TACOMA – According to educators in some Tacoma-area districts, the push to raise test scores and prepare students for college is cutting into the enrollment in high school vocational courses, and that’s not good.
The educators say fewer students are studying wood shop, accounting, drafting and other traditional vocational courses as districts strive to bolster basic skills.
In Tacoma, the state’s third-largest district, enrollment in career and technical education courses is down 5 percent this year from last year. That’s about 500 fewer students taking a technical course.
Gil Mendoza, Tacoma’s career and technical education executive director, thinks some counselors steer students considering college away from such courses.
Lynn Macdonald, a former high school teacher and current union representative with the Tacoma Education Association, said the Washington Assessment of Student Learning was important. But Macdonald said the WASL “has the unintended consequence of narrowing the curriculum.”
“If students think everything is geared toward college-bound students and don’t see any way to get to college, they essentially burn out on the education system,” she said.
Many schools have started requiring students who don’t pass the WASL in 10th grade or middle school to take an extra math or English course for a better chance at meeting standards on their next try.
That also means they lose one or two electives, be it music, art, or a career and technical education class courses that vocational education supporters say keep young students interested in school and expose them to career possibilities.
Recently, the Sound Alliance coalition reached an agreement with the Bethel, Clover Park, Tacoma and Seattle school districts to collaborate to make students aware of apprenticeships and careers in the trades.
The Bethel School District’s enrollment in technical courses is rising, fueled by its increasing student population and offering of more “applied math” and other classes that can meet both academic and career and technical credit requirements.
However, class size is falling in the more specialized vocational courses such as accounting and many other electives, said Michael Christianson, Bethel career and technical education director.
“Student schedules are driven by the courses that support direct reading, writing and math instruction,” Christianson said.
At Spanaway Lake High School, Whit Baker’s building-and-construction course has 14 students. Baker would like to see more students in the class, where there is room for 25 students.
“The interest is there, but kids don’t have room in their (class) schedule.” he said.
Junior Brittany Edenfield and sophomore Jacob Green are among the Graham Kapowsin High School students assigned to a two-period math class this semester to raise their math skills.
Edenfield was placed in the class after scoring below standard on the 10th-grade WASL. Green failed a math class last year and didn’t pass his most recent math WASL.
Green, who said he plans to join the Army after high school, is not pleased to be in “Math Ramp Up.” “All I do is work on stuff that I already know and then fall asleep,” he said.
Graham Kapowsin counselor Sharlynn Gates questioned whether the WASL effectively assesses kids’ prospects for success in college or life.
“For some of these kids, that’s what keeps them coming to school,” she said.
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