An engineer by education and practice, I entered the educational field many years ago and have instructed in several of the engineering, engineering technologies, and other applied fields. As I completed junior high school in Ohio during the early seventies, all students were required to complete three years of industrial arts classes. Drafting, wood and metal working were some of the topics covered. I completed an academic program but added an additional drafting course to my high school curriculum. Unfortunately, at the senior high school the occupational and academic tracks were strongly delineated and I could not explore any of the electrical or automotive areas. This was probably a policy developed as result of the “50-25-25” curriculum
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The completion of Algebra I, II and Geometry for those students is a pre-requisite to enter the technician programs and it parallels the results the paper provides on the need for successful academic coursework in the CTE areas. The engineering transfer students who could benefit greatly from the courses commonly do not complete drafting related coursework which would add skills that they are missing in design and documentation of designs. They complete instead, broad introduction to engineering courses with limited applicability to future studies. As I read the article, I could see a relationship to the segregation experiences from my education and my current students to that across the country as the various states and local high schools attempt to document compliance with the various federal legislation, most recently the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. The community colleges and universities also consciously or otherwise delineate a difference between an academic and technical pathway that should not …show more content…
The research indicates that we need to redefine the definitions and reintegrate the two pathways into one that reflects the actual career results of the graduates in their lifetimes.
As a parent with two children following the academic pathways, I influenced them in their course selection to add coursework that was technical in nature. My daughter completed a geospatial course as she completed her degree in Mathematics at Radford University and after graduating from George Mason University with a Master’s degree in Statistics she found it hard to find a position without experience in the Raleigh, NC area. However, when she broadened her search she easily found a position with the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. based mainly on her completion and demonstration of the skills developed during the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course. The academic M.S in Statistics was the baseline requirement, the technical GIS course differentiated her from the other applicants. My son completed his initial course work at a local community college, transferred to Virginia Tech in the Urban Forestry program and has completed his first year of classes. A one week practicum course introduced him to tree climbing, trimming, and other skills associated with maintenance
The completion of Algebra I, II and Geometry for those students is a pre-requisite to enter the technician programs and it parallels the results the paper provides on the need for successful academic coursework in the CTE areas. The engineering transfer students who could benefit greatly from the courses commonly do not complete drafting related coursework which would add skills that they are missing in design and documentation of designs. They complete instead, broad introduction to engineering courses with limited applicability to future studies. As I read the article, I could see a relationship to the segregation experiences from my education and my current students to that across the country as the various states and local high schools attempt to document compliance with the various federal legislation, most recently the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. The community colleges and universities also consciously or otherwise delineate a difference between an academic and technical pathway that should not …show more content…
The research indicates that we need to redefine the definitions and reintegrate the two pathways into one that reflects the actual career results of the graduates in their lifetimes.
As a parent with two children following the academic pathways, I influenced them in their course selection to add coursework that was technical in nature. My daughter completed a geospatial course as she completed her degree in Mathematics at Radford University and after graduating from George Mason University with a Master’s degree in Statistics she found it hard to find a position without experience in the Raleigh, NC area. However, when she broadened her search she easily found a position with the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. based mainly on her completion and demonstration of the skills developed during the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course. The academic M.S in Statistics was the baseline requirement, the technical GIS course differentiated her from the other applicants. My son completed his initial course work at a local community college, transferred to Virginia Tech in the Urban Forestry program and has completed his first year of classes. A one week practicum course introduced him to tree climbing, trimming, and other skills associated with maintenance