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Schools

Shift to job training proposed

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published January 23, 2007

A group of local business leaders will ask School Board members tonight to restructure Pinellas high schools, saying the district's liberal arts approach to education is failing many children.

The Pinellas Education Foundation's plan would pave the way for the creation of "centers of excellence" that would allow students taking career education classes to earn industry certifications along with their high school diplomas.

School superintendent Clayton Wilcox characterized the proposed restructuring as a "watershed moment" in the history of Pinellas public education.

"This marks a significant change in the way this system looks at career technical education and the value we can offer kids," Wilcox said. "I think it's huge."

But at least one board member is questioning the way in which the proposal is being presented.

"I was not expecting this to come before the board in this way," said Janet Clark, who is not opposed to the proposal. "It sounds like we're saying, 'Let's go ahead and do this.' I would have hoped for more discussion in a workshop setting."

Education foundation president Terry Boehm says his group's involvement in career technical education should come as no surprise. For months, Boehm said, the foundation has been working behind the scenes with Wilcox and community leaders, observing a model that originated in a tiny school district tucked into Florida's western Panhandle.

The Okaloosa County School District reorganized its career technical education system several years ago after the Department of Education ranked it 27th out of 67 districts. By 2006, it had risen to the top of the state's list with 31 of 33 schools earning state grades of A.

Okaloosa school officials attribute the district's success to the creation of career academies in fields such as building construction and information technology, which they say add rigor and relevance to high school education. Since that time, 16 Florida school districts - including Manatee, Port Charlotte, Alachua and Duval - have begun replicating the formula.

The move to copy Okaloosa's plan makes sense, the foundation argues in a "white paper" it will present to Pinellas board members at tonight's meeting.

"The current reality is that few of our children graduate from college," the paper states, citing a study that says only 14 percent of students graduate from a two- or four-year college within 10 years of starting high school. "We do a disservice to our children and our community when we continue the myth that getting a degree from college is the only key to success."

The foundation will suggest that the district take several steps to remove the "social bigotry" shadowing career technical education, including:

- Assigning extra credit to higher-level career and technical classes, similar to what students in honors and Advanced Placement classes earn.

- Hiring an independent firm to survey businesses, parents and students to determine which programs should be offered.

- Removing existing programs that do not lead to careers that have "high employment demand."

- Retraining teachers to meet industry certification standards so they'll be qualified to teach the courses to students.

Wilcox responded to the white paper earlier this month with an eight-page document that sets as a goal the establishment of at least one center of excellence on every high school campus by 2010. Each student leaving a center will have earned a diploma and at least one certifying credential within an industry-specific group.

Additionally, each student will leave school ready for employment or will have earned a scholarship to a college, university or technical school through Florida Gold Seal, Bright Futures or a similar merit scholarship program.

The board will be asked to accept both the foundation's white paper and the superintendent's response at tonight's meeting. The next step, Wilcox said, will be to form a steering committee that will decide where to place the first centers of excellence.

"We'll have to work hard to convince some people this is a better way of doing things," Wilcox said. "My responsibility will be to show them that it is."

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 05:45:28]