IOWA Chairman-Robert G. Koons SUMMARY STATEMENT Comments in this summary statement or in the remaining part of this study are not intended to imply intentional wrongdoing or incompetence on the part of the State Board or its agents, the personnel of the Department of Public Instruction. It is the opinion of the Council that the general effort toward implementing increasing numbers of vocational programs to serve the people in the state is commendable. When compared to human and industrial needs, the Council concludes that there is an additional need for career programs to be established. It is the opinion of the Council that Iowa has surpassed other states in the Nation quantitatively and qualitatively in establishing vocational programs. This is not intended to imply that efforts toward further expansion and improvement of vocational programs should not be continued. The Council suspects that there may be a need for more effort at the elementary and secondary level. Major areas that need attention include: 1. Improving the image of vocational education 2. Improving teacher education to impart the skills, knowledge, and sensitivity to teach the disadvantaged, minority groups, and handicapped 3. There is a need to adjust the philosophical basis for educational operations within the state. The present academic and scholastic emphasis should be adjusted to include recognition that all people will need to work and that the first priority for all of Iowa's citizens should be the development of saleable skills. Other education leading to the enjoyment of the "good life" should follow. This precludes additional change in the preparation of teachers and guidance counselors. 4. Other general findings of the study indicate that there is a potential for improvement in the operation of the Area Schools Branch and the Vocational Division in the State Department of Public Instruction to place this operation on a more business-like basis. This implies the need for better statistics, improved fiscal procedures, and an expansion of the research effort. 5. There appears to be sizable concern throughout the state on the subject of local control. There also is a recognized need for state-level coordination. Neither of these terms are defined and this calls to attention the need for additional work. (78) KANSAS Chairman-Ed Doherty Ex. Director-Murle M. Hayden RECOMMENDATIONS These, in each instance, are recommendations from the Council to the Kansas State Board of Education. The intent is that the Board, per se, may implement the recommendations or delegate the responsibility for implementation to the Department of Education as a whole, delegate it to one section such as the Division of Vocational Education, delegate it to more than one area of the Department, or to another agency. 1. The Board should arrange for an objective study and analysis of the respective responsibilities of secondary schools, area vocational schools, community-junior colleges and four-year institutions of higher learning with regard to vocational course offerings and responsibilities throughout the state. The results should be the basis for possible changes in legislation and policies. This recommendation merits the highest priority. Rationale: Along with some excellence, there exists a degree of overlapping and undesirable duplication, a lack of coordination, and a lack of articulation which cannot be justified in the light of today's needs and tax burdens. The study should be conducted by an outside agency which has no vested interest in education within the State of Kansas and which is not suspected of having such a vested interest. Overall plans should be developed for a statewide system of vocational education which allows individuals to exert leadership and initiative, but prohibits the undue and unnecessary duplication and confusion which now exists. 2. The Board should make an intensive effort to secure more funds for vocational education. Rationale: The secondary schools are in reality more college-prep than truly comprehensive in nature. More and better vocational programs are needed at the post-high years. Both Federal and State monies are needed. Additional state monies are essential if the program is not to be "federalized". The recent success in Colorado might be noted. More state funds would also facilitate better local planning (uncertainty of federal funding year to year is a real handicap). This also has implications for the Kansas State Plan for Vocational Education. 3. The Board should promote long-range planning on an intensive, coordinated basis. Rationale: Certain factors, such as inadequate and uncertain funding have seriously limited long-range planning. Planning needs to be systematic, intensive, and coordinated for all levels and types of voca tional education programs and services involving the education establishment and other agencies and groups concerned with manpower. Clear-cut goals need to be developed, and then an examination of the instrumentalities that exist to meet these needs in terms of schools and their organizational structure. Relationships of secondary schools. area vocational schools, community-junior colleges and four-year institutions should be considered. The applications of systems such as PPB, PERT and Delphi Techniques are desirable as well as development of a mechanism for effective inter-agency planning. 4. The Board should initiate action to make the State Plan more a State of Kansas Plan, a more concise plan, a shorter and more specific plan, a more comprehensive plan. A "popular" version should be made and widely distributed. Rationale: The present State Plan is so lengthy, obtuse, and filled with extraneous material that the usual professional educator, board member and citizen cannot or does not comprehend the Plan. More adequate state finances for vocational education would facilitate more state independence and precision in the planning process, and undertaking of activities which might or might not meet with favor at the federal level. There is widespread opinion that Kansas now has two plans: one for Federal approval (the Federal plan), and the one which is followed (the informal plan). The current formal plan. however excellent it might be, loses a great deal of its potential if it is not understood. 5. The Board should design and implement a major statewide inservice program for elementary, secondary, post-high and higher education administrators to review and update a philosophy of education with appropriate emphasis upon vocational counselling. Emphasis should be upon a broader concept and application of vocational education for total education fulfillment. Rationale: The current disproportionate emphasis upon collegeprep, the need to improve the image of vocational education, the inadequate counselling services, the tendency to sometimes use vocational education as a "dumping ground", the tendency to counsel all the "bright" students into traditional four-year colleges and universities, the need for organizational administrative and instructional changes all point to an urgent need. Needed changes in instruction may not occur until administrators and their boards decide to make these changes. Clear-cut goals and priorities must be a reality. There needs to be an awareness of occupations and the world of work, with a developing awareness in the elementary grades. There is a philosophy and a substance which needs to be defined especially to meet Kansas needs, transmitted generally among boards, administrators and counsellors, and diffused throughout the schools. There are emphatic evidences that too many people (parents, board members, administrators. guidance staff, teachers and students) still reveal the belief that vocational education requires primarily a "strong back" and that a superior intelligence or "academic talent" would be wasted in vocational education. All concerned need to come to recognize that much of the so-called vocational occupations today warrant and demand mental capacities as great as fields of nuclear science, physics, engineering, medicine, dentistry, law. ad infinitum. Equally significant, the potential for serving the needs of society, the potential for happiness and satisfac tion of the individual. and the potential for monetary reward in vocational occupations today usually equals or exceeds those of many professions. Sequential development of vocational education at all levels should constitute the conceptual framework for the in-service program here recommended. 6. The Board should design and implement a major state-wide inservice training program to improve the extent and quality of guidance services at the elementary, secondary, post-high and higher education levels. Rationale: Note the rationale for recommendation Number 5 (above). Counsellors are in strategic position to bring about an improved image for vocational education which is today not only merited but also urgent for the benefit of the individual and society generally. Significant changes are esesential in the field of guidance and counselling, and active leadership from the Kansas State Board of Education is the most logical solution. 7. The Board should design and implement a plan to get every school district to officially assume responsibility for developing some degree of employability in every student. Rationale: School districts should be encouraged to formally assume responsibility and take action to develop some degree of employability in every student, because almost every boy and girl (college-bound or other) will, during high school and upon leaving high school have need to earn some money through productive labor of some type. State aid would serve as an incentive for school districts to fulfill this responsibility. Rather than developing employability for a single job or type of employment, schools should provide the widest possible range of options for each student. 8. The Board should design and implement a program intended to get every secondary school to assume and exercise responsibility for appropriate placement of every student who leaves high school, whether by graduation or otherwise. Rationale: This recommendation is related to recommendation Number 7. Traditionally, secondary schools have done a relatively excellent. job in placing the college-bound student, compared to the virtually nothing done for other students. Respondents to the questions posed in the Self-Analysis phase of the study upon which much of this report is based, frequently indicated the school did very little if anything for the non-college bound student, that counsellors knew relatively little about placement opportunities for other students, that school personnel had no time allocated for this purpose, and that outside employment and placement agencies accomplished little if anything in this area. The solution may involve cooperative arrangements with state or federal employment agencies. For example, such an outside agency might assign an employment officer to the local superintendent of schools. In most instances such placement of a student would not be viewed as a permanent position, but rather as a stepping stone to additional education and/or employment. 9. The Board should design and initiate a pre-vocational orientation program state-wide in the elementary schools. This should begin with curriculum workshops to identify what is now being done, and to reach agreement on what should be done. Rationale: This is closely related to Recommendation Number 5 and the rationale therefor. Curriculum committees need be designated and given the opportunity to identify course elements which contribute to vocational orientation, and to plan additional offerings. Programs underway in such states as North Carolina and Ohio merit observation. 10. The Board should initiate cooperative action among the Board, local districts, and other state agencies to identify prospective employment opportunities for youth of Kansas. Rationale: Vocational training has an inherent obligation to train for employment needs and opportunities which will be existent when the student is ready to seek employment, and course content (at the upper levels) should give due consideration to such opportunities. Obviously, such consideration is impossible without current knowledge of the opportunities. The importance of statewide manpower planning and cooperative effort with the Employment Service is a must in improving vocational education. There is need for a forecasting system to achieve greater relevance between vocational offerings and employment opportunities. Eventually, state reimbursement might provide an incentive for certain types of training. 11. The Board should design and implement a plan for systematic follow-up of every student leaving a secondary school in the state (whether by graduation or otherwise) including the identification of why each student leaves and where he went. Rationale: One means of determining what student needs are not being met by existing course offerings at various levels is to observe what happens to students who leave the schools. Responses of persons in the sixteen Kansas school districts involved in this study reflect a dearth of information of this type. There is need for a systematic and comprehensive statewide follow-up-which most logically should be designed. implemented and coordinated under the leadership of the Kansas State Board of Education. The National Center for Research and Training in Vocational Education at the Ohio State University has developed a computerized approach which merits attention for this purpose. 12. The Board should design and implement a program for more effective utilization of advisory groups at the state and local levels. Rationale: Although there are many examples of excellent utilization of advisory groups in Kansas, there is evident need for improvement. Possibly the State Advisory Council might assume a leadership role in working with local advisory groups. There is need for additional clarity in definition of responsibilities (state and local levels). designation of State Department of Education staff or local school staff with specific liaison responsibilities with state or local advisory committees respectively, more adequate dissemination of minutes, and clearly defined policies and procedures for responding to, acting upon. and reporting action. 13. The Board should initiate action to periodically confer with employers (through appropriate advisory bodies), to ascertain skills. competencies and knowledge required for job entry and progression. Rationale: This recommendation is related to the preceding one. It is also related to the "cluster" approach and the philosophy of providing training which will give the student the widest possible choice in entering the job market. Information gleaned from the periodic |