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M7: Assignment: Career Technology Education/Career Pathways
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M7: Assignment: Career Technology Education/Career Pathways
Cherith White
Overview
The school district that we will be looking at is Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Within Anne Arundel County Public Schools I teach at Central Special. Central Special School is a specialized school for students with severe disabilities in grades K-12, there are approximately 125 kids who attend Central Special. Within Anne Arundel County Public Schools there are approximately 85,000 students (51.3% White, 21.1% African American, 17.1% Hispanic/Latino, 3.8% Asian, 6.2% Two or more races, <1% American Indian and HI/Pacific Islander). One thing that makes Anne Arundel County Public Schools unique is that they have Signature Programs that are specific to each high school. These Signature Programs bring teachers, business, and community leaders together in the classroom to make instruction meaningful and relevant to students. These programs help prepare students for postsecondary life. Some of the programs include International Trade, Transportation, and Tourism, Design: Preservation and Innovation, and Homeland Security. Within this project, we will look at career awareness, career exploration, and career preparation.
The information that I used to help me create this project was taken from the Anne Arundel County Public Schools website www.aacps.org, as well as from the administrators at our school, and the transition facilitator.
Career
Awarness
Career Awarness
What activities currently exist in my school district?
Q1
Career Days
This activity is mostly for elementary school students. Each elementary school has at least one career day where parents or other individuals from the community come to share about their careers. At the middle school and high school level instead of career day it is more like career fairs where the students can pick and choose which careers they want to learn more about and some students may be able to get an internship at the career fair.
Career
Days
Field Trips
Students go on a vast amount of field trips from K-12 that help them explore a variety of careers. Some field trips include visits to the Science Center, Ice Cream Factory, Sailing, Zoo, Aquarium, and College Visits.
Field
Trips
College and Career Plans
College and
Career Plans
Students in our district with an IEP started planning for careers (part of the transition plan) during 6th grade. If a student is participating in AVID that student plans for a career or college in 6th grade as well. Everyone else prepares for a career or college in 9th grade.
Family Awarness
Each school's transition facilitator hosts parents' nights (at least 4 a year). That gives families who have a child with disabilities an idea of what their next step will be after high school and for their careers.
Family
Awarness
What exploration activities are embedded/connected to the
general academic curriculum?
Q2
Career exploration is embedded into the curriculum in elementary school, but not so as much as in middle and high school. It's good to get students exposed to career exploration in elementary school but they should continue to be exposed throughout 12th grade.
Who is eligible/participates in these activities?
All students K-12 despite the severity of their disability are eligible and participate in these activities.
Q3
Career Exploration
Career
Exploration
What career exploration opportunities are available in the
school?
Q1
Workshops
Many of the high schools and middle schools in Anne Arundel County offer workshops on financial literacy ( learning how to save for college or to create a budget plan for example). AACPS high schools have an AVID teacher who gives workshops on how to build a resume and they would even look at and help revise your resume. AACPS offers mock interviews for students in 10th and 11th grade. During mock interviews, students are learning about the proper etiquette when being interviewed.
Community Service
All AACPS students who are earning a high school diploma must complete 75 hours of community service before graduation. The schools push to have the students complete their hours before the end of 10th grade. Our schools do this by having students complete community service hours within their Social Studies classes. (Some of the community service projects include cleaning up the community, volunteering with Special Olympics, and tutoring peers or individuals in elementary schools).
Community
Service
Job Shadowing
Job
Shadowing
Students have the opportunity to participate in job shadowing programs. An example of this is our CAT-South and CAT-North programs. At these programs, students are observing individuals in a certain career and they are learning the trade from their hands on. Individuals with disabilities have the opportunity to participate in a vo-tech program were they can go out on one to two internships that are run by community businesses. On these internships, the students are learning skills that can be used at any job.
What exploration activities are embedded/connected to the
general academic curriculum?
Q2
Workshops are not embedded into the curriculum but it is something that the county believes is important for the student's future careers. Depending on your graduation track job shadowing is part of the curriculum. Community service as mentioned before is a graduation requirement for all students
Who is eligible/participates in these activities?
Q3
All students in AACPS are eligible to participate in the activities that were mentioned. I did not touch much on elementary school-age students participating in career exploration. But all AACPS elementary schools strive to make sure their students participate in community service activities. An example of this is donating toys for children who have parents in prison or making sandwiches and cards for the homeless.
Career
Preperation
Career Preperation
What are the career preparation experiences currently
available to all students in the school district?
Q1
Capstone Projects
As mentioned before each high school in Anne Arundel County has a unique Signature Program. If students pursue the program that is assigned to their school they will have to complete a Capstone Project. This project is a research-based program that has been worked on and refined for the majority of the student's year. This Capstone Project is present to educators and community business leaders in the community.
Capstone
Projects
Mentorship
Mentorships
Students who are in 11th-12th grade can participate in mentorships. It is the student's job to choose a mentorship that best aligns with their future goals. Once the student decides on what type of mentorship they want the school counselor reaches out to the community businesses to help find the best match for the student. Some students are able to intern underneath the person that is their mentor. A good example of this is a student who wanted to work with dogs so their mentor was someone who worked at a pet resort and that student eventually got to mentor them as well.
Electives
There are many electives that prepare students for careers depending on what their career is going to be. Electives vary by each school. The majority of schools included electives such as family and consumer science (culinary/working in the school's pre-school), business, agriculture, and technology.
To what extent are career preparation activities
embedded/connected to the general academic curriculum?
Q2
Our district does a great job embedding career preparation classes into the curriculum. When the students come to high school they must choose a track it will either be the standard track (essential electives), the signature track ( based on the school's Signature Program), college track ( student must take extra electives such as language), or the career track (student takes more electives in the business, family consumer science, or agriculture field). Within all of these tracks, the electives are preparing each student for a career (even on the standard track students are taking technology classes and learning about finaical literacy, all skills needs as the prepare for a career).
Who is eligible/participates in these activities?
Q3
The examples that were listed are offered to all high school students in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. An example of career preparation that is offered to elementary and middle schoolers in Anne Arundel County Public School students is the JA-Biz Town. On this field trip not only are students learning about financial literacy but they spend time learning about skills to complete a job that is assigned to them on that field trip. My students have severe disabilities so some career preparation that I do with them is working on skills in the classroom that can be generalized in another work environment (delivering items, shredding, vacuuming, and organizing items for example).
Reflection
My students may not be able to participate in all of the career development activities that I mentioned. But I believe our district does a good job of providing career development activities in the 3 areas for individuals with severe disabilities.I think that the career development that is least supported is career exploration, especially for middle school and high school. Our district does a great job with career exploration K-6, but there are gaps between 7-12th. Yes, these students go on field trips but that might be once a year (not as often as in elementary school). Our district made sure everyone has a laptop there are resources and programs online that focus on career exploration that older students could work on with their devices. I learned that our district does have career activities and experiences but some will have to be tailored or accommodated depending on the student's needs and behaviors. My biggest takeaway from this assignment was how integral these activities are for students to develop skills needed after high school to work.