Vocational education moves beyond blue collar training
It’s just before lunch at McFatter Technical Center and High School in Davie, and students in the automotive technology program are trying to figure out why a 1996 purple BMW won’t start.
“It ran when it first got here, but it’s been sitting,” said David Mendez, a 17-year-old senior, while holding a part he considers a relic: the car’s six-tape cassette player.
Mendez said his class spent two days running diagnostic tests on the donated car and now two classmates are crouched under the steering wheel checking wires with a handheld computer. The students, studying to be certified automotive technicians, don’t have all day to make the engine purr. Once the lunch bell rings, the rest of their day is filled with honors or advanced placement English, science and math classes.
Welcome to 21st century vocational education, where students are prepared for both college and blue-collar jobs while they learn white-collar technical skills.
Broward’s two technical high schools – McFatter and Atlantic Technical Center and High School in Coconut Creek — were ranked among the best high schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2009. The same year, the state tapped McFatter as a Blue Ribbon school, the highest honor a school can receive nationally.
In Palm Beach County, South Tech Academy, a charter school in Boynton Beach, offers skills ranging from marine technology to cosmetology. But while it has struggled academically, its students, many from poor homes, have broadened their career horizons.
“What we found is that a lot of the kids that weren’t considered to be college-bound students, once they get into the career academies, they get hooked and get into it,” said school president James Kidd. “They want to go on to college.”
The trend toward small learning communities began in the 1990s as a way to engage students by showing them real-world applications of textbook lessons. At technical high schools, which serve grades nine through 12, juniors pick a specialty field in place of traditional electives and graduate with both a high school diploma and a trade certificate.
Students must be accepted into the three schools and the first two years are spent solely on academics.
Technical training is also offered at Sheridan Technical Center in Hollywood, which does not offer academics, and at 44 specialty programs in traditional high schools in Broward and Palm Beach.
One thing that sets technical high schools apart is their size. In Broward, McFatter and Atlantic each have about 600 students. South Tech enrolls about 1,250 students, about half the size of a traditional high school.
While they have no football teams, cafeterias, auditoriums or homecoming games, they do have GPA requirements, proms and high graduation rates. Most students go on to college.
“It’s a very different look at education,” said Neddie Lynn, the administrator in charge of Atlantic Technical’s high school.
All three technical high schools say they typically get at least twice as many applicants as spots available. Students must have at least a 2.0 GPA and at McFatter and Atlantic must score the coveted “3″ on the FCAT reading and math tests. South Tech requires students score a “2″ on the state standardized test, where 5 is the highest.
While the curriculum has changed, attitudes have not necessarily kept up. Educators say some parents still consider today’s career-oriented programs as the “Fonzie school of vocational education.”
“People think grease monkeys working on old clunkers, but these really are brilliant, cutting-edge students,” said Kim Curry, the Broward School District’s community and business liaison for technical centers.
Educators say the real-world practical experience offered by technical schools helps students mature in ways a traditional education cannot.
Being yelled at by an optometrist for messing up a medical chart was a reality check for Noemi Bermudez, a 17-year-old senior at McFatter. You quickly realize “you’re responsible for more than just yourself,” she said.
It also helped her determine she wants to study medicine in college. “When I’m learning about eyeballs, it’s interesting to me. I get into it,” she explained.
The architectural drafting program had the opposite effect on Ian Reyes, a senior at McFatter. The detail-orientated nature of designing houses didn’t jibe with his self-described big-picture personality.
But the architectural drawing certificate he’s completing could help Reyes land a college job beyond delivering pizza or waiting tables. He can work for an architect even if he no longer wants to make that his career.
Reyes now has his sights set on being an astronaut and is waiting to hear from Columbia University in New York City and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
“Hey, the sky’s the limit, right,” he said.
