By Ryan McCarthy
Where, asked Arthur Schwartz, did I learn the skills to go out and find a job?
The senior vice president and chief human resource officer for Travis Credit Union told members of the Countywide Career Technical Advisory Committee that he doesn’t recall precisely but knows the need for such skills among job seekers.
“I can give you a lot of horror stories,” he said.
via Career technical education counts in Solano Daily Republic.
By Jane Meredith Adams
Federal money for education will continue to flow into California, with some caveats, even with a government shutdown.
The big-ticket federal education programs in California – $1.8 billion a year for low-performing schools and $1.4 billion a year for special education – will be unscathed, according to a memorandum from the U.S. Department of Education. Those programs, along with grants for Career and Technical Education, would be deemed “a necessary exception” to a spending halt and would receive their scheduled Oct. 1 funding distribution, the federal department said.
via What would federal shutdown mean for California education? | EdSource Today.
By Alyson Klein
Career and Technical Education legislation has always been bipartisan—and lawmakers in the House are hoping that an upcoming reauthorization can continue the tradition.
CTE is the largest federal program for high schools, funded at about $1.13 billion. And its focus—career education—fits in with House leaders’ current embrace of workforce/job training issues. Still, it’s kind of an obscure step-child to the much more glitzy Higher Education Act and Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (Maybe CTE’s under-the-radar nature will help with bipartisanship?)
Programs that prepare students for college and careers are about to get a jolt of one-time state money that supporters are counting on to lead to a permanent and sustainable expansion of programs.
The state budget that took effect Monday includes an extra $250 million in grants for a variety of programs, collectively known as career technical education, for K-12 districts, charter schools and community colleges. State leaders are hoping that business leaders will see the extra money as an incentive to step up their involvement through internships and donations of time, money and equipment.
Infusion of money for career education in new state budget | EdSource Today.
By Susan Frey
Advocates for adult education and regional occupational centers, which provide hands-on learning in specific careers, say they are satisfied that the language in the budget bills expected to be voted on Friday is strong enough to protect their programs for another two years. The legislators and governor did not mince words, they say, in requiring districts that currently have programs to fund them for two more years.
Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for the state’s two adult education organizations, said it is clear that even if a district voted to close its program at the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, it would be obligated to continue the program at its current funding level for two more years.
Once-threatened programs that prepare high school students for careers and adults for jobs or college appear likely to get at least a two-year reprieve under the compromise budget plan negotiated between legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown.
Under the compromise, districts that currently have adult education programs or are involved in Regional Occupational Centers and Programs, which provide hands-on learning in specific careers for high school students, will be required to keep their current programs for two more years, said state Senator Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who was a key player in the negotiations.
via Adult ed, regional occupational centers, partnership academies get reprieve – by Susan Frey.
Some California Regional Occupational Centers – the primary providers of career technical education for high school students in the state – have been given a reprieve from Gov. Jerry Brown’s original plan to eliminate any future dedicated funding for them.
In his May budget revision, Brown instead proposed that centers that operate under joint powers authorities with several school districts and that also are funded through their county Offices of Education will receive dedicated funding for the next two years.
via May budget revise offers funding reprieve to some Regional Occupational Centers – by Susan Frey.
The leader of the California State Senate says the way to encourage more and stronger bonds between industry and education is through, well, bonds.
With California facing a shortage of qualified workers for 21st century jobs, Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg wants to entice businesses to become more involved in job training by asking them to invest in a new type of school bond that would fund programs that infuse career education into traditional academic courses. Businesses that invest would see a guaranteed return on their investment, Steinberg said.
via Bonds would fund business investment in schools under Steinberg proposal – by Kathryn Baron.
The new model curriculum standards for Career Technical Education (CTE) were the focus of a workshop for local CTE educators held at the Solano County Office of Education on April 9. The workshop was spent reviewing, collaborating, and aligning key classroom assignments with the new standards.
via The new model curriculum standards for Career Technical Education (CTE) were the….
Despite a plea from one trustee that the move was premature, the Sweetwater Union High School District has issued pink slips to all teachers in the district’s Regional Occupational Program, which offers career-tech training, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Trustees voted 2-2, with one trustee abstaining, to give pink slips to 36.8 full-time equivalent positions. The newspaper did not say how many employees received the notices. According to board rules, an abstention counts as a positive vote.
via Sweetwater gives pink slips to all its career-tech teachers – by Susan Frey.
By Susan Frey
The superintendent of the state’s oldest regional occupational program is warning that an unintended consequence of the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula could lead to its demise. An official from the Department of Finance says his department will look into the problem.
Christine Hoffman, superintendent of the Southern California Regional Occupational Center (SoCal ROC) in Torrance, is sending preliminary layoff notices to all 125 of her employees by the March 15 deadline for notifying those who could lose their jobs in the next fiscal year, starting July 1. She is also wondering if the center does close whether she’ll be able to repay long-term federal and state loans used to construct the three multi-storied buildings that house the center, which was used as a model to create the state’s 71 other regional occupational programs.
via State’s first career-tech center faces potential demise – by Susan Frey.
By Susan Frey
In proposing to give school districts money with fewer strings attached, Gov. Jerry Brown is confident that local school boards and superintendents are best able to make the right decisions so that all students can graduate ready for college and work. A report released today by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) questions that assumption. PACE is a joint research group based at UC Berkeley, Stanford and the University of Southern California.
“School Finance Reform: Can It Support California’s College and Career Ready Goal?” considers Brown’s proposed local control funding formula through the lens of career technical education programs. It concludes that removing all spending restrictions could lead to the dismantlement of important programs that the Legislature has created and protected, and it suggests that lawmakers could retain some broad but limited controls over spending in priority areas.
via Report questions impact of Brown’s finance formula on career tech – by Susan Frey.
By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter
How do sounds in the environment impact sleep?
Can students of all ages learn to save water or become scientists?
How hard is it to convert a gasoline-powered Go-Kart to solar power?
Students in Benicia High School’s ECH20 Academy have been tackling these and other questions, and will be displaying their answers in a two-day fair at the school starting Tuesday.
By Susan Frey
The California Department of Education has selected 63 districts and county offices of education – many of them working together in consortia – to pilot “linked learning” programs in their high schools beginning next fall. These programs integrate academics with real-world work experiences in an effort to engage students.
High schools with linked learning programs typically offer several courses in one or more career paths, such as healthcare, business or the arts. The career theme permeates the curriculum. For example, students on the healthcare career path at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch Unified School District in Contra Costa County take Human Anatomy & Physiology and Microbiology for their science courses. They take Medical Terminology as an elective and a Regional Occupational Program course in Sports Medicine or Nursing. Guest speakers from the local hospital come to class to talk about what their jobs are like, and students shadow professionals working in the health field. The culmination of the program is an internship at a local hospital, doctor’s office or other health facility.
via Linked learning comes of age in California with new pilot programs – by Susan Frey.
Like many of her classmates, Luwie Villapana hopes to someday enter the medical field and perhaps save a life.
But for now, the 17-year-old Jesse Bethel High School junior is content to chop away at her cow eyeball.
“I’m really enjoying this,” Villapana said as she attempted Thursday to remove the whitish fat surrounding the preserved eyeball.
The dissection was part of a lesson in how organisms communicate, both internally and externally, said Jackie Kearns, teacher and director of the Biomedical Academy at Bethel, which has about 70 students.
via Vallejo students get eyeful at Bethel High School academy.
On January 22, the Solano County Office of Education and the Napa County Office of Education co-hosted 45 educators from Solano and Napa counties in a workshop exploring the new Common Core State Standards for Career Technical Education. Presenters included Sheryl Ryder, ROP Manager from Napa ROP, and Polly Farina, CTE Instructional Support Specialist from SCOE. The new CTE Model Curriculum Standards and easy steps for integrating the new standards and Common Core into lessons and key assignments were discussed.
via On January 22, the Solano County Office of Education and the Napa County Office….
With the empty former Camping World store behind him, soon to be a new, $13 million sheet metal shop and training center, California public schools chief Tom Torlakson said Thursday that the planned 43,000-square-foot facility in Fairfield signals “a strong economy, a stronger California.”
As part of a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the project, a joint venture of Local 104 of the Sheet Metal Workers union and related industry groups, he said education in the building trades is among the “many honorable pathways to a bright and successful future” for the state’s 6.2 million students in public and charter schools. Nearly a third of them drop out of high school, he noted.
via State public schools chief hails future training center in Fairfield.
SACRAMENTO—Sweeping updates to California’s career technical education (CTE) standards—designed to reflect the changing face of technology and set higher academic goals—received approval from the State Board of Education Wednesday, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced.
The new standards are one of the cornerstone achievements of Torlakson’s Career Readiness Initiative. Building on the previous CTE standards, the revised standards were created with input from more than 300 representatives from business and industry, labor, and postsecondary and secondary education, ranging from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to mental health experts and environmental innovators.
The Solano County Office of Education on Tuesday will sponsor a countywide meeting on how Career Technical Education (CTE) affects area high school students.
The meeting, called by the CTE Advisory Committee, will be from 5 to 7 p.m. in Vacaville High School’s Little Theater, 100 W. Monte Vista Ave.
via Career Technical Education focus of meeting at Solano County Office of Education.
Brianna Boyd
Editor
Abby Soares was just 13 years old when she shot her first deer in 2009.
Three years later, Soares, now an avid hunter and high school junior, finally has a way to commemorate that exciting moment in her life thanks to her wildlife art class at Dixon High.
Just this week, Soares put the finishing touches on her mounted black tail deer, featuring the horns from the animal she shot in 2009.
via Teens create art with animals