to provide guidance and counseling for the purpose of For Grades 11 and 12, objectives for career education would be: 70 - - - to provide every student intensive preparation in a selected occupational cluster, or in a specific occupation, in preparation for job-entry and/or further education; to increase the student's motivation to learn by relating to provide intensive guidance and counseling, in preparation to insure placement of all students, upon leaving school, A set of procedures has been designed by U.S.O.E.'s Bureau of Adult, Vocational, and Technical Education through which a school system aight restructure its present activities in order to implement educational program to meet the career education objectives outlined above. Curriculum development at all grade levels, K-12, represents the central procedure around which other supporting activities would function. The curriculum development undertaking is actually a triple-pronged effort involving (1) an occupational cluster curriculum effort, (2) a curriculum refocusing effort for grades 1-8, and (3) a subject-matter relating effort in grades 9-12. The largest and most involved component of the curriculum development undertaking is the cluster curriculum effort. This effort will involve 15 separate task forces, one for each of the 15 occupational clusters mentioned in the previous pages. Each of these cluster task forces will develop, in its occupational cluster, complete clustercore curriculums for grades 9-12. Suitable instructional materials and media will be selected and/or developed for each occupational area. Each cluster task force will also develop, for its occupational cluster, a one-semester exploratory curriculum for grade 7 and 8 students, to include onsite observation, work experience, hands-on laboratory experience, role playing, and other appropriate activities. Suitable instructional materials and media will be selected and/or developed for this one-semester exploratory curriculum in each occupational cluster. Each cluster task force will also provide guidelines and material for use in grades K-6 and will insure that occupational information proviced at the elementary school level is technically accurate and comprehensive. The second component of the curriculum development undertaking is a major curriculum refocusing effort for grades 1-8. The task force responsible for this effort will create a system of behavioral objectives for grades 1-8 that reflect career development concepts and respond to differences in learner characteristics. Then four sub-task forces will be created, one each in the language arts, mathematics, sciences, and social studies. Each of the sub-task forces will select those career development behavioral objectives which can best be met in its subject area and will refocus that subject's curriculum around the career development behavioral objectives. After the subject area curriculums have been refocused, appropriate learning interventions will be chosen or developed by each of the sub-task forces. Products of current and recent curriculum development efforts will, of course, be analyzed and where appropriate to the career education concept, will be utilized, adapted, or built upon. The third component of the curriculum development undertaking will be a subject matter relating effort for grades 9-12. For this effort, four subject area task forces will be established to relate the subject areas taught at grades 9-12 (science, language arts, social studies, and math) to the content of the curriculums established by the cluster curriculum task forces. The subject area task forces will identify those competencies necessary to each occupational cluster and will insure the inclusion of these competencies in the subject area objectives and activities. The resulting reoriented subject area curriculum will provide activities which are clearly identified with the occupational cluster and/or the specific occupation for which the student is preparing. The subject areas will be refocused around the occupational theme in such a way as to make the basic subject matter more meaningful and relevant to the students, thereby improving the student performance in the subject areas themselves. Supporting the central curriculum development undertaking will be a variety of other activities. In most school systems, the hiring of additional counselors, para-professionals, and other personnel will be necessary to supplement existing staff with the numbers and types of people needed to implement the expanded and enriched career education offerings. Inservice education must be provided for supervisors, teachers, counselors, and paraprofessionals in order to familiarize them with the overall career education concepts and provide them with specific training in use of the new instructional materials and media. During the first year, when it will be necessary for all teachers to rework their lesson plans and make many changes in their instructional procedures, the local school district will probably want to provide overtime pay for the additional hours which the teachers will be putting in. Additional equipment, tools, supplies, materials, and facilities will be needed for implementation of the career education program. These will vary from simple tools and materials used in the elementary grades, through the more complex apparatus needed for exploratory purposes at the junior high school level and on into complicated and sophisticated equipment and facilities which may be needed at the senior high school level in each of the 15 clusters. It is believed, however, that a great deal of the equipment and facility problem can be alleviated by expanding the use of work experience programs, cooperative vocational education programs, and other measures to utilize existing facilities and equipment whitin the business and industrial community. An obvious supporting activity which will be needed is the establishment of advisory councils in each of the occupational clusters. These councils should include representatives from management, labor, and various Government agencies. Steps must also be taken to establish an active and well-staffed placement service, which will work constantly to place all youngsters cicher in a job or in further education when they exit from the school system. The placement service will also establish and maintain a follow-through system in order to maintain contact with and secure feedback from former students. The model presented here will effectively promote educational change in the direction of increased relevancy and meaning for young people. |