VVCRC Centerview

Summer 97 (Vol. 12, no. 4)
Current News and Information for Vocational Teachers and Administrators across Virginia

Cross-Program Publications Slated for Summer Conference Distribution

A number of new publications of general interest will be available from the VVCRC at summer conferences.

Career Pathways

Two new documents support Phase 3 of Career Pathways, a flexible career education system that prepares students in grades 6-12 to explore, investigate, and analyze careers and gain skills needed for success in 21st-century work environments.

The Career Pathways Teacher Resource Guide (Cat. #5.97.01) has been redesigned to include Phase 3 and references to a new Career Pathways Activity Book.

The Career Pathways Activity Book (Cat. #5.97.02) presents suggestions for middle and high school classroom, laboratory, and out-of-school activities to help students learn the competencies that make up Career Pathways. It was created from publications previously developed by the Career Advisory Committee to the Career Connections Service, Virginia Department of Education, and by Fairfax Public Schools. The activity book is considered to be in draft stage, and teachers will be invited to submit other activities for publication in the final document.

Collaborative Lesson Plans

A call for innovative interdisciplinary lesson plans brought more than 200 entries from educators throughout Virginia. The second edition of Collaborative Lesson Plans (Cat. #8.97.20) includes 40 lesson plan features and ideas in the categories of Ca-reers, Community, and Consumer Connections and will be presented at the High Schools That Work/Tech Prep Conference August 10-13. The document, a joint publication of HSTW and Tech Prep in Virginia, was developed and designed by Lolita Hall, Program Improvement Specialist, Virginia Department of Education, and VVCRC writer-editors Robin Brownhill and Anita Cruikshank.

Progress and Achievement Trends

Both the Technology Education and Business program areas are preparing summary reports to indicate how their completers' achievement scores compare to the performance of a variety of national and statewide academic and vocational students.

Technology Education Progress and Achievement Trends (Cat. # 6.97.04) and Business Program Progress and Achievement Trends (Cat. #1.97.01) present teacher and student statistics collected from surveys, from High Schools That Work follow-up data, and from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The reports feature a comparison of performance in reading, mathematics, and science between program completers from Business and Technology Education and a variety of other student samples such as NAEP Academic and national and state HSTW sites.

The comparison indicates favorable placement of Business and Technology Education program completers in all three academic areas when compared to HSTW sites but places the student scores below the NAEP Academic scale. This presents a benchmark for program improvement.


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