State Board of Education Topic Summary s6

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION – TOPIC SUMMARY Topic: Math in Career and Technical Education (CTE) Date: April 16-17, 2009 Staff/Office: Colleen Mileham and Tom Thompson/Educational Improvement and Innovation Action Requested: Information only Policy Adoption Policy Adoption/Consent Calendar

ISSUE BEFORE THE BOARD: Math-in-CTE (Career and Technical Education) professional development as a model for applied academics.

POLICY QUESTION(S): 1. Does the Math-in-CTE approach begin to address the Board's desire to increase opportunities for students to learn academic content in another context?

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the presentation at the April Board meeting is to provide the Board with information on the focus of the Math-in-CTE model and how ODE has supported the development and use of this model.

The research-based Math-in-CTE model focuses on elevating the level of mathematics instruction in CTE by building partnerships between CTE and math teachers in a high school. The Math-in-CTE model was developed by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) through a study of students in CTE courses. The NRCCTE research demonstrated that over a period of one year this CTE and math teacher partnership model helped students in CTE courses improve their performance on national mathematics assessments, with only a 10% change in the CTE curriculum. In 2006 the Oregon Department of Education collaborated with Lane ESD and the NRCCTE to implement the first 10-day Math-in-CTE workshop in Oregon.

ODE continues to work with Lane ESD and the NRCCTE to expand Math-in-CTE workshops. During the summer of 2009, these workshops will be offered in five different locations around the state. Career content for the new workshops will include business, manufacturing, agriculture, automotive, health occupations, and engineering. The expansion will increase the number of trained teachers to over 150. These teachers represent approximately 25% of Oregon high schools.

Expanding the Math-in-CTE workshops will help support districts as they implement the Board decision to include options for applied academics in the new high school graduation requirements. Math-in-CTE, however, is only one professional development strategy designed to help prepare teachers to teach academic content in a CTE context. Other approaches are being developed to insure that applied academics is a relevant and rigorous option for students.