KEY PRACTICES

• High Expectations - Motivate more students to meet high expectations by integrating high expectations into classroom practices and giving students frequent feedback.
• Program of Study - Require each student to complete a plan of study with a true concentration of an approved sequence, including at least four career/technical (CT) course and an upgraded academic core, leading to better preparation for post secondary studies.
• Academic Studies - Teach more students the essential concepts of the college-preparatory curriculum by encouraging them to apply academic content and skills to real-world problems and projects with their CT studies.
• Career/Technical Studies - Provide more students access to intellectually challenging CT Studies in high-demand fields that emphasize higher-level mathematics, science, literacy and problem-solving skills needed in the workplace and in further education.
• Teachers Working Together - Provide cross-disciplinary teams of teachers the time and support to work together to help students succeed in challenging career/technical and academic studies. Integrate reading, writing and speaking as strategies for learning into all parts of the curriculum, and integrate mathematics and science into career/technical classrooms.
• Work-based Learning - Enable students and their parents to choose from programs that integrate challenging high school career/technical studies and work-based learning and are planned by educators, employers and students.
• Students Actively Engaged - Engage students in CT and academic classrooms in rigorous and challenging Proficient-level assignments using research-based strategies and technology.
• Guidance - Involve students and their parents in a guidance and advisement system that develops positive relationships and ensures completions of a CT concentration with a approved sequence of at least four courses and an accelerated program of study. Provide each student with an adult mentor who works with them throughout high school to assist with setting goals, selecting courses, reviewing the progress and pursuing appropriate interventions as necessary.
• Extra Help - Provide a structured system of extra help to assist students in completing. accelerated programs of study with high-level academic and technical content.
• Culture of Continuous Improvement - Use student assessment data, program evaluation data, technology center performance reports, program enrollment, retention and placement reports, college remediation reports, student follow-up reports and advisory committee input to continuously improve the school's culture, organization, management, curriculum and instruction to advance student learning.

KEY GOAL FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

• Increase to 85% of career/technical students meeting the TCTW reading, mathematics and science performance goals.
• Increase to 50% of career/technical students who perform at the Proficient level in reading, mathematics and science, as measured by the biennial HSTW Assessment.
• Increase the percentages of technology center graduates who complete a career/technical concentration and enter post secondary studies and/or employment within the field for which they are prepared.
• Increase to 95% of high school students who enter the technology center in grade 11 and graduate on time.
• Advance state and local policies and leadership initiatives that sustain a continuous school improvement effort.
• Work with middle grade schools to effectively use assessments to guide students in creating programs of study and completing courses that prepare them for high school and technology center courses.
• Increase annually the percentage of students leaving the technology center having earned post secondary credit or having met standards for post secondary studies, so they will avoid remedial courses.
• Work with sending high schools to increase annually the percentage of students entering technology centers prepared and qualified to earn college credit.
• Increase annually the percentage technology center high school graduates that pass an improved employers exam.

DATA AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS

2010 TCTW Data Tool (Info)

Establishing Benchmarks and Measuring Progress at TCTW Sites (Info)