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Efforts to develop a Tech-Prep program in Hartford are unfolding against a backdrop of considerable change and, in some respects, turmoil in the participating educational institutions and in the local economy. The college partner, CCTC, is still going through organizational changes associated with the merger of Greater Hartford Community College and Hartford State Technical College that created CCTC. For several years, the Hartford school district has experienced severe financial difficulties, resulting in budget cuts, threats of massive teacher and administration layoffs, and the highly publicized possibility that the district will contract with a private firm to run the schools. Although the greater Hartford area has long been home to some important large employers, including several hospitals, Pratt and Whitney and United Technologies plants, and national insurance company headquarters, many have substantially reduced their labor force. By 1993, Pratt and Whitney's technical training staff, for example, had declined to 4 from 45 a few years earlier.
Formation of the Tech-Prep consortium was the first substantive attempt at collaboration between CCTC and the Hartford district. Although an agreement articulating the vocational child care course at one Hartford high school had been developed about three years before the consortium was established, this agreement was negotiated by individual faculty and was not part of a broader articulation effort. Moreover, few students were taking advantage of the opportunity to earn college credit in high school. Still, the district's vocational division (called the Career Readiness Unit) viewed this early agreement as a foundation for discussions with the college about articulation in other occupational areas.
Further development of course articulation has been the primary thrust of Tech-Prep efforts so far. This effort has involved some curriculum changes at the secondary level. The district has also defined groups of articulated academic and vocational courses at the 11th- and 12th-grade level as Tech-Prep programs of study or "occupational clusters" that are recommended to interested students who apply and meet specified criteria. By fall 1993, the district and the college had defined two such programs in technical fields and were conducting pilot tests of program clusters in two other fields. District staff had also defined course clusters for other fields that may be articulated with other nearby colleges offering relevant programs, even though these colleges are not formally part of the Capital Region Tech-Prep consortium.
Each cluster definition includes particular courses in the 11th and 12th grades. The clusters comprise vocational, English, and science courses in the 11th grade, and the relevant vocational course and a math course in 12th grade. In the 1993-1994 school year, the cluster recommendations for specific academic courses differed. During that year, the clusters for health occupations and child care included English composition and black/urban literature in 11th grade, whereas the manufacturing technology, law enforcement, and culinary arts clusters included Applied Communications. Variations in recommended English courses reflected CCTC staff's view that different postsecondary programs required different competencies. Because the district's objective was to articulate all cluster courses, it accepted the college's preference, although district staff would have preferred to include Applied Communications as the core 11th-grade English course for all clusters.1
These cluster definitions are quite nonprescriptive. District staff view these clusters as recommendations rather than requirements, so the actual effect on courses taken by Tech-Prep participants in each program area can vary. Students must take the identified vocational course, because it defines the cluster. However, district staff expect that students will take a variety of English and science courses in 11th grade and various math classes in 12th grade, depending on their ability and past performance, rather than only the recommended cluster courses.
The identified Tech-Prep clusters focus exclusively on high school courses, although successful students can earn college credit in them and move on to postsecondary programs. The cluster definitions include recommended academic and vocational courses only at the secondary level. However, the articulation agreements for courses in each cluster establish the conditions under which students can earn CCTC credit for high school work. Only students who earn a grade of C or better in an articulated high school course can receive college credit for the course and skip over the equivalent entry-level college course. Credit can be granted not only for vocational courses, but also for the recommended English, science, and math courses, including those that use applied curricula.
The Hartford Public Schools district has extended its efforts to develop and articulate occupational clusters to postsecondary institutions other than CCTC. CCTC lacked a postsecondary program in culinary arts, and its resistance to pursuing a business cluster without grant funding for a college-level coordinator stalled district efforts to develop articulation with the CCTC business courses. The school district explored the possibility of articulating these program areas with other nearby colleges. Agreement was slowed by several factors. For example, existing waiting lists for postsecondary program slots and special preconditions for developing articulation agreements imposed by one college led the district to pursue other partners.2 Despite such obstacles, the school district reached agreements during the 1993-1994 school year with another local two-year college to articulate business cluster and culinary arts cluster courses that would apply to all three high schools. Students were expected to begin taking recommended cluster courses in fall 1994.
Developing students' sense of Tech-Prep as a clear program of study rather than just an articulated vocational course has been difficult for two reasons: (1) school staff's skepticism or reservations about Tech-Prep; and (2) course scheduling problems. Neither high school students nor counselors consistently view the recommended academic courses as a fundamental part of Tech-Prep. In one high school, for example, Principles of Technology has been made available, but counselors scheduled some Tech-Prep students into other physics courses, including more advanced College-Prep classes. They did so because they were unsure of the new course's merits and believed the more traditional courses would be more suitable for students and would better preserve their options for going to a four-year college. The resulting low enrollment in Principles of Technology forced cancellation of the class that year. Other counselors, concerned that the Tech-Prep articulated academic courses would be too difficult, scheduled students into lower-track classes. High school administrators have not always put priority on adjusting the master schedule to facilitate Tech-Prep students' enrollment in the required cluster courses; many participating students have been unable to take the defined sequence.
As of fall 1993, little priority had been placed on grouping students together for the classes recommended in their chosen cluster, or for integrating academic and vocational course curricula within each cluster. For the manufacturing technology cluster, a team of teachers developed special modules for Applied Communications relevant to manufacturing; most of the schools tried to group students in this cluster for at least this one academic class. However, for the most part, Tech-Prep students were not consistently grouped by program area in their academic classes. English classes included students in both child care and health occupations; students in child care, culinary arts, and law enforcement were taking the same Principles of Technology classes (called "Applied Physics"). Despite some plans for teaming teachers in cluster courses, cost constraints and class scheduling difficulties prevented these arrangements. As of fall 1993, there was little contact between academic and vocational teachers, and thus little effort to link academic classes to students' vocational curriculum.
Applied academic curricula have been introduced for most of the clusters defined by the district, in classes open only to Tech-Prep students. The defined clusters for manufacturing technology, child care, culinary arts, and law enforcement include Applied Physics. This course, which is based largely on the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) Principles of Technology curriculum, is taught in a specially built laboratory in each of the three high schools. The clusters for manufacturing technology, law enforcement, and culinary arts also include Applied Communications, a combination of the English course taken by most 11th-grade students and some modules from the Applied Communications package from the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT). The health occupations cluster--known as the health academy--does not recommend any applied academic courses. This pattern of recommendations for applied academic courses in fall 1993, however, was expected to evolve by the next year; starting in school year 1994-1995, all Tech-Prep clusters would recommend Applied Communications as the 11th-grade English course. For applied academic courses included in cluster definitions, the district provided some guidelines on course structure, but individual teachers can modify and emphasize different curriculum components. As a result, the extent to which classes incorporate applied approaches or are relevant to particular occupations varies considerably.
To a limited extent, the process of defining occupational clusters introduced expectations that some students would take more rigorous courses. Tech-Prep students are urged to take a college-level math class in 12th grade, although this course is not currently articulated. CCTC and the school district defined this honors math class to combine trigonometry, algebra II, and precalculus material, as well as some physics applications. Students would have to complete algebra I and geometry, with a grade of C+ or better, to enroll in the course. CCTC and a consortium business partner, United Technologies, strongly recommended offering this course to 12th-graders. The course was expected to become available in school year 1994-1995, when the first full cohort of Tech-Prep students reached 12th grade.3 The number of schools at which the course would actually be offered, however, was expected to depend on the number of students eligible to take it and on whether counselors referred enough students to satisfy the 15-student minimum required in each school.
Existing high school vocational courses are also being upgraded to align them with the college courses to which they are articulated, although some changes have encountered difficulties. An intensive two-year health occupations program was adopted in all three schools, emphasizing skill development rather than brief exposure to careers; this program supplements the one-semester introduction to health careers course, which is now geared more toward sophomores. The second year of the health occupations vocational component is now designed to focus on job shadowing and internships at medical facilities.4 A traditional metalworking/machining class was upgraded into a manufacturing technology course, with the intention of focusing on processes rather than machines, relying more heavily on computers, and providing greater integration with communications and math skills. In fall 1993, however, delays in equipment delivery were limiting this transition. In the health and manufacturing clusters, vocational courses were to be based on the textbooks used by CCTC faculty teaching similar courses. Use of these texts was a precondition for articulation, but first-year experience indicates that the Tech-Prep students selected so far may lack the strong reading skills and reading habits these texts demand.
Adherence to these admission standards was uneven as of fall 1993. Because students must be admitted to Tech-Prep in order to enroll in the cluster vocational course, high schools were under some pressure to accept any students who expressed an interest in one of the Tech-Prep vocational courses, whether or not the students met all of the Tech-Prep program criteria. This flexibility has raised concerns among college staff about whether Tech-Prep students will be ready for the demands of a college program, and whether there will be substantial attrition before they reach the college level. The college's concern appeared warranted by some limited high school results: in the first marking period during fall 1993, only 54 percent of students in the health occupations cluster across the three high schools were earning a grade of C or better--the minimum that will be required to receive college credit under the articulation agreement.5 District staff reported that more than 60 percent of the students had achieved the minimum grade by the end of the second marking period.
These concerns in the first few years of Tech-Prep implementation may also be due in part to a recruiting approach that reflects the school district's flexible vision of Tech-Prep rather than a clear emphasis on it as a demanding, high-standards program. To stimulate students' interest, high school counselors make brief presentations during sophomore home room periods and use hall posters, newsletters, career days, and one-on-one counseling sessions to spread the word. Despite efforts to promote the Tech-Prep clusters as career preparation, students' motives for entering the programs are quite mixed, according to staff. Counselors report that some students are attracted to Tech-Prep by the idea of earning college credit in high school; others are interested in learning skills (child care, technology, cooking, legal terminology) that might be useful in their everyday lives. Relatively few students, according to counselors, appear to choose a Tech-Prep cluster as a way of preparing for a career.
Any effort to characterize enrollment in Hartford's Tech-Prep clusters is reduced to a count of students enrolled in the vocational courses that are included in the Tech-Prep cluster definitions. Because of the difficulties described earlier in scheduling students into the cluster academic classes, students are counted as "in Tech-Prep" if they take the cluster vocational course, even if they are not taking the suggested academic courses. In one high school, 1993-1994 enrollment included 20 students in law enforcement, 12 in health occupations, 11 in child care, and 12 in the first year of manufacturing technology and 5 in the second year. Each of the other two high schools had a total of between 30 and 50 students in Tech-Prep. Overall, Tech-Prep enrollment is likely to increase, however, with the implementation of the business and culinary arts cluster starting in school year 1994-1995. The students enrolled in Tech-Prep reflect the racial/ethnic distribution of the city schools--primarily African American, Latino, and other minority students, with fewer than 10 percent white students.
Although students' focus on careers may not always be central to their choice of Tech-Prep clusters, consortium staff are trying to develop workplace experiences that can foster greater career direction. The manufacturing technology program offered internships, sponsored by Pratt and Whitney, to interested Tech-Prep students between grades 11 and 12 in summer 1993. Students were paid more than $6 per hour for six weeks to work at a nearby facility where they learned about safety procedures, measurement, and machine operations. Pratt and Whitney's continued sponsorship of the internship is uncertain, however, given its own financial constraints. District and college staff were planning to focus the 12th-grade segment of the health occupations program around job shadowing and internships at local medical facilities. However, hospitals and other potential employers on the health academy steering committee had not, as of fall 1993, been responsive to consortium requests to commit to internship positions.
The use of state funding by occupational program contributed to some extent to the fragmentation of governance. Through school year 1993-1994, the Connecticut Department of Education awarded Title IIIE funding to local consortia for development of specific Tech-Prep program areas that met what the state considered a Perkins Act requirement: a clear emphasis on technology. In Hartford, Title IIIE funds were thus made available for the manufacturing technology and health occupations programs, but not for the child care, law enforcement, and culinary arts programs, despite the fact that the public school district had formulated and set out to articulate all these programs to postsecondary ones. The college, as fiscal agent, considered the two programs funded by Title IIIE grants to be the primary focus of its Tech-Prep collaboration with the Hartford Public Schools. Although CCTC staff have worked with the district to some extent to develop articulation agreements for the nonfunded cluster cases, as of fall 1993, CCTC had concentrated its efforts on the occupational clusters for which its staff were specifically funded.
Largely because of this program-focused approach to funding and Tech-Prep development, CCTC, the Hartford district, and the suburban districts had no strong incentive in the first few years to form a single consortium governance structure that would coordinate the activities of relevant college and secondary staff. Instead, four different groups played a part, as of fall 1993, in planning or guiding Tech-Prep development: (1) a committee for the manufacturing technology cluster; (2) a committee for the health academy; (3) district and college staff who met on an ad hoc basis to negotiate the terms of articulation; and (4) committees of district and high school staff representing all of the defined clusters.
A separate committee existed in fall 1993 to oversee development of the manufacturing technology program, as part of a statewide initiative, rather than specifically to facilitate the joint efforts of CCTC and the Hartford district. This engineering technologies steering committee was established in 1992 by the three community colleges working on Tech-Prep programs in this technical area: (1) Capital; (2) Three Rivers; and (3) Manchester Community-Technical Colleges. In addition to representatives from the three colleges, the committee included representatives from employers such as Pratt and Whitney and from the state departments of education and labor. Hartford Public Schools also had administrative representation on this committee, but teachers, counselors, and school-level administrators did not participate.
A health academy committee that reflects more complete representation of consortium members was also established. It includes CCTC staff, secondary staff from Hartford and the suburban districts, and health industry employers, particularly from two hospitals. The college's Tech-Prep coordinator for the health academy facilitates these meetings, which began in spring 1993. Unlike the engineering technologies committee, this body includes not only the college and all of the consortium school districts, but also line staff as well as administrators.
Although oversight committees were formed for each of the two funded programs, most articulation arrangements have been worked out by groups of faculty from CCTC and the Hartford schools, temporarily brought together to outline agreements. These groups have worked only on articulation; after the agreements were reached, the members had very little contact. This has resulted in a lack of continuity that has frustrated high school vocational teachers, who generally want more interaction with their postsecondary counterparts, including team-teaching opportunities.
The Hartford district's Career Readiness Unit has created its own committees to coordinate Tech-Prep at the district level, including development of clusters for which the college did not receive Title IIIE funds. The district's steering committee includes teachers from each relevant vocational area, math and science teachers, regular counselors, career technical specialists, and district office staff. Coordinators from the college are invited to attend but do so infrequently. In addition, the district planned in fall 1993 to form committees in each school to develop approaches to Tech-Prep promotion and recruitment.
Changes in governance are being made to create a more unified structure than these four different committees currently reflect. For the 1994-1995 school year, the state plans to award grants to consortia for their overall development efforts rather than for specific occupational programs. This change is consistent with the long-standing interest among Hartford district staff to broaden their working relationship with CCTC and create a more comprehensive governance structure. A consortiumwide committee is being planned that will include college personnel and staff from all five member districts.
The resources available to the Hartford consortium have been used primarily to support Tech-Prep coordinators at the college. The consortium received a $76,300 Title IIIE grant for school year 1992-1993 and about $130,000 for the following year. These grants funded one full-time staff position to oversee the consortium's health academy, another person working about three-quarters time to coordinate the manufacturing technology cluster program, and a modest amount of clerical time. A corporate donation of $25,000 in school year 1992-1993 was used to fund staff development activities.
2 For example, the college insisted that the vocational instructor in each high school enroll in and complete the full college course that would be articulated with the high school course.
3 A small pilot cohort of Tech-Prep students in manufacturing technology reached 12th grade in fall 1993, but the college math class was not yet offered.
4 The first group of Tech-Prep students in the health occupations cluster reached 12th grade in fall 1994. In fall 1993, these internships were still being planned.
5 Attrition from the program may occur for reasons other than poor performance. In all three schools, there was attrition between the first and second year of the manufacturing technology program among students who expected a high-technology course with a well-equipped laboratory, but found that delays in equipment delivery left them in what was still largely a traditional metalworking and machining workshop.
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[VIII. Logan, West Virginia]