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

VI. Gainesville, Florida

The Tech-Prep consortium in Gainesville was formed by Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) and the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) and its eight high schools. Building on a long history of collaboration, the college and the school district established a Tech-Prep liaison committee in 1990, and later applied for and received an initial Title IIIE grant for school year 1991-1992. In school year 1993-1994, the consortium expanded to include neighboring Bradford County, with its one high school and a technical center, a satellite campus of SFCC, and one campus of four-year St. Leo's College.

The economy in which the Gainesville Tech-Prep program is developing can be described as bimodal. On the one hand, the University of Florida--with its 35,000 students and prestigious medical school--and several other hospitals have attracted a substantial upper-income professional population. Incomes for the rest of the area's population, however, are low. About 55 percent of the elementary school population is eligible for free or reduced price lunches; furthermore, a survey in the late 1980s showed that more than 90 percent of all employees in the county earned less than seven dollars per hour. The county boasts four or five large manufacturing firms, employing from about 175 to 1,300 workers, but no new major employers have begun operations in about a decade.

The development of Tech-Prep builds on years of close cooperation between SFCC and the Alachua County Schools. From the late 1960s through 1973, the college and the district used several cooperative arrangements to run vocational programs, including having the college run secondary vocational programs out of a former junior high school at one time. Since 1974--long before the advent of Tech-Prep--the college and the district have offered high school juniors and seniors several options for dual enrollment in the Santa Fe Community College High School Program:

Vocational Dual Enrollment. Qualifying high school students can take both their occupational and academic classes at the college, earning credits toward a postsecondary occupational certificate or an Associate of Science (A.S.) degree. In 1992-1993, more than 300 students participated in this, the largest of the dual enrollment programs.
Academic Dual Enrollment. Students who have exhausted high school offerings in a particular subject can take a full academic program, including college-level classes at SFCC, or can take some college classes and the remainder of their course work at their home high school. For college-level academic classes, they earn credits toward both a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree.
Early College Admit. Students who feel unchallenged in high school can take a college placement exam to qualify for enrollment in a full college-level program. Each year, a few students satisfy requirements for an A.S. or A.A. degree at the same time that they are granted a high school diploma.
Fine Arts Dual Enrollment. Students in grades 9 to 12 can take SFCC courses in the visual arts, dance, music, and theater, if these course are not available at their high school. Course credits can be applied to an A.A. degree.

This wide range of dual enrollment options facilitates the development of Tech-Prep in several ways. It allows expansion of course options for high school students without duplication; for example, students who are ready for advanced algebra in a high school that does not offer it can take the course at college. Taking courses on a college campus can also build students' maturity and self-esteem, and these students can carry positive information about community college programs back to high school campuses.

Tech-Prep in Gainesville builds on the earlier dual enrollment vocational program in three ways. First, the consortium is systematically developing articulated programs of study covering four years of high school and postsecondary study, each leading to a college certificate or degree in an occupational specialty. Second, applied academics curricula are being developed and introduced in grades 9 to 12, and to some extent at the college level. Third, the career development process--including development of individual programs of study, career awareness and career-focused curricula, and workplace exposure--has become more systematic. These changes are being driven by an elaborate Tech-Prep governance and planning structure.

A. Articulation and Programs of Study

The salient feature of the emerging Tech-Prep program in Gainesville is the implementation of a comprehensive form of secondary/postsecondary articulation. Since 1974, the dual enrollment programs operated under an articulation agreement that specified the responsibilities of SBAC and SFCC, the basis on which they shared costs and revenues from dual enrollment programs, and the manner in which credits earned in SFCC courses would be calculated as high school credits.¹ The new Tech-Prep articulation agreement incorporates and extends the terms of the earlier one. It defines four key aspects of Tech-Prep for students who choose Tech-Prep over the University Prep program:

A planned sequence of high school and college courses leading to either an occupational certificate or an A.S. degree
Completion in high school of upper-level math, English, and science/technology courses taught using applied curricula and instruction methods
Expanded opportunities to participate in dual enrollment programs and to earn college credits in high school
Programs of study focusing on technical preparation in high-skill areas in a wide range of career fields

These key features mark the shift from course articulation to articulation of programs. Each of the roughly 35 programs of study developed to date sets out a student's full academic and vocational program for grades 9 to 12 and for community college, with the exception of one elective each semester. Furthermore, many programs of study recommend appropriate electives, as well as co-op work placement. Each program of study identifies the college-level programs, and the courses in these programs, for which credit can be earned in a specific sequence of high school vocational courses. For example, a student who completes three years of progressively more advanced drafting and design technology classes in high school can earn credit for a four-term college sequence. Most college credit earned is based on the vocational component of the students' high school program, but college credit in mathematics can also be awarded to students who take college-level intermediate or advanced algebra in high school. College credits are awarded, however, only if a student completes the entire secondary portion of the program of study, including both vocational and academic classes.

Programs of study are grouped in broad clusters, but students choose an occupational specialty. For purposes of organizing planning committees and structuring marketing materials, the consortium has defined nine broad career clusters: (1) business and marketing; (2) computer science; (3) technical education; (4) industrial technology; (5) electronic engineering technology; (6) health occupations; (7) environmental science; (8) agritechnology; and (9) human services. When students begin Tech-Prep in ninth grade, however, they choose a particular occupational specialty within one of these clusters. For example, within the computer science group, students can choose computer programming analysis, computer information systems analysis and applications, or business data processing. In industrial technology, they can choose automotive technology, automotive service technology, industrial machinery maintenance and repair, or residential construction and building technology. The choice of a program of study for a particular occupational specialty--identified by the postsecondary program in which it culminates--gives students a clearly defined path of required study leading to a postsecondary credential. Choices of a specific occupational program made in ninth grade can be reexamined later; the similarities among requirements for related specialties allow students considerable latitude to change their minds during the first few years of high school, without extending the overall time required to reach their degree objective.

Although about 35 articulated programs of study have been defined, students' choices are somewhat narrower in practice. Each high school chooses which programs to offer, on the basis of the school's strengths in its existing vocational programs, as well as the interests and eagerness of academic and vocational teachers to get involved. High school offerings are also partially determined by district decisions to create certain magnet programs--such as an Institute of Health Professions (IHP) at one high school and an environmental horticulture program at another. Most students currently choose from among the existing vocational programs for which articulated programs of study have been developed--between 4 and 8 programs at each of six high schools, but 11 at one high school and 16 at the SFCC high school.² Some students, however, can choose a program offered at another school and can ride a school bus to attend the program.

Given the many options built into programs of study in Gainesville, the consortium's Tech-Prep model can be characterized as "4 + almost anything." Some programs lead to an A.S. degree, which generally requires 64 college credit hours, or more than two years of full-time study. Others lead to an occupational certificate after one or two years of college. Some programs have multiple exit points. For example, a student can complete the high school portion of some health programs and exit with a marketable skill as a phlebotomist, go on to the community college for one semester and get a certificate as a paramedic, attend college a full two years and get an A.S. degree in emergency medical services, and then pursue a baccalaureate degree in health administration through St. Leo's College. Under Florida's uniform course numbering system for state colleges and universities, students can readily transfer academic credits from community colleges to four-year state institutions. SFCC is negotiating with several colleges and universities to allow graduates of occupational technology programs to transfer credit into other bachelor's degree programs.

B. Changes in Curriculum and Instruction

Every program of study emphasizes exposing students to higher-level academic material than was typical in the general and vocational education tracks. Students choosing any of the articulated occupational programs of study must take the following in high school:

Four years of math (compared with the three-year state requirement)
Four years of English, including two of applied communications
Three or four years of science, typically including Principles of Technology and biotechnology (Applied Biochemistry). In less science-oriented fields, such as business administration or fashion marketing technology, three years are required. In more technical fields, students may be required to take general science, two years of applied science/technology, and a college-level science course at SFCC in 12th grade--such as anatomy and physiology, circuit fabrication, or herbaceous plants.

Changing the academic classes taken by Tech-Prep students has been a gradual process. Committees representing the college, high schools, business, and the community had to be formed to develop or adopt curricula (see Section D). Teachers interested in applied curricula and innovative approaches to instruction, such as hands-on, self-directed inquiry and cooperative learning, had to be recruited. Teachers had to be trained, and labs had to be equipped. The process is not yet complete, nor does it affect only Tech-Prep students. Although applied academic curricula are being introduced as part of Tech-Prep, some students who are not technically enrolled in Tech-Prep, such as vocational students in programs not yet articulated with the college, also take such classes. Students in 11th and 12th grades who were enrolled in articulated occupational programs in the 1993-1994 school year were taking applied academics classes but not necessarily in all three target subjects. Moreover, as the "start-up group," they had not taken applied classes in 9th and 10th grades.

Although the fall 1993 site visit did not clarify the precise extent to which revised academic classes are available in each school, clear examples of applied academics instruction were observed:

In an Applied Math class for 11th-graders, students practiced estimating the perimeter of a large building. They first established the number of paces and the number of seconds required to walk 100 feet--working in small teams and walking the distance several times to establish average rates. They then walked the perimeter and measured it in paces and seconds, applying computed rates to estimate the total distance.
In a biotechnology class (based on a commercially available Applied Biochemistry curriculum), students entered the lab and immediately went to work in pairs on an exercise designed to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of various compounds in extracting water vapor from air. The instructor circulated among them, answering questions and giving occasional advice.
In an Applied Communications class made up largely of students who were also enrolled in an automotive technology program, the instructor asked students to define a new automotive product and develop an outline for a commercial to advertise it. Students sat in small groups, struggling for reasonable ideas and words to express them. Students in Applied Communications classes work part of the time in a computer-equipped writing lab, in which teachers stress the ability to write very short but technically correct memoranda--emphasizing complete sentences, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling.

Instructional approaches used in applied academics classes, such as cooperative learning, to some extent affect teachers of other classes that Tech-Prep students might take. For example, some students in a Tech-Prep articulated program were observed in an English IV class that was not based on an applied academics curriculum, but rather stressed reading of classical literature. The students had read a portion of Macbeth; working cooperatively in small groups, each with an appointed recording secretary, they were developing lists of Duncan's characteristics and the basis for their judgments, reporting their conclusions and justifications to the whole class.

Although curriculum enhancement to date has concentrated on academic rather than vocational classes, and on the secondary rather than the postsecondary level, there are exceptions. In developing articulated programs of study, curriculum committees work to align the technical content to be covered in high school and college courses. In the process, changes have been made in some secondary vocational classes, such as the adoption of a college-level textbook on drafting and design. Concepts of applied academic instruction have also begun to affect some college-level classes; the college math instructor who teaches Applied Math to high school students has also developed a college-level course using applied methods and exercises relevant to automotive technology, building construction, and other occupational fields.

Through the IHP at Gainesville High School, movement toward forming career academies has also occurred. Students from Gainesville High or other high schools who choose any of the health-related programs of study attend this magnet program for their academic classes, which are taught by a team of eight teachers who work only with IHP students throughout all four years of high school. Faculty report a great improvement in their own morale and in students' effort and responsibility. Teachers note that, in assessing student performance, they have begun to stress not only academic skills but also personal habits that are important to employers. These habits include willingness to volunteer and participate in group efforts, ability to cooperate and avoid conflict, and attendance and punctuality. According to teachers, students respond to insistence on such habits. Students reported that they were aware of and appreciated this emphasis on behavior and work habits.

C. Recruiting, Guidance, and Career Development

Like many Tech-Prep programs, the Gainesville consortium must overcome a common and long-standing prejudice: that vocational education is for youths who cannot make it in college and who can work effectively only with their hands. Preference for the university is also common among parents. A 1990 survey revealed that two-thirds wanted their children to go to college, and more than half preferred a four-year college. Most who anticipated that their children might go to community college saw it as an inexpensive start on a bachelor's degree. (However, the careers that parents perceived as high status and high paying generally required only an associate's degree.) Attitudes are changing, however, particularly among students, who generally view community college more favorably than do their parents. There remains, however, an almost universal demand among parents and students for high school programs that lead to college, as well as a distrust of traditional vocational programs that might not.

Consortium leaders have therefore carefully framed students' choice at the end of eighth grade as a choice between two college-prep programs. Tech-Prep leads to college-level preparation for technical careers, beginning in the community college and potentially continuing at a four-year institution. University Prep leads directly to four-year programs in the humanities, sciences, or arts. Students who choose Tech-Prep then select a program of study with the help of a guidance counselor.³ Counselors have been trained and given a carefully prepared manual that sets out the objectives and advantages of Tech-Prep, as well as the programs of study for each of the dozens of occupational specialties. SBAC and college staff make a concerted effort to market Tech-Prep to students, parents, and the community. Early in the year, consortium staff send a Tech-Prep brochure and letter to eighth-grade students and their parents. College staff make presentations at the middle schools and high schools about college occupational programs that students can enter through Tech-Prep, as well as other dual enrollment options. Guidance counselors make their regular presentations in preparation for individual meetings with each student to develop their high school plan and ninth-grade course selection; these presentations now give equal weight to the Tech-Prep and University Prep options. A promotional campaign--including paid radio and television announcements, talk-show appearances, press releases, a Tech-Prep video, and speeches to civic and business groups--has substantially raised public awareness. According to consortium staff, this heightened awareness is evidenced by the fact that local newspaper articles about education, employment, and factors affecting the future American work force frequently refer to Tech-Prep as an established program.

By fall 1993, some students in all four high school grades had chosen Tech-Prep and had developed programs of study. The first two of these cohorts were still start-up groups; that is, they had developed their programs of study in the 10th or 11th grade, rather than in the 9th grade as called for in the program design, and had taken a less complete sequence of applied academics classes than younger students will. A total of 485 students in 11th and 12th grades were counted as Tech-Prep participants. Including 9th and 10th graders, almost 2,000 high school students had chosen Tech-Prep and were pursuing academic and vocational courses based on a program of study for an articulated program.

Although only a few cohorts of students have been recruited thus far for Tech-Prep, the program is still developing, and consortium staff recognize the challenge of attracting a Tech-Prep student body that matches district demographics. The Alachua County Schools' student population as a whole is about 66 percent white, 27 percent African American, and 7 percent Hispanic. Thus far, the Tech-Prep student population is more heavily white; for example, the vocational dual enrollment program at the college, which has the largest concentration of Tech-Prep students among the eight high schools, is 77 percent white, 17 percent African American, and 6 percent Hispanic and other groups. Consortium staff have noted that African Americans are more likely to choose business-related programs rather than more technically oriented programs--perhaps because of persistent concerns about tracking of these students into manual crafts--and that females are overrepresented in health occupations and underrepresented in other technical fields.

Two strategies have been pursued that can contribute to Tech-Prep recruiting in general and to attracting a balanced Tech-Prep population. SFCC has conducted special summer programs to attract females and minority males to technical programs--giving participants brief exposure to various occupational courses and arranging for them to go on field trips to engineering firms and other employment sites and meet with recent SFCC graduates who work in technical fields. The school board is installing technology laboratories in all district middle schools; eighth-graders who choose this elective rotate through about 12 work stations during a semester. At these stations, they work in pairs to perform technological exercises, gather data, and prepare reports on their results. For example, students shape airplane wings and test the lift generated by each in a small wind tunnel. These laboratories are part of a broad strategy to promote wide acceptance of and interest in technical careers, and to develop skills in independent inquiry and teamwork.

Activities designed to expose students to the workplace are also part of a broad strategy to promote career focus. The most systematically planned activity is the IHP workplace component. Every IHP student is placed in a volunteer job at a hospital, clinic, or other health facility for 2 to 3 hours per week, or about 75 hours per year. Students are matched with workplaces that they can reach on their own; in some cases, schools provide transportation. Beginning in 1994-1995, SBAC staff anticipate placing 9th- and 10th-grade students in these limited volunteer roles, and placing 11th-and 12th-graders in more intensive rotations at various hospital departments, for unpaid, practical workplace training. For the general student population, SBAC offers an annual career shadowing day for juniors and seniors that has attracted as many as 600 participants.

D. Governance and Resources

A five-level governance structure has been developed to guide the development of Tech-Prep in Alachua County. The liaison committee, which meets once a year, is composed of senior administrators from both the college and SBAC, the Tech-Prep coordinator (from the college staff), and the SBAC supervisor of vocational programs. A large leadership advisory committee, which meets twice a year, includes numerous representatives of all key groups--college and school district administrators, faculty and counselors from the college and the high schools, employers, civic groups, and community residents. Membership for this committee is large, to allow formation of curriculum review, evaluation, community awareness, and counseling subcommittees that also include representatives from the same key groups. The first two subcommittees include smaller working groups--the former for review of new curricula in math, science, and English, and the latter for functions such as communications with parents, development of business partnerships, and creation of Tech-Prep marketing materials.

The final two governance bodies develop programs of study. Curriculum development committees have been formed for each of the nine occupational specialty clusters. In turn, these committees have occupational subcommittees, which develop a program of study for each occupational program and submit it for review by the higher-level committees. This complex structure has one noteworthy strength: at all levels, all parties are represented, including the college and the schools, academic and vocational faculty and counselors, and employers and community and parent mentors. After defining programs of study and the courses they include, the curriculum development committees continue to meet, somewhat less frequently, to develop more detailed curriculum materials and teaching strategies. Committee members--high school and college vocational and academic instructors--often conduct mutual classroom observations to enhance their understanding of each other's teaching methods and course content and to refine teaching strategies.

The college's Tech-Prep coordinator and the SBAC's supervisor of vocational programs play lead roles in this complex governance structure. The Tech-Prep coordinator administers the consortium funds (in 1992-1993, a $200,000 Title IIIE grant and $50,000 in local funding). Title IIIE funds were used primarily for the consortium coordinator and part-time clerical staff as well as for staff training, curriculum development, and equipment purchases for applied academics laboratories. Other Perkins Act funds have been used to provide staff training on integration of vocational and academic instruction. A Perkins Act sex-equity grant supported a summer program at the college to attract females to technical programs involving brief exposure to several technical fields. JTPA funds supported a similar summer program for minority males. A state grant has helped finance IHP development.

¹ Dual enrollment programs offer financial advantages because the college earns some state aid for each college-level course taken by high school students, while SBAC earns full-time state aid for dually enrolled students, even though they may be taking most or even all of their courses at the college.

² Secondary vocational programs in Florida must demonstrate positive employment outcomes to receive continued funding. If, for three years in a row, they cannot demonstrate that 70 percent of program graduates become employed in a related field, state funding may be terminated. The consortium relies on this overall policy to ensure that the articulated programs it offers prepare students for demand occupations.

³ Not all vocational programs are articulated with college programs, so the traditional vocational track also exists.
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[V. Fresno, California]

[VII. Hartford, Connecticut]