Digital bonus
Educators at Kettering Fairmont’s career tech center discuss the report card and help students learn the building blocks of a career.
Almost half of the career technical schools in the greater Miami Valley earned A’s in skill attainment in Year 2 of the Ohio Department of Education’s new career tech report card.
Five of the 12 area schools earned A’s for their students’ performance on technical skill tests. The Warren County Career Center and the Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood career tech center were the only two in the area to receive A’s in all four graded categories — technical skill attainment, four-year graduation rate, five-year graduation rate and post-program placement.
Career tech students can focus on subjects ranging from agriculture to biotechnology to culinary arts while continuing to take standard high school courses in English and math.
“I think career tech education, more than anywhere else in the education system, sees high school as only a step in the ladder to your future,” said Liz Jensen, career technology coordinator at Kettering’s Fairmont High School. “We are getting kids ready to be productive, successful citizens.”
The state’s career tech report card measures different categories than the report card for traditional public and charter schools but the biggest difference is the time lag for the career tech data.
While traditional report cards analyze data from tests that students took four months earlier, the career tech report cards use results for students who graduated two years earlier, in 2012.
“We have these measures about what happens to students after they leave — what type of impact has career technical education had on those kids?” said Emily Passias, data manager for the state’s Office of Career-Technical Education. “So that’s part of the reason for the lag.”
Passias said in the next two years, ODE will cut that to a one-year lag, which is as current as the report card can be while still collecting post-graduation data.
What is graded?
** Graduation: Career tech schools are measured on four- and five-year graduation rates, just like other Ohio schools. The vast majority of local tech centers received A's on both graduation grades, while Hamilton and Greenville each had one "A" and one "B", and Dayton's Ponitz Center earned C's.
** Skill testing: The Achievement grade is based on what percentage of students pass tests — primarily designed by Ohio State University — to measure the technical skills they attained.
“In the same way that a student in a math or language arts class takes a test on that material, students in career technical education take tests related to the content that they’re learning — whether it’s welding or cosmetology,” Passias said.
The five area tech centers earning A’s in that category, based on 2012 results, were Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood, Dayton’s Ponitz Center, and the Warren County, Greene County and Butler County career centers.
Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood had the area’s highest passage rate, at 91.30 percent. Greene County’s score (76.87) was actually below the “A” standard, but the grade was raised because 92 percent of their students tried the technical skill tests — one of the highest rates in Ohio. The career tech centers at Greenville and Mad River Schools had the area’s lowest passage rates, at 51.85 and 50.77 percent, respectively.
** Post-program placement: This score shows what percentage of students were employed, in the military, in an apprenticeship or enrolled in college/advanced training six to nine months after leaving their career tech center.
Greenville schools’ program ranked first in that category for its 2012 graduates, at 98.95 percent, followed by Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood (94.72) and Miami Valley CTC in Clayton (94.02).
Nick Weldy, superintendent of Miami Valley CTC, said people often focus only on the career side of his school, but he said MVCTC sends “a huge amount of kids” on to college as well.
For students who do want a job right after graduating, Weldy said MVCTC’s apprenticeship program gives an employer “a year-long interview with the student, to see their work ethic. And it gives the student a chance to put some real work on their resume and get hands-on experience.”
Dayton’s Ponitz Center had the lowest placement rate for 2012 students, at 61.90. Principal Ray Caruthers said they’ve improved since then.
“We are doing a better job in accounting for student placement surveys post-high school, strengthening our community partnerships to meet future job demands and working to restructure our programs based on business and community needs,” Caruthers said.
Passias said those placement efforts seem to be the No. 1 focus of career-tech educators, “because that is the piece that most affects students’ lives.”
Debating the data
The state also tracks the percentage of students who earn an industry-recognized job credential or certificate, either at a career tech school or in the first six months after leaving. Most local career tech centers had between 15 and 35 percent of their students earn a credential.
Jensen said most credentials earned at Fairmont were in the automotive, construction and allied health programs, adding that the school is trying to add credential options in other programs where it makes sense. But the school’s advisory committee isn’t sure all state-approved credentials are worthwhile in the current market.
In some cases, the data can be murky. For example, the technical skill grade is for a whole career tech planning district not just an individual school, Weldy said.
“The frustrating thing is that (the technical skill) grade is for our entire career tech planning district, not just MVCTC,” Weldy said. “If a school or charter school in our district has a program and decides not to test those kids, we still get dinged for that. It’s hard to say it’s a fair system when you can’t control your own results.”
There are other areas where the data gets confusing. The Butler County and Dayton City career tech centers scored almost the same on technical skill attainment, at 84 and 83 percent, respectively. But 86 percent of Butler County’s students took those tests, compared to only 57 percent of Dayton’s students. Passias said that makes Butler County’s data more reliable.
“My goal in putting that participation number out there was so people would understand sometimes 100 percent really means 100 percent. And sometimes it means 100 percent of (a small subset) of your kids,” Passias said. “We need to take that passage rate in context.”
Jensen said the big picture is that career tech students are achieving at high levels.
“Career tech students are graduating at a higher rate than students in Ohio overall. They’re also leaving with dual enrollment credit, which is scaffolding them to success in college,” Jensen said. “So they’re graduating from college faster and with less expense. Others are going right into work with an industry credential. The whole package is what makes career tech education so special.”
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