FWCS Moves To Specialized High Schools
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 8/17/08 @ 3:36 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
A couple of days ago the JG had a story about the decision by FWCS to move to specialized high schools. Scott Bryson, author of the American Societal Review blog, has an awesome post about this decision and sums up my feelings quite nicely - you should definitely read the whole thing:
First of all, to help student prepare for a global economy should be the province of colleges and trade schools, not high school. High schools should prepare students to enter and succeed in college.
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FWCS seems to think their students will not succeed in a global economy because they don’t understand engineering. This doesn’t even account for the struggles students have with basic english.
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Finally, what are “21st century skills?” Is proper english grammar no longer considered a required skill? It seems math is quickly becoming obsolete since cash-registers tell the employee how many of each coin is required to make change. But when the point of an education is only to get a job, why worry about details like math and reading comprehension.
The last thing FWCS needs is specialty high schools. The kids in this district are struggling with the basics - why not put more resources into helping them with that rather than pushing an engineering and technology curriculum? If you can’t multiply numbers without using a calculator then you have little chance of making it through college.
One of the new specialties is a technology program modeled after the New Tech school in Napa, California. Again, this is a bad idea and I’ll let Bryson explain why:
The median income of Napa County is almost $30,000 higher than Fort Wayne (wikipedia). One graduating class is about the size of a typical classroom in FWCS.
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Their core curriculum is nothing to shout from the mountain tops. The highest level math offered is geometry, two levels of spanish and I was not sure what the english class was besides a writing workshop. The New Tech philosophy of coming up with powerpoints and websites instead of essays does a disservice to the students. In college students don’t create websites to present their research; they write papers.
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The final problem with comparing FWCS to New Tech, is to get into New Tech one must apply, while a student at FWCS must be accepted. Now FWCS could have a program like New Tech, but not every student will be able to participate. I would be interested in how students without a basic grasp of English or Math would perform at a school like New Tech.
Bravo Mr Bryson, bravo. And apologies for not having you on the blogroll - I really do a poor job of keeping up with that…
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Yes, we do need strong mathematics/science in all public schools. The “Project Lead the Way” (PLTW) is a credit earning program. Many students start in middle school, extend into the full PLTW High school during the 4 year program and may receive College credit.
This is a strong Technology program to bridge students towards engineering and bio/engeneering.
Here is the Indiana list of Colleges and High Schools accredited to teach Technology:
http://www.pltw.org/schoollist-new.asp?toSelect=IN
This Technology program is six years new in Indiana. A few High Schools now are accredited to teach Technology and those students enrolled at high school may receive a H.S. diploma in Technology.
http://www.doe.state.in.us/sservices/counseling/technical_honors.pdf
http://www.pltw.org/index.cfm
To Jeff & Scott Bryson:
Guys, how do you come up with the mandate that ALL hign school grads HAVE to go to college? This is very short-sighted and if that indeed is FWCS’s goal, our present horrible drop-out rate is going to soar to an even worse percentage!
If a student desires to go on to post-high education, they should be encouraged by providing, in high school, the pathway to obtain the necessary knowledge that is required. But let’s face it guys, a large number of FWCS students entering high school DO NOT DESIRE TO CONTINUE IN SCHOOL BEYOND the years required by law. This is evident by the graduation rates of the entering HS freshman - some 40% this last spring at my North Side! But, forcing only a college prep course of study, many, many more will chose to drop out and consign themselves to an impoverished working life!
Our businesses, industries, commercial organizations, health care facilities and indeed all employers will always need high school educated workers who are capable of communication in English, do everyday arithmetic, can follow instructions and “put in a good day’s work for a days wages”. Those without this high school diploma will not be able to get a job in todays world - they will be always unemployable!
So your discription of this “New Philosphy” will fail these individuals miserably. You are reading FWCS plans incorrectly (or the FWCS administration is totally wrong) in pushing a “college-only” approach to high school course work.
Specializing courses at each of our six high schools is also not going to work - kids entering high school are even more unprepared to chose a life’s vocation than the high school graduate. About 60% to 70% of them cannot make this choice as entering high school freshman.
As far as introducing students to a life’s work field in technology, it has to start already in elementary and middle schools. My experience in working with 7th and 8th grade students on the Future Cities Competition has shown that this is very true. If students don’t know what an engineer does in his work day, how can they pursue an educational plan to lead them toward this very rewarding vocation?
Your further thoughts?
John,
I didn’t mean to imply that ALL high school grads must go to college. I’m simply suggesting that basic reading, math and writing skills are life skills required in nearly any profession.
My complaint with the specialization is that it’s focusing on the wrong problem. We can’t focus on special college prep curricula when half our kids don’t graduate and/or have the skills necessary just to get by in life…
Some people should not go to college, at least not when they are 18. They would not benefit from the experience, and they can create a disturbance for others. Perhaps college or some other education might be in store for them later in life. The goal of high school should be to prepare them for adulthood.
Technology keeps changing what skills people need in their careers and day to day lives. If I need to know the words in Hamlet’s soliloquy as part of my duties as a private security officer, I can access that information very easily. I do not need to memorize it, as I was once required to do so in high school.
Likewise, I think that children should be taught that it is unacceptable to cite Wikipedia as a source when they are writing an essay.
The goal should not be teaching kids all the facts that they could possibly need to know. People might think that it is a shame that a high school graduate doesn’t know why the Civil War was fought or how to figure out the circumference of a circle. But I can probably stump most of the people on this blog with seemingly basic trivia questions, or at least I could if you all did not have Internet access.
The goal should be to teach the kids how to get the information that they need when they need it, how to comprehend that information, how to form conclusions from that information, and how to communicate that information effectively.
The point is, we have a small percentage of college graduates here in the U.S.A., competing with the ever-changing Global World Economy.
Yes, teach your children, and grand children more then the basics. It’s time to think about their futures.
John Kalb…this must be a documented first. I’m gonna disagree with you :).
I don’t want a bunch of idiots running around this earth (no more than absolutely necessary).
Everyone should pursue some form of post-high school education. Whether you call that college, trade school, continuing education…makes no difference to me.
An associate’s degree is the new high school diploma…thanks to the failure of our high schools to actually * accomplish what they were doing in the 50’s.
* Idea “borrowed” from Mark GiaQuinta who stated, “It all starts with an awareness that the way we taught children in the 1950s is not going to work in 2008.”
IPS already implemented “New Tech” in one of their failing high schools (Arsenal Technical High School). You can see information about it here, here, and here.
I haven’t been able to thoroughly validate Wendy’s comment, “The schools that are using this, many of these are high-performing, successful schools.”
But here’s Arsenal Tech’s AYP data.
Regarding the “Project Lead The Way” engineering program, Homestead and Carroll have already been there…doing that for quite some time. List of those schools participating can be found here
While I admire the good intentions that some may have had in putting together this “plan”, turning the Titanic around with the big bang approach - not likely to happen. All six high schools at once? Lots of delusional thinking going on here.
As I mentioned to others - these programs are good programs - but in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, FWCS is flying somewhere between Physiological and Safety needs. To jump into these programs - you’d need to be in the Esteem and Self-Actualization phases.
Because FWCS ain’t there…all of this distraction (aka “skills for the 21st century”) has a high probability of turning into a massive financial mess for the school district.
Implementing and sustaining these programs - not a cheap thing. And the fact that Wendy and her groupies introduced this before they had any business/university sponsorship…speaks volumes about this administration’s lack of understanding on how to initiate and roll out major programs within a large school district.
But hey - action equals progress, right?!
I sure hope I’m very wrong but….. With the current trend of moving technical, manufacturing and almost all skilled jobs off shore, we are creating only a need for service jobs.
Our kids won’t need to know much more than to fold sheets and mow lawns for the “elete”. And for that they will need to speak Chinese and Spanish!
Kristina:
Carroll has had a wonderful agriculture culture program for many years. It has produced National winners in the last two decades; my brother was the National Horticulture Champion in the early 1990’s. As an FFA member, there were several great teaching moments, it has lead to confidence in leading board meetings. In addition, there were a number of courses I was able to take, including electricity. Although I did not do so great (yes, I electrocuted myself a few times) there were a number of non-college attendees that learned the basics, and were able to obtain the knowledge needed to leverage their way into internerships and apprenticeships. Also, many of the students took a welding course; huh, last time I heard, we needed several thousand welders, not lawyers. In addition, there were several horticultural students including the well-followed Kari Geary. Mrs. Geary dropped out of college; it was reported she learned more in high school, than at Purdue. She is a very talented floral designer!!
I think, the educated generations are thinking about the future. The World is getting smaller.
I think it is interesting that many of you are using Carroll and Homestead as points of reference for how this kind of program could be successful at FWCS. I didn’t think using New Tech as a good reference point because of its size, economic status and privatization.
I also agree that not all students should go to college, but this country’s education system and class system do not allow this idea. In many western European countries students take a test before entering high school to determine whether they will be on a college prep or trade school course in high school. I don’t think that is a good idea because of a student’s growth in high school. In this country though, high school is set up almost exclusively for college prep with trade school like classes available.
The main point of the article is if FWCS is going to specialize to create workers for the global economy, it might try college prep or teaching students math and English in grade school.
Scott,
I am very much against this latest FWCS “program” for the following reasons.
First, there’s nothing like a bunch of chaos (i.e. changing the direction of all 6 high schools at once) to keep folks distracted from what’s really going on (i.e. kids can’t even do the basics anymore).
Second, there is no funding. There is no local business and/or higher education and/or community funding/partnerships in place in which to change all of these six high schools into 6 uber (80’s style) magnet programs. Can you say cart before the horse?
Third, I’ve yet to see the data that shows that organizing high schools in this manner prepares students for the “21st Century”.