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The economic climate and outlook for the future are strong in Springdale and the northwestern part of Arkansas. The area around Springdale, a city of 33,000, had a 1993 unemployment rate of only 2.5 percent and a diversified industrial base. Strong employment, in fact, poses a challenge to educators: they must work to keep students in school who can leave before graduation and find employment. Major employers like Tyson Foods, Danaher Tool Group, and the local hospital each provide jobs for more than 900 people. Midsize firms employing more than 250 include the turkey processing division of Cargill, Inc., aluminum extruder Kawneer Company, Heekin Can Company, and Northwest AR Paper. These and a wide range of smaller employers need skilled workers with computer and technical skills, and local demand for such workers is expected to increase during the next five years. Growth is likely to be fueled by the recent approval of a new airport that will add 2,000 jobs to the local economy, the planned construction of a $25 million facility to rebuild aircraft cockpits, and the projected construction of a four-lane highway in the area.
Before initiation of reforms associated with Tech-Prep, relationships between business and the public education system were cooperative but mostly informal. These relationships have generally revolved around single issues or events rather than sustained joint endeavors. The Chamber of Commerce education subcommittee was instrumental in establishing Northwest Technical Institute in 1975 and has supported it ever since. In 1991, for example, members successfully intervened to avert its threatened shutdown. The Chamber of Commerce has also been involved in teacher receptions, academic awards, honorary banquets, and monetary awards for outstanding student performance.
Guidance from the state has determined some of the elements of the local Tech-Prep initiative. The Department of Education has defined a Tech-Prep high school diploma, as well as courses that students must complete and the minimum grade point average (2.75) that they must achieve to earn this diploma. Teachers must participate in state training for certification to teach a work-readiness course required for the Tech-Prep diploma. If a local consortium is introducing applied academic curricula, teachers are also required to take part in state training sessions to become familiar with the new curricula and instructional concepts.
A major focus of the Tech-Prep effort is broadening the concept of articulation to create comprehensive drawing boards. Previous articulation agreements among Springdale High School, Northwest Arkansas Community College, and Northwest Technical Institute focused on identifying the secondary courses and competencies for which postsecondary credit could be granted, as well as the conditions under which credit could be granted. The current intent is broader--to identify comprehensive, six-year sequences of academic and vocational courses. These drawing boards will detail the entire sequence of courses in grades 9 to 12, as well as in two years of community college, for each of 14 occupational specialties. For each of these specialties, a secondary program exists that can lead to related programs at the postsecondary level. These occupational specialties are grouped, for purposes of defining the secondary portion of each drawing board, into five broad clusters: (1) agriculture; (2) business and marketing; (3) trade and industry; (4) home economics/child care; and (5) child care/guidance management. The local coordinator hoped to have the new six-year drawing board agreements finalized by the end of school year 1993-1994, but guidance counselors were already using drafts of the drawing boards during that school year.
Creating the full range of articulated drawing board sequences entails negotiating additional agreements on the equivalences between secondary and postsecondary courses, and this process has presented some challenges. Because high school classes must be aligned with courses taught at two postsecondary institutions--the community college and the technical institute--both of these institutions must be involved in course reviews. The institutions organize the scope and content of their courses independently, using different credit systems (the college's Carnegie units and the institute's clock hours). Reconciling course differences and credit equivalences has required long meetings among busy instructional staff from all three institutions.
Efforts have also been made to streamline the process for granting college credit. Under the more traditional articulation agreements, students earned college credit either by getting certain course grades in high school or by achieving a specified score on a special advanced placement exam. In the consortium's overall plan, credit will instead be granted on the basis of a final course examination at the high school level, which will be designed jointly by secondary and postsecondary instructors. This effort was under way in fall 1993.
Program development plans set forth in fall 1993 included two additional features that would involve articulation and development of occupationally oriented programs of study. First, the consortium was exploring possibilities for articulation at the postsecondary level--transfers of credit from the consortium's two-year institutions to a four-year state college, as well as transfers of credit within the consortium between the community college and the technical institute. Local consortium leaders believe that arrangements for credit transfer to four-year colleges will allow students to apply the credit at any state college campus, although the process by which this statewide articulation will be negotiated was not yet clear during the initial site visit. The consortium was also planning in fall 1993 to implement a new health occupations program in the following school year. The program would be modeled after the Boston-based Project ProTech and would target specific occupations, such as medical transcriptionist, physical therapist, nurse assistant, and medical assistant. This program, which would involve students in job shadowing and possibly other forms of workplace experience at the local hospital, would constitute a sixth career cluster.
All of the occupationally oriented drawing boards developed in Springdale incorporate requirements for academic, occupational, and general career development classes--some established by the state and some by the local Tech-Prep plan. Each drawing board reflects the state's requirement that all students take three years of mathematics and four years of English to graduate, and increases the state requirement of two years of science to three. Students who choose an occupationally oriented drawing board meet these requirements in part by taking applied academics classes--Math Tech I and II in grades 9 and 10 or 10 and 11, English Tech in 12th grade, and Principles of Technology I and II in 11th and 12th grades.1 The drawing boards call for a total of four credits (years) of vocational courses directly focused on the student's chosen career direction, as well as two additional credits in vocational courses related to that concentration.2 Each drawing board also includes the following requirements for general introductory courses, established by the state for a Tech-Prep diploma:
Logistical constraints have led the consortium to depart from a committee approach for curriculum development, in favor of a more sequential review process. Originally, the consortium tried to form subcommittees of high school and postsecondary faculty and business members for curriculum development. However, high school administrators and department heads complained that this approach took teachers out of their classrooms for meetings too often. Instead, the local coordinator conducted initial reviews of commercially available curriculum materials. She then submitted her recommendations in turn to high school instructors, their postsecondary counterparts, and finally to business and industry representatives. The local coordinator then worked with the secondary and postsecondary staff to make final revisions, before the curriculum was submitted to the governing board for final approval.
The resulting curricula adopted in the high school--in Applied Mathematics, Principles of Technology, and Applied Communications--have had some visible effects on what goes on in the classroom. Instructors of these classes report placing much more emphasis on hands-on and cooperative learning than they have in previous courses. The high school math and science teachers confirm that the Math Tech and Principles of Technology courses, as intended, are demanding more from students than the general math and science courses they replaced. According to high school faculty, the introduction of applied curricula and the attendant staff development sessions have had a broader effect as well. Several of the labs now being used in Math Tech I and II are being used by teachers in College Prep math classes. These teachers are also using more cooperative learning approaches.
Classroom activities observed in fall 1993 illustrate the direction of curriculum change:
In these observations, the activities begun one day and continued the next illustrate one type of difficulty that Springdale staff have encountered in implementing applied academic curricula. The high school schedule is made up of seven 50-minute class periods, and students attend the same classes every day on this schedule. As a result, the preparations--conceptual introduction, discussion, and equipment setup--for hands-on learning activities must usually occur on one day, and the actual work or the exercise on the next day. The continuity of students' work is often disrupted as a result, and teachers must work to refocus students' attention on an exercise introduced the previous day. Instructors of applied classes would like to shift to longer classes that meet fewer times per week, but there does not appear to be any immediate prospect of such a change.
Consideration of the possible need for curriculum changes at the postsecondary level has been deferred. Postsecondary administrators and faculty believe the initial focus of Tech-Prep development efforts should be on efforts to bring secondary curricula in line with existing postsecondary curricula, and to establish course equivalencies so that students can avoid redundant courses. Issues such as how--or whether--to modify postsecondary technical courses to build on better high school preparation, or to enhance the effectiveness of academic classes, are being put on hold until Tech-Prep students reach the college level, and college staff can gauge the effects of secondary changes on students' skills.
A great deal of effort has been put into staff development to facilitate curriculum changes. In 1992-1993, invitations to participate attracted 105 academic staff and counselors and 30 vocational instructors, who voluntarily attended some of the staff development sessions related to Tech-Prep at the local level. Furthermore, 20 teachers of math, English, or science took state-level sessions required for certification to teach applied academics. Five other teachers have been certified at the state-level to teach workplace readiness. The consortium planned to require participation in staff development in 1994-1995 for relevant staff. Staff development sessions were conducted by the local coordinator, American Vocational Association, Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD), Southern Regional Education Board, and Arkansas Department of Vocational Education.
Efforts to promote interest and support have focused instead on curriculum changes, the guidance process, and the importance of thinking about future career directions. Brochures have been developed to inform parents about curriculum changes, including the introduction of the new "Tech" classes in mathematics, technology, and communications. At a job fair organized by the Chamber of Commerce, students selected to represent each classroom visited employers' booths, obtained information about the skills and education required for various jobs, and reported back to their classmates--a way, planners hoped, to increase students' awareness of area industries and potential careers in these industries.
The newly developed six-year drawing boards are part of an ongoing guidance process for all students, beginning in eighth grade and extending through high school. In eighth grade, students complete a Career Assessment Battery (CAB) that provides information about their learning styles, aptitudes, and career interests. They then meet with a guidance team, consisting of a junior high school teacher and a senior high school teacher, to discuss the outcomes of the assessment and to complete a CAP.4 In completing the CAP, students are asked to identify three broad career areas that interest them from a list that encompasses all occupations, and to indicate the education or training they expect to pursue after high school. Students whose interests and CAB results suggest that they will not attend a four-year college also select, with the assistance of the guidance team, a six-year occupational drawing board to guide their selection of classes in ninth grade and later years.
Each year, all students review their career directions and reassess their interests, abilities, and educational plans. The junior and senior high school teachers meet with students in ninth grade to review the CAP and, if relevant, the six-year drawing board. In 10th grade, students take the Armed Services Vocational Assessment Battery (ASVAB) to reassess their career interests and abilities. They then meet with the senior high school teacher to review and make adjustments to the six-year plan. The 10th-grade counseling also provides an opportunity to give students information about local incentives to complete their six-year plan, such as the possibility of taking courses for a reduced rate at the community college if they achieve a minimum score or better on the final articulation examination. In 11th grade, formal responsibility for counseling shifts to regular guidance counselors, and the process focuses more closely on graduation requirements, progress toward graduation, and further steps in the relevant six-year drawing board. Twelfth-grade counseling focuses on credits needed for graduation, registration for college-entrance tests, if appropriate, and procedures for obtaining financial aid for postsecondary education. All 12th-grade students and their parents are required to attend a financial aid workshop with counselors, to review the costs and financing of postsecondary education.
Given the universal guidance process for all students and the intentional avoidance of a distinct Tech-Prep program identity, the Springdale consortium does not specifically recruit students to a Tech-Prep program and does not identify a student as a "Tech-Prep participant." It is possible, however, to characterize the level of student involvement in components such as vocational education and six-year articulated drawing board plans. Students whose postsecondary plans do not include matriculation to a four year college or university, and who choose an occupational drawing board and take one or more vocational courses, make up more than 40 percent of the students in Springdale High School. These students might be considered the "Tech-Prep population." They reflect the demographics of the school, which is 99 percent white and 1 percent Asian.
The focus on career direction for these students includes efforts to expand workplace experience and opportunities for career exploration. In fall 1993, only limited workplace experience was available, through a co-op program that provided opportunities for students in the agriculture and business/marketing clusters. Current plans will expand these opportunities. The health occupations program, modeled on Project ProTech, slated to begin in school year 1994-1995, will entail substantial work-site activity. Workplace experience will also be stressed in a youth apprenticeship program in banking and finance that is to begin in 1994-1995. Plans are also under way for a career counseling center to provide occupationally specific career guidance, with students required to complete certain activities each year beginning in the ninth grade.
Outside links are most apparent in the structure of the governing board. The board includes four members from the three educational partners: (1) the local Tech-Prep coordinator from Springdale High School; (2) the president and the dean of student services at Northwest Arkansas Community College; and (3) the director of student services at Northwest Technical Institute. It also includes, however, two "outside" members--the Tech-Prep coordinator from Rogers High School, which is also linked in a consortium to the same community college, and a representative from the Northwest Arkansas consortium of 18 school districts--a confederation that deals with a wide range of educational issues other than Tech-Prep. This governing board serves as the decision-making body for both the Springdale and Rogers consortia, which received separate Tech-Prep consortium grants but work with the community college (in some respects as a single consortium).5 Information on Tech-Prep development is being shared by these two overlapping consortia--among the earliest Tech-Prep grantees in the state--with the various districts that make up the Northwest Arkansas consortium and that are beginning to implement their own Tech-Prep programs.
Within the Springdale consortium, the local coordinator is the hub of most activity. The coordinator, housed at the high school campus, reviews funding needs, allocates Tech-Prep monies, leads curriculum development and selection efforts, and brings recommendations to the governing board for its approval. The local coordinator has a close working relationship with members of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, particularly the district superintendent, who is a leading member of the Chamber's education committee and a strong supporter of Tech-Prep reforms. Although business and industry are not formally represented on the governing board, the coordinator can use informal communications to get input and help from Chamber members, when necessary.
Support for Tech-Prep development in Springdale has come from several federal and state sources for vocational education. In 1993-1994, the consortium received $106,000 in its third year of Perkins Title IIIE funds, $63,325 in Perkins Title IIC funds, $25,960 in state vocational start-up funds for the Principles of Technology and workplace-readiness courses, and $21,742 in state vocational equipment funds for lab materials. Most of these resources were spent on curriculum development and acquisition, the consortium coordinator's salary and benefits, and staff development activities. Looking to the future, the local coordinator believes that schoolwide reform efforts will be sustained by local funding, but expanding the use of applied academics, particularly laboratory-based courses like Principles of Technology, will require additional outside funds.
2 Requirements for both the Tech-Prep and College Prep diploma are extensive, so students who remain undecided about their postsecondary direction through 9th grade or 10th grade may have difficulty meeting these requirements after they eventually decide. For example, two years of a foreign language are required for admission to state four-year colleges. To give undecided students some flexibility, the consortium allows foreign languages to count toward satisfaction of the "related vocational" requirements for a Tech-Prep diploma.
3 Students are encouraged to take the workplace-readiness course in the semester before they start any type of part-time employment [that they found on their own or through the school's co-op program].
4 Guidance teams at this level are composed of a junior and a senior high school teacher to make up a shortage of regular guidance counselors.
5 Information obtained after the site visit suggests that the Springdale and Rogers consortia may formally consolidate.
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[XI. Springfield, Massachusetts]