Small Learning Communities, Career Development, and You

1. Small Learning Communities, Career Development, and You

2. Ingredients: Small Learning Communities Career Development You Directions: Mix well to create rigorous and coherent instructional programs that prepare students for 21st century post-secondary education and jobs

3. My Premise: • Traditional high schools are not organized to help students gain 21st century knowledge and skills; • The work of teaching and learning must be re-organized to accomplish adequate preparation • The new form of schooling must be one that provides program coherence and . . .

4. Career technology education can be the glue –the vehicle for program coherence

5. High schools are not organized to help students gain 21st century knowledge and skills • Add-on programs and services have not affected graduation rates and achievement levels • Research indicates structural changes as well as instructional improvements are needed to address the problem

6. The work of teaching and learning must be re-organized We must re-think: • Smorgasbord course offerings • Separate programs to meet special learning needs • Department-based curriculum organization • Individual teacher preparation

7. The new form of schooling must provide program coherence • Coherence in terms of teachers organized into interdisciplinary teams; • Coherence in terms of teams working with students over years; • Coherence in curriculum and instruction so that they reinforce key knowledge and skills across disciplines and build seamlessly on students’ learning from one year to the next

8. Career preparation can be the glue –the vehicle of program coherence • Draws on academic skills and knowledge • Provides the real world context and meaning for academic learning • If well designed, erases differences in rigor often found across academic and vocational programs

9. Creating Career-Themed Learning Goals Table activity: • Identify a career theme, such as health & fitness • Brainstorm and record student ‘knows’ and ‘dos’ • Cluster like ‘knows’ and ‘dos’ by assigning them the same number • Name the proficiency areas

10. Knows & Dos Proficiency Areas __________________ ________________ __________________ __________________ ________________ __________________ __________________ ________________ __________________ __________________ ________________ __________________ __________________ __________________ __________________ __________________

11. Insurance that the proficiencies provide a strong framework for instruction Teachers: • Map proficiencies onto standards • Test proficiencies for goodness • Create benchmarks for each grade level to provide guidance in unit/project/lesson development • Develop public demonstrations of proficiency

12. Students’ Learning Experience in Career-Themed Learning Communities Students: • Understand where they are headed –what they will eventually know and be able to do • Anticipate and participate in older students’ culminating demonstrations • Have a clear idea of how school relates to the real world • Get to know students they ordinarily would not because they share the same general career interest

13. Contact information Diana Oxley Recreating Secondary Schools Northwest Regional Education Lab 101 SW Main St., Suite 500 Portland, OR 97204 oxleyd@nwrel.org 800.547.6339 503.275.9613