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Steve Hoskins, Superintendent of Ballard County Schoools,
commented on the numerous opportunities STW funding has provided their students
and teachers. He indicated that it had increased student awareness of the
number of careers available. Shadowing and mentoring activities have permitted
students to learn how academic skills are applied to careers. School-based
enterprises have provided settings to learn important marketing, sales,
and business decision-making skills. Teacher fellowships have allowed teachers
to learn how the subject matter is applied in the real world. He said, "teachers
who get involved in STW activities come back excited and their students
get excited when they can demonstrate practical applications of the subject
matter." As teachers are held to more strict accountability for
instruction in the fourteen career clusters, the interest in a support system
(School-To-Work) continues to expand.
Ballard County personnel believe that STW has enhanced
the teaching in all subject areas when teachers have been able to show students
that academic skills do have a purpose for application in the workplace.
Students have learned that they must focus on basic and advanced classes
in specific subject areas in order to pursue certain careers. "It
gets freshmen to start thinking about what prerequisite courses they are
going to need for a foundation in a particular area," he said.
Classes that may have been "boooring" to the students become more
stimulating as they see the relevance outside the classroom.
Also, specific grants have developed teaching guides for
high school students that introduce and expose students to high skills/high
wage opportunities upon completion of a two-year certification program at
West Kentucky Technical College.
Another program enhancement in Ballard is the introduction
of Arts and Humanities in career planning, designed to help guide those
students who have an interest in the arts as a career.
Vocational studies are a component of the Practical Living
Test, and gains in student achievement have been noted in Practical Living
scores at Ballard County Elementary. School personnel believe "The
Fifth Dimension Mall" plus other STW activities in the upper elementary
grades are factors in the rise in scores.
Responding to what he envisions for the future of STW,
Mr. Hoskins would like to see career awareness expanded at all levels, as
well as teacher fellowships. "This kind of exposure to see the transfer
of skills from school to the workplace is invaluable," he said.
In addition, he would like to see more integration of vocational training
and academics, specifically employability skills those skills which
employers say are just as important as academic and technical skills, such
as work ethics.
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