Tech Prep Yields
Better-Prepared Grads, Less Remediation At School, Work
BY SUSAN USHFR
The drafting instructor at Rich
mond Senior High School in Hamlet
likes Tech Prep because of the stu
dents taking his class.
'Tech Prep has given me better
prepared students and I can go far
ther now," the instructor said during
a tour of his class last week by
Brunswick County educators. "We
can go faster and farther."
A colleague who teaches Prin
ciples of Technology expressed sim
ilar feelings. He tried teaching the
class to students who had not had
Algebra 1, and won't try it again.
"We spent half the year learning to
balance equations, instead of princi
ples of technology," he said. "I don't
do that anymore."
Students with stronger back
grounds in math and science began
entering their classes. It didn't hap
pen by accident, but it doesn't mean
that guidance counselors suddenly
started sending these two teachers
"smarter" students, though certainly
a larger of their students plan to con
tinue their educations than might
have a few years ago.
No, better-prepared students re
flects the basic philosophy that dri
ves a program pioneered by Rich
mond Senior High School and called
Tech Prep: teachers expecting more
of their students and students ex
pecting more of themselves. Tech
Prep combines a rigorous academic
program with vocational-technical
training that carries students from
the ninth grade through a two-year
community college program.
At Richmond Senior High Prin
cipal Ralph Robertson said it has it
meant doing away with study halls,
"tiddlywinks English and tiddly
winks math." It has meant helping
teachers find new ways to teach "old
Bart Simpson and his crowd," to
motivate and inspire them to want
more than simply to "march" at
graduation and to believe they can
do more.
The Tech Prep curriculum is be
ing implemented in all North
Carolina public schools and commu
nity colleges under an agreement be
tween their governing boards. By
19% all high schools in the state
will offer Tech Prep, with 85 percent
of all students to be engaged in ei
ther a Tech Prep or college prepara
tory curriculum.
"We're committed to the idea that
getting a student headed somewhere
is far more important than getting
them headed in the right direction,"
said Myrtle Stogncr, director of the
N.C. Tech Prep Leadership Deve
lopment Center at Richmond Com
munity College.
In the schools themselves, that
translates into college prep and other
students taking courses together.
"They will learn from each other
and respect each other," says Prin
cipal Robertson. "It means you can
be smart and college-bound and take
a tech ciass and it won't lower your
status."
In today's workforce "everybody
has to work," Stogncr said. "We all
need head skills as well as the abili
ty to do tasks."
"If we do Tech Prep right,
we're going to need a lot
less remediation at
every level high school,
community college and
on the job
?Myrtle Stogner
Richmond Senior High School
now serves as a national demonstra
tion center for the Tcch Prep con
cept Twice cach month, visitors
from other school systems across the
country travel to this program in ac
tion.
Brunswick County is among the
latest North Carolina school systems
to move into Tcch Prep, with the
curriculum offered this fall for the
first time. Eighth grade students arc
being asked by counselors to declare
whether they want to enter a college
prep, Tcch Prep or general vocation
al course of study as they register
for ninth grade. For each student,
counselors are preparing a four-year
plan that should help new high
school freshmen focus on a goal, re
alizing it can be changed as they
progress through school.
"It means having a vision of
where you are going," said James
McAdams, secondary schools coor
dinator for the Brunswick County
Schools, who was impressed with
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^ SWF moro BY SUSAN USHt?
DRAFTING STUDENTS in Richmond Senior High's Tech Prep program have stronger math back
grounds, which enables them to cover more material and cover it faster than before Tech Prep.
the enthusiasm Richmond County
educators expressed for Tech Prep.
"It means a better chance of students
entering community college and
possibly getting credit for classes
they've taken in high school. It
means we now start getting students
prepared in the area they plan to
make their vocation."
Tom Simmons, vice principal of
South Brunswick Middle School,
had been asked to serve on the team
developing evaluation tools for
Brunswick County's Tech Prep pro
gram. ''I asked them how I was sup
posed to know how to evaluate
something I've never seen and didn't
know how it was supposed to work."
Simmons and McAdams were
part of a group of educators from
Brunswick Community College and
the Brunswick County Schools last
week who took a whirlwind tour of
Richmond Senior High and heard a
series of mini-briefing on what Tech
Prep is and how it is working at
Richmond Senior High after a year
of planning and six years of imple
mentation. They came back with an
swers, more questions and a sense
the county schools are headed in the
right direction with Tech Prep.
"I think this program offers op
portunities for our students," said
McAdams. "It means we're saying
to students in our high schools that
they can go beyond that, and it
means we'll be offering the commu
nity better-prepared students,
whether they go into the workforce
or continue their education."
McAdams said he is expecting
"some major differences" in the next
several years because he is con
vinced Brunswick County's educa
tors, students and community mem
bers arc ready "to do whatever it
takes" to improve the quality of edu
cation provided here.
In Richmond County, Robertson
and Stogner give Tech Prep part of
the credit for changes that have tak
en place since 1986: improved stu
dent attendance, a lower dropout
rate, an increasing percentage of
graduates furthering their education
after high school, improved perfor
mance on the county's state report
card, and a better overall product for
the school system.
Tech Prep has won over the local
business community as well, with
some employers offering preferen
tial hiring in technical jobs to Tech
Prep graduates.
Bruce Duncan, a plant manager
for Sara Lee Hosiery and president
of the Richmond County Chamber
of Commerce, said he thinks the
change encompassed by Tech Prep
"is one of the keys to our future sur
vival and competitiveness" in a
global marketplace. "We have to
have the right employees," he said,
which means workers who have
skills in math, decision making,
team building and problem solving.
Tech Prep involves matching up
courses available at the high school
with the courses they relate to at the
local community college, creating a
"4 + 2" continuum so that a student
can begin preparing for a specific
career area while still in high school
and continue those studies at the
community college without having
to take remedial classes.
In some cases students are able to
receive both high school and college
credit for courses taken while still in
high school, allowing them to cover
even more advanced material during
their two-year community college
program. Because students have re
ceived stronger educational founda
tions in high school, they will re
quire less remedial coursework at
the community college level.
Joe Grimsley, president of Rich
mond Community College, said
community colleges have tradition
ally served the "neglected majority"
of high school students, those Tech
Prep aims to serve.
"But we weren't getting the kind
of students we were cxpcctcd to turn
out," he added. Bccause of the com
munity college system's well-publi
cized open door policy, both public
schools and community colleges
haven't been telling students they
needed some college preparatory
classes to enter directly into most as
sociate degree programs.
The situation at Brunswick
Community College is similar to
that at other community colleges
across the state, where the typical
student is in his or her late 20's, has
a high school diploma and needs
training or retraining for the work
place.
Last fall, said BCC Counselor Joe
Moorefield, 89 percent of the stu
dents entering BCC required one or
more remedial classes in math skills
before they could enter a general
college math course that requires el
ementary algebra skills. Depending
on their majors those students need
ed from one to three remedial math
courses, which delayed their entry
into their major courses. An average
student who has earned B's and C's
in Algebra I and II should be able to
score high enough on the placement
test for most programs.
A stronger math and science
background?which the Tech Prep
program emphasizes?is needed not
only for many four-year college ma
jors, but for many at the two-year
level as well, Moorefield said. For
example, BCC's associate degree
nursing program requires entering
student to have had chemistry, and
the electronics program recom
mends that they have had Algebra 1
and preferably Algebra II.
"If we do Tech Prep right," says
Stogner, "We're going to need a lot
less remediation at every level?
high school, community college and
on the job."
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