Vocational Education

Re: "Tracking by Interests Could Be Right Answer for Some Students" (Feb 11). Adrienne Mack: You're 12 years too late in responding to tracking and industrial arts/vocational education in LAUSD. I taught printing for 14 years. I entered the teaching profession with a love of the trade and a desire to teach it. As years went by, the school site administrator used the shop programs as a dumping ground for the school's difficult children: the emotionally disturbed, educationally handicapped, those beginning English as a second language, the hard of hearing and the blind.

As The Times continues to lead the parade to charterization of the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the most overused and misunderstood phrases on the paper's editorial page is "reform." Change is not necessarily reform. Genuine reform produces lasting, beneficial improvements and isn't concocted by editors or frustrated school boards willing to try just about anything. That was never more evident than during the debate over the current plan to allow outsiders to operate dozens of LAUSD campuses.

Ventura County parents, students and teachers will have the chance at a public hearing next month to voice their opinions about what type of vocational education courses should be offered at high schools, adult education schools and community colleges. The state Department of Education is holding a series of public meetings around the state on how to spend $114.2 million in vocational education funds.

One repeated theme in President Obama's education agenda is that he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. As he put it in an address to a joint session of Congress, "We expect all our children not only to graduate from high school but to graduate from college and get a good-paying job." Although I applaud the president's strong commitment to higher education, he is seriously neglecting the importance of vocational training in school.

Most American high schools phased out vocational education years ago, motivated by complaints that it was used as a tool to "track" African American and Latino students into low-paying careers. But the idea of combining traditional academics with career training is making a comeback, and a poll released Wednesday suggests that it is popular among one particularly important group: struggling high school students.

Community colleges face a brighter future as a result of recent legislation that more clearly defines the mission of the state's 106 2-year institutions--particularly in vocational education, officials say. And for the three community colleges in the South Bay, a stronger emphasis on vocational education is likely to mean a larger emphasis on high-technology training to serve the area's thousands of aerospace workers.

Things are fine now for David Healy. He recently went free-lance after having worked as a mechanical artist in a prestigious Boston advertising agency. But high school was rough. He and academics didn't mix. "I thought regular schools were set up for other people, and not me. I didn't think I was stupid. I knew what they thought and didn't care," he said. His situation turned around when he went to Minuteman Tech. David and students like him have been called "the neglected majority."

The California Department of Education has some troubling news for the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Unified School District as a whole. The problem, however, is that we really don't know how troubling it is. As a story by Times staff writer Lucille Renwick points out, Valley high school students are spending less and less time in vocational education courses, even as fewer Valley high school graduates are going on to state colleges.

In John Puckett's wood shop class, the more important half of the building is the part where there are no machines, no projects and no wood. His students at Katella High in Anaheim depend for their future employment on the reading, math, history and science lessons he integrates into PowerPoint presentations on framing and flooring.

Seeking to invigorate vocational education programs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that the state would spend $20 million to expand such efforts and to better link high school and community college courses. Schwarzenegger, who said he benefited from vocational education while growing up in Austria, spoke about the state investment after touring a nursing skills lab, a machine shop and other technical education classrooms at Pasadena City College.

Sen. Jack Scott, a career educator, remembers when his daughter broke the news that she was going to marry a commercial fisherman. "This guy was not too happy," the Altadena Democrat says, referring to himself. His daughter's suitor "was not highly educated; he'd never gone to college," recalls Scott, who at the time was dean of instruction at Orange Coast College, and later would become president of Cypress College and then Pasadena City College.

Under continuing attack for its high dropout rate, the Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday announced its latest initiative aimed at keeping students in school -- a largely bureaucratic change that district officials hope will lead to a doubling in the number of students who enroll in programs for those who can't handle traditional high schools. The change, announced with fanfare by Supt.

Re "Misfits Need Schooling That Fits," column, Aug. 7 Bob Sipchen makes an important point. As a third-grade teacher, I see the problems with the one-size-fits-all system. We are losing so many students. There used to be many options for high school students -- vocational education, auto shop, graphic design classes, home economics. Now, with the current thinking that all students must go through a college preparatory program in high school, many are choosing to drop out. If they could have other options, they too could make many successful contributions to the work world.

Re "Struggling Students Want Vocational Education, Poll Shows," April 6 As an exceptional-needs specialist for more than 20 years, I teach children with behavior and learning disabilities. My students are bright, motivated and eager to learn, but due to the passage of No Child Left Behind, they are being left behind as never before. Expecting my students to master grade-level standards is unfair, unrealistic and cruel punishment. My experience has taught me that a four-year university experience is not appropriate for every student.

Most American high schools phased out vocational education years ago, motivated by complaints that it was used as a tool to "track" African American and Latino students into low-paying careers. But the idea of combining traditional academics with career training is making a comeback, and a poll released Wednesday suggests that it is popular among one particularly important group: struggling high school students.

Seeking to invigorate vocational education programs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that the state would spend $20 million to expand such efforts and to better link high school and community college courses. Schwarzenegger, who said he benefited from vocational education while growing up in Austria, spoke about the state investment after touring a nursing skills lab, a machine shop and other technical education classrooms at Pasadena City College.

I agree that California and our nation as a whole have a tremendous problem with high school dropouts, particularly in the black and Hispanic communities (L.A. Schools' Silent Scandal, editorial, March 25). Fortunately, there is something being done to address this crisis. Under the No Child Left Behind law, schools and districts are held accountable for graduation rates, and schools can no longer allow a dropout to be counted as a transfer. Poorly performing students can no longer be nudged out of the system in a misguided effort to raise school averages on tests.

Re "High School Vocational Classes Are Stalling Out" and "Extol Brains as Well as Brawn of the Blue Collar," Commentary, Sept. 6: You bring to light what is essentially the failure of the traditional educational system in our state and nation. Though it's true that some students are unsuited for college, they are not necessarily candidates for vocational classes either. For too long vocational classes were used as a dumping ground for underperforming students. As school budgets tightened, those students and programs were cast aside.