Schools get technical

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005 | 7:10 a.m.

The Clark County School District is betting that preparing students for the work force -- and not just higher education -- is the solution to its stagnant test scores and spotty history of lackluster achievement.

Vocational programs were once seen as repositories for students who couldn't cut it on the college track at comprehensive high schools. But nationwide more and more educators are viewing career and technical education as the key to keeping students interested -- and enrolled -- in school.

"Our kids choose to come here," said BarbaraAnn Holmes, an assistant principal at Vo-Tech High School. "Some of them get on a bus at five o'clock in the morning and don't get home until after 4 p.m. That's a long day for a teenager -- you wouldn't think they would want to do it but they do."

The School District has seen Vo-Tech, the only comprehensive career and technical high school in Nevada, post a better passing rate on the high school proficiency exam than the district and state averages.

The district has eight campuses that are either magnet high schools or offer career and technical education, and plans to add more programs.

Earlier this week the Clark County School Board voted to build two new career and technical education campuses for $121 million in lieu of a single comprehensive high school for about $90 million.

Two other career and technical high schools were approved earlier by the School Board and are in the planning stages. A fifth campus, in the northwest Las Vegas Valley, will open for the 2007-08 academic year.

Agustin Orci, interim co-superintendent of the district, said the planned expansion is a response to the challenges of educating students in a 24-hour town with plenty of jobs that require little or no formal education.

"The availability of entry-level jobs poses a real temptation," Orci said. "It behooves the School District to offer programs that our students see as relevant to their lives and personal goals."

Students are able to come out of Vo-Tech, which offers programs in everything from automotive repair to culinary arts to computer animation, and get entry-level jobs.

While recent studies show that at-risk students were more likely to graduate when they participated in career and technical education classes, students who participated in such programs and go to college sometimes struggle.

Slightly more than half of the Vo-Tech students who went on to Nevada's colleges and universities in the fall of 2004 were placed in remedial classes compared with 40 percent of School District students.

School District officials have added more advanced academic classes to Vo-Tech's offerings and are emphasizing more rigorous classroom work. The education community -- including the Nevada Department of Education and Clark County -- has also begun replacing the word "vocational" with "career."

Students at Vo-Tech attend the same core academic classes as their peers at comprehensive high schools and must take -- and pass -- the same statewide proficiency exam in order to graduate.

For the 2003-04 academic year, the most recent figures available, 68.3 percent of Vo-Tech's students passed the math proficiency test compared with 57.7 for the district average. Overall 92.9 percent of Vo-Tech students were proficient in writing and 91 percent in reading, compared with the district-wide averages of 83.4 percent and 77 percent respectively.

Additionally, achievement gaps between minority and white students were significantly smaller at Vo-Tech than at both the district and state level. Vo-Tech had lower dropout rates and higher graduation rates both overall and for minority students.

"You can't argue with those numbers," said Arte Nathan, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Wynn Resorts. "Career education and the magnet schools are re-energizing education. Kids actually see a relevance between their interests, their goals and what they're learning."

Nathan, who is also chairman of the Governor's Workforce Investment Board, said the School District deserves credit for recognizing that students need more choices and flexibility.

"It's far simpler to stick with comprehensive education, regardless of whether or not it's working, because it's what people already know how to do," Nathan said.

Richard Boyer, who has been teaching welding at Vo-Tech for 10 years, said professional demand for welders has been steadily climbing as has interest in Vo-Tech's program.

"A lot of these kids don't want to go to college, they want to go to work," said Boyer, who graduated from UNLV after serving four years in the Navy. "I tell them if they go on and do some post-grad (from high school) studies, it's only going to help them in the long run."

One of two female students in Boyer's class of juniors is Parker Sublette, whose mother is a physical education teacher at Vo-Tech. Sublette, who hopes to attend college on a soccer scholarship, plans to put her welding skills to work as an industrial artist.

She has found the students at Vo-Tech to be friendlier than at Centennial High School, which she previously attended.

"There were a lot of cliques (at Centennial)," Sublette said. "Here people are a lot more accepting."

Vo-Tech senior and future hair stylist Jimmy Altman, who is one of a handful of boys in the school's cosmetology program, echoed that sentiment.

"Girls can do anything boys can do, and vice versa," Altman said.

Altman originally enrolled at Vo-Tech to study computer programming but switched to cosmetology as a sophomore.

"I realized I couldn't sit behind a desk my whole life. I liked being around people too much," Altman said.

The fact that VoTech students are able to test the waters of different professions while still in high school will serve them well down the road, said Valerie Murzl, vice president of human resources at Station Casinos.

Students from the district's Area Trade Technical Center in North Las Vegas, which offers career classes to students from a variety of comprehensive high schools, are frequently selected for internships at Station Casinos properties, Murzl said. Students who have attended ATTC, Vo-Tech or one of the district's other career programs stand out in the crowd, Murzl said.

"They're more sophisticated and they have the communication skills," Murzl said. "They know how to demonstrate a professional demeanor. If you can't get through the interview, you're not going to get the job."

Vo-Tech Principal Richard Arguello said his goal is to have all of his students be prepared for post-graduate education, whether it's the community college, UNLV or an advanced trade program. The school's curriculum is aligned with CCSN so that Vo-Tech students can, and often do, skip the required first-year classes.

"Our students want to get ahead," Arguello said. "They are goal- and future-oriented. Our job is to show them there isn't any door that they can't open."

Auto body instructor Scott Fitzgerald, a 1985 graduate of Vo-Tech, said career and technical programs are a lifeline for some students. He has had some of his former pupils return to tell him they are earning upward of $70,000 annually -- enough to support themselves, their families and, in some cases, pay for college.

"They say, 'Why do you teach -- you could be making a lot of money,' " Fitzgerald said with a smile. "I tell them I'm pretty happy here, especially when the kids come back and say how well they're doing."

Emily Richmond can be reached at (702) 259-8829 or at emily@lasvegassun.com.