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One of the nation's goals for education by the year 2000 is that every adult American
will be literate and will possess the skills necessary to compete in a global economy.
Our ability to meet that goal depends greatly on providing positive links between education
achievement and workplace readiness the growing gap between the skills demanded by our economy
and the skills available to meet those demands is providing new challenges to our nation's
schools at the heart of the matter is finding new ways to teach and learn new ways to integrate
theory and practice new ways to link classrooms with business and industry some schools are
taking a new look at vocational education and the role it can play in restructuring
schools vocational education connects school learning to the real life context of work
and provides skills that are specific to chosen occupations vocational teachers establish
linkages with business and industry to provide job opportunities for students and to assure
relevance in occupational and technical programs one-to-one interaction in laboratories and
classrooms makes vocational education adaptable for students needs and can decrease the student
dropout rate student projects build confidence and establish new patterns of working in teams
to solve complex problems promising approaches to restructuring schools include integration
of academic and vocational education and the development of tech prep programs called for
in the Carl D. Perkins vocational and applied technology act amendments of 1990 integration
of academic and vocational education aims to provide all students with the occupational
academic and higher order skills needed to function effectively in both their personal
and work lives in an emerging technological society tech prep programs are designed to
prepare all students for further learning and productive employment incorporating applied
learning tech prep with its emphasis on applied learning can become the framework or structure
for a more relevant approach for a greater number of youth this teleconference explores
the potential for vocational education to play a major role in restructuring the nation's
schools one of the major questions to be answered by this teleconference is how do students
benefit from restructuring when vocational education becomes an integral part of their
educational experience.
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Hello I'm Gary Hoklander and on behalf of the national center for research and vocational
education let me welcome you to this teleconference on the role of vocational education in restructured
schools as stated at the outset one of the nation's goals for education by the year 2000
is that every adult American be literate and possess the skills necessary to compete in
a global economy realizing that goal however will require major changes in America's schools
as we prepare for the next century most American schools do not operate very differently from
the way they did a century ago to date vocational education has not figured very prominently
in mainstream debates about how to restructure schools on the contrary reformers have emphasized
upgrading academic skills improving students abilities to read write compute and understand
scientific principles has been the primary aim of education reform occupational knowledge
and competencies have received relatively little attention yet there are signs that
this is changing for one thing as we've gained some experience with reform it has become
increasingly clear that as important as academic skills are trying to force feed the conventional
academic curriculum to all students is not an effective strategy for learning additionally
a growing body of research supports what many educators have long suspected namely that
students learn best when they can apply what they are learning in a real world context
that is relevant to their daily lives for most students learning in the abstract is
exceedingly difficult and not easy to retain vocational education has the potential to
provide an effective real-life context for mastering both academic and occupational knowledge
and skills in most schools however it is still only potential for vocational education like
its academic and general counterparts is often in need of major rethinking upgrading and
change today we want to explore that potential we won't be dealing in simple hypotheticals
we have with us today people who are carving out major roles for vocational education in
a variety of school reform efforts they will be sharing with us their experiences in redefining
educational missions reorganizing interactions among students and teachers and administrators
integrating academic and vocational curriculum developing school-wide student projects and
a variety of other strategies we're very fortunate to have here a talented and experienced group
of educators joining us is first Steve Godowski principal of the Hudson vocational technical
high school in Newark Delaware Hudson is a full-time vocational high school that students
may choose to attend instead of other comprehensive high schools in Newcastle county. Also with
us is Willie Mott principal of the career development center in Jackson Mississippi
and director of vocational education for the Jackson public schools the career development
center is a shared time area vocational school that students attend part-time while receiving
their academic coursework at home high schools additionally we have Donald Ingerson superintendent
of the Jefferson county schools in Louisville Kentucky the Louisville schools have emerged
as one of the nation's leading school systems in restructuring urban education in recognition
for this as well as his other accomplishments don was recently named national superintendent
of the year finally J.D. Hoy is associate superintendent for the office of professional
technical education in the Oregon department of education she's otherwise known as the
state director for vocational education last year the state of Oregon embarked on a major
statewide restructuring effort among its most important goals is preparing students for
successful participation in a high skill high-wage workforce to begin I'm going to ask each of
our guests to speak briefly about their views on restructuring the role vocational education
can or is playing and some of the specific strategies and activities they are pursuing
we'll follow that with some group discussion in about 45 minutes we will open the conference
to phone calls from you our number is area code 800-222-9703 let's hear first from steve
godowski steve thank you gary i always appreciate the opportunity to talk about our school we
serve over 900 students countywide the school offers students 22 career programs in conjunction
with a comprehensive academic course of study it is interesting to note that hodson one
of three schools in the newcastle county vocational technical school district was converted from
a shared time vocational center to a full-time vocational technical high school in 1986.
we are presently one of 21 schools participating in delaware's relearning initiative relearning
is a national school reform movement often described as a systemic effort from the schoolhouse
to the state house based at brown university if our young people are to enjoy the quality
of life and productivity many of us have come to know then schools must prepare their students
to better compete in the workplace of the 21st century that is to think critically problem
solve and to work cooperatively in a group it is for these reasons that our faculty has
seriously considered school reform since the fall of nineteen eighty nine although it has
only been a few short years much has happened to us as we have seriously explored the important
issues and about teaching and learning i've been asked the question who had the vision
for change at your school that always makes me smile somewhat often wished i could say
there was this shining light which guided me in fact which guided all of us would be
much more accurate however to say that there were occasional flickers which grew more illuminating
as we struggled forward pursuing the goal of improving our school these flickering lights
were developed by faculty inspired conversations often held before and after school during
our first year in relearning these lights were were further fueled by workshops mostly
generated by our staff through school visits and our exploration of the nine common principles
of the coalition of essential schools in which we gained membership in july of 1991. the
light i referred to grew brighter with the development of the hudson mission statement
that was a significant milestone for us in the early stages of our search to be a better
school i think about the creation of our mission statement often you see at a special in-service
each teacher was asked to write about their school and about schooling these thoughts
were shared in groups of two four and so on until five different statements were written
and ultimately merged into one i still remember my initial fears of what if no one cared or
took an active interest in the development of that mission statement but to my great
satisfaction the workshop was tremendously successful with enthusiasm thoughtfulness
and a commitment to good ideas demonstrated by the full faculty the mission statement
was later adopted to a standing ovation by the faculty the changes that took place in
our school were initiated from determined and conscientious teachers who sought to make
learning better for all students using the guiding principles of teacher as coach and
student as worker something very natural to vocational educators and faced with the reality
that all students needed to learn to use their minds well we began to challenge many of the
traditional ways of delivering instruction i'll briefly describe what happened at hodson
over these last three years for we like so many other schools have learned firsthand
what it means to consider restructuring both the successes and the pitfalls some examples
of our initiatives included eliminating multiple course levels to heterogeneously group classes
at all grade levels establishing interdisciplinary core teams which are blocked scheduled to
grades 9 10 and 11 these core teams use a thematic approach to drive instruction eliminating
general math courses and developing math concepts applied math and tech math courses in its
place initiating new projects and practices integrating academic and vocational curriculum
especially as it relates to creating a new vision in math and science education planning
and introducing the senior project an exhibition of achievement for all 12th grade students
this unique project requires a research paper related to the student's vocational program
development of a tangible product and a final oral presentation of knowledge instituting
common planning time for all staff as part of our daily work schedule developing school-wide
performance indicator report cards with action plans to evaluate our progress conducting
school-wide surveys of parents faculty and students on all aspects of school community
interests and opinions what is most important to say is that school structuring is very
hard the key to our modest accomplishments to date is the spirit and the sense of ownership
to the school its students and our vision of the future we as a faculty have worked
extremely hard creating shared leadership and with that share responsibility i believe
this is a critical factor in the successful restructuring of schools although i can't
quantify our progress yet with impressive data i know as do our teachers and parents
that much of what we are doing is good and helpful to students we are making authentic
gains in student achievement and motivation we are moving toward our mission of creating
caring self-disciplined productive members of society thank you thanks steve steve the
senior project i think played a major role in your efforts to restructure your school
and integrate academic and vocational education tell us a little bit more about that process
how did how did you get it going and how difficult was it to pull it all together where are you
now well i agree the senior project was a major initiative for our school
and i believe the benefits are being derived at two levels at the student level and with
our faculty i'll start with the faculty this was a chance for us to break the isolation
between academic and vocational instructors we had to work in teams for each student had
a committee that evaluated their work and that committee consisted of more than just
the vocational area or the academic area it was an integrated approach we learned about
each other we appreciate each other more and that was a major game for our entire school
at the student level i believe we push kids harder we ask them to demonstrate what they
know and they were able to do that and i would say they did that beyond our our initial expectations
the i mean one aspect of the senior project that i think made this possible is the fact
that you're a full-time vocational high school you have both academic teachers and vocational
teachers uh under the under the same roof our our our next presenter is the principal
of an area vocational school here the students attend on a part-time basis willie tell us
what it's like to go through the restructuring process in your area school in jackson mississippi
thanks gary the career development center for vocational education in jackson mississippi
was opened in the fall of 1977 with approximately 18 courses offered to high school students
in the jackson public school districts the occupational areas offered at the career development
center provided intensive instructional and hands-on and training courses and programs
of training at the center were selected through a community needs assessment that included
these areas of training that were shown to have high potential for employment in the
greater jackson area and in the state presently the career development center has 22 programs
additional services include the apprenticeship program guidance and counseling related studies
and vocational assessment i believe that vocational education is vital is a vital necessary part
of education for our children not just isolated training for particular skills contrary to
what is typically thought vocational education is not an area for bad or disruptive students
it is not a place for late bloomers but is an area for all students if we plan to provide
a complete education we must not allow others to assume what vocational education is we
must show and tell them what it is all about there are vocational programs that could and
should be considered as lighthouse programs and we must encourage other people to recognize
them programs at the center were not designed exclusively for students planning to terminate
the education at the end of high schools programs were planned for all students who may have
interest in and courses of training that would offer several possibilities at the center
students occupy sale acquired saleable skills for full-time or part-time employment to help
defray college expenses and for personal satisfaction many graduates pursue advanced vocational
technical training and many pursue college or university degrees for example during the
1986-87 school year the career development center introduced diversified technology diversified
technology is a course designed to be both academically rigorous and technically challenging
for the students planning technical careers when students complete this two-year course
they are prepared for entry to enter more advanced technical programs a follow-up study
of recent graduates revealed that 49.5 percent of the former students are currently enrolled
in advanced training in college and 18 are currently working in areas which relate to
their training as educators we should believe that all students can learn demonstrate that
belief by what we teach and the way we teach the incorporation of math science and communication
whether written or spoken is a must in vocational education to restructure means to keep what
is good from the old and add what is needed from the new and always keep the student first
as a vocational educator i believe that tech prep is a catalyst for bonding academic and
vocational education this bonding is a a total education for all vocational education has
been and will continue to be our vehicle to economic success another consideration is
the importance of changing and upgrading vocational education we must accept the fact that change
in education today is real and occurring everywhere the question is can we continue in the traditional
way of teaching vocational education my answer is no but the challenge is how to change and
how to face change by being realistic and impartial teachers and administrators must
accept the responsibility of working towards a wider understanding and acceptance of change
in vocational education margaret garner of the human development center if mississippi
said and i quote if we can take young people when they're in high school and give them
job experience put them in an apprenticeship that is relevant to the 21st century not picking
up cans on the side of the road we can give them hope show them hope and show them that
there are possibilities districts should consider the development of comprehensive high schools
this school would not offer watered-down programs but state-of-the-art programs with the best
instructors that could be found instructors with both a desire and a belief that all children
can learn reorganization is good if it is done for the benefit of the students in the
classroom and we can see some benefit from it in our dollars all vocational classes should
be designed in such a manner as to provide both academic and the skilled parts of the
program math science and reading as they relate to the areas should be covered in each department
if a student is having problems assistance should be provided counseling services should
be provided to students at an early age to ensure choices that meet all graduation requirements
the time is over when manipulative skills are taught in our classes we are here to prepare
a complete student in an attempt to prepare a complete student time management must be
considered for example class time should be divided in such a way that at least one third
of the time is devoted to academics and the other two thirds are devoted to skill acquisitions
in summary vocational education is a vehicle that should be used to educate and to upgrade
the workforce to improve economic development and to bridge the gap between secondary and
post-secondary education thank you gary thank you willie willie you are an area school which
means that students get the the bulk of their academic instruction in their home high schools
and yet you're obviously a firm believer in the the importance of math science communication
in the vocational curriculum how have you tried to accomplish that in the area school
since you don't have direct linkages to the academic teachers back in the in the home
high schools gary we did it through the use of some of the perkins funds in what we call
our related studies lab in this lab we hired what we call academic teachers teachers who
had backgrounds in english language math which was an elementary math teacher and a special
ed teacher and we also had an industrial arts teacher housed in this related studies lab
these people were there to identify all the math and the science and the language as it
relates to the different areas and the students then were assisted with the math and the science
as it related to those areas the terminologies that was there what the terms meant how to
spell it how to use it in the class and how to use it in its context these are the things
that we try to do with these academic people they work side by side with the vocational
teachers that we had to identify the areas where the students would be dealing with the
different science math and language in the particular areas you're also a big advocate
of counseling and and you've also i think given a lot of thought to how one goes about
trying to to better integrate academic and vocational counseling tell us a little bit
about about that i am one of those people who believe that a counselor is a counselor
not a vocational counselor and an academic counselor and we believe that there should
be teams of counselors so what we did was try to identify these people and place them
in our what we call middle schools and in our high schools at the different grade levels
that we felt were strategic levels to work with the students to help them to identify
the right courses that they would need so they could take the necessary vocational classes
that they wanted to take and meet all of the graduation requirements that was there they
were assigned students to work with at that level good we're going to come back to some
of these topics but i'd like to move on now so far we've heard from from steve and willie
who are both principals of of high schools we'd like now to move up to the district level
and get the superintendent's view on the role of vocational education in restructured schools
and so i'm going to turn it over now to to don don thank you gary it's a pleasure to
be here with you this afternoon the jefferson county public school district is an urban
and suburban school district with more than 94 000 students and approximately 160 schools
the student population is 69 percent white 30 percent african-american and 1 percent
other with 41 percent of those students qualifying for free and reduced meal prices there are
over 11 000 full-time employees and the annual budget is somewhere in the neighborhood of
485 million dollars now as we enter the 21st century there's a need to create a new paradigm
for preparing students to make the transition from school to the workplace new national
initiatives such as the carl perkins act and our own kentucky reform education
act have helped to pave the way for these reforms kira as i'll call a kentucky reform
act requires that the schools must expect a high level of achievement of all students
it identifies six learner goals and students must be able to do the following one use basic
communications and math skills effectively two apply principles from mathematics science
arts social studies humanities and practical living studies and three become self-sufficient
four become more responsible members of a group five think and solve problems the last
one connect and integrate experiences and new knowledge the student in kentucky must
be able to demonstrate this integration of knowledge now similarly the carl perkins vocational
and technical technology act focused on the integration of academic and technical curricula
and the broader base curriculum it boosted the secondary and post-secondary linkages
it encouraged business and education partnerships and it emphasized serving the special needs
populations jefferson county public schools district was faced with the challenges of
the following meeting the needs of local business and industry providing students with a broader
range of skills addressing declining enrollment in vocational schools eliminating the loss
of instructional time because of transporting students between half day vocational centers
in the regular high school creating more choices or options with career orientation the district
had embarked on a massive restructuring effort of the comprehensive schools and programs
during the 80s using a similar process we developed a systemic approach to restructuring
career and technical education from the elementary level through adult education we focused on
reshaping the half-day two-year vocational technical centers and the prepa preparation
programs the components of the restructuring include creating four-year magnet career academies
in comprehensive high schools each academy has one or more career focuses which reflects
a major career cluster or business in the area emphasized in academies is the integration
of academic and technical curricula and linkages with post-secondary education and at the middle
school level formalized comprehensive career assessment and career exploration are provided
and emphasized that the elementary level is building on the concept of students as knowledge
workers helping students acquire good work habits identifying students dominant intelligences
based on howard gardner's theory of multiple intelligence as well as providing career awareness
we're exploring ways of providing adult access to magnet career academies child care facilities
will be provided at several of those sites we hope to implement intergenerational or
family education opportunities as an example a mother may be receiving training at the
site of a preschool child and the preschool child would be in a developmental child care
program a portion of the day will be set aside for the parent and the child to learn and
have activities together now we hope the above activities that we've been talking about that
these will result in efforts for a better educated and positive citizen in jefferson
county thanks very much don before we continue i just want to remind you that we are taking
phone calls our telephone number here is area code
800-222-9700 so if you have questions why please go ahead and phone them in and we will
be responding to those in in just a few minutes don as a superintendent what what attracted
you to vocational education why why was vocational education a piece of of your reform strategy
and what was your vision of vocational education as you tried to to put this together and and
put it in place in in louisville i think the vision was that that we wanted the school
programs that we had to be addressing all of our students uh gary not just some of them
and uh in the past so many of our programs addressed only a say a college-bound student
and it was an informal indefinite tracking system going on and what we wanted to do was
to really try to find ways to tie an educational program or programs together so that all students
could benefit and and reach or at least try to reach the goals that had been set for them
and technical and vocational education was such a natural be because it it really it
really has at the core of the concept of vocational education all those cognitive theories that
we've learned about in research over the years and if we could put those cognitive research
theories into effect of practicing going from the specific to the general and and the many
other theories for all students we could begin to develop stronger citizens we could develop
stronger student teams we develop stronger students all the things that we adore in american
society could be developed if we could pull that general education and vocational education
together to help students how did how did that take shape in your district i mean do
you have a health academy or a magnet school what what does that look like and how is it
different from conventional health programs in vocational education well i think what
we could say in the health careers high school that were in the midst of redefining and and
really modernizing the whole whole thing it's not separate uh number one is tied right into
a gifted program it's tied right into uh your military programs it's it's tied into your
your academic programs so that it all becomes part of one uh students can have a special
interest and can explore that but they explore that with teams of students teams of teachers
the curriculum is is not something that's for a health centers student but it's a it's
a curriculum that has academic excellence as well as technical excellence and it's the
real world curriculum it's not a slice of the real world out of context that you expect
a student to put together hospitals are involved corporate structure is involved in creating
it teachers are involved in it so it becomes part of the community it's not an isolated
portion of the community and so it's also i gather it's as appropriate for a student
who's going to go on to four-year college and beyond the medical school as it is to
a student who's going to go on to two-year uh associate degree program it doesn't attempt
to separate students that is not yes with with the new curriculum of the problem solving
and the thought-provoking activities uh the a good command of the basics would be instilled
in all the students and they can take those into the appropriate problems that demand
physics or higher or lower levels of thinking but it's a continuous process and students
can apply it to the level of problems that that they're engaged in so it really begins
to blur the distinction between who's a vocational student and who's not yes that's that's the
hope that that we hope to when it's all complete that that we can see is has really been integrated
into all of our courses great good we'd like to move on now and and get a state level perspective
on restructuring and the role of vocational education as i indicated at the outset the
state of oregon is is really just beginning on a major restructuring effort and here to
tell us some about that and her views on this is jd hoy jd thanks gary the oregon education
system has an elected superintendent of public instruction and the governor appointed state
board of education is responsible for both the k-12 and the community college system
whereas the commissioner for the community college is selected by the state board of
education higher education in our state has a separate board and staffing structure altogether
and asking the question why change i think most of us agree that it's a waste time without
serious consideration and justification however when one looks at the demographic changes
in our state and nationally the number of dropouts the performance of students graduating
all suggest that the present system is inadequate to support our state's goal of having get
ready the best educated and trained workforce in the country by two thousand equal to any
in the world by two thousand and ten change can't occur well without quality leadership
and our state was very fortunate to have a state representative and previous speaker
of the house vera katz who was professionally involved with a commission which published
the report america's choice high skills or low wages she had previously introduced legislation
in 1987 and in 1989 on site-based decision-making in schools viewing the consequences of not
changing she couldn't help but introduce further legislation in 1991. the superintendent of
public instruction norma paulus has also been incredibly supportive of the need for change
in our education system and provided representative katz who is no longer speaker the necessary
staff to work on house bill 3565. following over 60 hours of public testimony the bill
moved from a pure workforce focus to one of education and workforce development we believe
this legislation is a blueprint for change local vision and leadership will be prerequisites
and necessary to meet the objectives 10 specific task force were created to add local voices
and thoughts to build recommendations for actual implementation it is important to note
that were it not for the fact that much of this vision already exists somewhere in oregon
for some of our children we would not probably have been up to the challenge the bills corner
stone is clearly early childhood development and education the capstone is professional
technical education there are 11 key elements in the restructuring that relates specifically
to vocational education let me run through some of them earlier introduction of careers
in the primary and middle schools with instructional strategies that stress cooperative learning
problem solving and hands-on applied academics assessment strategies that include assessing
both what students know and are able to do defining outcomes and setting expected levels
of standards for all students these are to be benchmarked at world class and measured
at a certificate of initial mastery and advanced mastery levels very important will be our
commitment to not move students along nor granting them a certificate either of initial
mastery or advanced mastery without their demonstrated knowledge and ability after students
achieve a certificate of initial mastery at approximately the 10th grade or age 16 they
will choose a major a focus for the next two additional high school years and that choice
will be between six general occupational categories academics and vocational training will need
to be integrated curriculum within the occupational focus areas need to be presented in the context
and relevant to the occupational focused area designing opportunities for students that
move beyond articulation agreements and the crea and create curriculum that is connected
and leads to an associate degree grades 11 12 13 and 14 will be a central theme for many
of our students engaging students in work activities as part of the educational process
will require more and better ties with employers both public and private throughout our state
education will never be able to stay on the cutting edge of technology however we believe
that by moving education from the school building to the community technology can become part
of everyone's skills learning centers or skill centers as some call them need to assure we
need to assure that all students have access to programs even if they leave school early
and those programs would be provided by learning centers helping schools become high performance
work organizations with the teacher as the coach performance assessment and portfolios
coursework in the last two years in a variety of different sites not necessarily tied to
seat time but to outcomes will be critical in oregon this is not a time for the faint
of heart or a time for non-risk takers our children are too important to allow the status
quo to continue part of the change is rooted and tied to our value structure and our culture
if we perpetuate the myth that you're better you're going to be more successful as a citizen
in this country and in this world if you have a four-year college degree we will shortchange
most of our future and all of our children this is a great time for vocational educators
you can be the bridge between two of our country's drivers workforce development and education
reform thanks gary thank you jd jd this this is a state initiative i mean it's state legislation
and to some extent it was inspired by not really a national initiative but but certainly
national work the america's choice how do you how do you keep this from becoming perceived
as simply a top-down mandated reform effort coming from the state to the local levels
how are you dealing with that type of problem well i think that's that's a central issue
that needs to be addressed in anything that's developed in a legislative strategy rather
than a local initiative we believe that one of the issues that's central to that is getting
the word out that this isn't to be a bill that's passed and then mandated on schools
to deliver and cause it to happen without resources being made available but
instead that we have a responsibility to get the justification for the legislation out
to the people we have to get a critical mass established in our state that understands
clearly why the change is necessary and in so doing i think developing the why connecting
it with the future for their state and for themselves and for their children we believe
that will indeed engender support for our local schools and we believe that the schools
have the answers they have the talent and skills it's providing them the necessary support
for them to actually be able to do it a lot of our legislation is tied to the concept
of allowing schools to put together new ideas and request waivers for things that have traditionally
been not allowed or not within state policy to actually seek waivers to begin to looking
at doing business differently for children and to believe that all children can learn
and to make sure that we're responsible for all of our children not just the children
that make it through our system so it's going to take a lot of work but we believe the state
has a responsibility for setting the vision setting the framework setting the blueprint
i don't know if you've ever built a house but usually between the blueprint stage and
the building of the house there are changes and i suspect that when you take it from the
vision to the application there will be additions changes adjustments that will make it better
enhance it and prove it and we look forward to that i want to stay with this topic but
i i do want to just remind our viewers again to by all means call in questions and we'll
be ready to begin taking them in in just a few minutes from the local perspective the
three of you i'd just like to ask you the same question i mean from your perspectives
what is it that the state can do to ensure that what you're trying to carry out at the
local level has the necessary state support but isn't perceived as as interference or
or unnecessary standardization what's your reaction to to this issue anybody have any
strong thoughts on well i have some
i think there's a definitely a role for um for all parties concerned all levels or however
you want to state that i think there's a there's a big role for the state to play whatever
agency it might be legislative governor or or department and i think that the the for
instance we need direction we need visions to be set we need we need a connector with
the legislature someone that can pull all this together so that it makes sense and the
communicate as jd mentioned a critical mass needs the information and other things need
to develop and and i think without that being pinpointed at the state level uh it will not
happen because there will be too many voices in the in the night i think where we need
to be very careful i think many of us uh alluded to that in our presentations is the tying
of the hands on how to get that done uh the making sure that we don't just by the regulation
that we or regulations that we put out we don't give a sense of heaviness that it's
too risky to try and what that fine line is only the people can can determine that but
i would say let's listen to the people once we set the direction let's let this turn them
loose to accomplish and then assess how they've done but let's don't get too uh too restricted
on how they work gary i would expand your question just a little bit i believe don did
that but to also say what can the district do obviously we're a partnership involving
the district the state and the community that we all serve but if restructuring is very
difficult and everyone needs to communicate and work together to to accomplish what our
mission is so i would add that it's not just the state to the district it's the district
to the school will it gary i think we need to also keep in mind that there are so some
of us who are considered as risk takers and if we are at the point where we will take
the rest then we should be able to share whatever we get from taking the risk with others in
the state and with the people at the state level so that we can get the support from
the state level we should also keep in mind though that we need to keep the people within
the community involved and make them a part of what we are doing so that they can buy
in and have ownership into what we are doing in the district everything that's done in
jackson is not going to be done the same in another part of the state but if there are
good things happening in jackson let's pull as much as we can from jackson and share with
other parts of the state that part that will fit into that particular community but most
of all include the people of the staff that's there in the building let them have ownership
that the people at the state level have ownership and most of all that the people in the community
have ownership and if that happens i think that we can deal with this restructuring deal
a little easier you know you're all involved in in really new ventures and risk-taking
really and one of the issues is well how do you know whether what you're doing is working
i mean what what are some of the criteria that you're using to assess whether or not
you're making a difference steve i know you've been involved in the development of some performance
measures as a principal of your school how do you know whether what you're doing is on
track or not i wish we could quantify that and we will i believe truly we will be able
to do that but one thing we've learned over the last three years that change and and the
outcomes from that take time but there's a there's a sense of accomplishment that i feel
and that i believe our teachers and students feel we sense it now from the community our
enrollment is going up tremendously there there are right now 400 plus applications
to come into our school when we only can take about 240 new students the community now senses
that what we're doing is is good and i believe our kids are are able or more interested in
learning and these are signs that we can sense that we feel our teachers know it but it does
take time and we are looking at performance indicators that deal with attendance uh deal
with discipline records of not just one individual kids but across the whole school and we're
seeing better attendance records less disruptive behavior uh more more student learning and
there are some of the indicators that tell us we're in the right direction but we've
heard it from our parents and surveys keep up what you're doing this is the best my son's
ever done in school um we appreciate it that what can we do to help and that's what we're
getting daily gary i'd like to take steve's comments a notch further if i could we are
in the process of documenting now information connected with reform activities in the classroom
and within each school for the last six seven years and the preliminary data that we are
getting ready to release and publish will will show clearly that those students teachers
by hard data are performing better uh than uh than those who are not uh shall we say
involved in the reform or restructuring movement and i by that uh by hard data i'm talking
about test scores and the other data dropout rates other data that that most people would
accept as success or failure are are there specific types of evaluation we had a question
from somebody in tallahassee florida was actually directed to you don asking you to please describe
some specific evaluation strategies that that you've been using in your district i mean
for for example are you uh do you have a special evaluation in place for some of your magnet
schools or or academies or their other evaluation strategies that that you i think it's important
that that maybe we say what is what's being designed in the present the past and the future
can get very confusing and i wouldn't want anyone to believe that my own personal experience
as we have in place all these assessment documents and and all you have to do is write for them
because that's not the case we are re we're in the process of building the airplane as
we fly it and uh and as you look at assessment uh what we have been doing is flying the reform
movement in all aspects and we've been documenting those uh those activities as we move along
and uh and what we've we've done is we are assessing our teachers background and their
training we're assessing their needs we're assessing what's happening to them professionally
we're assessing to what's happening to the regular uh ctbs achievement scores in those
classrooms and schools as they move through but there is a difference in what i'm talking
about and it might be subtle to some but it's but for those of us who spend time in schools
there's a difference in assessing and then gathering data one is kind of laid on you
and the other one is pulling out trying to catch people doing something good and seeing
what the results are and and we've been gathering data over at least seven eight years now and
saying what's happening to schools that are endeavoring to do the things that have been
described here and and we're we think we're we're verifying now this but we think we have
documentation that shows without a doubt that those people that are in reform with sincerity
and truthfulness and honesty to help children will show greater achievement that that will
be accepted by those who use just hard data and and the other data of dropouts and and
attendance and staff attendance uh also showing that there's a savings and a direction there
that is appropriate to build on the analogy of the plane that you're flying while you're
building it and hoping that it doesn't crash and burn i do think that there's an environment
that we need to build around schools that allows in this time of r d in this time of
risk taking of trying new things that it's okay that it's all right there will be failures
there will be some mistakes there will be some lessons that we'll learn traditionally
it's not okay to communicate those mistakes or things that you wouldn't do again and yet
if we don't if we aren't real open and build a firewall around our schools to allow them
to make those kinds of strides i think that we won't go far enough the other piece that
i wanted to build on a little bit off the analogy is we need to take a look at how we
define success and what we measure and within that definition i mean on the same the same
page that we described the fact that we are now going to start teaching problem solving
and critical thinking and teamwork that's in the same classroom where if you work with
somebody else on a test you're a cheater and we have to redefine our measurements and our
determinations of what success is and how we measure it and not just build on what was
but take a serious look at what we've been previously testing whether or not its measurement
equates to a successful student oregon had a went through a fairly very interesting exercise
on on benchmarking the how does how does that relate to the reform effort and what are some
of the criteria that you'll be using in oregon to assess the effectiveness of of this restructuring
effort benchmarks is a in oregon oregon went through a very uh specific strategic planning
process statewide looking at what would it take and what elements what indicators do
we have in this state to indicate that we were moving towards some goals and objectives
and it wasn't just an educational issue we had would argue that education needs to be
the first number one priority and is the most important but there are other issues that
are critical of the state as well livable communities environmental issues um how how
well our towns grow and whether they grow appropriately but what we came a couple administrations
ago what we found is that people had a sense of what they believed a good future would
be but that nobody looked at indicators let alone measured whether or not they were how
they were doing or progressing to those indicators and most of us know if
we don't set goals and we don't watch how we're moving towards those goals they get
lost and or you can start crashing and burning and not even know it because you aren't focused
on those goals so they went through a year-long effort of interviewing citizens and chambers
and administrators and developing benchmarks targets applied for example on this topic
applied to vocational education professional technical we were benchmarking the fact that
we believe that we had about nine percent of our total student body in oregon we're
in three classes a week or more of professional technical education and we believed with the
benchmark of having the best educated and trained workforce the united states by two
thousand equal ten in the world by two thousand and ten that needed to be at thirty five percent
by a certain point in time fifty five percent by the year two thousand and so forth and
that makes us look at issues when we talk about funding decisions when you take talk
about funding priorities but that's a separate strategy that's more of a global strategic
plan in terms of the assessment built into the reform act for education it's a different
strategy although it's complementary and we for example require report cards from every
school that will be measuring dropout rates test scores attendance activity those report
those report cards will not simply be big brother collecting data on schools the intent
is to build community support for schools and that schools are a part of the community
they are not separate and that in fact schools will be expected to publish their report card
within their community every year and that the community will become involved in setting
goals for improvement and helping the schools to improve that this isn't an isolated activity
that schools are only responsible for willie what are some of the the outcomes that you
monitor i know from some of the work that i've done in the state that mississippi really
does a pretty good job of following up on students what what do you consider to be some
of the the essential outcomes that you need to to keep an eye on in in your your school
and your district yeah when we look at um where we've come from in jackson and where
we are now we try to look at jobs that students enter once they leave the center we basically
look at whether they go into college once they leave the center but in some of the follow-ups
that we've done we found that the first one two or three years after students graduated
from high school the results have come up somewhat bad but after the third and fourth
year then it begins to increase the students are placed in areas where they were trained
in the center they're going on to jobs in the areas are they starting and working in
businesses in those particular areas we questioned why this was happening at that particular
time we went back and looked at some of the data and what we found out is the average
high school student once they graduate is 16 17 18 years old the average employer is
not going to hire so your placement rate is going to be down with those students but once
they complete a community college or once they complete service in the armed services
or once they complete a four-year university then the placement rate starts to increase
on your students and you get more positive placement from those students if i can piggyback
on another thing where you're saying about the success of the students and how can you
determine if the students are successful in what you're doing if the students are successful
then your school and your program is successful that's what we try to look at but we need
to know when we get these students just where they are in the particular areas so with the
help of our craft committees and our advisory committees we came up with what we call a
pre and post test for every area that we have at the center every child that comes there
is pre-tested in that particular area this gives us a basic understanding of the exposure
that that child or the experience that that child has had up to that particular point
then that child goes to the two-year program that we have with the assistance that we are
providing giving them the help they need to progress through the particular program that
we have at the end of that two-year program we test them again and you can actually see
the scores go up with those students there so if the scores go up and if the honor roll
list that we have at the center is increasing getting longer and longer each year and if
docs list which is the kids that make all aids at the center goes up then that tells
us that we're doing something right in the program we have teachers who show that they
care about the students they demonstrate that they care about those students and make those
students believe in themselves and these are some of the things that we look at and try
to follow and tie into to keep going to make the program successful that we have but our
success is the success of the students that we have
once again i'd just like to remind our audience that we're ready to take live phone calls
if if you care to ask a live question and we do have other questions coming in over
the phone as well one of those and i i want to move to a another topic that is related
to some of the questions that we are receiving really has to do with the whole issue of staff
development i mean all of you are firm believers and teachers and and recognize the importance
of teachers in order to make this happen but i think we also recognize that what we're
talking about really requires some changes in the way that we have traditionally taught
we had a specific question and maybe this is a good place to start from someone here
in virginia who was asking about more information on the coalition for essential schools steve
i know hodson is part of that coalition and don you have a school or two in in louisville
that's part of that coalition i'd like to ask each of you to say something about how
that particular experience has influenced the way you've gone about restructuring and
specifically how it's influenced the way you have helped to bring your staff along in in
this process steve do you want to start with okay we've been involved in the uh with the
coalition of essential schools and the delaware relearning initiative for just about three
years the coalition has nine principles that we're asked to look at seriously and we've
done that but the key with the coalition i believe is they say that no two good schools
are alike so each school has the flexibility to develop according to what they feel is
most important for their students and we've started at that point we've seriously explored
each principle one is personalization one is to get kids to use their minds well to
think and from that we started with regular conversations on on the nine principles on
topics of interest about our school these are conversations with teachers or teachers
and students or well at this point we now have had conversations with our whole school
stop classes and we had a conversation on our mission statement and are we going in
the direction that and from the student standpoint that we said we wanted to go a couple years
ago but in the beginning which is only less than three years ago these conversations were
directed at points of interest and they were voluntary and from there we developed different
committees and different initiatives to take us further further along in our work to change
and to to be better and that's been a driving force and the other thing we've learned that
the expertise the uh the skills that we needed were within within our own resources and we've
developed that and a lot of our faculty have have taken leadership for the school it's
not now the principal's job to set up the in-service it's all of our jobs it's our responsibility
and once that happened and it's it's a constant ongoing process then we have leadership and
we have growth from all sectors of our school okay we have a we have a live telephone call
from new jersey uh can we have the phone on the air yes i i'd like to address the expectation
to jd hoyle the question is what effect has the scans report on the educational plan for
oregon and then secondly where can you get information on the oregon plan
see if i can rephrase the question you want to know how the scans report affected the
oregon plan is that correct and where you can get information on our plan as you know
the scans report actually came out in a final at least the final cut of it the recent publication
after our bill had already passed the legislative process but it fits very nicely and in fact
as is the elements within the scans report are being used by some of the task forces
i mentioned that are working at looking at the certificate of initial mastery and what
the standards ought to be for students prior to being able to achieve a certificate of
initial mastery and looking at tying the scans information into that and building on it in
terms of information on our agenda 503-378-3584 be happy to send you the information we have
good thank you hopefully you will be inundated with calls jd is that a mistake
the um i want to pursue for a moment again the the staff development issue and and and
come back don t to your experience not only with the the coalition but but generally how
how how have you gone about this this issue of bringing staff along and what really is
some some significant different ways of of thinking and teaching well i i appreciate
that thought because it it really is at the core of what our school district considered
before it got into any reform activities we realized right away if we were going to have
going to have a systemic change in education that rules and roles and relationships were
going to change and any one of those or especially all three of those can bring chaos can bring
stress they can bring failure as well as as any good attributes so we we decided we needed
a road map of how it's not just a one-shot effort that we're going to have site-based
councils or as we called it in the early days uh participatory management and but we realized
all those rules roles and relationships people had to have a way of dealing with them so
we created a road map and uh and the road map started with an academy and that academy
was uh partially paid for by a local foundation called the gaines foundation but was a community
organization that wanted to help keep really gifted teachers in the classroom and so consequently
with academy we begin to grow a whole host of of uh side streets and and and highways
on staff development one of those was the coalition of essential schools and we were
the first district in america to be accepted as a district into the uh a coalition and
i serve on ted sizer's national faculty now because of that but because of we had that
organization it brought ted seiser and his wife to our school district to teach classes
to talk in person with our administrators and and so what we developed with our uh our
staff development was not again very important to the paradox that we have on reform was
not a top down but instead it was a shoot that allowed uh the bottoms up to with little
restriction to develop and grow and create and it became a center that that a dialogue
could take place of where the problems that we're going to develop could be talked about
not in any evaluation administrator's office where the evaluation might be taking place
but in a kind of a administrative free environment that belonged really to the teachers that
belong to the parents that belong to administrators and so we got a more neutral environment of
where ideas could come unions parents and administrators and boards of edge could come
together to discuss an idea not who side you on and that just created a real a wholesome
environment that i would have trouble describing to you today in its entirety but it's been
very healthy
we have another live call from new jersey new jersey are you on the air oh from i'm
sorry it's not from new jersey it's from tallahassee florida tallahassee yes i'm on the air good
we have your question uh yes the question i have is really for anyone on the panel what
role will vocational student organizations play in the school restructuring process and
what adjustments do the vsos need to make to assist with this restructuring great question
you want to tackle that one will he i'll try gary because what we did with the student
organizations in our district was to make the student organizations a part of the curriculum
that we would uh teach the students what was expected what the organizations were all about
in the particular areas and insisted that they participate in the organization for that
particular area we would have our weekly and monthly meetings the teachers were all trained
in what the organization was about and it was a part of the instructional program so
this is how we built it into the curriculum it was not extra to the curriculum but it
was a part of the curriculum i'd like to add something also to the question and expand
what willie said and going back we look at that as another indicator of where we're moving
because the student organizations are so valuable and this year we have more kids ever in leadership
activities participating in skills competitions in fact i'm proud to say it our school now
has the president of bpa and the president of vikka for next year so i think we can't
measure some statistically where we're going right now but i can see the emerge emerging
uh leadership for kids able to think and do things that they're supposed to do and student
organizations is the way to do it and we're very happy about that another comment i would
make is that i think student organizations have an opportunity to contribute incredible
information to the reform agenda the organizations have learned a great deal over the years in
terms of what works and what doesn't how to bring students together how to empower students
how to motivate much of what organ student organizations may currently take for granted
as the way of operation can benefit the classroom and can benefit a much larger student population
in terms of where we're going with demonstrable abilities and skills yeah i think i think
that's a great point i mean the we can learn a lot from the from the way those organizations
work about what we ought to be doing in the classroom we have another live call now from
south bend indiana south bend yes i have a question for any member on the panel how do
you get academic staff members to accept or believe that vocational education is an important
part of the total educational process and this would be for students that are both college-bound
and the non-college-bound students
steve that's a good question for you and we we have lived that uh for three years but
when we started having our teachers in the academic area working directly with the vocational
and we have a math integration project organized by vocational clusters those teachers came
back the academic teachers came back so uh for and in some cases the first time they
visited actually watch what went on they were so impressed and what we learned because we
were hoping to get some specific activities for students the teachers came back at the
vocational level but the teachers came back and applied what they saw and what they learned
in their academic classrooms um so it's that we need time for the for the both areas to
work together to be together and to understand each other and what we found as an outcome
they appreciate each other's work much more and at this point and it's it's been said
here on the panel that uh our our vision is that we won't be academic vocational so much
in terms of separate but will be so well integrated that we'll share responsibility for for applied
learning kerry i think it's one other thing we need to look at too that we as vocational
educators need to accept the fact that we need to open our doors and invite the other
teachers into the buildings to actually see what's there and once they see what's there
then they will see that this is not the place where we send the bad kids over to disruptive
kids and things like that but there's some positive things happening inside of those
walls and we have to open them up on sundays we have to have work sessions there we have
to have workshops to involve them in these things bring them in and let us let them do
work sessions for us and things like this this is the way you get them i know jd wants
to go i want to say one other thing as an example we also in our senior project where
each student forms a committee with a major advisor and a committee very much like a dissertation
committee and there's we had academic and vocational people working together and i remember
at a different student presentation when student stumbled a little bit and and their vocational
teacher which is their mentor would almost uh get the words out and they they were very
protective of their students and and based on that and based on the cooperation that
we've just had terrific uh development of of both groups and that's broken the ice for
us that project i think the other thing that will break the iso a great deal is that this
isn't just changing one side of this equation if we do this correctly this is systemic change
that means the traditional vocational education also has some changes it needs to make the
traditional academic delivery has some changes and i i believe people generally enjoy company
when they're both on that kind of moving target moving ground not sure what the correct answer
is i think there's a lot to learn from each of the systems the demonstratable skills tied
to assessment a great deal of that information can come from what we've learned in terms
of vocational education but the rigor that we know is required even for that student
entering work directly after high school in math and science must be greater for all students
than it is currently so it's it's changing on both sides of this equation good we have
another live call now from huntsville alabama huntsville you're on the air yes my first
question is to willie mott and the question is has the career development center reduced
the dropout rate in jackson and a second part of that question is what is the graduation
rate in jackson
william did you get the question as i understand it the the question is how whether the you've
seen any reduction in the the drop out rate of students participating in the in the career
development center and also what was is the graduation rate of students who participate
in the career development center in in in jackson high school graduation rate i i take
it to be okay we are working on the problem of student dropouts in the jackson public
schools and that we have initiated a program that's called dropout prevention where we
try to get students who are potential dropouts to participate in the classes at the center
it's worked up to this point in that we're keeping them in school they are going back
to their home schools and graduating it's a less percentage of students who are graduating
who participate in the program but at least not all of them are dropping out now we are
not having a significant effect on the dropout rate in the district but we're going to try
to do some things to work on that to improve that the students who participate in classes
at the career development center if we can get them for the first year and if they're
students who are on time as far as graduation rates graduation requirements are concerned
then those students will stay in school and graduate but if we get students who are behind
as far as the academic requirements for them to graduate then they will finish the programs
at the center but they will have to go back to their home schools to meet the graduation
requirements that's there we have another live call now from champaign illinois champaign
you're on the air thank you very much uh i'd like to ask each one of the panel members
what was the biggest hurdle that they had to overcome
the biggest hurdle that each of you has had to to address jd i'd say our largest hurdle
is a apathy a belief that this is just change coming again and i'm just going to hang in
there and this too shall pass motivating and causing people to believe that this is not
a fad that this is something that's critical and central to our society and our economy
this isn't just an educational fling and i think that that has as a challenge has meant
getting out and talking to lots and lots of different people from different walks of life
and getting them to see education as central to their state their personal life their family
and their future has been a significant challenge and i think it's central to our success nicely
put willie how about you what's been your biggest challenge of the last year or two
the biggest challenge i think that we've had is convincing all teachers and administrators
in the district that we believed and demonstrated that all students could learn once we got
this accepted by all persons within the district then the process began to fall in place and
things got to be a little easier at what we were doing but we had to accept the fact that
we all don't learn at the same pace some of us learn faster than the other some of us
slower than the others and we had to take the time to make sure that we moved each one
along until they completed what we were talking about doing in the different areas and this
was the biggest hurdle i think that we had to to cross steve i would i would say that
the hurdle from from a school-based approach with us especially when we broke the isolation
where teachers had to work separately is the need and the ability to communicate that this
was uh the changes were make was open-ended and and we always used the word inclusion
it wasn't for an elite group it was for everybody to benefit students and it's something when
you work in teams and you don't have experience working in teams takes different skills and
so i would say the the ability to communicate and deal in teams that that one central uh
theme has really something we constantly have to work through don how about you don't you
i think the other three have said that very well and i think especially jd with her first
comments the this a whole arena of trust with faculties that this is not just another effort
to put a little frosting on the cake and they're going right back without enough supplies or
uh same old thing but just as described differently and and i think as we begin to build a trust
and and we we could begin to see that certain courses no longer fit the employment world
and that people needed to be retrained and it wasn't a negative but it was a positive
and and how we needed to tie things together that took some communicating but i think that
was the biggest hurdle to get over
we have another live call now this one from kansas kansas we are on the air yes good afternoon
and this is for any panel member first of all as a vocational counselor i would like
to ask how can we influence parents to make them aware that all success in life in the
workplace is not going to be attributed simply to higher education pursuit many of the parents
out there are totally unaware even though our our economic situation nationwide right
now reflects the fact that adults are are bouncing back and forth from one job to another
and all lifelong learning is going to be essential how can we influence parents to understand
that their children will need lifelong learning but that vocational education is a start on
entry level job skills and to motivate their their sons and daughters to take uh vocational
classes
well one of the comments i'd make is over time i believe central to the success of this
agenda will be getting away from vocational students and other students we know in our
state and i suspect it's nationally true that no more than 25 or 30 percent of of college
four-year college entrants ever graduate and yet you'd think that that the parents out
there would realize the likelihood of their sons and daughters um being one of the 30
that do graduate that somebody out there needs some other kind of skill development and training
and yet the word doesn't get out there so part of it for me is that i believe we need
to get away from the separateness of delivery of skills and that what the skills that i
believe we need to be talking about are skills for all students and and the continuum that
we need to build of education needs to be seamless and it needs to be continuous that
lifelong learning does occur but that it's not separate tracks for different students
and different standards for different students but that we have a responsibility to provide
all the necessary resources and ability for every student to go as far down that continuum
as they choose to go and that there's connectedness between decisions so that the person who leaves
high school can come back and not start over but can get back on that continue and move
farther through the educational process it cracks me up when when i was in college they
used to tell me that i was going to have maybe five critical jobs in my lifetime and now
we're telling kids you're going to have five major careers in a lifetime well they're not
going to be prepared at any one of those steps be it high school community college higher
education or other forever that continuum and that educational process is going to be
ongoing and i think our success needs to be to avoid separating our students to vocational
another and instead begin to infuse vocational skill delivery to all students we have time
for one quick last minute live call and we have one from new orleans new orleans what's
your question this is the access consortium in new orleans would you please comment on
the role of higher education both from the point of view of those students who opt go
to go beyond two plus two into two plus two plus two and also the restructuring at the
higher uh learning level to train the teachers who will be a part of this movement don in
30 seconds i'll take the last part of that the the higher education restructuring the
training for teachers uh uh in in our particular district we have a very close partnership
with the university of louisville and others but i'm concentrating on university of louisville
in this answer where really the the teachers or student teachers that are coming through
the program are really in our schools they the teacher the college teachers are teaching
the students in the high school classrooms not the high school students they're teaching
the college potential teachers right in there the the student teachers are eating lunch
with the students they are involved in all of the activity a real world not something
ivory tower and that's making all the difference in the world and how we see students great
it's time to wrap up our conference and i want to begin by thanking each of you for
being with us today by way of a summary let's first consider what we know about different
approaches to restructuring it's clear that there's no single model there's no one right
way to go about this i think all of our panelists have described approaches that are tailored
to their states or their local circumstances or the needs and capacities of their particular
schools nevertheless there are some common features they've all devoted substantial time
to planning to developing a clear mission and strategies for realizing it they are all
student oriented with provisions in place for evaluating the success of students and
making changes in their programs when certain strategies are not successful as to the role
of vocational education and restructuring it clearly has been central to their efforts
however they find themselves increasingly having to rethink and reshape both the concepts
and the objectives of vocational education they are moving toward broader conceptions
of vocational education organized around whole industries or clusters of occupations vocational
education is not simply a means for mastering occupational knowledge and competencies it's
also the vehicle for grasping academic principles and basic skills the broader aims of vocational
education depend on better integrated curriculum ranging from an emphasis on applied academics
to the creation of schools or academies where the entire curriculum is organized around
an industry leadership of course plays a central role in these efforts without exception it
is system-wide restructuring cannot simply be a vocational education initiative it requires
the support of state and local superintendents school boards and others responsible for guiding
general education policy and reform our panelists have also stressed the importance of collaborative
leadership shared responsibility and the ongoing involvement of faculty and students finally
it should be stressed that restructuring is not easy it takes a long time five to ten
years is probably a realistic outlook tradition bureaucracy and regulations are just a few
of the barriers that must be constantly pushed aside when successful however restructuring
has clear benefits for all students lower dropout rates higher attendance rates reduce
disciplinary problems better academic performance and greater knowledge and understanding of
the of one's opportunities for further education and success in the workforce are among the
primary benefits they are also the criteria against which to assess the success of your
efforts to restructure your schools thank you for joining and participating with us
today the national center is committed to improving practice and to do so we need to
continue to hear from you. You can reach us by writing the National Center for Research
and Vocational Education, the University of California Berkeley, 1995 University Avenue
suite 325 Berkeley, California our zip code is 94704 and you can also telephone us at
area code
800-762-4093 We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again to each of you Don, Steve,
Willy, JD, and thank you for being with us.
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