Marketing Your Career Technical Class: Improving student numbers through marketing strategies. Casey Mayo. Tech Prep Instructor. Claymont High School

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1 1 Marketing Your Career Technical Class: Improving student numbers through marketing strategies By Casey Mayo Tech Prep Instructor Claymont High School Uhrichsville Oh

2 2 Table of Contents Introduction/Rationale Research Question Background/Context Literature Review Method and Data Collection Survey and Results Conclusion and Recommendations References

3 3 Introduction We have all experienced a decreasing amount of students, but have you ever considered that your classroom marketing needs a boost? Many teachers are considered academic and are guided toward teaching a specific field. Few teachers get the opportunity to teach a vocational or elective oriented class, but in order to do that you need to gain student numbers. This plan of research opens the door to allow a guided view on increasing those numbers and possibilities of doing so. Many corporate officials look at this step and call it Marketing. The Tech Prep courses that are taught at Claymont High School have been targeted as the research point. Student numbers have slowly decreased and this marketing plan was set in place to curve to status-quo and allow for more marketing advantages. This paper will illustrate the strategies followed and the results from a two year study beginning with the sophomore class of This research plan will also allow you to create or adapt your program marketing to fit the general need, and give a clear understanding of new marketing tools. Research Question Which marketing methods could CTE teachers use to improve student numbers and involvement? (Research Focus will be guided toward strategies on improving student interest.)

4 4 Background/ Context Claymont High School is located in Uhrichsville, Ohio, a rural community in Tuscarawas County. Claymont City Schools are made up of two neighboring cities: Uhrichsville and Dennison. The two cities were at one time thriving industrial cities with heavy historical backgrounds. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the two cities have a total population of roughly 8,600 people. Graduating classes at CHS range from students each year. We are a designated low-income community by the state of Ohio with over 40% of students on a free and reduced lunch program. The CTE Programs offered at the High School, are known as Tech Prep. These programs are offered as computer based courses that prepare the students for work in a career. Like many before us, we have been battling a lack of student involvement due to the low student numbers and marketing of the program. This prompted a department meeting to determine the best route of attack. The identified groups of students are sophomores that may typically be targeted or guided toward our programs. Out of 115 sophomores in 2011, only 5 were made aware of the courses that we offer, which prompted our current students to use marketing tools such as advertisements and videos that would illustrate our classrooms and potentially draw more students. The initial plan involved displaying the marketing steps throughout the building, but quickly evolved to providing our guidance counselor's with the opportunity to display these forms throughout conferences. Utilizing these steps allowed our program to grow. The survey's and statistics are located throughout the Method's and Data Collection.

5 5 Our access to technology is no longer the hurdle we face in promoting these classrooms. Our difficulty is providing the proper advertisement that will be needed to improve student access. Literature Review Secondary schools are consistently trying to adapt class offerings to incorporate a vast variety of opportunities in order to keep students in house. Many schools are turning to CTE as a directive ordered to maintain the student numbers and allow for more funding options. CTE classes, courses and programs are primarily delivered through 91 Career-Technical Planning Districts that include city, local, exempted village and joint vocational school districts, but also in community schools and youth correctional facilities. In Ohio, CTE is most commonly associated with Workforce Development, which is in-depth training and strong academics in programs where students receive a minimum of 450 hours of instruction in addition to meeting Ohio graduation requirements. (ODE CTE) Along with the increase of program offerings, the Ohio Department of Education broke down the avenues in which students are most often directed. ODE goes on to recognize that many CTE courses require a large student base in order to maintain proper funding and accreditation. Under the leadership of the state Office of Career-Technical Education, program decisions are driven primarily by economic need. (ODE CTE) The state recognizes these courses and the major need by addressing concerns and strategies to prevent the closing of a program. ODE recognized some program difficulties and continues to recognize schools under the High Schools That Work (HSTW) school improvement model.

6 6 State graphs showcase opportunities available but don t suggest student numbers. CTE courses have been adapted and now conform to the state standards. The ODE Fact sheet offered insight into the higher-need areas that we are currently experiencing within this group or student population. Throughout the book Growing up digital, the topic of the teacher acting as a resource and consultant is consistently acknowledged. The book directs us to believe that teachers are considered a learning source for the students. This can be true but we must adapt this information and consider that the teacher of a CTE program should be utilized as the main source of Marketing, and using other areas such as social media, graphics and video would only benefit the advertisement capabilities. Methods/Data Collection Beginning First consider how to adapt or advance your program to the student body. Can you complete these tasks without offending or crushing other programs? it mean? Marketing can become a complex and creative way of updating a program, but what does

7 7 In layman s terms, marketing is your opportunity to showcase the program in a positive light in order to attract potential audiences. Two school year classes, Sophomore 2011 and Sophomore 2012, were chosen to complete the study. For each year the students were given the opportunity to schedule classes, but the 2012 students were selected as the marketing test group. Each scheduling session is conducted over a two week period which will allow students the opportunity to learn more about the class offerings and which are they would like to experience. The only difference was that the Sophomores 2012 were shown multiple marketing strategies to promote the multiple offerings. These strategies are highlighted throughout the marketing plan. Strategies/Planning This marketing plan works to persuade these potential students to enroll in your program. The ultimate goal of a marketing plan is not to increase all student numbers, but to enlighten the students mind and attract the student body that will reflect well upon your program. (CTE Research) We begin our plan by understanding the steps needed for great marketing. The first step involves target audiences including potential students, their parents, other school professionals, as well as the community. The target audience must be considered due to the overwhelming scheduling conflicts that students face in today s school system. We may recognize the audience as our upper classmen, high GPA, or even the individuals that are slacking in the average

8 8 academic classroom setting. Teachers may recognize these students as a problem child; however every student has a unique trait that could be focused to your class. The next step would involve taking the Peer to Peer review, or simply taking the time to visit with the students periodically and throughout the day. Potential students may begin to visit the program during freshman visitation, or even open house. Most students are driven to your class by word of mouth, and maintaining that would be a key factor to the remainder of the plan. Take a moment and consider if your school offers a visitation day for classroom programs, or would your guidance counselor allow for presentations from current students. Every school takes time to help students schedule for the upcoming year, and this would be a great opportunity for the current students to promote a peer to peer description of your program. Step three allows you to create advertisements and videos to help promote the program. Remember that you can decide how far to advance this technique, however be careful not to take it too far. The goal of this step would be to benefit the program while not overwhelming the students with odd, strange text and videos. This also gives you an opportunity to utilize the computer and art classes to help create and promote your program. Take a moment and write down any highlights, concepts, projects or colors that students could utilize as a promotional tool. The last step of the plan incorporates parents and the community surrounding the potential students. Don t overlook the potential behind this process. Open houses and after school activities are prime promoting opportunities. At these programs, the parents visit the school and will potentially see the advertisements or even see your students working as part of

9 9 your program. Be sure that you maintain record keeping of any opportunities for your program to advance its nature. Data/Implementation I have determined that the Sophomore 2011 classes were given the same opportunity as the 2012 test group, with the exception of the marketing steps. This has allowed me to compare the number of enrolled CTE students to the number of potential 2012 students, as well as determine any possible outliers. This information provided below offered me an opportunity to study the results as well as understand what additions may be needed for better advertisement. Student numbers are the ultimate area targeted and unfortunately these numbers are the money of the programs stature. Survey/Results After the scheduling times had been implemented, we began to determine the correlation between the numbers of students enrolled sophomore 2011 year and compared this with our test group. Students who were exposed to the marketing steps showed a higher interest in the CTE courses and showcased a better understanding of the course offerings. Sixty students from the 2012 test group were targeted to determine the interest level and understanding level compared to the 2011 group. They were asked to mark a for a yes, or for no, to determine which choices would be best.

10 10 Survey Advertisement #1-Guidance Counselor explanation Advertisement #2- Flyer s and billboard advertisements Advertisement #3- Promotional Video s about the class Advertisement #4- Currently enrolled students explaining the class.

11 11 Findings/Analysis/Discussion The results were naturally as we expected. Out of the students surveyed, many preferred to have some form of Advertisements 2, 3, and 4. We discussed that the involvement of the student speakers would probably appeal to the peer evaluation form of marketing, and it showed throughout the survey. Students preferred to have a current student explain the class to them. This would allow for an adaptation that would suit the individual and would also provide the insight from a fellow student s perspective. The 2012 test group showcased a 75% interest spike over the prior 2011 sophomore class that was surveyed post scheduling. The important information to remember is that we studied the results of marketing vs. non-marketing. Students are open to any and every form of information and it is our duty to offer every possible outcome that may become available. The results do not completely show the outliers such as the students that would like to take the class, yet cannot fit it within the schedule, but they do show a substantial increase in the interest. In conclusion, I would have to say that the survey and the results can tend to differ or be adapted by outliers not predicted. Naturally any form of advertisement will benefit a program and although the results cannot be completed until the final numbers have been collected, teachers and administration need to be aware that every step must be taken in order to continue the popularity of a program. Currently we are noticing a large question base from students, and this allows the teachers to become involved in explaining the features of any given course. In regards to a recommendation, I believe that the school district and staff need to be made aware of any conflicts that may be contributing to your programs failure. The curriculum

12 12 director should take a serious look into adapting the periods of the elective course in order to achieve the highest rate of success. Like any program or process, a district must commit in all areas and implement as many forms of promotion as possible. Vocational or elective programs are not the only problem area that teachers and districts will face, and this plan should give an insight into promoting multiple avenues among students. References (ODE CTE) ODE CTE-Facts Sheet elationid=1747&contentid=43134&content= (Coming of Age) American Vocational Journal: Coming of Age (CTE Research) CTE Research Clearing House: The Career Pathway Model: Small Steps to Big Leaps (originally published in CCJRP) by Sharon A. Sass, Ginger L. Pedersen

13 13 (Growing Up Digital) Growing up digital : the rise of the net generation Tapscott, Don, New York : McGraw-Hill, c1998. Other resources for Marketing plan: River/RI/10/3926/index.aspx