Marble Falls ISD gets ahead of the curve in career and technology education

DANIEL CLIFTON-PICAYUNE EDITOR

MARBLE FALLS — With the last decade in Texas education focused on preparing every child for college, whether he or she desired that goal or not, educators have begun to see the pendulum swing back toward the middle.

Marble Falls schools may have had the jump on the swing as officials began studying ways to prepare students for post-secondary education, but not just college.

“We started taking a look at our career and technology program last fall,” said Eric Penrod, Marble Falls Independent School District director of secondary curriculum. “We know we need to prepare our students for life after high school. We’re not saying every kid who graduates from Marble Falls needs to go to college, but every student needs a foundation to go to the next level.”

MFISD officials created the Career and Technology Education committee to study the district’s resources, students’ needs and future possibilities.

The key is developing programs that move students from high school into a post-secondary learning experience such as college or a trade/technical school.

The programs also have to be relevant in that they prepare students for the jobs and careers available both now and in the future, Penrod said.

“That’s the challenge,” he said.

The committee studied the district’s current career and technology offerings. They compared the courses or resources with student interests and the labor market. In some areas, such as the health science program, the committee found the student interests, courses and labor markets lined up rather well where other areas such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) features a strong labor market, but student interest lags well behind.

“Part of it is helping students learn where their strengths and interests lie,” Penrod said.

The district plans on implementing a career and technology exploration course at the middle school level in the future, Penrod said, to help students discern their interests and strengths. This, he added, can help them develop a plan as they enter high school.

“Some people may say this is ‘pigeonholing’ them, but it’s actually the opposite,” Penrod said. “This allows us to give as much information to the student as possible with data instead of just a person’s opinion or emotions. Also, research shows that a student who enters high school and doesn’t have a plan is more likely to bounce around from course to course, with no real focus.”

Even if a student graduates from high school with a focus on a particular career and technology plan, but decides that path is no longer for him or her, Penrod said the student has amassed quite a portfolio to demonstrate his or her ability to learn and stick with something.

“Those are extremely important attributes,” the curriculum director said.

As MFISD began taking a hard look at its career and technology areas, state leaders tackled the same ideas in the legislature. During the past decade, Texas emphasized preparing every child for college as well as pushing assessment testing.

But two bills, Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 5, entered in the Texas Legislature earlier this year offer relief from assessment testing as well as acknowledge the importance of preparing students for post-secondary education that may not include college.

“There definitely has been a paradigm shift from assessment, assessment, assessment,” Penrod said. “And the legislators look as if they understand that not every student wants to go to college or needs to go to college. These pieces of legislation give paths for those students.”

If either bill passes, Texas school districts will find themselves creating educational opportunities for all students, not just the college-bound.

“Since we started talking about this last fall, we’re actually ahead of the curve,” Penrod said. “Other districts, they haven’t even looked at (this legislation).”

Penrod emphasized career and technology pathways don’t end at high school graduation but lead students to other post-secondary education options.

“We don’t want kids to graduate from high school and that’s the end of their education. That’s not what this is about,” he said. “It’s about preparing them for the next step in their education, whatever that may be for them. This can’t be just a philosophy for the school district, it has to be a philosophy for Marble Falls, Texas and all the communities we serve.”

daniel@thepicayune.com