A recent article from Education Daily shows how an Oregon high school seeks to improve academic test scores by targeting writing through Career Technical Education (CTE).
Educators at Molalla High School noticed that students’ state test scores were weak in a specific area: writing to perform a task. CTE teachers collaborated with academic subject staff to identify opportunities in CTE classrooms for increasing writing instruction and assignments. Through their efforts, teachers recommended the following items for infusing more writing into CTE:
- Professional learning communities: At Molalla, teachers identified the writing problem during professional learning community time. It was here that they had the opportunity to discuss possible strategies to improve student writing through CTE.
- Collaboration among CTE and academic subject staff: CTE teachers worked with the English department to form an essay template to aid teachers and students in writing in all subjects.
- Select CTE units that are easily integrated with writing tasks: Once CTE teacher at Molalla requires students to write project proposals before completing work; rather than having students verbally describe projects as they normally would, the teacher requires that students write the steps that they will take to complete their projects.
- Make decisions based on data: The author of the article recommends analyzing school data to decide in what areas students would benefit from advanced integration of academic subjects and CTE.
Education Daily is an online publication available only to its subscribers.
Kara Herbertson, Research and Policy Manager