Observations from the Ohio ACTE Legislative Seminar

On January 23rd and 24th, superintendents, directors, teachers, communicators, and others with a vested interested in career-technical education gathered in Columbus for the annual legislative seminar. Throughout the next week or so, I will be posting some summaries from the sessions:

From Leadership with the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education
(Primarily Tom Applegate)
The primary message of CTAE is that this entity “provides solutions to Ohio’s workforce development needs.”
Everybody needs education after high school but not everybody needs to go to college.
CTE secondary programs lead the way to prepare high school students with academic and technical knowledge and skills to transition to the 2lst century workforce or postsecondary education.
Adult workforce programs are well positioned to transform Ohio’s economy, including assistance with credentialing and postsecondary education.
System capacity is the key to such reform initiatives as the University System of Ohio, Ohio Skills Bank, Programs of Study, Dual Enrollment, Tech Prep, Early and Middle College High Schools, Apprenticeship, High Schools That Work, STEM

Rich Rosen
· Battelle is starting its work now with third graders.
· CTE has been in the STEM conversation for more than 20 years. The “relevance” part is where CTE shines.
· We are not competing internationally, especially with Asian countries.
· Low performance of U.S. students in STEM benchmarks is more severe in minorities.
· Supply and demand is a STEM issue. For example, 50 percent of all U.S. teachers leave the profession in five years; many of these are in the math teacher shortage areas. Six percent of U.S. high school students study engineering. A large number of them go on to college, but change careers there. There are expected to be 12 million STEM job openings by 2015.
· STEM is a foundation with critical thinking and problem-solving ability. STEM goes beyond what the letters stand for – to knowledge of other cultures, English and other languages, for example.
· Three characteristics of a technologically literate citizen are 1) knowledge; 2) ways of thinking and acting; and 3) capability to solve problems.
· The latest surveys indicate that parents believe STEM is important but not for their child and that students think STEM is important but not for them.
· Young people are not technologically literate; they are technologically fluent, using technology but having no clue about how it happens.
· Among STEM issues are 1) need to make it relevant for the creative and innovative world – not just for someone who wants to be a scientist or engineer; 2) understanding that emphasis on STEM does not put art, English and other areas at risk; 3) need to communicate/demonstrate consequences for not implementing STEM; 4) demonstrating that STEM is for all students, regardless of record of prior successes; 5) being able to visualize various STEM careers; and 6) finding common ground and aligning policy.
· Young people relate better and are more influenced by younger people in STEM careers than those who have been in the careers for a while. Educators need help in understanding STEM and telling the STEM story.
· Key STEM principles include 1) engaging in actions that are change catalysts; 2) learning from others; 3) connecting efforts; and 4) sustaining and replicating.
· STEM involves critical thinking, inquiry, collaboration, communication, engagement and active and responsible decision-making.
· Many employers would rather not hire graduates who were in the top 10 of their class because they didn’t use anybody else but themselves to get there. Employers want collaborators.
· Just In Time concepts are important.
· Maybe we need to stop saying “STEM” and do it, making it integral and invisible.