IACTE February convention features state superintendent Schiller

Vocational Ed conference highlights state’s technical education problems

By Lotty Blumenthal

Upon registering in Springfield at the 73rd Annual Illinois Association of Career and Technical Education Professional Institute at the Springfield, Illinois Hilton, in February, participants received not only the workshop program booklet, but a list of new State of Illinois Legislators, a sheet on Legislative Partnerships, and a fact sheet about Career and Tech Ed. A great deal of the institute focused on the need for lobbying state and national politicians about the needs of technical education and clearing up inaccuracies regarding the contributions of the field.

Some data comparing Chicago to the rest of Illinois were shocking. For seven years Tech and Career enrollments have increased everywhere in Illinois (except Chicago where it has decreased since the mid-1990s). Inadequate funding by the state will result in loss of funding from the federal funding because they require matching funds. If programs decrease as in Chicago, funding for them also decreases.

Teachers at Lane Technical High School were asking themselves in April whether the decision to throw out hundreds of desks and other school equipment was made by the Duncan administration in order to create an additional budget pressure so the Board of Education could claim it didn’t have any money for teacher raises in the upcoming contract. Once upon a time, the routine repairs of school equipment was done in cooperation with Lane Tech’s massive shops. (The school’s clock was even repaired by students, and the yearbook proudly proclaimed that it was produced entirely within the school for generations). But the shops have been cut as Chicago has destroyed vocational and technical education since the beginning of the Vallas administration, leaving students without the vocational options that are still available in the rest of Illinois.

Research shows that 52 percent of career and technical education students enroll in college after high school full-time. (No records are kept for part-time or company-paid classes). This belies some of the longstanding prejudices against vocational education. Special populations as Limited English Proficiency, Individuals with Disabilities, and Educationally Disadvantaged students benefit from CTE programs: 52 percent of today’s jobs are considered high skilled and/or technical, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. These facts are consistent with a Boeing and Northwestern University’s Dr. James Rosenbaum, which sponsored Chicago Board of Education Workshop, presented to administrators on February 20 by Central Office Career and Tech personnel headed by Interim Department head Lynn Moore and consultant Dennis Ptak. Also on the panel were teachers and industrialists and the new head of programs at City Colleges.

On Wednesday at 7:45 p.m., the Institute had as its highlight, a talk by Dr. Robert E. Schiller, State Superintendent of Education. He said that all programs in the State were being affected by interpretations of new federal legislation. He said that states’ rights were severely affected by the thrust of No Child Left Behind, which may be interpreted as (his words): “Thou shalt leave no contract, consultant or child behind or untested.”

Joining a growing number of officials around the country critical of the law, he said that the laws seem to be written without regard as to “how it makes sense to being a good citizen or part of the work force.”

Later, he said that the law seems to say: “If it moves, it gets tested.” He said, it might be interesting to spend a weekend reading its 1,380 pages of law in its entirety.

He said that it’s his responsibility to see that schools do not fail “on my watch.” He said that Career and Tech Ed has positive impact on all levels of accountability in education. After telling how most members of his family made more money than he and owned businesses in career and tech areas as he stayed in education, he said: “I’m damned proud of what you do.” He said that the new Governor, Blagojevich, had not asked for any budget cuts in education and that it was the only department — including the governor’s budget — to not have a reduction. But the financial crisis of schools in the state still exists. The State had to take over three districts that went bankrupt this year. He said one of our greatest challenges is keeping the high teacher quality that we have, recruiting and training more, and retaining them in the state. We must also address the issues of leadership needs, funding needs, and promoting relevance.

Debbie Potts, Illinois Office of Educational Services, said, “Isn’t nice to have a Superintendent who knows and understands what we do!”

Later, Ms. Potts presented a workshop entitled “Copyright and the Electronic Age.” It was a brief overview of copyright laws as they relate to use of electronic communication. Discussion centered about usage for both professional and student use of electronic documents and media. Topics were what is a copyright, what is fair use, how copyrights are secured, and notice of copyright. She explained, for example, that all the materials she used was “copyright free” because they were developed from governmental sources using taxpayer dollars. However, she said, she could copyright her own arrangements of those materials and the commentary of them and their relationships. She mentioned the problems presented by links and frames “unique to the Internet.”

One of the morning workshops was: “Assessing the Academic Skills of CTE Students” presented by Linda Lafferty of the ISBE. It told of the philosophy of NCLB, and how modern research shows many students learn academic content best through real applications,“ Career Clusters: A look at the Future” (presented by Jerry Scranton of the ISBE) introduced the 16 career clusters developed by the U.S. Department of Education with the National Association of State Directors of Vo-Tech Education. None of the funded experimental programs was in Chicago, but four were done in Illinois.

More than 65 workshops were presented within the two days. A highlight was political lobbyist and director of ACTE Jan Bray’s update about future funding and (U.S.) Under-Assistant Carol D’Amico’s unending goal of eliminating all funding for CTE programs, reliance on old research, ignoring all recent reliable research, and maintaining her own narrow views in presenting legislation from her sector of the education department.

According to Bray, Recent research of 23,376 secondary graduates in 2000 in Illinois by the ISBE (as well as all other research in this century) contradicts D’Amico’s views. It would help if all, students or adults, would contact their representatives in Washington, D. C. as well as working hard at the state level.

A “Lunch with the Vendors” period on Wednesday, permitted all to have free lunch, peruse booths and talk to about 20 vendors in the Grand Ballroom. One of the most interesting was Pitsco’s “Kindergarten to Careers” which integrates math, science, technology and language arts standards from K-12..Their number is 1-800-828-5787 (or www.pitsco.com). Not one of the presenters was from Chicago — the only place where CTE programs in the classroom have decreased. Five people from Chicago went to the Institute, four from the CTU PAVE committee. No workshops have been held for teachers in Chicago or for school counselors in CTE programs for six years.