Looking for a way to take care of that pesky algebra II
requirement and still get a head start on a career?
Nick Sears, left, a 2008 graduate of Livonia Stevenson High School, and Chadd Scruggs, a 2008 graduate of Van Buren Belleville High School, look at a computer design that will be used to build a prototype in the chamber behind them at JonaTek Products, a rapid prototyping and manufacturing firm in Livonia.
Dr. Janet Haas thought so.
That’s why, as of this fall, the Livonia Career Technical
Center will pilot a program that weaves advanced math into subjects like
building trades, medicine and marketing, enabling students to study both
subjects concurrently. Beginning the following year, students who successfully
complete such a class will be eligible to receive half a credit in algebra II.
Haas sees it as a win-win: Students earn math credit in a
setting that interests them, and the center protects its enrollment.
“That’s the only way you’re going to survive the high
school requirements,” Haas, the school principal, said in an interview in her
office.
By survive, Haas means finding a way for students to
continue taking career education courses now that they must complete four years
each of English and math, three years each of science and social science, plus
assorted other courses in order to receive a high school diploma. In a
traditional six-period day, fitting in those requirements could put the squeeze
on non-required classes like band and career education.
Ron Wilson sits behind an array of objects designed by his students at the Livonia Career Technical Center. A local firm builds prototypes of the students’ work, giving them the chance to see finished versions of their CAD efforts.
But when the Legislature set those requirements — beginning
with the class of 2011 — it also gave school districts the option to offer them
through a career education program, as long as the local board of education
ensured that all the required content was covered. Since then, districts across
Michigan have been looking for ways to offer English through fashion design,
math through automotive engineering and biology through cosmetology.
Like a lot of Michigan educators, Haas believes algebra II
will be the biggest stumbling block for many students. If algebra I is any
predictor, she is right. The statewide failure rate in that subject in the past
year was estimated at 20 to 30 percent.
“That is the hardest thing they (students) will have to
face,” Haas, herself a former math teacher, said. “I’m very concerned.”
LEARNING MATH
IN MANY WAYS
This prototype of an intake manifold for a Chevrolet Corvette was built at JonaTek Products in Livonia using the company’s laser sintering chamber. Students at the nearby Livonia Career Technical Center have sent their own designs to be made into prototypes at the firm, typically for less-complicated items.
But students can succeed at algebra II, she and teacher Ron
Wilson said, given the right environment, instructional style and support.
“It’s all in the instructional strategies,” Haas said. In
addition to the standard lecture format, she anticipates the career center will
use small group instruction, student-to-student assistance, computer-based
individual instruction and potentially video-based instruction to deliver math
content. A math resource teacher also is available.
“The state keeps saying, ‘Be creative. You’ve got to think
of different delivery modes.’ Well, we’re trying,” Haas said.
Many career or technical courses already have a significant
math component, Haas said, such as the use of probability in marketing, but to
give half-credit in algebra II she had to demonstrate that sufficient content
will be included. Like a number of other districts, her staff has “crosswalked”
the career and math curricula, first finding common ground and then addressing
gaps.
At the Van Buren Technology Center, operated by the Van
Buren Intermediate School District in southwest Michigan, students can earn
academic credit in math, science, visual/performing arts or civics, depending on
which of the 29 career programs they choose, according to Sue Conklin, director.
They also can meet the new state requirement for an “online experience.”
The center has offered academic credit for some time, but a
year ago revisited the system to meet the terms of the new Michigan Merit
Curriculum for high schools. The district determined, for example, that its
allied health program contains enough English and biology content to offer
academic credit for those subjects. Law enforcement students can earn half a
credit in civics and commercial art students can earn credit for visual arts.
The actual credit is granted by each student’s local school district, not by the
Technical Center.
In some cases, students have to complete additional work
inside or outside of class in order to earn the academic credit along with the
elective credit that the career class offers, Conklin said.
“Our academic staff monitors them to make sure they meet
the requirements,” she said. Those teachers also may team teach with career and
technical educators.
KEEPING
STUDENTS INTERESTED
Similarly, Oakland Schools is offering credit in math,
science and English in various programs at its four technical centers, assigning
highly qualified teachers from each of those disciplines to each campus.
“What we’ve really done is shown that we … accept the rigor
of the Merit Curriculum,” said Mary Kaye Aukee, director of Career Focused
Education. As an added plus, she believes the opportunity to study math or
English in a context they find relevant will keep students interested.
“We’ve always known in CTE that some kids learn by doing
and seeing,” she said. Some students might find English grammar more relevant
when learned along with Web design, for example. “All of a sudden, the English
means something. … It’s a way for us, I believe, to decrease the dropout rate.”
Students who don’t need the academic credit can opt out,
possibly spending more time at job sites or in technical training, she said.
Technically, this year will be a trial run in Livonia, Haas
said, since this year’s juniors and seniors do not fall under the new graduation
requirements. That gives the center a year to tweak the plan.
CHANGING FACE
OF CTE
The algebra component of a career course will not be any
easier than standard advanced algebra, according to Haas and Wilson, a teacher
in the center’s engineering program. Nor should it be, they said.
“I know it (advanced math) is necessary for my students to
be successful,” Wilson said.
Nearly 1,000 students are enrolled in courses at the
Livonia Center. Haas and Wilson are interested in protecting that number not
just to stave off program cuts, but because, they say, career and technical
education is so important to individual students and to Michigan at large.
“The old ‘oil change’ concept was a hard nut to crack,”
Haas said, referring to the idea that CTE programs are spots for non-college
bound students looking for blue-collar work.
In contrast, today’s CTE student is more likely to be
studying digital graphics, computer network administration, allied health or
engineering technology. They also are likely to either earn college credit as
they study — Livonia has articulation agreements with five colleges and
universities — or to earn industry-direct certification.
“I no longer use the word ‘shop’ or ‘vocational school,’”
said Peter Varbedian, a senior staff specialist in the Rochester Hills office of
Fanuc Robotics America Inc., a leading supplier of industrial robots and robotic
systems. “I say career and technical education.”
A Livonia graduate and former student of Dr. Haas,
Varbedian said many technology-based firms like Fanuc are worried about a future
shortage of skilled technical workers. To help fill that gap in their own
industry, his company has developed a program through which a high school or
college can buy an industrial robot and the software and accessories needed to
teach students how to program and operate it. Fanuc invited a handful of Livonia
students to test the program during development.
“I believe the future of CTE is to have that support from
industry,” Haas said.
In another real-world link, Wilson’s students send designs
they created with CAD software to nearby JonaTek Products to be made into
prototypes. Company president Kevin Jonatzke said he approached Wilson with the
offer because of his own frustration in school.
“I’d design it, get graded, and nothing would happen,”
Jonatzke said, who previously worked as an engineer in the automotive and
aerospace industries. Now, students receive a finished version of the glue
bottles, hammers and hair dryers that they designed in the computer lab. It puts
a finishing touch on the process, and also helps students spot their own design
flaws, Jonatzke said.
JonaTek creates prototypes using a process called laser
sintering, in which a sand-like mixture of nylon and glass is spread in thin
layers across the floor of an enclosed chamber. A laser scans the mixture and
selectively fuses bits of it together based on the CAD design. After all the
layers are applied, the extraneous “sand” is brushed and blasted away, leaving
the prototype intact.
In the future, Jonatzke said, he would like students to
send him more complicated designs for items with multiple parts that must fit
together. On his end, Wilson believes students only benefit when business and
industry become involved in his classroom.
“I love going into industry to see what’s going on,”
Wilson said. “They key is to make them part of this (career and technical
education) program, so they have ownership. That’s what I like to do.”
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Lorie Shane is the managing editor of the Michigan Education Report, the Mackinac Center’s education policy journal. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that Michigan Education Report is properly cited.