A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Diverse Forms of Tech-Prep: Implementation Approaches in Ten Local Consortia - 1995

XII. Emerging Issues - Continued

4. What Are the Implications of Alternative Strategies for Introducing Applied Academics?

Virtually all Tech-Prep consortia report that they have implemented curricula emphasizing applied learning. Most schools have focused on applied academic curricula and instruction to help students master scientific, mathematical, and English language skills and link these skills to practical applications. In some consortia, introduction of applied academics curricula is the most apparent change associated with Tech-Prep to date. Emphasis on applied academics is due in part to language in the Title IIIE legislation that encourages adoption of such curricula, and perhaps in part to effective marketing of packaged curricula nationwide. Applied academics curricula, when well implemented, demonstrate the relevance of physics, mathematics, and communications skills to the world of work, engaging students in active learning through group projects, discussion, laboratory experiments, and other hands-on activities to help them grasp otherwise abstract concepts and clarify their real-world applications.

Various approaches have been taken to introducing applied academic curricula. Local approaches vary with regard to three issues that have potentially important implications for school staff and students: (1) Whom is it for? (2) How should curriculum be developed? and (3) Which teachers should be involved?

Whom Is the Applied Academics Approach for? Consortia have made different decisions about which students are the target population for applied academics curricula and instruction. Some consortia explicitly create applied academics classes for vocational students--either all students enrolled in any vocational course, or only those in specific occupational courses designated as part of a Tech-Prep program. Other consortia--typically those that view Tech-Prep as an element of systemic reform--prefer to make classes based on applied curricula broadly available to all students and rely on counselors to guide students to these classes. Students who actually enroll in applied academics classes are rarely drawn evenly from across the full student population, however. In the sites we have observed, counselors usually view the applied courses as most appropriate for students with lower academic performance. In a few cases, however, staff have promoted applied technology or science courses as rigorous and challenging alternatives to traditional ones and encouraged a wide variety of students, including university-bound ones, to take them.

Choice of the target population can determine whether the applied courses are perceived by students, faculty, and parents as challenging or remedial. Schools that use applied academics instruction for vocational students sometimes offer courses that were originally designed for lower grade levels. For example, the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) Applied Math I curriculum, designed to be challenging for ninth-grade students, is used across the 10 study sites, at all grade levels in high school as well as at the college level. Achieving acceptance of packaged applied academic curricula for use with a broad range of students may be more difficult if the applied courses are used at first for students at higher grade levels, because the courses and the applied approach may become stigmatized as remedial.

How Should Applied Curricula Be Developed? Development of applied curricula has been approached in three ways by the consortia included in the evaluation:

These varying approaches can have different consequences for teachers and students. Packaged curricula minimize the course-planning effort for teachers; in some schools in the study sites, this advantage has inducted some teachers to accept an assignment to teach applied academics courses. On the other hand, adopting commercial packages requires less interaction and collaboration among academic and vocational teachers than a local effort to develop applied courses, and it may not engage teachers as fully in rethinking how they teach. Moreover, courses built entirely around off-the-shelf curricula are often formally labeled by a district or a state education agency as "applied." In some states, four-year colleges and universities do not recognize applied math, science, or English courses as academic high school credits for purposes of admission decisions, which stigmatizes the courses. This prospect has led many consortia to adopt the more diffuse strategy of incorporating applied learning techniques and materials more selectively into traditional course curricula.

Who Should Teach Applied Curricula? Consortia also differ in their decisions about which teachers should use newly developed or adopted applied academics curricula, often because of state requirements. Although vocational instructors might be well equipped to create occupationally relevant applications of academic skills in the classroom, most consortia assign academic teachers to teach the new curricula. Particularly when the curricula are locally developed by academic teachers, this decision sometimes yields classes in which curriculum and teaching methods deviate little, in classrooms we observed, from traditional methods of academic instruction. In some cases, academic teachers are assigned because academic credit can be awarded only for classes taught by certified (academic) teachers. In other instances, vocational instructors are reluctant to teach academic skills. However, schools that rely on state vocational funding to implement applied academics may find it possible, advantageous, or even necessary to assign vocational instructors to these courses and to incorporate applied academic modules into vocational instruction. For example, the California vocational education system funds only courses that teach occupational skills. To comply with this regulation, a vocational high school in the Fresno consortium is teaching units of Principles of Technology in the building and construction course and the heating and air-conditioning course.
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[3. How Can Consortia Make Programs of Study a Meaningful Feature of Tech-Prep?] [Table of Contents] [5. How Much Will Tech-Prep Change Postsecondary Programs?]