News for everyone, delivered to everyone
Minneapolis Public Schools Career and Technical Education (CTE) program aims to match students with real-world skills, but some high schools are restricting access.
Even though students register, hundreds of students are turned away by their high schools because of schedule misalignments.
This includes students at Roosevelt High and Edison High, who can’t take the career and technical education classes being offered at the CTE centers nested in their own buildings.
“The schedules are all over so kids have to thread the needle just right,” observed Minneapolis Public Schools Tech Center Principal Michael Luseni.
MPS moved the costly, federally funded CTE programs to become district-wide offerings, and provided full two-way transportation, only to have students who enrolled in the courses find them struck from their schedules due to incompatibility with their school’s different class hours.
The district’s nine high schools have varying class period schedules. One starts the day at 7:20 a.m., two at 7:30 a.m., one at 7:35 a.m., and five at 8:30 a.m. One ends at 3 p.m., five at 3:10 p.m., another at 3:15 p.m., and the last at 4:12 p.m. (See illustration above.)
Complicating things further is that class periods range from long block days to shorter class periods. Some schools have the same class times per day, while Fair operates on A-B Days with some C Days; and Roosevelt has the same schedule Mondays to Thursdays and a different one on Fridays.
The district has issued a recommended bell schedule of 8:30 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. for its schools that would standardize times and allow students to attend CTE classes. Some high school leadership have made it a priority for their students to access CTE programming, while others have not, as the diagram shows. The school board is the only entity that can mandate a schedule in the district.
The CTE class schedule, commonly referred to as the bell schedule, has an a.m. block class from 8:05-10 a.m., a mid-day block between 10:05 a.m. and 1 p.m. (this varies depending on the tech center), and a p.m. block from 1:05-3 p.m. This gives students time to travel back to their high schools from 10:05-10:25 a.m. and from high school to a tech center from 12:35-1 p.m. Breakfast is available at the tech center and students eat lunch at their home high schools.
The light turquoise block in the graphic above shows the 25-minute minimum travel time to and from a home school. If that 25-minute time interrupts another class, students can’t take CTE classes without missing a class out of their schedule. – essentially taking a free hour. That isn’t possible in most student’s schedules.
Some classes are also offered online. Because they are asynchronous, they can be taken at any time. Students can take general courses online to make room for CTE classes in person, but students report varying levels of support for registering for those depending on individual high school policies.
Currently, students from only five of the district’s high schools can access some CTE classes because their schedules line up enough to do so (Washburn, Southwest, South, North, and Heritage), and Camden’s students can make the p.m. block work.
REAL SKILLS FOR THE REAL WORLD
Getting trained in high school for well-paying jobs is the goal of the Minneapolis Public Schools CTE program.
“Real skills for the real world,” said Luseni.
There are over 70 CTE courses that lead to pathways at the overlap of the most high-paying and high-demand careers in the metro area, according to the objectives of the federal Perkins grant that funds the program. Students can earn college credits and industry credentials, and are connected to a variety of career exploration activities including industry professional meetings and panels, worksite and company tours, and immersive apprenticeships and internships.
“The whole idea of CTE is that it's a full circle,” stated Luseni.
“I want every student that comes through Minneapolis to be able to say, ‘I can graduate from high school with my diploma and also have the confidence and skills for my next step. I have all the connections. I want a job. I can get it.’”
Luseni aims to create options for students so they have skills to work part-time earning serious money and pay their way while attending college.
One of the biggest myths CTE staff seek to dispel is that the only way to get a high-paying job is by doing a four-year university program. But emerging careers that require technical degrees for hands-on jobs are on the rise and among the best-paying jobs in America today. CTE courses prepare students for four-year degrees, two-year degrees, and jobs directly out of high school.
The shift in how the district’s CTE classes are offered comes when there is an all-time high of 66 percent of high school graduates attending colleges, but only a quarter of them are actually earning degrees. Instead, they’re disengaged because they don’t see a connection between their coursework and their future career, as noted in CTE promotional materials.
Of those that do graduate, half find themselves in gray-collar jobs, roles they are underemployed in, and that continues for 33 percent of graduates into their 30s.
CTE programs help address the misalignment between education and the workforce. They focus on this question: What knowledge and skills do you need to get a job today?
Georgetown University predicts only 33 percent of all jobs will require a four-year liberal arts degree or more in the future while the majority will be highly skilled jobs requiring professional and technical training. These are jobs that AI can't do.
Emerging occupations in every industry now require a combination of academic knowledge and technical ability.
“We still need to ask the question: What do we see is the purpose of high school?” remarked Luseni. “As a district, we have to answer that question.”
MORE THAN FILLER CLASSES
Career and technical education (CTE) classes can be much more than filler classes, according to Luseni. CTE courses are eligible for college credit, and MPS has articulation agreements with 21 Minnesota colleges so students can seamlessly transition into their programs.
“CTE is not an elective. CTE is for kids that want to see a career in a specific area,” observed Luseni.
As the perspective of parents shifts, “they’re looking at CTE as an extension of their kids’ next steps,” said Luseni.
CTE staff also connect with large state employers to train students so that they are ready for jobs as soon as they graduate from high school.
“If you decide I don’t want to go to college, I want to get a job, we will make sure you are trained,” observed Luseni.
CTE uses a pathways approach that explores 15 various careers available in agriculture, automotive tech and collision repair, business entrepreneurship and marketing, computer science, construction, cybersecurity, education, engineering, healthcare, law and public safety, machine technology, media arts, robotics and drone technology, and welding. These jobs have been identified federally as growing areas in the Twin Cities that will have high pay.
Those fascinated by media arts help run the KBEM radio station, learn sound tech, and create podcasts. Students who want to be police officers can get hands-on experience through service-learning opportunities to ready them before entering the local police force. Engineering students recently toured the Minnesota Department of Transportation to learn about infrastructure and the high-end computer systems used to manage it.
TRANSITION TO 3 CTE CENTERS
The shift from offering various CTE classes at individual high schools was part of the Comprehensive District Design. It was cited as a way to equitably offer the same classes to all students, as previously only some schools had the equipment or qualified staff who could teach these classes. The change was effective for the 2023-2024 school year when a 282,794-square-foot addition to house the largest tech ed center on the North High campus was ready for student with indoor areas for flying drones, classrooms and flexible spaces. There are smaller tech ed centers at Edison and Roosevelt.
Before the 2023 fall semester, CTE class offerings at individual schools varied greatly. Some had them and others didn’t. The classes require teachers with specialized skills and equipment, and not every school was able to fill enough classes to make that work.
“The center-based approach creates equity in the system,” said Luseni. “This way, every kid in the district has an option to say, ‘I want to take a CTE course no matter where and the district will get me there.’”
He added, “When you are not doing a center approach, then most of the students do not get the opportunity for some of the programming.”
He acknowledged that there will be growing pains as they transition to this model, including the misalignment with school bell schedules that interferes with the ability of some students to take the classes.
Other districts in Minnesota have also moved to centralized CTE, including Anoka-Hennepin and Wright County (which supports the eight neighboring school districts of Annandale, Big Lake, Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose, Delano, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, Maple Lake, Monticello, and St. Michael-Albertville).
SKILLS, CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR K-8, TOO
MPS CTE has piloted a new program with Junior Achievement so that its younger students can begin exploring careers in addition to the importance of personal finance, and the value of work. There are programs for grades kindergarten to eighth grade. It includes the popular BizTown, an immersive day-long visit to a simulated town where students operate banks, manage restaurants, write checks, and vote for mayor. Students are able to connect the dots between what they learn in school and the real world. JA Learning Experiences support national and state standards in reading, mathematics, social studies, and work and career readiness.
“Kids as early as kindergarten can ask who they want to be,” said Luseni.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here