the [looking into them] on their own. They can see counseling realm, such as coordinating testing for the district. Mettlen says, how much their education will cost. And, as a however, that managing the heavy workload is possible through result, they actually listen to us. They sign up for communication. what we counselors suggest. I didn’t have one “Communication is key, no matter if it is positive, negative, or indifferent,” student say “no” this year. she observes. “Transparency brings that realism to the planning process. To be Carol Mettlen, Career Counselor, successful, you have to be able to bounce ideas off other educators and Diboll ISD community members. That’s how to grow a program.” 12

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Engineering Education

nder the guidance of experienced professionals, future engineers are starting on the route to becoming high-tech professionals in the Galena Park ISD in Houston. Their success is partly due to a strong partnership the district has fostered with General Electric (GE). The partnership offers students enrolled in the school’s Project Lead The Way (PLTW) high school engineering program unprecedented access to some of the area’s leading engineers.

students, most often on robotics projects. When school lets out, students, teachers, and engineers fill the classrooms to engage in an ongoing dialogue that is “different from any other relationship I have ever seen. Both the district and the business are so committed,” says Galena Park Engineering Instructor David Scarcella, who estimates that as many as 20 hours of work are put in by the volunteers each day when students are preparing robots for competition. “No one lets the ball drop.”

Building Blocks Hands-On Assistance Although the interaction with GE engineers GE, financially supports the district’s expands students’ engineering skills by leaps robotics program. The company donated and bounds, Scarcella $10,000 in the first year of notes that there are the program and $20,000 in Students build their skills several building blocks the second year. throughout the education in the early grades that Galena Park PLTW process. That is why this bring a student to the instructors will tell you, partnership with GE and point where those skills however, that it is the handsPLTW is so special. can be properly put to on assistance that GE The engineers help the use. provides that really makes students figure out problems “Students build their the partnership soar. Each using skills they’ve learned skills throughout the day, five to eight engineers— throughout their years of entire education including mechanical, education. process,” says Scarcella. structural, programming, David Scarcella, “That’s why this and design engineers—meet Engineering Instructor, partnership with GE and at the school to work handGalena Park ISD PLTW is so special. The in-hand with engineering engineers help the students figure out problems using skills they’ve learned throughout their years of education.” Galena Park’s effort to recruit students into the district’s PLTW program begins in the eighth grade, when students first begin developing their Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) using the Bridges software. From there, PLTW engineering instructors such as Paul Johnson begin encouraging students to go into the program. “When our kids see the AchieveTexas programs of study, they grasp what is available to them in the district,” says Johnson. “And we think what we offer here Students in Galena Park ISD’s engineering program get is pretty special.” the opportunity to work on a daily basis with engineers from General Electric (GE) thanks to a partnership the district has established with the company. Here, students work with a GE engineer on a robotics project.

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step 2—Span All Grades—by checking off below the efforts it is already making. ❏❏ Elementary school students understand work and jobs. ❏❏ Middle school students conduct career explorations. ❏❏ High school students select secondary and postsecondary studies with consideration to personal career goals. ❏❏ Postsecondary and secondary school plans are reviewed annually. ❏❏ Postsecondary options and career preparation are pursued. ❏❏ Lifelong learning attitudes are developed.

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX To maximize the college and career preparation process, there are key points in the K–12 experience at which students must be transitioned to a new phase of career planning. This means that college and career planning resources must be delivered in an age-appropriate, logical order, one that recognizes the students’ readiness to understand the information presented. Students should not, for example, begin using career information software such as Kuder in eighth grade if they have not already been exposed to the concept of career clusters and programs of study.

Step 3: Implement Texas Achievement Plans

Making a Plan

Junior Elisabeth Pavia (far left) talks with Nimitz High School Counselors Patty Sisco, Angela Warr, and Gay Nell Rippel (left to right). Sisco says many students like Pavia have shown increased awareness about the relationship between their Career and Technical Education (CTE) coursework and future career plans.

Step Synopsis Every high school student needs a plan for college and career. That’s why Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) and programs of study are pillars of AchieveTexas. Students who begin their initial career exploration during four-years of college are doing it in the most expensive way possible. The chief goal of the Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) is for every student to choose a cluster program of study and adjust it as he or she changes direction as a result of career exploration experiences promoted through AchieveTexas.

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says Patty Sisco, Lead Counselor for hen the leadership of Nimitz High Nimitz High, located in the technologySchool realized that students savvy Irving Independent School District were failing to take advantage (ISD). “But AchieveTexas provides a of the school’s elective classes, they structure that tells students where they decided to take action. The goal? Make are going from the beginning. Today’s the curriculum more relevant and show students understand, more than ever, that students how the skills they learn today you build on your education over time.” can be carried with them throughout their careers. Introduce Programs of The solution? AchieveTexas. Study Early Through AchieveTexas, counselors and To engage students early, Nimitz teachers in the school say they have counselors meet with middle school managed to heighten student and parent students each year through a one-on-one awareness of the importance of the career exploration exercise held during school’s Career and Technical Education the spring semester. At curriculum. As a that time, the counselors result, more and The biggest question introduce students to more Nimitz programs of study by students are gaining we have from kids is, having them take the ACT’s the skills and ‘Where do I start? (formerly known as The certifications they American College Testing need to earn wellPatty Sisco, Lead Counselor, Program, Inc.) careerpaying jobs after Nimitz High School focused EXPLORE® test, school. A key to that which covers English, math, success has been to reading, and science. The goal of the test have students plan for their futures, the is to show students their strengths and goal of Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) weaknesses in each subject. and programs of study. “The biggest question we have from “Previously, kids didn’t start thinking kids is, ‘Where do I start?’ ” says Sisco. about what they wanted to do for a living “Our programs of study have made that until they were well into high school,”

Nimitz High School teachers Pam Polk (second from left) and Cyndi Brown (far right) help juniors Maricela Varela (far left) and Ryan Walker (second from right) practice bandaging a dog’s leg injury.

Engaging Students Is Critical The development of programs of study, says Sisco, is highly dependent on the engagement of students. That’s why Sisco and her team of counselors use the Internet as a way for students to learn more about their career choices. “One of the best tools that we have is the Web,” Sisco says. “There are all kinds of career-focused websites out there that can help kids firm up their plans.” Because academic and career training courses are much better integrated under TAPs, Sisco says students have a sense of purpose in their Career and Technical

Eduction courses, along with which comes confidence and enthusiasm for the curriculum. “This is not the old woodshop class,” she says. “There must be a purpose to what they are doing.” Professional Development Internally, Sisco says the key to success is in maintaining enthusiasm for curriculum development among the school’s staff. At Nimitz, this is done through an array of professional development opportunities for counselors. “Your Career and Technical Education coordinator has to keep counselors up to date,” says Sisco, who is in her 25th year of counseling. “These days, counselors really do not have a choice. We have to stay up with trends in the workforce in order to be able to advise kids properly on where they are going.” Nimitz counselors also stay current on the latest college requirements in a given field. At the same time, the counselors are constantly keeping their eyes on developing new and relevant skills; in turn, they are ensuring the school produces college and career-ready graduates.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Irving ISD • Irving, Texas Shawn Blessing, CTE Director mail to: sblessing@irvingisd.net, www.irvingisd.net

How to Help Students Select Programs of Study •

In middle school, introduce students to career clusters and programs of study through a career assessment test, such as ACT’s EXPLORE® test.

•

When students register, have them select career interests based on what they learned about themselves in the EXPLORE® Test.

•

Have students complete a Texas Achievement Plan (TAP) based upon a chosen program of study in high school.

•

I n 9th grade, get students started on their TAPs by enrolling them in career courses related to their choices.

Big Idea

question much easier to answer. Once the kids are in programs of study, we no longer have to work to encourage them to take courses. They know exactly where to go next.” Then, while registering for high school courses, students are asked to pick a program of study they are interested in based on what they have learned about themselves through the EXPLORE® test. During ninth grade, Nimitz students begin taking courses related to their selected career interests. The purpose of TAPs are to give students a way to document their decisions. “As soon as they are registered, students have a path,” Sisco says. “That’s what AchieveTexas did for us. It created pathways and a sequence of courses that lets students know exactly what they need to do to pursue their career interests.”

For the last seven years, Lloydina Elliot has overseen the Health Science program at Calallen High School in the Calallen Independent School District in Calallen. And though the program started off small, Elliot says she has cultivated system-wide buy-in for Health Science by spreading the word constantly about its benefits. “I will talk to anybody, anywhere, any time about my program,” says Elliot. “And whenever possible, I bring my students with me. My kids are the best advertisement for my program. They truly make it grow.” Each year, Elliot and a handful of Calallen Health Science students pay a visit to Calallen Middle School. Dressed in medical scrubs and adorned with telescopes and blood pressure pumps, the Health Science students teach the middle school students a range of basic medical skills, including everything from how to take vital signs to the proper way to wash your hands. “Peer influence is so important to getting kids interested and excited about a curriculum,” says Elliot of the district’s Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs). “Middle school students realize, ‘If they [high school students] can do it, I can do it.’” Elliot credits the annual presentations with growing the program, which now boasts two full-time Health Science teachers that instruct more than 100 students in multiple subject areas at any given time. “We went from about a dozen students to dozens of students,” Elliot says. “We’ve grown like Johnson grass.”

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The Student Experience

Putting Planning into Action

Ruben Ramirez (second from left), a teacher in El Paso ISD’s Diesel Mechanics Program, helps El Paso student Antoinette McRae (far right) learn how to properly hold a blow torch.

any Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum directors will tell you that strong visibility gives CTE programs a chance to not only earn the support of the community, but also show off the value of implementing Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs). “The more students, teachers, parents, and stakeholders that know about the sequence of courses, the better,” says El Paso ISD Principal and CTE Coordinator Eric J. Winkelman. Through the El Paso Center for Career and Technology Education (CCTE), the district currently implements four-year-plans for many of the students in the district’s 13 high schools. The available programs are developed based on interest inventories taken while students are in middle school. Getting the Word Out “We don’t always have a chance to get oneon-one with them,” explains Winkelman. “That is why we try hard to make sure that everyone understands the sequence of courses we offer.” In an effort to advertise the program, the school’s counselors began performing in-class presentations on the CCTE a couple of years ago. Chris Allan, a 2008 Andress High School 16

graduate, first saw one of those TAP, which is in development using the presentations in his junior English class. Career Cruising software, a suite of online And for Allan, it was a revelation. career guidance and planning tools. “Career tech classes just seemed like a Centered around the El Paso ISD’s “College whole other part of town,” he says. “But the and Career Readiness Plan,” the software presentation made me realize I could will allow 8th graders to log in and choose develop my Web design skills right here in their programs of study, as well as help them see what every campus within the high school. I am so grateful the career district offers. center counselors “They were just reached out to me.” I am knee-deep in CTE. starting to work on all of Allan says the And what I have noticed is this when I was in stigma around taking that everyone’s orientation school,” Allan says. He CTE was partly to is changing. Students are says he can already see blame for his lack of approaching their career choices the benefits by watching awareness of what with more and more confidence. his younger peers go the center offered in Chris Allan, 2008 graduate of through school with terms of career Andress High School in El Paso more confidence in their preparation. career choice. “I am “When I was in knee-deep in CTE. And what I have high school, a lot of people thought CTE noticed is that everyone’s orientation is was for students who were not planning to changing. Students are approaching their go to college,” Allan says. “But I knew I was career choices with more and more going to college. I just saw the CTE classes confidence.” as a chance to improve my computer programming skills.” Among the classes Allan took during his two years at the CCTE were several computer-based courses. Allan also received CompTIA’s A+ Certification, which he got through his hardware and software class. Now certified to troubleshoot pretty much any basic computer Along the way to developing career issue, Allan graduated from high school in portfolios, students often come to realize 2009 ready for the workforce. that they are not suited for their first Thanks to his positive experience in the program of study choice. When this El Paso career center, Allan was able to earn happens, it is important for teachers, an internship working for an El Paso-based counselors, parents, and guardians web development company, which he to embrace that realization. Learning describes as his “own personal adventure that a career is wrong is as valuable into Web design and programming.” for a student as discovering one that

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX

Coming Full Circle Today, those experiences have brought Allan full circle. When the 18-year-old is not taking core area courses at El Paso Community College, he is busy working part-time writing software for the El Paso ISD. In particular, Allan is writing the programming for the district’s four-year

is right. It is better, for example, that a student who wants to be a nurse learns he or she cannot stand the sight of blood in high school rather than waiting until his or her junior year of college. For this reason, each student’s Texas Achievement Plan (TAP) should be reviewed at least once a year.

Counselor to Counselor

Curriculum and Counseling Go Hand-in-Hand A

first glance as though SciTech has already reached t the Science Academy of South Texas the summit. Aranda says that the key to SciTech’s (SciTech), Career and Technical Education success, however, is the realization on the part of (CTE) counselors are always thinking ahead. the staff that there in fact is no summit. At “The number one thing I have learned about SciTech, the curriculum is revamped every couple curriculum development as principal of SciTech of years to meet industry needs. is that you basically always have to be thinking forward,” says Michael Aranda, Principal of The Constant Dialogue Science Academy of South Texas. “Stagnation is To avoid further stagnation, Aranda engages his the worst enemy for a successful school.” team of seven PLTW teachers Remotely located in in a constant dialogue about the Mercedes in the southern Rio At SciTech, we have an curriculum. Just simply asking Grande Valley, close to the aggressive curriculum, for the input of teachers and United States/Mexican border, not a passive one. counselors, says Aranda, can build the primary focus of the That’s why our kids are enormous enthusiasm around magnet school is on methodical and analytical curriculum development. developing programs of study problem solvers. “I encourage all principals to (POS) in the Science, Michael Aranda, Principal, seek the approval of their staffs,” Technology, Engineering and The Science Academy he says. “They are the ones in the Mathematics (STEM) cluster. of South Texas trenches. They are the ones that can make the school shine.” Aggressive Curriculum Each year, his teachers also participate in In recent years, that focus has been maintained extensive PLTW training. As a result, five of the through the national Project Lead The Way seven teachers at SciTech have earned the title of (PLTW) curriculum—a series of courses that “Master Teacher” for the program, meaning they prepare students for rigorous college engineering qualify to train other instructors. programs and gives them practical experience Curriculum, says Aranda, can only grow out of working on real world projects. PLTW, which has culture. At SciTech, the culture that surrounds the been at the school since 2003, offers what Aranda PLTW curriculum has been nurtured for years. calls an “exciting and enticing curriculum. Aranda maintains, however, that the key to “At SciTech, we have an aggressive curriculum, maintaining support for the program lies in the not a passive one,” Aranda says. “That’s why our school’s willingness to constantly assess student kids are methodical and analytical problem progress. solvers.” Recently ranked as one of “America’s Best High Schools” by Newsweek magazine, it may seem at

Students at the Science Academy of South Texas (Sci Tech) get the opportunity to experience hands-on learning on a regular basis.

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX One of the biggest challenges of creating programs of study for students to follow is to realign them to reflect changing business and industry needs. Teachers and counselors should drive the development of programs of study by continually thinking ahead to ensure they reflect the realities of the workplace. By constantly evolving programs of study, teachers and counselors can better connect the dots between classroom learning and high-skill, high-wage, or highdemand careers.

At the Science Academy of South Texas (Sci Tech), an aggressive engineering curriculum helps keep students engaged throughout the learning process.

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Community Hospitality

hour at the hotel at a time. During that hen East Central ISD in San Antonio hour, the students rotate through the received an AchieveTexas College Self-Assessment Checklist hotel’s various departments, including the and Career Redesign grant in front desk, hotel restaurant, human 2007, the hope was to generate enough Measure how well your school or resources, and housekeeping. interest from students to get the school’s district is implementing Step 3— Hospitality program going again. And boy Implement Texas Achievement Plans— Pride and Professionalism did it work. by checking off the items it is doing. During the hospitality services course, By implementing Texas Achievement as well as through the applied skills Plans (TAPs), the district has been able to ❏❏ Education/training goals are developed in job shadowing partnerships grow the program exponentially. One specified in student Texas like the one with El Tropicano, students important key to success, says East Central Achievement Plans (TAPs) and are get an opportunity to CTE Director Taffi Hertz, is compatible with high school course cater district events, community partnerships. Community partnerships have selections. including monthly “Community lead directly to growth in our teacher luncheons, ❏❏ Career choices are specified in partnerships have lead CTE curriculum. Christmas dinners, and TAPs and are compatible with high directly to growth in our Taffi Hertz, CTE Director, school board dinners. school course selection. CTE curriculum,” says East Central ISD “I really noticed that Hertz. “If not for ❏❏ State developed programs of the kids had a lot of partnerships, we may have study models are used to assist pride in what they were doing,” Hertz says had a difficult time convincing people to educators, students, and parents. of the catering events. “They were very invest in this program. Now we have that ❏❏ Postsecondary and secondary plans professional. You could tell they had support. And as a result, our students are are reviewed annually. practiced.” constantly engaging in hands-on learning While the community has enhanced the experiences.” ❏❏ Postsecondary career preparation student experience in the East Central ISD, is addressed. Hertz says it’s the district’s teachers that Job Shadowing ❏❏ Lifelong learning attitudes are have done the bulk of the legwork to get The district is currently in the process of developed. such partnerships going, working with building a new high school that will be ❏❏ Strong extended learning industry partners on a weekly, and outfitted with a large Culinary Arts Center experiences are part of the school’s sometimes daily basis. through which the school plans to expand programs of study and students’ “Teachers must have initiative,” she says. the Hospitality program even further. One TAPs. “But I also think it helps tremendously if focus of the center will be to create handsthey are familiar with the industry and have on, applied learning opportunities. ❏❏ Portfolios showcase student recent work experience. Of course, we have As a result of community support, the learning and interests. to make sure they can work with the kids district has also managed to create a first, but it’s so much easier to work with number of successful job shadowing students if teachers are willing to go out partnerships with the local business there and meet industry partners to make community, the largest of which is with the partnerships happen.” El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel in downtown San Antonio. Connected to the curriculum’s hospitality services course, the partnership gives East Central students a chance to learn various aspects of the hospitality and Using the learning acquired during career awareness activities in elementary school and career tourism industry that is so vital to the area’s exploration activities in middle school, each 8th grade student in Texas will create a Texas economy. Achievement Plan (TAP) that includes a high school program of study, a postsecondary education or Students visit El Tropicana twice a week training goal, and a career choice. The key to developing an individual TAP that serves the student’s during a two-period block in the middle of goal is to be sure that several stakeholders are providing guidance, including parents/guardians, the school day, spending a little over an counselors, and teachers.

CLOSER EX EXAMINATION

Step 4: Enhance Guidance

Transforming the Career Planning Process E nhancing career and college guidance for all students is a pillar of AchieveTexas. In the Longview Independent School District (ISD), the ability to execute enhanced guidance has the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center, which accommodates 1,800 students, sending graduates into the area’s strong manufacturing industry. “We’ve made guidance a school- and district wide responsibility,” says Debby Deck, Director of the district’s CTE center. “And it has transformed the career planning process in Longview.”

Debby Deck, Director of Longview ISD’s Career and Technical Education Center, discusses Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) with Longview student Daylon Saldana in one of the center’s computer labs.

Step Synopsis As students experience college and career preparation activities in K–12 education, they need accurate information and advice from caring and committed adults. With AchieveTexas, guidance professionals such as school counselors play a key role in dramatically expanding the quantity and quality of resources available to students, such as information about what new career opportunities are emerging.

Getting Started Part of enhancing guidance, says Deck, is to allow students a chance to be exposed to the industries that are important to their community. In Longview, that goal was reached by involving local manufacturing companies in the CTE planning process. To spur this process along, John Stroud, president of the Longview Economic Development Corporation, brought in CTE expert William Daggett to speak with Longview schools and local companies about how the community can work together to build CTE programs. As a result of this initial presentation, local manufacturing companies have become active participants in the district’s CTE program, regularly making presentations, producing brochures, giving tours of their facilities, and participating on the district’s CTE advisory committee. Involving Teachers While community involvement is critical, Deck says that the key to enhancing guidance is to bring teachers to the forefront of the guidance process. “All of our CTE teachers are constantly talking to the students about what their future holds,” Deck says. “We want them to see their future

and recognize the courses that will help them reach their career goals.” To enable students to better recognize the relationship between coursework and career planning, Deck requires all the CTE teachers in the school to find an academic teacher to work with on at least one project. “We would like to hear a student say, ‘I am in AP biology and health science technology because I want to be a nurse or a doctor,’” says Deck. “We want the students to know why they are taking a course. And teachers are in the best position to help them make the connection.” In addition to aiding student in relating classroom learning to the real world, teachers, Deck observes, are in a position to motivate students to stay on schedule in school. Teachers spend the most time with students one-on-one, in the students’ natural learning environment. Longview CTE teachers also help update the students’ Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) each year. Deck says the process helps improve guidance by connecting students with career planning resources. “Involving teachers with TAPs gives them the opportunity to talk with all the students in their classes about the students’ goals and career choices,” says Deck, noting that teachers will actually send students to talk with other CTE teachers if their interests are in areas other than

Longview ISD students like Connor Scott Thomas, have access to computer animation software programs thanks to the district’s well-equipped computer labs, one of many hands-on learning experiences available in the district.

Let Counselors Counsel Most districts in Texas, including Longview ISD, have struggled to make more time for school counselors to engage in faceto-face interactions with students. As a result, the principle of “letting counselors counsel,” while still a top priority in theory, often becomes quite difficult to accommodate in reality. In Longview, the district has combated the problem by adding several new counselors over the past three years. In addition to a 9th grade Empowered students see their counselor, freshmen future and take the courses now have access to a needed to reach their goals. separate career This makes guidance and counselor through The counseling much easier and Freshman Initiative, more direct. the school’s freshman transition course. Debby Deck, Director, Longview Specialty counselors ISD Career & Technical Center were also brought in for CTE and Special Education students to help lighten the load of academic counselors. And the school even has a counselor to help at-risk students stay in school. Finally, the district has added a dean of students, whose role is designed to help support counselors and increase dual-credit enrollment. All of these changes, says Deck, add up to more time for counselors to focus on the core of their jobs, helping each student plan his or her college and career plan. Start Early and Stay Involved Deck says the key to enhancing guidance in Longview has been, “starting early and staying involved.” She says students need to be actively involved in updating and changing their TAPs each year of high school and should refine their specific goals based on their everchanging interests. Longview CTE teachers, as well as a CTE counselor who was hired during the 2008–2009 school year, meet with students each year to reassess the students’ career plans, and the young people are encouraged to regularly retake an online interest inventory, especially if they are not certain of their chosen careers. This exercise, says Deck, empowers her students. “Empowered students see their future and take the courses needed to reach their goals,” says Deck. “This makes guidance and counseling much easier and more direct. Students see that they need AP English if they want to major in audio/video production because strong English skills are FOR MORE INFORMATION needed in that field. Longview ISD • Longview, Texas Debby Deck, Director, Students become leaders Longview ISD Career & Technical Center in the career clusters in mail to: debbydeck@lisd.org, which they feel their www.lisd.org future lies.” 20

Big Idea

their own disciplines, thereby adding to the list of caring and committed adults available to counsel students on the career planning process.

As interim Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director of the Fort Worth ISD, Sue Guthrie is determined to bring programs of study to all schools in her district. To reach this goal, Guthrie crafted a simple to-do list. First on the list? Getting organized. In 2009, Guthrie and her team have been working to link all the elective courses available in the district to career clusters. “Our district set the goal early-on of moving all of our electives under career clusters,” Guthrie says. “It was an important first step.” Closely linked, says Guthrie, is the second step: connecting non-elective courses to career clusters. Core classes such as math and English must also be linked to CTE courses. In 2008, the district started a summer program called “Math and CTE.” Through the program, the district engages math and CTE teachers in a weeklong course in which they work together to develop their knowledge of one another’s disciplines. The end goal of the training exercise is to make students’ classroom experiences more relevant by tying together core academic and CTE classes. “This is not to say that CTE teachers are going to be teaching algebra,” says Guthrie. We need to be able to avoid contradiction. In that sense, we are not so much changing the curriculum as we are changing the language. We just want to make sure we are all speaking the same language.” A third critical step, says Guthrie, is to empower students in the area of career planning, through enhanced guidance. “If students are more closely connected to careers, they are going to be more interested in all their academic processes,” she says. “Plus, they can see the payoff in the long run because their classroom experiences have meaning and relevance.” Each school will choose three or four major career clusters and then students can customize their programs of study. The idea is that students are more likely to be enrolled in programs of study that interest them, thereby getting a solid starting point for creating their Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs). As part of enhanced guidance in Fort Worth, students are introduced to career clusters in middle school, when they take two courses on career planning, one of which helps students design a plan by matching their interests with career clusters. Then, when they get to high school, students utilize KUDER, a widely used career and education assessment software program, to craft a 4-year plan. “We actually give them a software form into which they put their courses,” says Guthrie. “They are designing their own plans.”

The Student Experience

Making an Impact

ayra Alanis, a junior at Los Fresnos High School in the Los Fresnos ISD, saw how enhanced guidance played out in her 9th grade Career and Technical Education (CTE) class during the first semester of her first year. The class was medical terminology, and Alanis says it changed her career plans. “That class really would define the rest of my high school career,” says Alanis, who is one of roughly 800 of the high school’s 2,500 students that attend the district’s career academy. “I had an idea going into high school that I wanted to work in the medical profession. But after taking that class, I was sure that [the medical profession] was where I wanted to go in my career.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX One major career planning task with which a guidance counselor can help students is the issue of earning college credit. If your school has articulation agreements, it is important that your guidance counselors help make sure young people know to ask for their earned college credit when they get to the postsecondary institution. Meanwhile, if your school has dual-credit opportunities, guidance counselors should make sure students are enrolling in the courses that can help them reach their career goals more quickly.

Career Confidence Thanks to the course, and the encouragement of her instructor, Alanis says she now has the confidence to take the necessary steps to earn a job in the medical field. “I was really shy when I first enrolled in CTE courses,” Alanis says. “But my teacher recognized how much I cared about the medical field. She provided the guidance I needed to take more classes and to get involved in any way that I could. Ever since then, I have been having a lot of fun and learning so much.” Her experience, says Alanis, is far from uncommon. In fact, she says that teachers in the district played a key role in the career guidance process from start to finish. “Our teachers actually encourage us when they know we are interested in something,” Alanis says. “They approach us because all the teachers recruit to bring more and more students into their classes.”

Important Decisions Alanis was first exposed to her career options at an elective courses fair held at her middle school during her eighth grade year. There, she heard a group of high school students speak about the school’s Health Science courses. Because her brother had taken the same courses, Alanis was somewhat familiar with the program. It wasn’t until she began learning from her older peers, however, that she realized just how much the high school had to offer. “As an eighth grader, it was eye opening for me,” Alanis says. “I never realized I’d have so many classes to choose from.” Although she focuses on medical courses, Alanis strives to take at least one technology course a year. In fact, counselors at Los Fresnos encourage all students to take as many technology courses as they can. “Technology is really important,” she says. “Our entire future is going to be based on technology.” Classes such as principles of business, marketing, and finance, says Alanis, have helped supplement the knowledge she developed in her core academic and Health Science classes.

I was really shy when I first enrolled in CTE courses. But my teacher recognized how much I cared about the medical field. She provided the guidance I needed to take more classes and to get involved in any way that I could. Ever since then I have been having a lot of fun and learning so much. Sayra Alanis, junior, Los Fresnos High School Upon graduation, Alanis would like to attend Rice University in Houston, where she plans to pursue a Pre-medicine major before going on to school for Dentistry, a plan that all started with one CTE course in her freshman year.

Counselor to Counselor

Steps to Success

hile working as a Guidance Counselor at Smithville High School in the Smithville ISD for the last nine years, Troy Alonzo Enis has seen student awareness about the need for career planning grow and grow. “This year’s ninth grade is much more in tune with developing a sequence of courses,” Enis says. “They almost demand it.” The real change, says Enis, came when the district first heard about AchieveTexas a few years back. Since that time, according to Enis, a culture has developed around the need to provide students with curriculum that is relevant to their career interests and to take them through the steps to success. “AchieveTexas has changed the way we deliver guidance,” Enis says. “Having a defined career goal motivates students, especially in their junior and senior years. They know which [classes] they need to take because they recognize career planning as a continuous process.” Start With Career Clusters The foundation of the process, says Enis, is the career clusters. Smithville’s clusters, which education leaders established using interest inventories conducted by the district’s central office are Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources; Arts, A/V Technology & Communications; Business Management & Administration; and Education & Training. When students are looking at careers, they are, in many ways, making academic decisions Troy Alonzo Enis, Guidance Counselor, Smithville High School With those career clusters in place, Enis says counselors are freed up to do what they do best: counsel. And whereas many Texas counselors will tell you that they are burdened with duties at school that do not involve advising students,

Enis says that at Smithville High, he has the benefit of a low student-to-counselor ratio. The small school has about 540 students and two counselors. That puts the two Smithville counselors safely below the AchieveTexas– recommended 300 students per counselor. As a result, Enis is able to meet with his students between 10 and 15 times a year, on average. Careers and Academics “I had to set up a sign-up sheet because so many students were asking to come in,” says Enis. “We really get to know one another.” At Smithville, the students are simply divided between the two counselors by the first letter of their last names, and the counselors handle both career and academic counseling. “It has been really positive to be able to work on both the career and academic sides,” says Enis. “When students are looking at careers, they are, in many ways, making academic decisions. Likewise, everything we do in terms of academic guidance has to do with the careers in which they are interested. “We are constantly trying to make high school relevant to students on a personal level.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX Articulation agreements are notoriously difficult to negotiate among different secondary and postsecondary institutions, each with its own standards, interests, and pressures. Yet one of the principles of AchieveTexas is to make it easy for students to identify and follow seamless paths through school and into professions. Everyone involved in articulation negotiations must compromise to keep the interests of students at the forefront of discussions, as well as look for winwin situations for all the institutions.

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Guiding Partnerships

f the nine career clusters featured in Levelland High School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program, the most prominent has always been Business Management and Administration (BMA). So, when Levelland CTE Liaison Juanice Tyson and other career education leaders in the district began the process of pursuing a $50,000 AchieveTexas College and Career Redesign grant in 2007, it was no surprise that the plan would be for the money to go primarily to strengthen the partnerships in the school’s Business program.

which a person finances a vehicle. “A lot of our students like Levelland and want to stay here,” says Tyson. “That’s why we picked these businesses, because they are major employers in our community.”

Combining with Colleges Tyson adds that combining these experiences with dual-credit agreements with local colleges has been key. “With career planning, you need a place where students can go for continuing education,” Tyson says. “That is why your partnership should include not only Business Gets Involved businesses, but also community colleges During the 2007–2008 school year, and universities.” Levelland High partnered with two And although co-curricular learning significant local businesses: AimBank and experiences help enhance Smith South Plains, a students’ academic major auto dealership With career planning, you need experiences, Tyson says in the town and a big a place where students can go that it was the teachers employer for the for continuing education. That themselves who were the community. is why your partnership should driving force behind the Each partnership, include not only businesses, creation of the says Tyson, has given but also community colleges partnerships. students a chance to and universities. “When we decided to develop business skills, go after the AchieveTexas thereby enhancing the Juanice Tyson, CTE Liaison, Levelland ISD grant, specifically for our offerings in Levelland Business program, the first High’s business place we went was to our business coursework. teachers,” she says. “First of all, the experiences help to create an attitude more conducive to learning in Partner With Business the classroom,” Tyson says. “Knowing how From there, Levelland ISD Director to act properly in public affects the way you of Instructional Services Jerry Beard learn,” she says. “We make sure our approached the business community students learn respect.” directly about the grant. The first step was to partner with the businesses as Choosing Clusters That consultants on how the grant money could Fit Your Community best be used to partner with the Levelland While the BMA cluster is most prevalent business community as a whole. in Levelland, the Finance cluster also “We wanted to make sure businesses benefits greatly from the district’s strongest were giving us their true thoughts,” Tyson partnerships. The partnership with says. Transparency, she says, fits well with AimBank, for example, gives students a the school’s overall plan of fostering chance to be surrounded by a day-to-day goodwill in the community. “We needed to business environment that in many ways hear the positives and the negatives so that reflects that of a finance-centered business. we could offer the program that would best Meanwhile, students that participate in prepare our students for entering the local the Smith South Plains job shadowing workforce.” experience are exposed to the process by

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step Four—Enhance Guidance—by checking off below the efforts it is already making. ❏❏ Credit options exist that enable students to take part in advanced placement, advanced technical credit, or dual-credit courses. ❏❏ Students succeed in innovative programs that allow them to earn college credits in high school (e.g., the Early College High School program). ❏❏ Articulation agreements are coordinated and aligned that support student acquisition of credits. ❏❏ Assessments that support the progressive acquisition of knowledge and skills by students are coordinated and aligned. ❏❏ Curriculum is coordinated and aligned in order to produce curricula. ❏❏ K–12 curricula are meaningfully progressive and cumulative for individual student learning. ❏❏ Academic subjects are integrated with career education. ❏❏ Interdisciplinary, problem/project– based instruction supports student learning. ❏❏ The student-to-counselor ratio should ideally be 300 students for each counselor.

Step 5: Build Seamless Connections

Connecting the Dots Between Learning and Living C

Frenship ISD Career and Technical Education (CTE) Coordinator Cindy Miller and her team of counselors and teachers have worked hard to ensure that students have a chance not only to graduate, but to pursue postsecondary education and training as well.

Step Synopsis A basic principle of AchieveTexas is to create a seamless educational experience, one that carries students from elementary school to high school, to postsecondary opportunities, and into the work force. This process depends on careful coordination between institutions to ensure alignment and articulation of curricula, instruction, and assessment. This process should incorporate opportunities for earning certifications that coordinate with students’ career goals. It should allow students to earn college credits while still in high school, whether that be through dual credit, advanced technical credit, or articulation agreements with colleges that ensure easy credit transfer.

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class saying, ‘I will be so glad when I’m indy Miller, Career and Technical finished with this class because I will never Education (CTE) Coordinator of Frenship have to use that information again.’ I tapped ISD in Wolfforth, helps students connect him on the shoulder and said, ‘Didn’t you the dots. From exploring the world of work come to see me a couple of days ago and tell at an early age to developing a plan of study me you wanted to become an architect? that makes the most of each course, students You’re going to use geometry. So if follow a sequence of courses that helps them architecture is something you’re really graduate with a healthy head start on college passionate about, then you need to learn it.’” and a high-demand, high-paying job waiting for them at the other end. As she says, “We want all students walking Halfway Through College across that graduation stage to know where Before Graduation they are going and how they are going to Those students who want to pursue a college successfully get there.” education find that they can earn two years of Frenship ISD, located just southwest of college credit by the end of their senior year Lubbock, includes six elementary schools, in high school. two middle schools, and Frenship High Through seamless transition articulation School, which offers student internships with agreements with South Plains College and many businesses in the immediate area and Texas Tech University, Frenship offers dual more than 60 hours of dual college credit college credit opportunities in the following through CTE courses. programs of study: Manufacturing, The seamless adventure begins in Automotive Technology, Child elementary school, where the children are Development, Business, Health Science– exposed to career-awareness resources and Vocational Nursing, and Education and participate in career fairs that use scavenger Training. hunts to lead students to different stations For the manufacturing sector, the where businesspeople explain the unique articulation agreements grew out of a real careers in their need. Frenship and its industries and how surrounding communities We want all students walking important education possess a wealth of across that graduation stage will be for students in manufacturing companies. to know where they are going the future. The A couple of years ago, the and how they are going to adventure continues West Texas Manufacturing successfully get there. through middle Association predicted that 74 Cindy Miller, CTE Coordinator, school, where, like percent of the region’s Frenship ISD their high school workforce would retire in counterparts, the next five years. students use career Concerned that they exploration software to investigate various would not be able to fill this workforce careers and begin the development of online shortage by that time, the association, career portfolios that will be updated WorkForce Solutions South Plains, and the throughout their high school years. Further, Lubbock Economic Development Alliance summer career camps are provided for partnered with Frenship ISD, Lubbock ISD, middle school students to help them apply and South Plains College (SPC). A $500,000 their knowledge and skills to real-world grant was provided by the Texas Workforce projects. Commission to establish a two-year “We’re trying to help kids make Manufacturing program at these high school connections to what they are learning in their campuses and with SPC. Among the many academic courses in order to achieve their advances that were made with the grant was future career goals,” says Miller. “I overheard the building of a new Career and Technical a student coming out of a geometry pre-AP Education Center.

also transfer into SPC’s associate degree of nursing program, where the students can obtain their registered nursing license a year after high school.”

Education and Training The district has three articulated courses with South Plains Community College that fall under the Education and Training career cluster. The courses, titled Child Development Associate Training 1, 2, and 3, provide students with training in the area of Early Childhood Education. Students complete the first two courses, Nurturing Nurses which are taken online, during their junior As for its nursing program, Frenship year of high school. ISD picked up on what some postsecondary During the third and final child schools in the area had already started on a development course, limited basis. taken during their In 2004, the senior year, the South Plains students are actually Nursing Coalition paid to work as established an assistants to local articulation elementary school agreement with teachers. The South Plains opportunity is similar College and Texas to the student Tech School of teaching training that Nursing in an effort most students to increase the participate in as number of college students. graduating nurses “I see so many working in the student teachers community. After Frenship High School teacher Jodi Barnes works with students in her health occupations class. Applied learning coming right of several years, college in their senior however, it still was experiences such as this are key to keeping students involved in career planning. year of college,” not getting the Miller says. “And so many of them find out number of students it needed coming into that they just do not want to teach. We try South Plains and transferring into Texas to help them find that out before college.” Tech to meet an immense nursing shortage. The program lasts throughout the school So leaders decided to look to the high school year, with students leaving the high school level. At first, the group just offered a few for two class periods a day to participate in summer camps unrelated to the high school. the internship. In addition to the hands-on But after Miller heard about the need for experiences, the courses also allow students nursing students, she became energized and to earn the Child Development Associate began talking to both students and teachers, National Credential (CDA), which Miller who were very interested in working more says can be useful for students looking for closely with the program. employment while pursuing postsecondary “We immediately contacted the education. community college and asked if we could offer a Vocational Nursing program at Frenship High School,” said Miller. “We put a program together that allows the students FOR MORE INFORMATION to get 39 hours of dual college credit from Frenship ISD • Wolfforth, Texas South Plains College in a Vocational Cindy Miller, CTE Coordinator mail to: cmiller@frenship.us, Nursing program through which a student www.frenship.us will graduate as a licensed Vocational Nurse right after high school. These college hours

Big Idea

“This grant provided the equipment, furnishings, curriculum, testing materials, and the opportunity to take field trips to various manufacturing companies so our students could learn about the tremendous opportunities available in this career field,” says Miller. Manufacturing credits can be transferred to the community college, and many companies offer cash assistance to students who want to work while they pursue higher education.

Kids who dread the thought of taking courses for college credit or certification should consider this: Students at A. C. Jones High School in the Beeville ISD collectively saved $99,654 in higher education tuition and fees by enrolling in academic transfer and Career and Technical Education classes during the 2007–2008 school year. Through its articulation agreement with Coastal Bend College last year, A. C. Jones offered 48 CTE and 18 academic courses to its approximately 1,030 students, as well as 15 Level 1 certifications. The process of getting the dual-credit courses approved is fairly straightforward, says A. C. Jones Counselor Kathryn Belcher. “Coastal Bend went to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which approved 97 courses for articulation,” Belcher explains. “Then we took their objectives for the courses and matched them to the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) specifications.” The savings for students and their parents have been substantial. “If a student is a county resident, then he or she is not charged tuition or fees,” she says. “Out of about 162 kids enrolled in dual-credit classes this year, only two live out of the county. And the college even offers reduced tuition for our non-county students. “This is what these kids need,” Belcher attests. “Being from a lower socioeconomic community, many of them will find it difficult to go to college because they have to work. If they can leave high school with the skills for higherpaying jobs, they can work and go to school at the same time.”

The Student Experience

Giving Students the Business

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX Part of the challenge of AchieveTexas is to create community connections that help students link up with local companies. To help, keep an updated list of all the students who have earned industryrecognized certifications at your school. Then offer the list to local Rotary Clubs, chamber of commerce, and business and economic development groups, so that as they hear of companies in need, they can help act as clearinghouses for matching students to job opportunities. Document these success stories so that they can be used to publicize the seamlessly connected programs you have to offer.

hen considering student organizations to join as a freshman at Frisco High School in the Frisco ISD, Symone Gamble had already rejected Business Professionals of America (BPA). She’d gone to a couple of meetings, but the group was small, it was late in the year, and she felt she wasn’t getting much out of it. “Then in my sophomore year I had a teacher that kept asking me to hang up these flyers about BPA,” she remembers. “She kept on saying I had to go to one of the A lot of people think that meetings. She BPA is just about going was so into business, but it can persistent I be applied to any job. decided to Symone Gamble, senior, give it a shot Frisco High School and go back.” Soon, Gamble found herself entered in BPA’s annual competition in the prepared speech and global marketing categories. She was headed to the regional competition—and got her first chance to turn a crisis into an opportunity. “The night before regionals, the computer crashed and I lost my speech,” she says. “So I either had to withdraw from the competition or rewrite it from scratch.”

Winning Spirit Undaunted, Gamble rewrote the entire speech that night, changing the topic entirely, and spent the morning memorizing it. She ended up winning the regionals, as did her global marketing team. By the time she went to the national conference and won the prize for best-prepared speech, she was hooked. By her senior year, she was BPA national president, secondary division. “I knew that the professional and the leadership skills I was getting from these conferences was something I wanted to give back, too,” says Gamble, now a senior. “A lot of people think that BPA is just about going into business, but it can be applied to any job. The best part is being able to find those links between what I learn in the classroom and how it applies to the real business world, careers, and everyday life.” BPA is only one of several organizations Gamble finds valuable and fun. In addition to her other interests, such as cooking, football games, and hanging with her friends, and her part-time job, Gamble is student council secretary and senior class president. She’s also in the National Honor Society, the National Technical Honor Society, the Key Club, and the debate club. Staying Involved Why so many student organizations? In many instances, they are where she meets with her friends, but she is also active in clubs because of the seamless connections to the school curriculum, the skills the clubs teach, and their scholarship opportunities. Gamble has already received scholarships for her participation in Key Club and her work in the student council. And she has some advice for students interested in joining one of the dozens of clubs available in high school. “Get into a student organization that corresponds with what you like,” she advises. “A great one is student council, because it lets you directly affect yourself and your school. But don’t just stack on the clubs; you can get more out of them if you join just a few. Think outside the box about which ones could help get you where you want to go. Find a few things you can be passionate about and that can give you unique experiences. It can make all the other classes a bit more bearable.”

Counselor to Counselor

Helping Freshmen Make the Connections I n a school as large as Duncanville High School in the Duncanville ISD, which serves 3,850 students, an incoming freshman can feel completely lost. Just locating his or her classes can be an adventure. Add the pressure of choosing a potential career by spring, and, well, the ninth grade counselors and staff know they have to address a variety of needs all at once. The solution: Freshman Connections. It is a one-semester course limited to 25 students per class working one-on-one with eight teachers and counselors. “Freshman Connections has been the best answer for counselors working with students to develop their four-year plans with an emphasis on the AchieveTexas initiative,” says Duncanville Counselor Kena McKee. “DHS has one of the largest Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs in Texas, and this class allows counselors work with students individually to develop their career plans while giving them a clearer vision of each program than they would have through a brochure or handout.” High Energy Learning “This is a very high-energy class,” says Freshman Connections lead teacher, Leslie Hash. “Because it’s student-based, it takes a lot of time and patience. You have to get to know your kids’ interests, and they drive what you do in class.” With 50 classes representing 12 career clusters at Duncanville, the class focuses on educating the kids on courses and career choices. “The first six weeks is just getting to know your students,” says Hash. “In the beginning they’re telling you want they want to be. Half of them want to be doctors, but they’re not passing their classes. So you have to figure out what you think they need to start focusing.” The students investigate careers online, take career interest surveys, and participate in projects that explore their likes and dislikes. They begin networking exercises, creating fictitious

Freshman Connections has been the best answer for counselors working with students to develop their four-year plans with an emphasis on the AchieveTexas initiative. Leslie Hash, Lead Teacher, Freshman Connections, Duncanville High School business cards and making connections with faculty and staff on campus. By the middle of the semester, students divide into teams to practice essential work ethics. Using the book the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens as a guide, they create presentations for each other. Planning for the Future Perhaps the most important thing Freshman Connections offers is the opportunity to tour the electives on campus. From sign language class to TV production (Duncanville High includes a complete television production studio), instructors and older students offer 10- to 30-minute discussions of what they do in class and display their

projects for their underclassmen. For the freshman, it’s an eye-opener. For the elective instructors, it’s a recruitment tool. The last six weeks, kids concentrate on planning for the future. (In the second semester, career planning begins earlier to allow for course selection by March.) They participate in the Marriage Project, where they draw for spouses, occupations, and problems, such as a disabled child, then create budgets and solve family problems. They complete two career research papers, one exploring their first career choice and another on a backup career. And if time permits, they practice interview skills and create resumes. “The kids are so engaged, they’re having so much fun, they don’t realize what they’ve learned until they’ve left,” says Hash. “These kids have a narrow focus on the opportunities available when they come in. They all want to be doctors, lawyers, rappers, and actors. With this course, their eyes are really opened, and when they leave, I have biochemists, engineers their selections are much more vast.” 27

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Partnering for Bigger Goals

advanced measure just have to make an A or B estled in a Southeast Texas community in the high school class and then request their of fewer than 1,000 residents, Pettus credit when they enroll in college. These High School (PHS) depends greatly on courses do not cost them any money or time its relationship with Coastal Bend College outside of the school day.” (CBC) in nearby Beeville. Although a limited budget means the school cannot offer every Looking to the Future career cluster it would like, it presents an Looking to the future, PHS is also active in excellent example of how some schools are the Tech Prep program at Del Mar College doing more with less for the benefit of their in Corpus Christi, where Warner serves on students. the education committee. Tech Prep also Through its partnership with Coastal Bend alerts area educators to upcoming changes in College, PHS offers students the opportunity to curriculum, such as modifications to the TEKS take 24 dual-credit courses, some of which are and programs of study, and new opportunities, offered online and supported by the school’s such as the Texas Virtual School Network, computer lab designated for that purpose. which offers supplemental, online courses for “Pettus ISD also offers our seniors modified Texas students. school days if they choose,” says Susan Warner, Warner and her Career and Technical Director of Special Programs and Counselor. Education (CTE) teachers also aggressively “They may miss first and second periods or pursue grants from Tech Prep sixth and seventh and Perkins grants in order to periods to allow The articulation agreements are purchase needed equipment them time to travel awesome because students who take and provide professional to Coastal Bend advantage of this option of obtaining development, often pooling College to take an advanced measure just have to grant funds with 11 other college classes. make an A or B in the high school schools in the region. These courses are class and then request their credit “If we receive $4,000 in tuition free.” when they enroll in college. These funds and pool it with the courses do not cost them any money other schools, we receive Articulation or time outside of the school day. more than $4,000 in services,” Agreements Dr. Susan Warner, Warner points out. “Last year Currently, PHS Director of Special Programs/ we used our Tech Prep grant offers limited CTE Counselor, Pettus High School funds to purchase four Auto courses in the CAD licenses so that our following career Agricultural Sciences teacher can teach our clusters: Architecture and Construction; students how to make blueprints for any Information Technology; Manufacturing; and project that they choose to create.” Arts, A/V Technology and Communications. Although she admits that there are many It offers two Advanced Placement (AP) things she’d like PHS students to have access to English courses and has added pre-AP biology, that just aren’t feasible in the current economy, chemistry, and geometry in hopes of having AP Warner is very pleased with what the school’s classes in those subjects next year. It emphasizes students have accomplished with the tools two important high-wage sectors, computer they’ve been given. information technology and welding, and has “Last year, of our graduating class of 25 articulation agreements with Coastal Bend seniors, 20 graduated with a recommended or College for programs in those subjects. distinguished diploma and 23 were accepted to “The articulation agreements are awesome,” a university, college, or trade school,” she says. says Warner, “because students who take advantage of this option of obtaining an

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step 5— Build Seamless Connections—by checking off the items it is doing. ❏❏ Credit options exist that enable students to take part in advance placement, advance technical credit, or dual-credit courses. ❏❏ Students succeed in innovative programs that allow them to earn college credits in high school. ❏❏ Articulation agreements are coordinated and aligned to support student acquisition of credits. ❏❏ Assessments are coordinated and aligned that support the progressive acquisition of skills and knowledge by students. ❏❏ Curriculum is coordinated and aligned, in order to produce curricula. ❏❏ K–12 curricula is meaningfully progressive and cumulative for individual student learning. ❏❏ Academic subjects are integrated with career education. ❏❏ Interdisciplinary, problem/ project-based instruction supports student learning.

Step 6: Establish Extended Learning Opportunities

Linking the Classroom and the Real World W

Temple ISD CTE Director Alison Belliveau works with students during a meeting of the district’s Robotics Club. Belliveau says that such co-curricular extended learning experiences help keep students focused on their career plans.

Step Synopsis In today’s world, student learning happens around the clock—at school, on the computer, at home with parents or guardians, in the workplace, in the community— everywhere and all the time. Students, in fact, never stop learning. The question is: What are they learning and how does it support, or detract from, their education and career goals? Extended learning takes place outside the classroom through Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), internships, job shadowing, mentoring, and other programs. It is curricular rather than extracurricular because high-quality extended learning experiences should be linked to what students are exploring in the classroom.

hen kids get involved in extended learning activities, they are so excited,” says Alison Belliveau, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director for Temple Independent School District (ISD). The district’s, and, in particular, Belliveau’s focus on growing extended learning opportunities is a great case study for how to connect the classroom with real-world experiences under the AchieveTexas model, which envisions all students participating in one or more extended learning experiences during high school. When she first came to Temple ISD, Belliveau says her first step was to take stock of the extended learning opportunities— such as field trips, internships, and mentoring—that were already in place in the district. From there, she focused the district’s attention on building strong community partnerships, which, in Temple, includes a yearly chamber of commerce–sponsored job shadowing program. When she started that process about two years ago, Belliveau and her team also worked to align the existing CTE courses by career cluster, simultaneously eliminating courses that were no longer in high demand. In terms of extended learning, this step helped establish a relationship between the AchieveTexas career programs of study and the actual extended learning opportunities available to students in the district. “With AchieveTexas, it is very important that extended learning opportunities be directly aligned with programs of study,” Belliveau says. Positive Competition One of the primary forms of curricular learning is Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs). Thousands of Texas students belong to such groups. CTSOs seek to build students’ skills through local, regional, state, and national competitive events that evaluate what students learn in the classroom. This includes skills such as public speaking, leadership, and teamwork, as well as specific occupational skills. “I am all about CTSOs because they get students involved in their education,”

Belliveau observes. “They bring out a positive sort of competitiveness that engages students.” Luckily for those enrolled at Temple ISD, any student participating in a career education subject is eligible to join the corresponding CTSO, which in Temple includes numerous organizations connected to career programs of study that are as varied as Culinary Arts and Robotics. CTSO competitive events can also qualify as capstone projects, which all students in With AchieveTexas, it is very important that extended learning opportunities be directly aligned with programs of study. Alison Belliveau, CTE Director, Temple ISD Temple’s Institutes of Study are required to complete. Indeed, the value of CTSOs is best demonstrated through competitions in which Temple students have participated. “When you think about regional contests, the judges are usually current employers from the local area,” says Belliveau. “So they actually provide feedback on the spot for students. Sometimes, students even get a written letter from the judges.”

Temple ISD teacher Brian Kopriva (center) works with students in one of the district’s veterinary medicine courses.

Simple, Elegant Solutions Educators also participate in extended learning. Belliveau sends her faculty out on “educator externships,” which allow teachers and counselors the chance to work in businesses for a day. Then, using the applied knowledge and skills gained in those experiences, teachers craft lesson plans that tie workplace realities back to classroom coursework. Like many other ISDs in Texas, Temple is busy integrating academic and CTE curricula. Belliveau is even requiring all CTE teachers to develop lessons with their colleagues in the core academic disciplines. “Many of our teachers have done that on their own,” reports Belliveau. “My teachers know that they have my support because I wouldn’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.” And although that culture does speak to the commitment of teachers and counselors, it in large part has its basis in Belliveau’s committed leadership. By enacting a series of small support steps, she helps lighten the load of educators

and thereby makes more time for them to focus on building extended learning partnerships. One such step requires teachers to have community speakers visit every six weeks. In addition to enriching the student experience, give the teachers a break from teaching for a day, something that Belliveau says is a small, but appreciated, perk of bringing extended learning to the classroom itself. “It is just one more thing that makes the hard stuff easier,” she says. “Getting to see adults other than their teachers is really helpful for students. From human resources directors to the actual bosses, they tell students exactly what they do in their jobs and provide real-world perspectives.” Another elegantly simple support step Belliveau believes in is for district CTE directors like her to take on more responsibility, particularly with regard to the more tedious activities related to career instruction. “When you, as a CTE Director, offer to do some of the heavy lifting, it helps a lot,” she says. “My teachers know they have my support because I step up and take on tasks they would normally do. There is no way I could create these expectations for what I want them to do to implement AchieveTexas, and then not get directly involved with the work.” FOR MORE INFORMATION Temple ISD • Temple, Texas Alison Belliveau, CTE Director mail to: alison.belliveau@tisd.org, www.tisd.org

Texas CTSOs Business Professionals of America (BPA) • www.texasbpa.com DECA, Texas Association • www.texasdeca.org Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) • www.texasfccla.org Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) • www.txfbla.org Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) • www.texashste.com SkillsUSA • www.txskillsusa.org Texas FFA Association • www.texasffa.org Texas Technology Student Association (TSA) • www.texastsa.org

Big Idea

Belliveau says the strategy she uses that is most critical to the success of Temple CTSOs is to pay teachers extra for overseeing the organizations. For the three tiers of extra pay offered in Temple, the maximum yearly payout to teachers is $500. “The extra duty pay is an important reason for the growth of our CTSOs,” says Belliveau. “You’ve got to get the teachers excited. Keep teaching alive. I really think you need to compensate your teachers to do it.”

The CTE motto of the Katy ISD in Katy is simple: “Help all students succeed, no matter their academic skill sets.” In attempting to cater to all students, the leaders of Katy’s Miller Career & Technology Center, which offers a curriculum that is based on the AchieveTexas concept, realized that there was one segment of the student population that was being marginalized by CTE. Of the center’s 720 students, a handful is identified each year as being academically gifted. To ensure this segment of the population is supported, the district created a program called Professional Advancement through Career Education (PACE). PACE is made up of dozens of partnerships with local businesses that offer academically advanced students unpaid, multioccupational internships. “They feel like they are a step above their peers,” says Teresa Elliot, the Katy teacher who coordinates PACE. To qualify for the program, students must be seniors and have a GPA of 3.8 or higher. “The program helps them prepare better for their future.” The actual partnerships that make up PACE are changed regularly depending on the interests of students. For the 2009–2010 school year, PACE boasts some 40 partnerships, including internships at a local hospital and job shadowing partnerships with local automotive technicians. Like many community partnerships under the AchieveTexas model, the business relationships that make up the PACE program are typically fostered by CTE teachers being active in the community. In fact, Miller CTE instructors are given at least one period each day to help develop such relationships. “The teachers are the ones who make this happen,” says Anna Webb-Storey, the Miller Career & Technology Center’s Principal. “It boils down to the relationships between teachers and business partners.”

The Student Experience

Making Connections The Power of Competition “The minute Dario joined BPA, he hit the ground running,” says Jan Haynie, the Business Management and Administration Teacher who first encouraged Scalco to get involved with BPA. Haynie began working with Scalco while he was a sophomore enrolled in a course called business information management. “I really got into the groove with that class,” Scalco says. Since that class and throughout his years at Birdville, Scalco has successfully participated in numerous BPA contests, including competitions on Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access, and business leadership. “In learning about the BPA competitive events, my first goal was to compete and to win,” Scalco says. “But my longterm goal is to be able to implement those skills with any project I work on. And that is already starting to happen.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX Extended learning should not be an afterthought. In many districts, because applied learning experiences, such as internships and job shadowing, fall outside the classroom, districts have a tendency to downplay the development of the programs with local businesses. Extended learning, however, is critical to engaging students with both career and academic education. Creating a focused effort to provide extended learning is one of the best ways to ensure that what is taught in the classroom is relevant in the workplace.

Taking the Lead In his junior year, Scalco began filling leadership positions within the organization both at the local and the state level, eventually eyond developing practical knowledge, becoming the Area 1, Region 1 President of the extended learning opportunities can help organization, something Haynie says elevated instill a sense of purpose in students his career preparation to a new level. taking Career and Technical Education “Becoming President of BPA allowed Dario courses (CTE). to truly soar,” she says. “He absolutely took it “I developed confidence and pride in myself on with a vengeance.” through my extracurricular Scalco says his career involvement,” says Dario In learning about the BPA goal is to earn a master’s Scalco, a senior at Birdville competitions, my first goal degree in accounting and High School in North Richland was to compete and to win. own his own business Hills. “Without Career and But my longer-term goal before eventually going Technical Student is to be able to implement into politics. Organizations [CTSOs], I those skills with any project To reach those goals, would probably not be the I work on. And that is Scalco says he will rely on kind of student I am today.” already starting happen. the knowledge he has When it comes to taking Dario Scalco, senior, gained while observing advantage of extracurricular Birdville High School various student learning, Scalco is the real deal. organizations in action. He is deeply involved with Business “I have discovered the importance of the Professionals of America (BPA), a CTSO that small tasks that lead to the success of an gives students a chance to showcase their organization,” Scalco says. “Success starts with developing business skills in regional and one, simple task.” national competitions.

Counselor to Counselor

Observe and Learn

n the Belton ISD, the counselor’s role in establishing extended learning opportunities is to work through teachers to spark student interest in the experiences. “Not all counselors think of themselves as career counselors,” says Kay Archer, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Facilitator for Belton ISD, “but they really are. We all learn from each other. So our strategy is to get teachers involved. When students can hear about these opportunities from teachers on a regular basis, they are much more likely to participate in extended learning.” To help further involve counselors, Archer meets with her team of guidance professionals to discuss which job shadowing opportunities are going to be available. That way both counselors and teachers are talking to students about the students’ chances to take part in extended learning. College is an expensive place to do career planning. Students need to focus on career planning much sooner, so that they aren’t constantly changing majors in college.

One of the keys to making a job shadowing experience valuable, says Archer, is to put your business partners in front of your students.

From One Career Cluster to Another Another important component of Belton’s job Kay Archer, CTE Facilitator, shadowing program, says Archer, is the fact that Belton ISD the chamber of commerce coordinates with such a diverse mix of businesses. The range of job Co-Curricular Learning shadowing opportunities includes everything “The counseling process really opens up from the local newspaper to the local police when students are aware of and focused on department. taking advantage of co-curricular learning,” Having such a large number of job shadowing says Archer. “When we can connect those opportunities is particularly useful for students experiences with classroom experiences, it interested in the Human Services career cluster, really helps make sure that the students are in which has a great deal of diversity in terms of the right classes.” careers that fall under the cluster. And whether During the 2008–2009 school year, 75 Belton the experience falls under Human Services or juniors participated in job shadowing Information Technology, job shadowing allows opportunities around the community, all of students to observe and learn from professionals which were coordinated through the local in different working environments, and thereby chamber of commerce. make more informed decisions about their “The chamber was overwhelmed with the futures. response last year,” says Archer. “But that is “One of our students wanted to be a exciting because we want to make sure our veterinarian,” says Archer. “But she almost fainted students can handle the real world business when she saw a dog get spayed. That kind of thing environment.” is just part of the learning experience.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX One barrier to engaging school counselors in career guidance is their backgrounds. The typical high school guidance counselor went through a traditional K–12 education program, enrolled in college, became a teacher, and eventually settled into being a guidance professional. It is uncommon to find career counselors that boast experience in business or industry, and that makes it more difficult for them to talk with students about what many employers want. It is therefore critical for districts to develop programs that keep counselors up-to-date on the latest industry standards for the full range of career clusters. Additionally, externships help both students and teachers stay connected to industry.

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Nursing Experiences

xtended learning opportunities are often only as good as the partnerships that drive them. Take, for example, a nursing home externship offered in the Socorro ISD in El Paso. The experience, which is required for those enrolled in the district’s Health Science program, allows students to practice their skills working with clientele in the facility under the direction or guidance of an instructor. By working with health care providers, says Program Coordinator Elva Vazquez, students are taking the first steps toward attaining the skills they need to succeed in health care. “The experience really does show them work behaviors,” Vazquez says.

that goal is to select the right facilities with which to partner. The coordinators then work with the nursing home and each party’s lawyers to develop a contract. In addition to having insurance and legal backing, students are required to learn first aid and CPR, as well as submit to background checks.

Taking the Next Step Each year, about 20 students in the program become certified nurse’s assistants, something that helps drive the nursing home program. “The success of the nursing home partnership begins in the classroom with successful instruction,” Vazquez says. Socorro Health Science students also take Choosing the The experience really does show advantage of the district’s Right Partner them work behaviors. That is articulation agreement To ensure that each so important because as CTE with El Paso Community student has plenty of instructors, we are constantly College. Each year, a time to get out and stressing responsibility. percentage of Socorro work in the field, students begin working Elva Vazquez Socorro introduces Health Science Coordinator, toward becoming them to the program Socorro ISD registered nurses or during their licensed vocational nurses. sophomore years. “When students get to the postsecondary “That is so important because as Career level, there is a lot of competition,” Vazquez and Technical Education (CTE) instructors, says. “The nursing home program is one of we are constantly stressing responsibility,” several in the district that helps in our Vazquez says. students’ compete for jobs.” In this relationship, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructor serves simply as a liaison or chaperone, and the nursing home supervisors themselves oversee the experience. Where the CTE instructor really makes a difference in extended learning partnerships, says Vazquez, is in choosing the partnerships that will best serve the needs of the students. Logistically, Vazquez adds, the first step toward meeting

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step 6: Establish Extended Learning by checking off below the efforts it is already making. ❏❏ Career education students can join and actively participate in the Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) that are aligned with their career clusters or programs of study. ❏❏ Students participate in one or more extended learning experiences as part of their school’s programs of study or personal Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs). ❏❏ Extended learning opportunities provide students chances to develop soft skills, as well as teamwork and leadership experiences. ❏❏ Work-based learning is available for programs of study in the form of apprenticeships, career preparation courses, internships, or job shadowing opportunities. ❏❏ A maintained and updated inventory or roster of extended learning experiences is made available to the community. ❏❏ All kinds of learning opportunities are incorporated to graduate well-educated and highly motivated individuals.

Step 7: Build Strong Partnerships

CTE at the Center of the Community B

Frisco ISD Principal and Curriculum Director Wes Cunningham (right) talks food with Frisco senior Dwight Chambers, a student in the Culinary Arts program housed in the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center.

Step Synopsis Partnership between schools and businesses is an essential ingredient of AchieveTexas. Schools need employers’ input to graduate students with the right workforce skills. To facilitate this partnership, each district is encouraged to create its own Texas Business Education Success Team (B.E.S.T.) to implement its local career cluster program. Include members of the education, employer, government, and civil communities and use their experience and leadership to build the best educational system possible. 34 34

being selected to become an Apple Authorized y the time Wes Cunningham, Frisco Training Center for Education. Along with ISD Principal and Curriculum Director, equipping five Apple labs and two mobile learned about the AchieveTexas initiative Apple labs, the company provides professional in 2005, the district was already ahead of development for the entire district’s CTE staff. the “learning curve.” It was just nearing Courses are delivered by www.training.apple. completion of its new advanced Career & com/act. Apple certified trainers incorporate Technical Education Center after years of Apple’s curriculum into the school’s existing partnering with the Frisco community to curriculum and certify both faculty and decide on the curriculum. students, who can distinguish themselves to “The buy-in included every stakeholder you colleges or prospective employers as skilled can imagine,” says Cunningham. “The school users of certain applications, including those board, local businesses, the higher education found in software such as iLife or iWork. community, counselors, administrators, “In return, Apple uses us as a showplace, teachers, students, parents, city government. demonstrating how we use Apple products,” We had meetings several times a year to says Cunningham. “And we train others in its determine what everyone wanted or needed in software. In fact, our Apple a CTE Center.” Certified instructor just went Today, the center is an An amazing 93 percent to Austin to train teachers exciting example of how of our approximately 450 across the state in Apple’s everyone can benefit when seniors report that they video editing program, Final education partners with the are going to college. Cut Pro.” surrounding community. Dr. Wes Cunningham, The center is also working Featuring 28 programs of Principal/Curriculum closely with the local medical study through 13 career Director, Frisco ISD Career & community, which has taken a clusters, the center offers Technical Education Center lead in suggesting coursework. students eight-year career “We used to have only two plans and opportunities to Health Science courses, but the Health Sciences work with businesses throughout the city. advisory committee came to me saying we Students can also explore some of the latest needed to have pharmacology,” says and greatest technology at the school’s Apple Cunningham. “They wanted EMT [Emergency Authorized Training Center. Medical Technician] and LVN [Licensed Vocational Nurse] programs and a specialized Getting Down to Business internship program. So last year, we started The CTE Center is located near the heart with pharmacology. Next year, we’re of Frisco’s business district. The visibility implementing the specialized internship; the helped when Cunningham met with the following year, we hope to offer EMT courses. Frisco Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Right now, three of our area medical centers Economic Development Corporation, which offer internships to our students on a rotating helped him recruit business leaders and others basis.” interested in partnering. Other business partners have offered “We have one large CTE advisory committee additional opportunities. Students can intern of about 96 members that meets once a year,” with local veterinary clinics. Engineering he says. “Our career cluster subcommittees students can intern with Raytheon and Texas meet twice more a year. That’s where we hear Instruments. Two local television network both what the students want and what the affiliates offer internships, as does the Frisco business community says it needs.” cable channel, where students can program a Today, the school has a business or industry two-hour block. Next year, Cunningham plans partner for every career cluster offered, internships for the center’s first class of providing guest speakers and expert resources animation II and culinary arts II students, for teachers. among others. The school’s major accomplishment was

Big Idea

I’m an educator, but I don’t know enough Making the College Connection Thanks in large part to the school board about the many details of the offerings in and Frisco ISD planners who chose to erect CTE to help me make sound decisions on the CTE Center across from Collin County how we should do this in our district. So Community College, the two schools they told me what they wanted to do and have developed a symbiotic relationship, together we worked out the details.” coordinating their courses to allow students The system also allows counselors to the best access to postsecondary education. take a more supervisory role in students’ When Collin College received a grant career planning. Because helping students from the National Science Foundation to with career plans takes much more time become a green convergence center, the than just having them choose courses they CTE Center aligned its Computer want to take, students work with their Technology, Information Technology, and CTE teachers to create their plans and the Engineering programs of study to bridge with those offered at the college. counselors examine and approve them. If “Now that Collin College has an there is an obvious problem with a plan, a articulation agreement with the University counselor can meet of North Texas,” with the student Cunningham points one-on-one. out, “theoretically, our students can Hard Work combine the credits Brings Success they earn here and The results speak for those at the college themselves. and receive bachelor “The last three of science degrees in years, our CTE Information students have Technology after consistently ranked only one year at the University of North at or above the Students in Frisco ISD’s Career and Technical Education Texas. As you can district average on (CTE) Center have access to a state-of-the-art television imagine, that is a TAKS [Texas studio, where they develop skills such as video editing huge cost savings for Assessment of and interviewing techniques. the student.” Knowledge and The center is currently working with Skills] scores,” says Cunningham proudly. Texas Woman’s University to create a dual“But the big news is that our students have credit program to get students into the earned more commended results than the university’s medical microbiology/ students not enrolled in the CTE Center pathophysiology program. classes. Our graduation rates are higher and “We sought out the colleges to see what our dropout rates are lower. An amazing 93 they could do for our kids, and they sought percent of our approximately 450 seniors us out because they wanted more students in their buildings. And it’s worked out report that they are going to college. Four wonderfully,” says Cunningham. percent report they will enroll in a trade school, and 3 percent either are undecided Giving Faculty Control or expect to go straight into careers with With all this activity, Cunningham has also industry certifications they earned here at put emphasis on making it easier for CTE the center.” teachers and counselors to document what can seem like never-ending changes to the programs of study. FOR MORE INFORMATION In addition to meeting with the CTE Frisco ISD, Frisco, Texas advisory council subcommittees several Dr. Wes Cunningham, Principal/Curriculum Director, times a year, and meeting two days a year Career & Technical Education Center mail to: cunningw@friscoisd.org, for programs of study reviews, teachers are www.friscoisd.org closely involved with new curricula. Cunningham explains, “I told them,

For Lake Travis High School in Austin, partnering with local and regional businesses is vital to enabling business leaders to learn what today’s students are capable of upon graduation. “Our partners show the students the relevance of what they are learning in the classroom,” says Ryan Merritt, Coordinator of college and career readiness for the Lake Travis ISD. “It’s really important that kids are able to see that it’s not just the teacher saying that the curriculum is important, but also members of the industry.” With six concentrated institutes of study serving more than 1,940 students, Lake Travis High School works with a variety of businesses, including nationally recognized engineering and high-tech firms, as well as local banks, police departments, and fire departments. It’s a reciprocal relationship, says Merritt, in which everyone learns. “Many of our partner representatives, prior to working on our advisory boards, may not have entered a high school classroom in 20, 30, even 40 years,” he says. “We like to show them what a 21st-century high school has to offer students in regard to college and career preparation.” In the classroom, the school has used its Business, Finance and Marketing Institute to design a curriculum that prepares students for postsecondary business schools. And thanks to the success of the institute, the school has seen many students take an interest in the Marketing career cluster. As a result, the school’s DECA organization now boasts 175 student members, including a handful of students that placed in the top five in DECA’s national competition in 2008. 35 35

Counselor to Counselor

Experience on the Air logistics industry at Sysco Foods,” Rivas says. “When the product first comes into the distribution center, there’s a process for storage, and they have to organize everything they are going to send out later,” reports Rivas. “There are people on the computers and workers scanning products and trying to get the shipments out. The trucks are traveling from eight at night until early morning. And everyone is checking to see if the product is okay.” A subsequent episode featured the Byron Martin Advanced Technology Center and the classes the center offers, which are as varied as accounting and firefighting; another show showcased an opportunity at South Plains College to earn credit while in high school and highlighted other college prep activities. “There’s a lot of work that goes into making the show,” says Rivas. “There’s nearly 15 hours of filming, and they cut that into 30 minutes for the actual show. It’s really time-consuming, but it ends up looking great.”

Alex Rivas, a senior at Lubbock High School, is one of several students that guest hosts “When Can You Start?” a television program broadcasted on a special Lubbock ISD television channel.

tudents across Texas are exploring their career cluster options through AchieveTexas, but senior Alexandria “Alex” Rivas is exploring them on television, as guest co-host for “When Can You Start?” The show (www.whencanyoustart. tv) is broadcast on the Lubbock ISD channel and will include several student guest hosts throughout the year. Each half-hour episode will feature a different career cluster and discuss the many positions possible in that cluster. The show is the result of a partnership between Lubbock ISD and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA). “The main focus is to promote job opportunities Our first shoot lasted from noon and show kids all the things until almost 9 at night. It was a they can do here in long day, but a lot of fun and I Lubbock,” says Rivas, who learned all about the logistics was offered the position after industry at Sysco Foods. making a presentation to LEDA as part of a Future Alex Rivas, senior, Business Leaders of America Lubbock High School (FBLA) project. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics While shooting episodes of the show, Rivas has had the opportunity to gain exposure to a variety of career clusters, one of which was Transportation, Distribution and Logisitics. “Our first shoot lasted from noon until almost nine at night. It was a long day, but I had a lot of fun and I learned all about the

Extracurricular Activities When not shooting the show, Rivas works on other projects at LEDA, compiling data, organizing files, and performing other intern duties four hours a day, two or three days per week. Then there are the senior’s activities as student body secretary at Lubbock High School, president of Young Entrepreneurs of Lubbock, district vice president of FBLA, and co-president of the Spanish Club. So when is there time for homework? Everyone knows economic Rivas laughs and says, times are tough. You may have “Sometimes I’ll do it during a promising relationship with a lunch or at the dinner table at business that wants to hire your night. If I’m on a treadmill, I’ll students for paid internships— set up a book in front of me but the business has had layoffs while I’m exercising.” recently. Your partners can’t And while you would think justify bringing in a student that with all the television after having let an experienced exposure, she might be looking and dedicated worker go. One at a career in the Arts, A/V solution: Seek sponsors in Technology and the community willing to help Communications cluster, Rivas supplement all or a portion of actually wants to be a dentist. the students’ wages. Work with “I find science interesting your local chamber of commerce and I want to have my own and local workforce solutions clinic,” she says. “I’d love to groups (funded by the Texas travel to foreign countries and Workforce Commission), who help people without enough can help find willing partners or money take care of their otherwise find funds available for teeth.”

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX

student development.

Manufacturing and Finance

Partners Turning Devastation into Hope W

hen Hurricane Ike hit Hitchcock in 2008, it tore lives, homes, and dreams apart in this small bedroom community west of Galveston. And although Mary Wagener, Counselor at Hitchcock High School (HHS) in the Hitchcock ISD, recognizes that she cannot resurrect loved ones or bring back homes, she, her colleagues, and the more fortunate in their community can help retrieve some of the dreams that were destroyed for dozens of students in their care. A Title I school with 340 kids, HHS serves a low-income community that was devastated by Ike and is struggling to recover. “We have a lot of single-parent families, and a lot of grandparents raising children; some students are homeless,” says Wagener. “A lot of parents worked in Galveston and lost their jobs; some are just getting back into their homes.”

(Properity Bank and Texas First Bank) to Going Above and Beyond offer internships in a range of positions, Despite those setbacks, the school continues many of which fall under the Finance cluster. to welcome every partner in the surrounding Such businesses tend to additionally offer community that is interested in offering college assistance to those students that have assistance. Two career clusters in particular interned with the company. are serviced well Meanwhile, teachers by HHS’s range help students apply for We’ve had kids who had parents of community financial aid awards such die and the next day they’re at partnerships: as the Houston Livestock school. It’s where they’re nurtured; Manufacturing and Show and Rodeo’s it’s where they’re fed. It’s where Finance. Opportunity scholarship, someone knows who they are. In the a $15,000 scholarship manufacturing based on financial need, Mary Wagener, Counselor, arena, the district and the Moody Hitchcock High School partners with Foundation’s $1,000 per College of the Mainland in Galveston for year renewable scholarships, which three welding, one of many growing career HHS students have taken advantage of opportunities in the Manufacturing career recently. Also, in an effort to expose students cluster. To further serve Manufacturing to careers, Mike Dillon, HHS’s Automotive students, HHS also partners with a local Technology Instructor works with underwater welding company that provides organizations that can give students handsstudents with an exciting hands-on learning on experience outside the classroom. opportunity in which the students are brought into an underwater tank to observe Extra Encouragement a demonstration on underwater welding. For one at-risk student, who the district For students in the Finance career wishes to remain unnamed, a teacher’s extra cluster, HHS partners with two local banks work and caring attitude were life-changing.

“He probably would have quit school,” says Dillon. “I took him under my wing and had him and a couple of other kids at my house doing work on the weekends.” Dillon also encouraged him to enter a career fair poster contest co-sponsored by College of the Mainland. “He’s got the gift of gab,” says Dillon. “He wants to be a police officer, and the Texas City chief of police was one of the judges. The student went over before the presentations started and was talking to him and two other judges about police officers and what he wants to do. I told him that’s probably why he won.” In fact, the student has won first place—a $500 scholarship—for the past two years. Now a senior, he plans to use the money to attend the college’s police academy. “It’s hard to explain sometimes,” says Wagener. “We’ve had kids who had parents die and the next day they’re at school. It’s where they’re nurtured; it’s where they’re fed. It’s where someone knows who they are. “We just adore these kids. It’s great fun seeing them discover who they are. One of my missions is let them know that they can compete with anybody, anywhere.” 37

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Seniors Helping Seniors

akwood Manor, a nursing home in Vidor, is where young and old come together in partnership. Located near Vidor High School (VHS) in the Vidor ISD, the facility welcomes dozens of high school seniors throughout the school to assist in residents’ daily care. Such activities include everything from helping seniors get up and down out of chairs to assisting them when they brush their teeth. The program has been a part of the VHS Career and Technical Education (CTE) program for 16 years and was a natural fit for the school’s AchieveTexas initiative.

in the demanding class; the course has maintained a 100 percent passing rate for the past 15 years.

Caring At Work Thanks to the CNA certification, Vidor’s nursing home partnership serves as a great learning experience for students interested in the Health Science career cluster. However, in addition to serving Health Science, the partnership also serves those students that are interested in going into personal care services under the Human Services career cluster. Whether the student ultimately decides to go into nursing or to become a personal trainer, his or her experience at a nursing home provides a Learning Basic Skills great training ground for those who are “It’s one of the higher-quality homes in this interested in pursuing one of the many area,” says Suzanne Haley, VHS’s Health careers in Human Services that requires Science Technology Teacher, “and it’s them to work one-on-one with people. about a block from the school, so it’s very “They become convenient.” very attached to In the There are 37 basic nursing skills they have residents, and the program, 26 to learn, such as communication, giving residents become students intern in bed baths, taking vital signs, feeding attached to them, weekly rotation patients, brushing teeth, and denture care. too,” says Haley. “I at Oakwood These are all skills they have to master to had four boys last Manor, take the state exam to become a certified year, and the shadowing a nursing assistant [CNA]. residents just adored nurse. Those them. Residents and students have Suzanne Haley, Health Science staff members were spent their Technology Teacher, Vidor High School amazed at their sophomore and caring personalities. junior years in On the holidays, we bring gifts to Oakwood. the classroom learning the skills they need Some of the students even go on their own for the internship. time just to visit with the residents.” “There are 37 basic nursing skills they By the end of the year, Haley observes, have to learn,” says Haley, “such as you can see the change in each student that communication, giving bed baths, taking has participated. vital signs, feeding patients, brushing teeth, “It’s like day and night,” she says. and denture care. These are all skills they “They’re petrified before they go in, because have to master to take the state exam to they’re afraid of hurting someone. After a become a certified nursing assistant while, they get confident and relaxed.The [CNA].” residents help them also, telling them if they In the end, students have earned a CNA are not doing something right, because certification that could have cost them they’ve had these things done for them a $1,500 at a local nursing school. But hundred times before.” perhaps it is what they learn about themselves that truly pushes them to excel

Self-Assessment Checklist Measure how well your school or district is implementing Step Seven—Build Strong Partnerships—by checking off below the efforts it is already making. ❏❏ Both formal and informal partnerships operate at all levels for the purpose of helping all students succeed. ❏❏ Clear vision for local system has been formed with community input. ❏❏ Quality of partnerships has increased. ❏❏ Quantity of partnerships has increased. ❏❏ Business partners advise, strategize, support, assess, and assist with career cluster implementation. ❏❏ Representatives from all industry, education, and community sectors participate. ❏❏ Regional leadership for each career cluster initiative is evident. ❏❏ Business partnerships related to local clusters are an established part of the education system.

Step 8: Offer Professional Development

Partners Provide Professional Development I

Ysleta ISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center houses a Automotive Technology program that allows students like Anthony Trejo, a Riverside High School senior, to get hands-on experience working on automobiles.

Step Synopsis Success for your AchieveTexas initiative will require substantial professional development training for all your staff. This will start with several levels of AchieveTexas training for most faculty and continue with teacher training for individual subject areas, periodic updates on curricula, and more. Each district is expected to create a professional development program that assists schools in the administration of AchieveTexas and concentrates on delivering 21st-century knowledge, skills, and abilities.

n a typical year, Michael Rodriguez, Director of the Upper Rio Grande College Tech-Prep Youth Consortium (URG) in El Paso, provides free professional development to administrators, counselors, and academic and Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors in 21 ISDs across his six-county West Texas region. Like 25 other College Tech Prep consortia across Texas, URG offers a variety of lowcost or no-cost courses on hot topics such as career awareness, application updates, and articulation agreements, as well as courses running the gamut of CTE. “We try to offer as many services as we can without having to charge anyone anything,” says Rodriguez. “All we ask is that faculty take advantage of it.” Like its sister consortia, URG is supported with Carl D. Perkins grant funds, which are distributed each year by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to College Tech Prep grant applicants. Rodriguez spends the year working diligently with his region’s schools to determine what training is needed, then brings that training to each district. It’s a big job for the small team of three at URG, but what they do saves schools hundreds of dollars per course, tens of thousands of dollars each year. “Most of the training we provide can cost [elsewhere] anywhere from $125 to $500 per training plus travel expenses,” he says. “So it’s a great deal for the schools, because aside from the small fee [$60] we charge for the annual conference, everything we do throughout the year is 100 percent free.”

Tomorrow’s Workforce Today URG’s “Tomorrow’s Workforce Today” conference, held each August, is the kickoff designed to familiarize schools with the training and services that will be available year-round. The list of learning opportunities at the conference is impressive: Information on the labor market trends throughout the state and by region, county, and city; engaging students to improve their academic success; designing five-year plans in five minutes;

effective literacy in the content rich secondary classroom; preparing students with disabilities for postsecondary education; seamless transitions and student success through educational partnerships; and many others. The conference brings in representatives of Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs)—such as SkillsUSA, FFA, DECA, and others—to educate the educators on programs that students can participate in, but for which they need teacher sponsors. Representatives from colleges and universities offer information on programs of study available through their campuses and on articulated and dual-credit courses available at the high school level. They also inform teachers about classes that have the potential to be offered as articulated or dualcredit courses, and what is required to make them available to students. “A lot of teachers don’t realize these courses—and many others out there—offer curriculum and resources free,” Rodriguez says. “All teachers have to do is call an 800 number or go to a website and order the workbooks, and that curricula becomes a supplement to their State Board of Education-approved curriculum.” Perhaps most importantly, URG offers

Ysleta ISD’s students in one of the district’s Automotive Technology courses work with instructor Tony Combs (second from left) on a car engine.

“We find that by helping move the conversation about CTE along that teachers will start to talk and realize that the only difference between core curriculum and CTE curriculum is the vocabulary.” In addition to their ability to bring core and CTE teachers together, ESCs are also excellent resources because of the plethora of information and data to which ESC employees have access. To better facilitate the delivery of that information, White says that ESCs must be flexible so that the services they provide can be individualized to specific districts. “There are several different avenues we can take in terms of professional development,” White says. “It really just depends on the needs of the district.”

Education Service Center (ESC) ESCs provide professional development and technical assistance to the school districts and charter schools within their particular regions.Take the Amarillo ESC, for example, which has been busy in recent years pushing districts in the region to integrate relevant CTE classes with rigorous core academics coursework. “We work hard with teachers, administrators, and counselors to help guide them to best practices,” says Mindy White, Education Specialist, CTE, for the Understanding AchieveTexas Amarillo ESC in Region XVI. “And it all Throughout the year, URG will arrange starts with dialogue.” for districts to receive training through the The result of this dialogue, says White, AchieveTexas framework as well, which is that students begin to think “outside of Rodriguez strongly recommends. the box” about programs of study (POS), “AchieveTexas is not mandatory,” he a process that begins during one of the concedes, “but we highly recommend that ESC’s popular CTE all districts use the workshops. The AchieveTexas Many counselors don’t realize workshops are held framework because it’s that depending on the ISD, part of at the regional already standardized their salary is based on Perkins service center in and approved by TEA. money and they are required by Amarillo and are Just fill in the blanks law to provide CTE counseling. conducted upon the with your local Michael Rodriguez, Director, request of the information and you’re Upper Rio Grande College districts themselves. ready to go. Tech-Prep Youth Consortium From there, White “In a world of says that one of the education that doesn’t most important make sense sometimes,” steps to success for Amarillo is the ESC’s says Rodriguez, “AchieveTexas makes sense, practice of sitting down and working oneit’s the forms and the function and the on-one with districts to help improve framework we need. If we use that their overall approach to implementing structure, things are easier. And I’m a firm and maintaining POS through the believer in working smarter, not harder.” AchieveTexas initiative. “ESCs provide teachers and counselors the tools they need to get students to look FOR MORE INFORMATION at the many different POS that are Upper Rio Grande College Tech-Prep available,” says White. Youth Consortium • El Paso, Texas White says that ESCs typically prefer Michael Rodriguez, Director districts and campuses to send teams of mail to: miker@esc19.net, www.careersprep.com teachers, from both core and CTE classes, Mindy White, Education Specialist, CTE so they can work together to make mail to: mindy.white@esc16.net, connections. http://www.esc16.net “That approach tends to get some crucial conversations started,” White says. 40

Big Idea

training on school accountability, a vital topic as the educational requirements change year to year. “The point is to let ISDs know what’s required of the districts and campuses, because a lot of times teachers don’t know what’s expected of them,” Rodriguez says.

In the Texas capitol, implementation of AchieveTexas is under way, and for Austin ISD’s Executive Director for CTE, Annette Gregory, it’s quite a learning experience. At this stage of the game, she’s focused on understanding the process for change and providing professional development at all levels. “The state used to offer more than 600 CTE courses,” she says. “Those have become 190 new or revised courses.” That change requires making sure everyone in the district has the AchieveTexas materials, information on the crosswalks between old courses and new, and the links for more information. It means meetings at the district level with all the stakeholders and individually with each of 14 high school campuses to answer questions and troubleshoot before the 2010 school year begins. “We won’t be implementing this program; we’re here to facilitate the process,” Gregory points out. “The schools will be implementing, so they have to be extremely involved in the process and know it should work.” Her message to other ISDs planning to implement this progressive program? “Make sure you have all the right people at the table,” she says. “The campus principals, the academy directors, campus people in leadership roles, CTE department instructors, core department heads, and counselors— not just the lead counselors—all of them. Teachers will need to be asked what resources and professional development they need.”

The Teacher Experience

Small Schools, Huge Opportunities F

CLOSER EXAMINATION EX Educators sometimes feel hesitant to contact businesspeople to ask them to provide school staff with professional development opportunities, such as externships or tours. To overcome this fear, remember that the businesses also benefit. Employers are ensuring that new graduates understand what kind of employee they are seeking. And providing for the betterment of education locally raises the businesses’ profiles and generates goodwill in the community. When calling, you are offering them an opportunity they will welcome.

With the Vision 2020 grant, Motley teachers or a teacher working in will soon begin training to become facilitators of a K–12 school with 185 online courses using the Texas Virtual School students in the remote Network “teachers of record” option for courses area of Northwest Texas, you in the network’s catalog. Teachers eventually will might think there would be few be able to submit their own courses for chances for quality professional approval, and any school in Texas will be able to development. That’s where take advantage of them. Motley County ISD would prove “Technology is a godsend for all of our rural you wrong. The district’s tightschools because we can’t afford all the Advanced knit K–12 school has burgeoned Placement, foreign language, and other teachers into a bounty of opportunity we need for our students,” says Cox. “We have thanks to some innovative to share teachers between the schools.” thinking and a dedicated staff. “Our Program Director, Dr. Staying Up To Date Cathy Morton, helped us form a With the help of other grants, Cox has received seven-school technology her Cisco networking certification, as well as consortium with our training in Web design, cyber safety, and other neighboring communities that technology essentials. Combined with the operates almost as one district,” knowledge she gains through state and national says Shelley Cox, Motley’s Technology conferences, this training Coordinator. “When we ensures that she stays up to apply for grants, we do it as a Technology is a godsend for all date on products, like those group. Because of her of our rural schools because we offered by Adobe, services, direction, we’ve obtained can’t afford all the Advanced and skills such as blogging some wonderful grants, Placement, foreign language and podcasting. which have created excellent teachers, and other teachers Morton has also professional development we need for our students. coordinated a round robin opportunities.” Shelley Cox, professional development Those grants, which Technology Coordinator, program within the recently included $222,000 Motley County ISD consortium in which staff from the Texas Education gather at one of the seven Agency’s Vision 2020 local schools to learn from guest instructors. program, are bringing a level of technology “As a small, one-school district, we can feel training to Motley and its sister ISDs that would inferior because we are so isolated,” says Cox. make any big city school jealous. “But with Dr. Morton’s direction and the technology grants, we have access to anything Technological Connections any other teacher in the state has access to. We Through the school’s interactive television don’t get in a rut, because technology keeps us network, teachers and students connect with networked with other teachers in our content other schools for special courses, such as areas. technology applications classes, college courses, “I taught for 13 years in 5A schools, and I feel or school board training, without making the I’ve had more opportunities for professional 90-mile drive to their Region 17 Education development here at Motley than I did at the Service Center. Three of the district teachers larger schools.” completed four graduate courses for certification via interactive video and the Internet.

Counselor to Counselor

Professional Development for All W hen Irving ISD in Irving began restructuring in an effort to meet AchieveTexas objectives, the role of its Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director, Shawn Blessing, became central to the hundreds of teachers, counselors, and administrators who would bear the responsibility of bringing this fresh new way of learning to their students. Three years later, the district is still incorporating new classes and hiring new teachers as it faces more curriculum modifications in 2010. That means training, training, and more training so that staff members can keep up with the complex changes and make the most of all the new resources available.

Ongoing Development Reaching beyond the summer professional development conferences at which AchieveTexas was presented, Blessing has implemented a thorough professional development program that reaches out to counselors, administrators, and academic teachers, as well as CTE instructors. “At the campus level, professional development for teachers is ongoing,” says Blessing. “Some of the professional development is required of all CTE teachers, such as strategies for serving the nontraditional student and providing equal opportunities for enrollment. But they also have the option to participate in professional learning communities and book studies, where teachers discuss books such as Grown Up Digital [by Don Tapscott] and make suggestions as to how they might incorporate what they’ve learned to help schools better meet the district’s strategic plan.” Much of the professional development offered takes place on an annual basis and, although optional, is well attended. Two days of Exchange Day training focus on instructional strategies, working with clusters, and other matters of instruction. Training in Tech Prep and community college articulation agreements, programs of study, and creation of Texas Achievement Plans (TAPs) is required at each campus.

Angela Warr, an Engineering Instructor at Nimitz High School in the Irving ISD, works with students Citlali Sierra (left) and Mayra Valencia (right) on a computer software engineering program. Teachers like Warr work hard to stay up-to-date on new software and other technological advancements within the career clusters in which they teach.

Extra Training Other options for professional development include collaborative teaming, long-range planning, advisory board training, and using career coaching technology. “We offer both beginning and advanced Kuder training for career guidance,” says Blessing. “We have a full curriculum for grades seven through 12 which focuses on career guidance that teaches how to incorporate career guidance tools into the classes.” Teachers are also encouraged to participate in summer industry training, We have great leaders among our teachers. I think providing this training and requesting their input helps their leadership ability shine. Shawn Blessing, CTE Director, Irving ISD

which in 2009 included an industry tour of the Microsoft Technology Center, the headquarters for information technology solutions provider NEC America, and Aviall, provider of aftermarket supply-chain management services for aerospace. The format allowed teachers to view stateof-the-art equipment and technology and ask questions of industry professionals. They were given time to network, and, as a result, several of those professionals offered to help with partner-based instruction. All the training is showing its value, says Blessing, in curricular aptitude and in personal satisfaction. “Our goal,” she says, “is to have highly qualified teachers in every classroom who can teach students about a given industry in a relevant manner and help them achieve at their highest level. “And the teachers like it! We have great leaders among our teachers. I think providing this training and requesting their input helps their leadership ability shine.”

P a r t n e r s h i p Spotlight

Getting Teachers Outside the Classroom T

write lesson plans incorporating what they elevision shows such as CSI, Grey’s learned. Anatomy, and Without a Trace make Self-Assessment Checklist After the school received an Investment science look like the most interesting Capital Fund grant through the Texas subject on earth. Education Agency for the externship So why do so many kids practically fall Measure how well your school or program, a new idea was born to get kids asleep in science class? Too often, student district is implementing step Eight— even more excited about learning. can’t see how the class relates to real life. Offer Professional Development—by That’s what Georgetown High School in checking off below the efforts it is Real Life CSI the Georgetown ISD set out to change. already making. “Our kids love CSI,” says Davis. In the hopes “When we implemented AchieveTexas, we of further developing that interest, Davis didn’t restrict our teacher externships to ❏❏ Educators are actively involved contacted Assistant Police Chief Kevin Stofle CTE,” says Gwen Davis, who oversaw the in curricula, assessments, and he arranged for a dozen teachers to go externship program for GHS as Georgetown guidance, and alignment. through the same training that real police ISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) ❏❏ Teachers are familiar with detectives go through. Director. “We felt our CTE teachers career clusters, programs of “The forensics class that they [the understood those core connections, but many Georgetown police department] teach is of the academic teachers did not.” study models, and the Texas basically physics, biology, Looking at the district Achievement Plan (TAP) process. and chemistry,” she says. data, she and her staff saw The teachers came back ❏❏ Counselors are familiar with “For car wrecks, they have that students’ weakest grades so excited. They can’t career clusters, program of study to determine angles, were in math and science, so wait to get back to tell models, and the TAP process. velocities, and why bodies the decision was made to the students all about end up where they do. For a concentrate on getting those ❏❏ Professional development is what they’ve done. chemical spill, they have to core teachers real-world engaging, active, and hands-on. Gwen Davis figure out if it’s gas, oil, or math and science SES Specialist, ESC 13 ❏❏ Education service centers and something else. It seemed professional development. Tech Prep Consortia are used for like the perfect fit in regard “The first year, we sent training, technical assistance, or to the students’ interest and the needs of [math and science] teachers to a construction resource collaboration. teachers.” company where they learned how to survey the land, build a foundation, [and perform] Teachers In Training cost control, and even the geometry of The teachers completed their pitching a roof,” says Davis. The opportunity training in July 2009. Now they are for core teachers to make practical taking it to the classroom, specifically applications in a real construction a new forensic science lab at the environment, says Davis, has gone a long way school. The program has been so to improving the in-class experience for Scheduling and other tasks often keep counselors popular in the district that plans are students. “Our teachers are bringing the distracted, but some solace can be taken in the fact already under way for subsequent insight they gained from these experiences that the Internet has become a valuable career planning years. back to the classroom,” she says. “And as a information resource. In particular, students should “This year, with the support of the result, students are learning that knowledge of use the Internet version of the Occupational Outlook math and science is very important to earning principal and a different funding Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco), America’s Career InfoNet source, we want to try to get to a career in the Architecture and Construction different places,” says Davis. “The career cluster.” www.acinet.orgacinet, Texas Industry Cluster Initiative city has committed to let us use the www.twc.state.tx.us/news/ticluster.html, and Labor utility and water treatment facilities Getting Excited About Learning Market Career Information (LMCI) www.cdr.state.tx.us. next year to learn real-world In another externship, science teachers (For a complete list of career resources, visit applications of environmental worked in the local hospital’s pathology lab, www.AchieveTexas.org.) The Web can also be used to sciences. The teachers came back so where one teacher dissected lymph nodes connect students with local employers for job shadowing, excited. They can’t wait to get back for a breast cancer patient in surgery and to tell the students all about what helped determine how much of the breast internships, mentoring, and other experiences. they’ve done.” to remove. When each group returns, they

CLOSER EX EXAMINATION

What Does That Mean? This glossary defines key terms related to the AchieveTexas initiative AchieveTexas: the name for Texas’ college and career preparation initiative. Articulation agreements: formal agreements between or among educational organizations (high schools, technical colleges, four-year colleges, and universities) that align courses and majors from one educational institution to another in a way that allows a systematic and seamless student transition without loss of course credit or time for the student. Career advancement: continuing education that allows adults to expand their skills and advance in their careers.

Frisco ISD junior Priscilla Villanueva practices pulse checking during a health occupations course in the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center. “I took this class to see if I would be interested in nursing as I want to work in the healthcare industry in the future,” she says. “It’s been an amazing class.”

Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs): curricular organizations for students that offer activities and competitive events related to particular careers. Career awareness: age-appropriate career guidance activities for kindergarten through grade 5 to help students develop an understanding of the world of work and the relationship between education and careers. Career clusters: a way of organizing curricula, instruction, and assessment around specific occupational groups (for example, Information Technology or Health Science) that offers students core academics, coursework related to specific occupations, and extended learning experiences. Career concentration: academic and technical activities provided in high school enabling students to follow Texas Achievement Plans(TAPS) and complete college and career preparation. Career exploration: career guidance activities provided in middle school enabling students to identify their career interests and abilities and explore careers to facilitate their college and career decision-making process. Career guidance: structured developmental experiences presented systematically from kindergarten through grade 12 that help students analyze and evaluate abilities, skills, and interests. Career portfolio: a collection of student work indicating progress made in subjects, activities, or programs. In a career cluster system, portfolios are often used to assess student performance in extended learning experiences. Dual credit: credit given at both the high school and college for college-level courses taken while in high school. Extended learning experiences: Career learning and outside-the-classroom learning experiences such as job shadowing, internships, and service learning.

Education Service Centers: 20 Texas centers that provide technical assistance and professional development support to educators. Professional development: training for educators and educational support staff that help them stay informed about current trends, issues, and best practices in education and their respective fields. Programs of study: a way of organizing the curricula and educational activities within a career cluster related to a student’s specific academic and career goal. Seamless system: a system established for the delivery of a curriculum, program, initiative, etc., that promotes efficiency by reducing duplication and providing a logical progression of activities, courses, etc., that meet the requirements of two or more educational organizations. Targeted Industry Clusters: Six industry clusters that have been identified as highdemand, high-growth, with high-wage jobs and are the economic engines of Texas. Tech Prep: a way to start a college technical major in high school. In a Tech Prep program, you begin your course of study in high school and continue in a community or technical college. The result is a certificate or associate degree in a career field. A key component of Tech Prep is program articulation, which is a planned process linking educational institutions and educational experiences to assist students in making a smooth transition from one level of education to another without experiencing delays or duplication in learning. Texas Achievement Plan (TAP): an educational plan suggesting the high school courses a student should take to prepare successfully for graduation and transition into a profession or postsecondary educational experience. The vision for AchieveTexas is that all 8th graders, in consultation with their parents/guardians, counselors, and teachers will select a career plan and create a TAP. TAPs are to be reviewed and revised at least once each school year.

AchieveTexas Resources Resources for building your AchieveTexas college and career program

STEP 1: Implement AchieveTexas AchieveTexas www.achievetexas.org This website provides information and resources to help schools redesign their programs for the 21st century. Career Cluster Initiative www.careerclusters.org This site disseminates information on the 16 federally defined career clusters. Texas Education Agency www.tea.state.tx.us The state’s education website is the place to keep up with the latest developments in Texas schools. STEP 2: Span All Grades Texas High School Project www.thsp.org The Texas High School Project is a $261 million publicprivate initiative committed to increasing graduation and college enrollment rates in every Texas community. STEP 3: Implement TAPs America’s Career InfoNet www.acinet.org/acinet Using Internet career information resources like America’s Career InfoNet, students can take greater responsibility for their own career research and planning. Program of Study Models www.achievetexas.org This website shows students recommended courses for a particular program of study, what program of study is appropriate during postsecondary education, and recommended extended learning and extracurricular opportunities. STEP 4: Enhance Guidance America’s Career InfoNet www.acinet.org/acinet This is the place to search for occupational information, industry information, and state-specific labor market information. Bridges www.bridges.com Bridges provides software-based and online education planning, career exploration, and high school/college test prep resources. Career Cruising www.careercruising.com Made up of a collection of online career guidance and planning tools, Career Cruising helps students find the right career by giving them a chance to explore education and training options, as well as build a portfolio. CareerOneStop www.careeronestop.org CareerOneStop is a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website that offers career resources and workforce information to job seekers, students, businesses, and workforce professionals to foster talent development in a global economy.

COIN Career Targets Online www.coinedu.com Created by educators for educators, COIN’s Career Targets Online is a web-based application that gives students step-by-step instructions on career planning and is designed to help them learn more about their career interests. Kuder www.kuder.com Kuder, Inc. provides Internet-based tools and resources that aid students and adults in planning for their education and careers. O*NET www.online.onetcenter.org O*NET provides full information on occupations, including compensation, employment prospects, and skill matching for students. Information on compensation is available on a state-by-state basis. U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook www.bls.gov/oco This nationally recognized resource offers information on job responsibilities, earnings, working conditions, and job prospects for the future. STEP 5: Build Seamless Connections Own Your Own Future www.OwnYourOwnFuture.com A student outreach campaign to encourage Texas youth to stay in school and graduate. The website is designed to show teens that graduating from high school is the first step toward college and career. Reality Check www.lmci.state.tx.us/realitycheck This site allows students to search for careers starting with the expenses they need to cover, the salaries they want to make, or their career choices. STEP 6: Establish Extended Learning Texas CTSOs Business Professionals of America (BPA) • www.texasbpa.com DECA, Texas Association • www.texasdeca.org Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) • www.texasfccla.org Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) • www.txfbla.org Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) • www. texashste.com SkillsUSA • www.txskillsusa.org Texas FFA Association • www.texasffa.org Texas Technology Student Association (TSA) • www.texastsa.org

STEP 7: Build Strong Partnerships Governor’s Industry Cluster Initiative www.twc.state.tx.us/news/ticluster.html The State of Texas has identified six industry clusters that will better position it to compete nationally and internationally for jobs of the 21st century. This site addresses the strategic plan, defines the clusters, and gives the rationale for selection. Texas Workforce Commission www.twc.state.tx.us The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the state government agency charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services to employers and job seekers of Texas. For employers, TWC offers recruiting, retention, training and retraining, and outplacement services as well as valuable information on labor law and labor market statistics. For job seekers, TWC offers career development information, job search resources, training programs, and, as appropriate, unemployment benefits. Tech Prep www.techpreptexas.org The Tech Prep website contains a host of useful website links and other resources to help students develop their career plans. Tech Prep differs from other Career and Technical Education programs in that all Tech Prep programs are college-preparatory, designed to prepare students to continue in a related program of study at a two-year college. STEP 8: Offer Professional Development Texas Counseling Association www.txca.org/tca/Default.asp The Texas Counseling Association is dedicated to providing leadership, advocacy, and education to promote the growth and development of the counseling profession and those who are served. Headquartered in Austin, the organization and its programs can help empower counselors to lead students to the best career choices available to them.

AchieveTexas Implementation Guide This 24-page, color Implementation Guide provides valuable information about AchieveTexas that can be used by administrators, counselors, teachers, business and industry representatives, and parents at the local level. For more information or to order a copy of the guide, visit www.achievetexas.org.

Texas Career Clusters

Texasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 16 career clusters are based on those developed by the U.S. Department of Education. Schools and districts may adopt these or develop their own clusters based on the local economy.

Processing, production, distribution, financing, and development of agricultural commodities and natural resources.

Designing, managing, building, and maintaining the built environment.

Executing governmental functions at the local, state, and federal levels.

Processing materials into intermediate or final products.

Providing diagnostic and therapeutic services, health information, support services, and biotechnology research and development.

Performing marketing activities to reach organizational objectives.

Performing scientific research and professional technical services. Creating, exhibiting, performing, and publishing multimedia content.

Managing restaurants and other food services, lodging, attractions, recreation events, and travel-related services. Managing movement of people, materials, and goods by road, pipeline, air, rail, and water.

Organizing, directing, and evaluating functions essential to productive business operations.

Providing education, training, and related learning support services.

Providing for families and serving human needs.

Designing, supporting, and managing hardware, software, multimedia, and systems integration.

1701 North Congress Ave. Austin, TX 78701-1494 512-463-9581 (phone) 512-463-8057 (fax) www.AchieveTexas.org It is the policy of the Texas Education Agency not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or handicap in its Career and Technical Education programs, services, or activities.

Planning finances and investments; managing banking, insurance, and business finances.

Providing legal, public safety, protective, and homeland security services.

Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within the AchieveTexas in Action Best Practices Guide are the property of their respective trademark holders. These trademark holders are not affiliated with AchieveTexas. They do not sponsor or endorse AchieveTexas, or any AchieveTexas program or publication. Opinions expressed in the AchieveTexas in Action Best Practices Guide are those of the individuals to whom they are attributed and are not necessarily those of AchieveTexas, the Texas Education Agency, Texas Tech University, or Texas Independent School Districts (ISDs) in this booklet.