Executive Summary. Livonia Career/Technical Center

Transcription

1 Livonia Public Schools Dr. Janet L Haas, Principal 8985 Newburgh Road Livonia, MI Document Generated On February 12, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 5 Additional Information 6

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. <br><br> The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? The Livonia Career Technical Center houses the majority of (vocational) career technical programs for the three Livonia high schools - Stevenson, Churchill, and Franklin High School. In addition to receiving students from the Livonia High Schools, LCTC accepts enrollment from Northville, Ladywood, Crestwood, Plymouth, home schooled, and other parochial high schools. The students are either 11th or 12 grade. They attend the Center for two or three hours of their school day. Some students have enrolled for up to five hours of classes, depending on their career pathway. We do not have an application process for enrollment; rather, all students have an opportunity to succeed at LCTC. In the event that the class has "over" enrollment, the home high school conducts a lottery for the vacant seats. All remaining students would be placed on a waiting list for the program they wished to attend We are proud of the diversity of our student body. Our student count is 750. The students meet, for the most part, other counterpart high school students for the first time while enrolled at LCTC. We truly have the "identity" of our community within our Center. Our teachers come to LCTC as experienced professionals from a first career. Their interest in teaching brought them to educate our students at the high school level. Career Centers can hire non-certified people to teach the career programs. They are hired under an annual authorization. This can be problematic, because the teacher does not have formal instruction in the art and science of being a teacher. The state mandates that they meet credit requirements and certifications to continue in the field of teaching. Teachers are audited to make sure all credentials and work requirements are met. In working with our business community, they become mutually focused on the success of our students. A business advisory is a state requirement for vocational teachers. The business leaders give input to the CTE programs at the Center. In addition, each vocational teacher contacts their previous year's graduates, conducting a follow-up, required by the MDE/OCTE. Results from the follow up surveys allow the LCTC staff to validate the mission and vision with data. Our school won the MDE Excellence in Practice Award for offering and delivering Algebra II at the Center. We also offer, in each of our programs, the senior math credit. Our obstacle is to have the counselors send students to us for the math credit, rather than having them take the program at their high school. In taking our Algebra II course, they could take another elective back at their high school. Through the Perkins grant we have provided an ELA teacher to support the Common Core in Literacy initiative at LCTC. The teacher provides PD for staff and continues to work with staff in their classrooms to incorporate most of the 20 standards for Literacy. Our Center provided PD for other Wayne County Career Center staff so that all could begin to implement the literacy common core in technical subjects. The challenges continue to be the amount of non-teaching paperwork required by the MDE for auditing our vocational programs. Finding the time to place documentation on -line becomes cumbersome for the teachers, where they would rather spend time in creating their lessons that include work-based learning, speakers, field trips, safety training, and meeting the state mandated 12 segment curriculum. In spite of being a Center where we have no specific enrollment area, the staff has created a perception in our community that this is a place for advancement in the career field they will pursue (follow up data). Where our high schools are declining in enrollment, we have maintained our enrollment to support the staff allocation given to LCTC by developing academic instruction specific to the career fields and using up to Page 2

5 date technology in our programs. Our out of district enrollment has supported the finances of the district. The students from outside of Livonia provide either.3 or.5 FTE. We continue to acquire these students through our reputation and our own initiatives Page 3

6 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. LCTC is a career center offering "high end"/college and career ready programs. Our programs are the result of selecting programs from the Michigan department of labor employment chart and MDE added cost funded programs. All programs provide entry level training skills. At the same time, it is the expectation that all students will continue their post-secondary education. Both our vision and mission is described at our opening orientation to students on the first day of school, as well as shared with parents at both open houses." I am thinking about June and where you will be heading" is articulated to all students by the principal on the first day. "This is a college/business environment that will share respect with all members of our school community." From the first day's orientation, students understand that this school conducts itself in a business/college type environment, The quote, "We give you freedom, but along with this comes personal responsibility", is reinforced by all teachers. There are no passes for students to move within the building from one class to another area in the building. Teachers extend this to students with the understanding that our building rules are to be respected. Our mission statement, "is to prepare students for employment in a rapidly changing technological society, and to develop a foundation for post secondary education and lifelong learning." Our staff works hard to incorporate high expectations for job performance as well as academic pursuit. We strive to have all students continue into a post-secondary institution. We provide articulated credit with several post secondary institutions. Through our follow up surveys conducted each year, we have reached 97.8% of our previous year's graduates who are continuing their post secondary education and/or employment. We believe that all students can learn from our programs and continue in the pathway they have chosen. For the exception to this, we know that students have had the opportunity to experience the pathway and better determine that it would not be a career field to follow. Our programs are the result of the state employment projections, local Educational Advisory Group recommendations at SEMCA, and parents perception of career classes that will lead to post secondary education. Page 4

7 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. The LCTC has offered the algebra II requirement and received the MDE Excellence in Practice award for this unique integration. We acquired a math teacher through the Perkins grant to assist students with Algebra II, and to "recapture" math credit that was not received at the high schools. LCTC staff have received PD in the twenty Common Core Literacy standards and provided opportunities for regional CTE teachers/directors to participate in their efforts at LCTC. Our Center has had requests for other Michigan Career Centers to visit and learn about how we integrate the ELA standards. Our teachers have used KeyTrain/math for several years as a goal for improvement. LCTC uses the ACT WorkKeys tests in math determined that they were valid, reliable, and bias free. LCTC had consistently used the test long before the state of Michigan included it with the MME. The staff used the ACT results to validate/corroborate the KetyTrain results in math.the teachers continue to incorporate different teaching strategies for student growth. Unique to LCTC and occurring every year, we have a new group of students enrolled in the fall. The students come for two or three hours of their school day, enrolling in our Center. Each program has a strong emphasis on math. Each program can give senior math credit to the senior students enrolled in the programs. A pre-test in math is given at the start of the school year show the level of performance the student has in math. Starting this year, the results of KeyTrain are used in the teacher evaluations, using pre and post test results. Page 5

8 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. The principal of the Center is the Chair of the AdvancEd State Council. She has been the principal for 19 years, providing consistency, and supported the efforts of school improvement as a means of creating a well perceived and functioning Center for the community. The Livonia Career Technical Center presented to Michigan legislators in Washington D.C. a video giving an overview of the students' achievements and career successes. This was used to represent Wayne county and the positive side of funding the Perkins grant at the national level. The staff, beginning with the first NCA document and review, has supported the efforts of school improvement. In the mid-ninety's, LCTC's staff voted, with a majority, to begin the NCA process. We were one of the very few Career Centers in the state to initiative the process. We continue to be proud of our results as it relates to the mandates of the State of Michigan and CTE. Page 6