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In the Logan and Mingo economies, the dominance of coal mining and high unemployment divide the nonfarm work force of about 30,000 into three strata. The mining industry, which employs 20 to 30 percent of the work force in the two counties, pays well; people who have jobs in coal mining are generally in the upper-income stratum. Other sectors of the economy offer less attractive wages and account for a middle stratum. The unemployed form a substantial low-income group; unemployment rates were 14 percent in Logan County in 1992 and 11 percent in Mingo County. As a result of this wage and employment pattern, overall per capita income in the two counties is roughly comparable to the statewide average, but per capita income for the employed is among the highest in the state.
Dramatic changes in coal mining technology have played a large part in stimulating interest in educational reform in Logan and Mingo counties. Coal has been mined there for more than 100 years. The region's coal is of exceptionally clean-burning quality, so demand for it is expected to increase sharply as clean air laws come into force around the world. However, extracting the coal at reasonable cost requires increasingly sophisticated technology, and thus more highly skilled technical workers, in mining operations as well as in a variety of related fields that support the mining industry. Local education, however, has not kept pace with labor force needs. As an example of the consequences, one employer described how he had to fly a manufacturer's representative in from New Jersey, at a cost of $9,000, to make an adjustment of less than 1/200,000 of an inch in a machine at his plant. According to local industry leaders, the shortage of well-trained technicians and the challenge of overcoming this shortage have appeared rather suddenly. Local mining technology, which lagged behind world standards for decades, underwent rapid modernization in the late 1980s and early 1990s and now uses the most advanced technology in the industry. As a result, the region's schools must make a major leap forward in technology education if the demand for technically skilled workers is to be met and jobs are to be provided for the local population--particularly because recruiting highly trained workers to the area is difficult.
Interest in and support for the concept of Tech-Prep represents a new start on problems that have recently gained prominence among local educators and employers. In earlier years, without the impetus of the Tech-Prep model and Title IIIE funding, movement toward the kinds of organizational and programmatic features usually associated with Tech-Prep was minimal. Some existing articulation agreements provided for transfer of credit from high school vocational programs to the community college in business, auto mechanics, construction trades, and drafting, and some informal cooperation occurred between secondary and postsecondary instructors. However, there was little ongoing collaboration between employers and the educational system. Furthermore, the educational system devoted no resources to acquisition or development of more applied curricula or instructional methods in academic subjects. High school students had no systematically developed workplace learning opportunities, and schools had no focused emphasis on upgrading the educational preparation of students who were not bound for baccalaureate college programs.
Faced with this competitive challenge, local coordinators focused carefully on choosing a high-demand, high-technology occupational field, rather than simply building on existing vocational programs. They surveyed the entire Chamber of Commerce membership in Logan and Mingo counties to identify occupations in which employers had the greatest unmet labor force needs, determine associated salary ranges, and project future hiring needs. This assessment led the consortium leaders to focus the proposal for initial Tech-Prep funding on electronics and electrical engineering--an occupational field for which no program existed in the consortium at either the high school or community college level. At first, the school and college partners envisioned a program that would focus on a handful of specialties within the field of electronics but, instead, business and industry representatives argued successfully instead for a program that would give students a broad foundation in electronics and allow local employers to train graduates for particular specialties. The resulting proposal outlining a three-year plan to implement this program was first funded by the state for school year 1991-1992. In a similar second-round assessment in fall 1993, consortium leaders concluded that the next occupational specialty program should be developed for environmental technicians in water quality and waste water management--also a field in which no programs existed at the secondary or postsecondary level. This program application was accepted by the state, and implementation will begin in school year 1994-1995.
At least in its occupational focus, the SWVCC consortium found an opportunity to design, implement, and promote Tech-Prep as a new program distinct from the existing general education, vocational, or College Prep programs. The program will include new applied academics and technical courses at both the high school and college level. Because of this focus on occupational fields new to both the high schools and the community college, Tech-Prep leaders had no need to develop articulation, unlike many other consortia that emphasize articulation agreements to reduce course redundancy and provide opportunities for high school students to earn college credit. Students in SWVCC consortium will not earn college credit for participating in Tech-Prep programs in high school (at least for the technical programs planned to date). Instead, college-level courses are being designed to build on the curriculum developed for the high schools, taking students to the highest possible skill levels in each field.
Students who qualify for and choose to enter each of the Tech-Prep programs will follow a highly defined program of study through four years of high school and a community college program. The program identifies applied academic courses, a core of introductory technology courses, and specialized occupational courses. The electronics/engineering sequence, for example, includes the following requirements (in addition to other academic classes required by the state):1
The community college stage of Tech-Prep includes academic requirements set by the local consortium, general state standards for all community college students, technical course requirements, and workplace internships. Students are required to take:
The first cohort of students to go through the high school part of the electronics/engineering program will not reach the community college until fall 1995, but the new postsecondary courses are already being taught.2 The college is already offering a postsecondary degree program to qualified students. As a result, consortium staff expect to be able to refine the new postsecondary courses before the first Tech-Prep high school graduates enroll at the college.
Although the consortium has implemented a 4 + 2 Tech-Prep model, the years before high school and after community college also figure in the overall program design. The guidance component of the program (see Section C) includes assessment and testing in the eighth grade to select appropriate students, as well as ongoing career and course plan reviews through the high school years. For students who wish to go beyond an associate of science degree, SWVCC staff are negotiating with West Virginia Institute of Technology for the community college graduates to go on for a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, applying their community college credits toward that four-year program.
Applied academics classes have been implemented, and staff have been trained to teach them. The consortium encouraged broad participation in training on the use of the new applied academic curricula; workshops were held for instructors and counselors from all the participating junior high schools, high schools, and the college campuses. By fall 1993, Applied Math had been introduced in eight junior high schools, and Applied Math II and Principles of Technology had been introduced in the high schools. The applied classes are in theory open to all students but are required for Tech-Prep students, who are given preference if there is excess demand for these classes. Fitting applied academics classes into school schedules has been difficult in some cases; one principal was concerned that an advanced placement physics class might have to be eliminated for his school to accommodate another class in Principles of Technology.
The vocational courses in electronics for both the high school and college segments of the program were developed cooperatively by instructors from both the secondary and postsecondary institutions, working with the curriculum subcommittee. The instructors reviewed survey input from local employers and available curriculum materials, preparing curriculum outlines for each course.
In addition to developing new academic and vocational courses, the curriculum subcommittee helped modify an existing college course on "methods of inquiry," to introduce more hands-on learning and cooperative learning. The course is designed to help students learn good study habits, as well as how to investigate and synthesize information. During one session of this class in fall 1993, students listened to a 15-minute lecture on proper citation of sources in research papers. They then worked in small groups of three to four, helping one another write citations for various types of sources, such as journal and newspaper articles.
Although great attention has been paid to building wide interest in Tech-Prep, the implementation plan also calls for selecting Tech-Prep students carefully to maximize their chances of success. Selection occurs in stages during eighth and ninth grades. All eighth graders take a comprehensive assessment battery--the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), the Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS), and the Career Occupational Preference System (COPS) Form R.3 Counselors discuss test results with students at the end of eighth or beginning of ninth grade and mention Tech-Prep as one possible option. Each student receives a brochure on Tech-Prep, the six-year sequences of courses that can be chosen, the expected benefits of the program, and the selection criteria.
Consortium leaders decided in the initial planning of Tech-Prep that students, in order to be admitted in the 9th grade and then continue on in the program in 10th grade, would have to:
Despite this careful planning, substantial departures from these standards occurred in the first year of implementation. Each middle school was asked in spring 1992 to recruit about 25 interested eighth graders to begin the Tech-Prep electronics sequence in the fall. In general, the five schools succeeded in identifying only 10 to 15 interested students who met the requirements. However, to show responsiveness toward what they perceived as consortium staff's emphasis on recruiting a full cadre of first-year students, schools enlisted additional students who fell short of intended behavioral and academic standards, bringing the total ninth-grade enrollment in fall 1992 up to about 104 students--about nine percent of the overall ninth-grade population.4 Experience with this first cohort left the ninth-grade instructors somewhat disappointed and prompted renewed attention to selection standards. The recruitment process for the second year focused more consistently on finding students who met the formal selection criteria. With a second group of students who more closely meet expectations, the attitude of the junior high school instructors has improved. However, many of the teachers still feel that Applied Math I is too demanding for most students at the ninth-grade level and believe that only the most capable quarter of the middle 50 percent of students will actually benefit from Tech-Prep as it exists in the Logan consortium. From an outside perspective, the enrollment of more than 100 9th-graders in the electronics program appears to reflect a high level of interest in Tech-Prep that is being channeled into the only available Tech-Prep program. After other program choices become available, enrollment in the electronics program may decline but, as a result, may include only students with the best mathematics aptitude.
The mix of students in the electronics program comes close to matching the overall student population. The racial/ethnic makeup of the 1992-1993 electronics students was representative of the total school population, which is approximately 99 percent white and 1 percent black. About a third of the electronics students in 1992-1993 were female, approximately 60 percent were considered economically or educationally disadvantaged, and 5 percent had disabilities.
So far, consortium leaders have placed the greatest priority on implementing the academic and vocational courses at the secondary and college levels and recruiting students into the program; relatively little attention has been paid to developing systematic work-site experiences to promote career awareness. The only work-site experiences currently provided or planned at the secondary level are visits to local employers in the spring and fall of the 11th- and 12th-grade years. At the postsecondary level, consortium coordinators plan to provide students in the electronics/electrical engineering program with a three-credit internship, but the details of this component remained unclear at the time of the fall 1993 site visit. Work-site experience will be provided to students in the water quality and waste water management program through the implementation of a new apprenticeship program that might, according to one of the local coordinators, resemble other existing co-op programs at the postsecondary level.
Members of the steering committee break into subcommittees for special tasks. Subcommittees have been formed for general curriculum development and for science, English, mathematics, guidance, and technology. Subcommittees meet separately on substantive issues in their area of expertise and then submit recommendations to the steering committee for approval. An ad hoc committee has also been formed to plan approaches to evaluating implementation progress and program effects.
Perkins funding has been the primary but not sole source of support for the development of Tech-Prep in the SWVCC consortium. For development of its electronics engineering program, the consortium received Title IIIE grants for $18,000 in 1991-1992, an increase of $76,300 in the second year, and a $50,050 grant for 1993-1994. The consortium has also received funds from the Southern West Virginia Community College Foundation to support staff development activities for eighth- and ninth-grade junior high school counselors. According to local coordinators, additional state funding will be required to develop the approved water quality and waste water management program and to cover the costs of implementing more Principles of Technology labs.
2 The college offers a summer "bridge" program for students entering its new electrical engineering technology program who have not come through the secondary Tech-Prep sequence. This summer program includes math, English, physic, and drafting.
3 The assessment battery used for Tech-Prep was in use in Mingo, but not Logan, County prior tot he implementation of the Tech-Prep program. One of the counselors from the Mingo County Vocational School is taking responsibility for planning and conducting workshops on administering and interpreting COPS and CAPS for all the counselors in the two counties.
4 In addition to these 9th graders, the consortium selected forty 10th graders for the first year of the program.
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[IX. Salem, Oregon]