# data[].attributes.headline
Profile of FCPS Academy Graduate Handout

# data[].attributes.subject
Profile of FCPS Academy Graduate Handout

# data[].attributes.headline
Portrait of a Hampton Graduate (example)

# data[].attributes.subject
Portrait of a Hampton Graduate (example)

# data[].attributes.headline
Teacher Externships in the Academies of Nashville

# data[].attributes.subject
Teacher Externships in the Academies of Nashville

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teacher Externships in the Academies of Nashville (full program)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Each summer, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) partners with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Memorial Foundation to sponsor teacher externships during the summer. What makes the Nashville externship model so powerful is that an academy team--composed of the math, English, social studies, science and CTE teacher--spends three days at a host business together.

# data[].attributes.headline
Overton HS Academy of Information Technology

# data[].attributes.subject
Overton HS Academy of Information Technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2013 Overton High School Academy of Information Technology

# data[].attributes.headline
Learning Medicine at the Hillwood Academy of Public Health

# data[].attributes.subject
Learning Medicine at the Hillwood Academy of Public Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Hillwood High School Academy of Health Sciences

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Hillwood High School Academy of Business and Hospitality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Cambridge School vs Hillwoods Academy Highlights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Udyog Kunj vs Hillwoods Academy Highlights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
McGavock High School Peer Educators on Healthcare

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
VUSD Linked Learning Academy of Health Sciences

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Student & Parent Rights & Responsibilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Learning Medicine at the Hillwood Academy of Public Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hear directly from a student at Hillwood High School about how the Academy of Public Health is preparing him to pursue a degree in nursing. Through nurturing his fascination with medicine, the Academy of Public Health will have him ready for college and career!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This video is a quick overview of the Engineering program at Downey High.

# data[].attributes.headline
Career and Technical Education Should Be the Rule, Not the Exception

# data[].attributes.subject
Career and Technical Education Should Be the Rule, Not the Exception

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's hard to argue with the success of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, which teach transferable workplace skills and academic content in a hands-on context. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently characterized CTE programs as providing "instruction that is hands-on and engaging, as well as rigorous and relevant." He went on to say that CTE programs "are helping to connect students with the high-demand science, technology, engineering and math fields -- where so many good jobs are waiting." Furthermore, in recognizing CTE month on the House floor, Rep. James Langevin recently stated, "CTE is an investment in the future of our economy, our workforce and our country."

Despite these benefits of CTE, only about one in four students (28.6%) earned five or more CTE credits, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Most students have some interaction with CTE during their high school experience, but few are immersing themselves in CTE programs.

One reason why more students are not pursuing CTE programs is that critics characterize it as a track for students who are less likely to attend college. This line of thinking is detrimental to students, employers and the future of our country. Students should no longer need to decide between college readiness and career preparation -- it's possible and increasingly necessary to achieve both.

A recent Gallup-Lumina Poll found that when hiring, U.S. business leaders say candidates' knowledge and applied skills in a specific field are more important factors than where the candidate went to school or what their major was. To be successful in the workplace, college-bound students still need specific knowledge and skills, which they can get from CTE programs.

Additionally, the Gallup-Purdue Index finds that college graduates who had an internship or job in college where they were able to apply what they were learning in the classroom, who were actively involved in extracurricular activities and organizations, and who worked on projects that took a semester or more to complete, doubled their odds of being engaged at work. Yet, just 6% of college graduates say they had all three of these experiences. These are exactly the types of experiences that CTE programs offer to students.

Critics may argue that enrolling in a CTE program may divert college-bound students' attention away from college preparation classes. However, a recent study found that 80% of students taking a college preparatory academic curriculum with rigorous CTE met the standard for college and career readiness, compared with 63% of students taking the same academic core without rigorous CTE. Further, while national graduation rates have inched up in recent years, students with a concentration in CTE are nearly 15 percentage points more likely to graduate high school than the national average. These data suggest that whether students take one CTE course or enroll in an entire CTE program, CTE should be a part of every student's education.

As a student, I was actively involved in a variety of CTE programs. While the experience I gained through livestock judging may not seem like it directly prepared me for my role at Gallup, I often rely upon skills such as:

working long hours toward a goal

building relationships with instructors both in and out of the classroom

keeping accurate records and managing budgets

fundraising to cover the cost of materials, registration fees and travel

representing the school or even the state at contests

the joy of winning and the agony of defeat

being part of a team

serving as a mentor and being mentored by others

Regardless of the actual content being taught, these experiences build the transferable skills that lead to success in college and career, while painting a realistic picture of the future students will face in the working world. CTE should not just play a prominent role for a few students; it should be the new normal in education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Career and Technical Education Should Be the Rule, Not the Exception

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's hard to argue with the success of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, which teach transferable workplace skills and academic content in a hands-on context. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently characterized CTE programs as providing "instruction that is hands-on and engaging, as well as rigorous and relevant."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's all you!

One of the biggest adjustments for new college students is the newfound freedom. College students have an increase in personal responsibility and a lot less external structure. There are no set study times, no required meal times, no one to tell them when to sleep or get them up, an increase in their academic workload, a greater need to multi-task and balance and a myriad of new social opportunities and challenges. The following are skills that will help you develop your own internal structure and be successful in college:

Time Management

Prepare a weekly schedule that includes time in class, studying, activities, work, meals, study and time with friends. Being a college student is like having a full-time job. Several hours of studying and preparation expected for each class.

Stress Management

Regular exercise, adequate rest, good nutrition, prayer and/or meditation are all suggested ways of engaging in self-care that reduces stress. Finding ways to increase coping resources will help students decrease the stressors that life will throw your way.

Study Skills

Even some of the best high school students have not always developed good study skills. Knowing how to read a text book, take notes in class, use the library and take multiple choice tests are all areas that will help you be more successful in the classroom.

Money Management

It is important to have experience in independently handling money, balancing a check book, using an ATM, reading a bank statement and learning to make responsible decisions about living on a budget.

Assertiveness Skills

Speak up for yourself in an assertive manner that is not aggressive or passively allowing others to take advantage of you. Assertiveness skills are helpful in roommate communication, study groups, teams and conflict resolution. They also involve learning and practicing healthy boundaries.

Well-Developed Self Care Skills

Develop bedtimes based on physical need and health. Adequate sleep and a healthy diet can improve mood, athletic and classroom performance and coping strategies for stress. Exercise, relaxation and good hygiene are also important aspects of self-care.

Keeping Safe and Avoiding Risky Behaviors

Staying safe means learning to advocate for your well being. It means making smart and low-risk choices and planning for the "what ifs" in life.

Seeking Assistance When Needed

A big part of advocating for yourself is knowing when to ask for help. The college years are a time for learning new information, new life skills and a new way of relating with our world. Seeking help when you need it is a sign of strength and integrity, not an admission of failure.

Respecting the Rules and Policies

Every community has rules and policies and our college campus is no different. Our rules and policies apply to safety and fostering a positive community where all students are respectful of themselves, others and the environment.

Displaying Honesty, Integrity and Perseverance

Learning to incorporate personal values and ethics into every aspect of life is a significant part of personal growth during the college experience. Part of the path of integrity is learning how to hang in there and stay committed to goals even when situations are challenging.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of the biggest adjustments for new college students is the newfound freedom. College students have an increase in personal responsibility and a lot less external structure. There are no set study times, no required meal times, no one to tell them when to sleep or get them up, an increase in their academic workload, a greater need to multi-task and balance and a myriad of new social opportunities and challenges.

# data[].attributes.headline
College and Career Ready: Soft Skills are Crucial

# data[].attributes.subject
College and Career Ready: Soft Skills are Crucial

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With the speed of change reaching a frenetic pace, the idea of schools preparing students for the future is becoming more and more of a challenge. I was fortunate to attend a P-20 Summit (preschool to doctorate -- I had to ask what it meant, too). Hosted by the University of Texas at San Antonio Office of P-20 Initiatives, the summit addressed where we are now and what we can do to prepare students for their futures.

It was a unique event, especially in terms of summits, in that not only were there four panel discussions from students, public school leaders, higher education leaders, and business leaders, but the audience of parents, teachers, and community leaders all participated in the discussions as well. I would say the high point of the panel discussions was the viewpoint expressed by the business and industry panel.

To start off, the school official panel described all of the programs that they were supporting to help students be college and career ready. They provide after school programs, pullout programs, parent education programs, reading programs, and weekend programs -- all trying to get students prepared for college and work. This great effort is contrasted by them mentioning that two-thirds of our fourth- to eighth-grade students cannot read at their grade level and 6.8 percent of our students will simply drop out of school (Texas Education Agency Report, 2011). When the institutes of higher education took the podium, they shared all of the outreach and remediation efforts taking place at their campuses and also revealed some shocking statistics about our students graduating from high school.

In Texas, of those that choose to go to college, 74 percent go to a junior college. Of those students, 80 percent are required to take developmental math, English or both. Only two out of five students entering college will finish what they started.

Voices from Business and Industry

The most powerful information, however, was revealed when four local leaders from large businesses located in San Antonio were asked questions about how well we are preparing students. The manager from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas located in San Antonio, Mr. Mario Lozoya, stated that public education is like a push model of business, such as a doughnut shop. The client walks into the shop and picks from a limited selection of doughnuts. Then you have a burger joint that actually asks you, "What would you like on your burger?" This would be a pull model of business, and that is what business wants from schools.

He stated that we are preparing students for jobs that do not exist anymore because we don't ask business what kind of employee they need. Mr. Lozoya lamented that the hardest jobs to fill at Toyota are the jobs that require problem-solving skills, such as skilled technicians to fix the conveyor belts, cooling systems, or the robotic devices.

Johnathan Magid from Rackspace Hosting, a cloud computing company, stated that in interviews he doesn't place much emphasis on what the individual knows right now. He is looking for someone who can learn on the fly a completely new programming language because what is currently being used may be outdated in six months. He said that we do ourselves a disservice by using the terms "soft-skills" when referring to reasoning, logic, collaboration, communication, and thinking skills. He emphatically stated that in the information technology industry, these skills are crucial and anything but soft because they are the most difficult to master and, unfortunately, fairly rare in employee candidates.

In the Classroom

So what does it take to prepare students to be college and career ready? It takes 21st century schools. I have been fortunate to become acquainted with Anne Shaw, who has been striving to do just this since 1994. She's created the organization 21st Century Schools and with her dedicated team of professionals, provide school systems all around the globe with the tools to change schools so that today's students will have what they need to be successful in college and career tomorrow. For example, July 22-29th, 21st Century Schools will be hosting an institute in San Antonio to help schools, teachers, and instructional leaders worldwide, to find ways to improve media literacy, innovation, create green classrooms and actually design classrooms that are preparing students for success in the 21st century.

The 21st Century Schools organization runs on the philosophy that students need the critical skills that Mr. Magid from Rackspace mentioned. Interestingly enough, the ten college and career readiness skills that I espouse in my book, Teaching Students To Dig Deeper: The Common Core in Action, are parallel to the skills that 21st Century Schools recommend:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence

Agility and Adaptability

Initiative and Entrepreneurialism

Effective Oral and Written Communication

Accessing and Analyzing Information

Curiosity and Imagination

These critical skills are what businesses are clamoring for in their future employees -- our current students. It is nice to see that we have organizations such as 21st Century Schools and Edutopia to lead the way in helping schools provide the above skills to students.

Yes, students need discrete knowledge and skills on many subjects in order to be literate and professionals in the classroom can help students acquire that knowledge. However, these same professionals can also help students acquire college and career readiness skills like the ones Mrs. Shaw proposes. Which, interestingly enough, if done well, will make it easier for students to learn the required content.

What do you think about the list of attributes for 21st century learning and how do you weave them into your learning activities in your classroom?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
College and Career Ready: Soft Skills Are Crucial | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With the speed of change reaching a frenetic pace, the idea of schools preparing students for the future is becoming more and more of a challenge. I was fortunate to attend a P-20 Summit (preschool to doctorate -- I had to ask what it meant, too).

# data[].attributes.headline
US DOE Using Evidence to Create Next Generation High Schools

# data[].attributes.subject
US DOE Using Evidence to Create Next Generation High Schools

# data[].attributes.headline
US DOE Next Generation High Schools: Redefining the American High School Experience

# data[].attributes.subject
US DOE Next Generation High Schools: Redefining the American High School Experience

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Next Generation High Schools: Redesigning the American High School Experience | U.S. Department of Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The President's call for a re-envisioning of the American high school experience in his 2013 State of the Union address provided the opportunity to explore new designs and features that mark next generation learning.

# data[].attributes.headline
Community Self-Assessment for implementation of FordNGL essential practices

# data[].attributes.subject
Community Self-Assessment for implementation of FordNGL essential practices

# data[].attributes.headline
Why don't future engineers learn real-world skills in school

# data[].attributes.subject
Why don't future engineers learn real-world skills in school

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Before Adam Schachner enrolled at McGill University, he thought of himself as an inventor. He figured a degree in mechanical engineering would teach him the skills to build almost anything, but it didn't work out the way he hoped. "I wanted to work on projects and we almost never got to," he says.

Schachner describes a project in second year where the class was split into teams and each group had to make a remote-controlled robot that could push the opponent's robot out of a ring. Think BattleBots meets sumo wrestling. But since no one knew much about radio signals or how to build complex controls, "we literally ordered a remote-controlled car off the Internet, and I think we added a front bulldozer made of aluminum cans and stuck it on with hot glue," Schachner remembers. "It was terrible."

His classmates weren't much more innovative. "Pretty much everyone just bought a remote-controlled car and put a bulldozer front to it," he says. "Whoever bought the largest remote-controlled car ended up winning."

Now in possession of a degree in mechanical engineering from one of Canada's most prestigious universities, Schachner is faced with a dilemma. The 24-year-old can calculate how changing the diameter of pipes might change the pressure or speed of water inside, but says, "I don't feel confident [enough] to build very much of anything." He's not be alone.

For years, Canada has talked about the shortage of new engineers to keep up with the growth in the mining, energy and transportation industries. In the next five years alone, Engineers Canada forecasts annual job openings for 2,500 civil engineers, 2,100 mechanical engineers, 1,800 electrical and electronic engineers, and 400 chemical engineers, not to mention thousands more split among computer, aerospace, geological, mining and industrial engineering.

In response, Canadian universities have expanded their engineering programs. As it stands, many students tend to come out of higher education-especially in engineering-with strong analytical skills and the ability to focus well on closed-ended problems, says Brian Frank, director of program development in the faculty of engineering and applied science at Queen's University. Give them a problem, and they are very capable of plugging variables into the equations to get the answer. It's the kind of work students dub "plug-and-chug," he says. But Frank wanted to know: "How well are we preparing students to solve more realistic problems that are more open-ended? That are messier? That have conflicting goals or unknown goals? That led us down the road to looking at critical thinking."

Related: The marks you need to get into engineering school

Frank and a team of researchers at Queen's started a longitudinal study in 2013 to measure critical thinking, communication and problem-solving in approximately 2,000 students, including about 650 in engineering. "We had anecdotal complaints that students can't communicate very well," Frank says. "But the scores were actually quite high in many elements that had to do with written communication." Using standardized tests, the study also found that fourth-year students showed improvement in critical thinking when compared with freshmen. And yet, there can often be a gap between what students learn in classrooms and the kind of critical thinking expected of them once they have a job or co-op placement.

When Heidi Manicke graduated from the geological engineering program at UBC in 2014-a field expected to have about 135 job openings annually for the next five years-she found work at Thurber Engineering in Vancouver, classifying types of soil for geological testing. It was daunting at first. "I had done a little soil classification in school in labs-maybe, cumulative, an hour-and then that was my job for the first three months, eight hours a day," she says. "The expectation in the industry seems to be that they'll train you.

"All of the engineers say you learn 10 per cent of what you need to know in school; the rest you learn on the job," Manicke adds. And yet, to go through a four-year program and rack up student debt only to learn the practical skills after graduation sounds-especially from an engineering standpoint-inefficient.

"We don't have, from our point of view, the right approach to educate our young [engineers]," says Robert Hardt, CEO of Siemens Canada. "[Students] in university or college learn all the technical basics from a theoretical point of view, but they don't really focus on the practical implementation of those learned skills into the real world." Hardt says Siemens Canada invests a lot of time getting graduates up to speed. "It's frustrating for the students, but it's also frustrating for us," Hardt says. "When young people come into our company, they have a lot of new, creative ideas. It's really refreshing to see it. What they lack is the ability to implement them in a company environment."

Recent graduates are also often too reliant on computers, and need more of the practical skills they can only get from working, says Gary Kramer, vice-president of tunnels for engineering consultants Hatch Mott MacDonald. "If you don't know what a million tonnes looks like, you should," he says. "When you can look at a truck, which weighs about 60,000 kg fully loaded, then those numbers start to make more sense to you. That's the kind of practical thing you don't learn in a book." And that kind of practical knowledge can preclude catastrophes.

Kramer remembers one near-colossal mistake when a recent engineering grad mixed up megapascals and kilopascals-a miscalculation akin to mistaking one's weight in kilograms for tonnes. "The person was getting answers from the computer program, but did not have a feel for the numbers-what the answer should be," Kramer says. Fortunately, the error was caught "because the [reviewer] looking at it had judgment.

"There should almost be a course that doesn't have a computer in it," Kramer adds, reflecting back to one course he took at the University of Waterloo called Approximate Structure Analysis. He was taught to constantly think about the answer as he completed the analysis. "The course really helped develop a student's sense of structural behaviour, which is a key element to being a practical engineer," Kramer explains. "Now, when I get computer results, because of that experience, I ask, 'Do these numbers make sense?' "

Encouraging students to repeatedly analyze their data dramatically improves their critical-thinking skills, according to a recent study from Stanford and the University of British Columbia. Students with more autonomy in the process of data-collecting were 12 times more likely to suggest improvements to the experiment than students in traditional lab courses. The next step is implementing critical thinking into courses.

Jake Kaupp, an assessment and quality assurance coordinator at Queen's University, tells the story of a Queen's instructor who wanted to assess critical-thinking skills in students. "He turned to us and said, 'Can you help me develop something?' " Kaupp helped to design one performance-style course where fourth-year students played the part of a consulting firm hired to figure out the source of a town's groundwater contamination. After they were given information such as well-drilling cross-sections and the concentration gradient, students had to weigh the data and topographical information. "Is it the gas station? Is it the dry cleaner? Is it just runoff?" Kaupp lists the potential answers. Students were also asked to suggest a remediation strategy.

"It's one of the mini-success stories we've had in the faculty of engineering, because of the focus on assessing critical thinking," Kaupp says. It will also get students thinking about what they can expect in the working world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why don't future engineers learn real-world skills in school? - Macleans.ca

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Before Adam Schachner enrolled at McGill University, he thought of himself as an inventor. He figured a degree in mechanical engineering would teach him the skills to build almost anything, but it didn't work out the way he hoped. "I wanted to work on projects and we almost never got to," he says.

# data[].attributes.headline
Engineering firms need to get serious on practical skills

# data[].attributes.subject
Engineering firms need to get serious on practical skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
January 2014 Online Archives - The Engineer