The Carl D. Perkins grant was developed to support growing programs for Career and Technical Education. The CTE programs across the district have benefited from the monies coming from past Perkins grants and submitted plans for increased improvement. The district is responsible for academic attainment in language arts and math as well as technical skills attainment, graduation rates and secondary completion rates.
Each area has a benchmark set by the district. That benchmark is a target for individual schools to reach as its senior class graduates and takes these skills post-high school.
“This Perkins piece really looks at concentrators; students who’ve taken our pathway courses and are looking at the transition into post-secondary education and improvement,” said Davis School District ATE director Mary Lou Seamons.
At a recent Davis Board of Education workshop, Seamons presented the board with the five-year plan for the district, outlining each of the targets for various schools and talking about the pathways program. She said the district has specifically worked with teacher professional development improvement, getting training whenever possible for CTE teachers. Those CTE teachers have also been working with general education teachers in getting lower scores up in target areas.
“In most cases, we’ve found that the black, Hispanic and special education students are the ones struggling to meet their benchmarks,” said Seamons.
The Perkins grant will give extra funding to schools to directly impact those numbers. The money is allocated to schools after looking at reduced lunch and poverty aspects, which Seamons said have gone up in the Davis School District. Once those funds are allocated, CTE teachers can work with administration on getting different tools for students and keeping up with individualized plans. Those plans involve students participating in or concentrating on specific pathways.
The district has at least a dozen different pathways available at different schools. Students can focus on areas such as language arts, marketing, communication, technology and science. Once a concentration is decided upon, classes are geared toward careers in that specific field. The CTE department offers students the chance to do more hands-on work in their field of choice.
“Students can actually see where the application is of what they’re learning,” said Davis Board of Education member Kathie Dalton.
This year’s specific plan includes setting guidelines for state accountability for the district, Perkins accountability, improving the performance of all students and includes on-site evaluations. It includes details about exactly how recipients will use the grant and where improvements are needed. Career guidance and counseling are included in the report Seamons presented to the board.
“We want to do more than prepare these students for tests,” said Seamons. “We want them to be able to compete in the workforce.”
sroberts@davisclipper.com
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