Career Academic Technical Institute (CATI) Division of Career-Technical Education TN State Department of Education 25th NACTEI New Orleans, 2005

Phase I 17 Schools were awarded grants in the amount of $30,000 to develop Models of Academic and Vocational Integration

PURPOSE of the GRANT  Develop models of integration of vocational and academic skills  Raise student achievement  Sustainable models  Replicable models

Recipients Provided Six Models as Guides

Which Model Does Your Model Model?

Discipline-Based Curriculum Integration  Teachers relate Cross-Curricular Activities while teaching their own discipline  Teachers teach in a traditional way, but show awareness of practical use of classroom knowledge.

Parallel Curriculum Integration  Teachers in their different classes teach independently, but plan to have lessons coincide simultaneously to cover the same themes, issues, topics, or concepts.

Multidisciplinary Curriculum Integration  Teachers from several subjects bring together two or three disciplines to teach common themes, issues, topics, or concepts.  Connections are made for students who may not see them on their own.  Larger blocks of class time are utilized such as classes following each other taught as one.

Interdisciplinary Curriculum Integration  Teachers coordinate a single unit that connects all of the disciplines.  A large block of time is necessary.  Complex integration that includes all the students’ subjects  Cover one unit at a time; several units in a school year.

Integrated Day Curriculum Integration Teachers base lessons or curriculum units on student-identified themes, issues, topics, or concepts viewed across the curriculum.

Field Based Curriculum Integration  Teachers expand the boundaries of the classroom creating opportunities for students to learn or practice skills and knowledge in the field or at a worksite.  Activity combines academic and vocational knowledge from several disciplines with hands-on skills.

Evaluation  Teams identified populations and samples from the population to be assess.  Teams identified the measure used to pre and post assess the population and sample participating in the model.  A survey of teachers participating, pre and post.

Models Chosen  5 or 6 models will be chosen to field test with a sister school in Phase III  Unbiased committee will attend presentations and make recommendations of models to field test.

Cycle of Integration Support for Staff Support for Staff Support for Staff Planning Identify need. Something more than “nice to do”. Based in need, set goal(s) Identify population to be involved. Reasons for integration clearly Defined and reasons clearly stated Provide planning opportunities for curriculum comparison and Sharing of information Professional development on diverse teaching methodologies, Multiple intelligences, diverse learning styles, cooperative learning Workshops on integrating curriculum Identify faculty to be involved Observation of classroom Techniques, teaching differences Collaboration opportunities Professional development on Evaluation, Plans for improvement Measurements completed and studied Study end results. Professional Development addressing redesign and changes in future implementation

CATI Phase II  Gateway Institutes with a Career and Technical Component  9 Gateway Institutes, one in each region  Teams of teachers consisting of: one English, one math, one science, two vocational, one special education teacher(s)  Teams will be Gateway Trained and Certified

Phase II  Teams will develop lesson plans with Gateway, Academic and Vocational skills embedded within the plans.  Our target is to produce 100 quality lesson plans.  The lesson plans will be posted on the state website as a resource for teachers (especially new teachers) state-wide.

CATI Phase III  The 5 or 6 models chosen from Phase I will field test their models with a “sister” school.  After 1 year of field testing, the models will be showcased at the Tennessee State Vocational Conference and other conferences.  Models will be a resource for schools similar to the grant schools.  The grant schools will become a resource for other schools who want to implement the model.

Thank You!