Diesel Training Center Spotlights a Problem of Education : 2 Pilot Programs at S.D. Schools Respond to Need for Better Job Skills

Eighteen students haven’t just studied vectors and compression and tension forces in their experimental physics text at Patrick Henry High this year. They’ve also learned the corresponding mathematics and now--equipped with the abstract understanding--the group is busy with the drafting teacher, designing model bridges to build out of wood in their new fabrication class.

At Mission Bay High, 100 ninth-graders used algebra to compute the amount of their schools’ paper trash, wrote letters in English class asking teachers to conserve, prepared speeches on recycling in their marketing unit to present to upperclassmen, and built collection containers in their commercial art classes to place around the school.

The two San Diego schools are among 30 statewide awarded money last year to better prepare students to compete in the workplace, especially those who are part of the 75%-80% of students nationally who do not go on to four-year colleges.

It’s a part of a nationwide drive for students to meet tougher academic standards that will give them an advantage in the workplace. Several national studies last year, including “America’s Choice: High Skills or Low Wages!” argued that the nation’s future economic competitiveness requires that schools improve the skills of these graduates.

For too long, the reports argue, high schools have given little incentive to the non-college-bound to study hard because the diplomas tell employers nothing about whether students can read or write or have the discipline to hold a job.

The schools should grab students’ attention and spark their ambition by forging links between academic content and vocational skills, the National Center on Education and the Economy recommended.

In the view of many educators, this would yield benefits for all students.

Kearny High seniors Trunghau Dang and Thanh Ha, both University of California-bound for engineering careers, found themselves in machine shop last semester, courtesy of Principal Mike Lorch.

“I was amazed at the process of how you design something, then have to select the right materials, and then actually make it,” Dang said. “I found that you use a lot of math to solve some problems.”

In fact, machine shop instructor John Riego de Dios gave Dang and Ha a math problem to figure out “that took our math teacher a couple of weeks to do!” Dang said.

“I want my college-bound kids to see the limits of machines and the use of metals, to see how all of this relates,” said Lorch, a biologist who designs and builds furniture in a home workshop.

Lorch concedes that teachers at his school, which has the magnet program in industrial technology for San Diego city schools, will need to adjust their attitudes. So far, his ideas have gotten a wary reception from most teachers.

A blend of vocational and academic training “is the key idea,” said Jim Clark, a veteran physics and vocational education teacher at Patrick Henry.

“So the kid who’s more technically inclined will see that the college-prep guy doesn’t know it all, but that math and physics are important in making a product. So the academic kid will see hands-on as rewarding, and so they’ll both develop more respect for each other.”

Clark is the force behind his school’s technical seminar, which took 18 juniors and seniors--neither academic superstars nor those on the verge of dropping out--into a four-hour technology seminar with Clark and three colleagues.

“It’s to show them how you use knowledge and skills, and a step-by-step approach, to solve problems, to offer them a look at possible careers, to develop a sense of teamwork, and to prepare some of them for transition to community college programs,” Clark said.

In a typical example, seniors Charile Soukhaseum, Jamie Mansour and Richie Fortado last week used Lego pieces to build rotating telescopes, levers and other machines based on their study of gear ratios, speed and force in the textbook.

Soukhaseum, bound for UC San Diego and a career in cellular biology, admitted that college-prep students rarely opt for a vocational education course.

Fortado, a mechanical whiz who plans to attend a technical institute, has found himself making friends with students he otherwise might never have met in class.

“I never realized how design related to physics, or building to physics,” added senior Lee Barken, who first studied traditional physics as a sophomore.

Similarly, at Mission Bay, the ninth-graders were randomly selected for placement in the school’s Life Skills 2000 program, where teachers are experimenting with a broader focus.

“We’re at least temporarily eliminating the barrier between college-bound and vocational education,” said commercial art teacher Adalia Wasserman, one of six who volunteered to teach the program.

The new programs haven’t always gone easily for either the teachers or students, with problems in staffing, student enthusiasm and availability of equipment.

Mission Bay students are less enthusiastic about the programs than their more mature Patrick Henry peers.

“It’s OK. We’re learning about things to do in the future and we’re working hard, but all the teachers talk to each other about your work and get on your case,” Julio Nazario said. “There’s more pressure to learn.”

That student accountability is a major benefit for teachers. Grades for the Life Skills 2000 ninth-graders are higher than those of non-project peers, and only two students have dropped out since September, a far lower rate than average at that grade.

“Teachers are traditionally self-starters, but also loners,” Mission Bay Principal Maruta Gardner said, noting the tradition of closing the classroom door and teaching with a long-established pattern. “This new idea requires communication, a team approach. We’re not used to collaborating and giving up some control.”

For example, the Mission Bay program lacks a science segment this first year because the school’s science teachers declined to participate.

At both schools, administrators had difficulty in finding teachers willing to put in the hundreds of hours necessary to write an exciting new curriculum, often from scratch.

Clark cajoled a team of four veteran teachers to come together after what he described as “meeting after meeting after meeting.” Gardner ended up with new or recently hired instructors after getting a thumbs-down from most of her school veterans.

Clark also pointed to the sorry state of vocational education around the district. At Patrick Henry, for example, the machine shop sits funereally with outdated equipment gathering dust. It was shut down several years ago because of lack of student interest and the unwillingness of many vocational teachers to update their curriculum.

“You can’t cast sugar scoops or make recipe boxes out of cast iron anymore and expect to cut it educationally,” Clark said. “That’s just to keep kids busy and not the real world anymore.”

If Clark can get his hands on some additional money to buy new machinery, he’s going to convert the machine shop into a technology lab next year.

Among his dreams: college-prep students working on their Science Olympiad projects who talk with peers about ways to make innovative equipment, then team up to fabricate it in the lab.

Mission Bay administrators want to reconfigure their antiquated auto shop into an introductory-level technology center, where all students would learn the rudiments of cutting-edge trades, from computer-assisted design to the latest in engine components.

At Kearny, principal Lorch has recruited a new generation of industrial instructors who hope to begin team-teaching with receptive academic teachers next fall.

“We’ve got to get more comptuer-operated machinery into the classroom and I need to coordinate much more with the math teachers,” woodworking instructor Calvin Bornholdt said. “Right now, they use a lot of plastic manipulatives in math courses to teach concepts. Why not make real wood manipulatives in conjunction?”

Machine shop instructor Riego de Rios wants students to work with the marketing teacher to learn that the manufacturing process not only involves making a product but also successfully selling it--and having the reading and writing talent to do it.

“Kids have to learn that people have to want what you make,” he said. “Students have to learn that more than one skill is needed to survive in this world.”