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Illinois School Board Journal
May/June 2005

Coordinating career/tech with standards raises test scores

by Jerome Pankey

Jerome Pankey is principal of Flora High School, Flora CUSD 35, in south central Illinois.

When the Illinois Learning Standards were first introduced at Flora High School, major emphasis was placed on student mastery in English, mathematics, science and social science classes. Our Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors were not actively involved in coordinating the curriculum to address the standards.

But that lack of involvement proved to be problematic. Low test scores in 2002 resulted in the high school being placed on the state's "Early Academic Warning" list. With a further decline in 2003, district administrators decided to have core academic and CTE teachers work together to develop an integrated curriculum to address all the Illinois Learning Standards.

The expanded curriculum effort hoped to improve student learning, improve student scores on the Prairie State Achievement Examination and meet the student performance goals of the No Child Left Behind Act.

With federal funding from the Fund for the Improvement of Education, high school teachers designed CTE instructional materials and assessments that integrated core academic skills with career and technical education skills, as well as supporting mastery of the standards. The project provided intensive professional development, release time for staff to develop materials, and the necessary resources and supplies to help staff develop and implement the new curriculum and assessments.

To meet our objectives, we planned a one-week workshop for CTE and core academic teachers, hired a motivational speaker to launch the project and convey its importance, and hired subject matter and assessment consultants to work with staff.

During the workshop, participants:

Prioritized perceived gaps in addressing the learning standards in the total curriculum.

Focused on areas of greatest deficiency.

Coordinated CTE curriculum with the standards.

Developed learning activities to support achievement.

Evaluated success to ensure that students have learned the necessary material to succeed on the PSAE.

Developed a rubric to evaluate relevant activities.

Evaluated the lesson plans and assessments to ensure that they were rigorous and relevant to the goals and demands of the PSAE.

The result? Flora moved its percentage of "meets or exceeds" the Illinois Learning Standards from 47.6 percent on PSAE testing in 2003 to 60.8 percent in 2004.

Even though the scores increased, the work continues. Teachers who participated in the summer workshop now meet at least quarterly during the school year to discuss their learning activities and assessments, as well as to revise their activities based on student outcomes.