Learning Matters: When it comes to career technical education, collaboration is key

By Joylene Wagner

Feb. 18, 2016 5:46 PM PT

Career technical education is not new in the Glendale Unified School District, but over the last few years, it has been renamed and renewed as a topic and a goal.

“Preparing our students for their future” became the motto in 2011. The district’s strategic plan calls for students to “…Participate in a well-rounded curriculum that includes… guidance in life skills, career planning and healthy living.”

And the Local Control Accountability Plan, known as LCAP, adopted in 2015, seeks to “…Ensure all students are given the opportunity to be college and/or career ready.”

For now, I won’t dwell on the “and/or” statement, which can imply that a student might be career ready in this global marketplace without at least some post-secondary education, or that the “college-bound” needn’t bother with career education.

The “either/or” approach to career education is at the heart of what promoters of 21st century career pathways are attempting to reform: All students need some post-secondary education (not necessarily four years), and all students would benefit from work-based learning.

But I’ll focus here on the district’s stated career education goals, goals that line up laudably with educational trends across the country. Career-technical education, work-based learning and career pathways linked to local, higher-paying employment sectors have joined science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM, as common terms in public education.

State, federal and private grant opportunities support development of such programs, all aimed at closing the skills gap employers report as the reason they hire foreign workers. Glendale Unified is in its second year of a California Career Pathways Trust grant aimed at preparing students for careers in digital media and advanced manufacturing.

Called the Verdugo Creative Technologies Consortium, the grant project is shared with Burbank Unified, Glendale Community College, CSU Northridge and the Verdugo Workforce Development Board. It serves as a good example of how school districts are encouraged to look beyond their classrooms to the real-world problems that public education is meant to help solve and to the jobs our students will eventually need to make a living.

It’s also a reminder that collaboration is key for school districts just as it is for students under the new state education standards.

Despite a history of school-to-career efforts stretching back to the 1990s, Glendale Unified has not come as far as it could in reshaping its college and career culture. While it offers a growing number of sequenced career-technical education courses, some described as “pathways,” others as “academies,” Glendale Unified has yet to develop a comprehensive plan that is consistent across the district or comes close to serving all students.

It has no clear or readily available description of the programs that already exist. The one career-technical education link currently on the district website is a video announcing the Verdugo Creative Technologies Consortium grant, but there’s no detailed information on how or where a student might enter its career pathways.

With some noteworthy exceptions, like the small engines programs at Toll Middle School and the expansion of digital media and manufacturing — particularly at Clark Magnet High School — Glendale Unified has mostly kept its focus on the classroom and implementation of the new California state standards.

The outcome measures listed in the district’s Local Control Accountability Plan for college and career readiness include only the completion data for students meeting the course requirements for UC/CSU admission and passing rates for Advanced Placement classes.

There’s no reference yet to the number of students placed in internships or those achieving industry-recognized certifications. The plan actually acknowledges its incomplete status, noting the college and career readiness goal will be discussed “sometime next year.”

I’m not sure if that discussion has begun yet, but I hope the arrival of the new superintendent will enliven the conversation. Deb Rinder, who oversees district career-technical education programs among her other duties, acknowledged the work yet to be done as she told me, “We’re moving forward.”

Meanwhile, I’d recommend interested readers take a look at Burbank’s website, burbankunified.org, where the district commitment to career-technical education is evident in Supt. Matt Hill’s February message, and where information on career-technical education class offerings is easy to find.

“Join Us in the Road to Success,” says the announcement for the annual Career Tech Ed Fair at Burbank’s two comprehensive high schools, events organized by Diana Dysthe, Burbank’s career-technical education counselor.

“In today’s world,” Burbank’s website states, “[career-technical education] is important so that our students can understand responsibility, learn what is required to get and keep a job… gain experience in careers of interest and make informed choices about post-secondary education….”

Another page lists the many career-technical education classes available to Burbank students through Glendale Community College’s dual-enrollment Jump Start program.

For its part, the college’s website also highlights its growing number of career-technical education courses, along with events such as the Maker Faire, celebrating Engineering Week, on Feb. 27. For more information, visit glendale.edu/SHPE.

Both Burbank Unified and Glendale Community College have the advantage of district staff members long dedicated to career-technical education and arts. Their websites show it. Dedicated, passionate staffing makes a difference.

JOYLENE WAGNER is a past member of the Glendale Unified School Board. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.