There are more than 60 career technical education (CTE) offerings across Washtenaw County, but not one student in the county has access to all of them. That could change, though, as school officials across the county explore ways to consolidate CTE offerings.
The Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) recently received a $5 million
Section 12c Consolidation grant from the Michigan Department of Education to explore consolidation of CTE offerings, from automotive to construction to culinary programs that are currently managed by a variety of players. Local leaders of CTE programs are excited about the concept but realistic about the challenges.
Sharpening the focus on CTE programs in Michigan
Ryan Rowe, WISD's director of CTE, says there are "essentially four consortiums" overseeing CTE programs right now. Those are the
South & West Washtenaw Consortium (SWWC) serving Chelsea, Dexter, Lincoln, Manchester, Milan, and Saline school districts; Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS); Ypsilanti Community Schools (YCS); and Whitmore Lake Public Schools.
Kara Stemmer, director of the SWWC, says the state of Michigan has recently sharpened its focus and financial support for CTE programs, leading county leaders to discuss consolidation.
Rowe says the $5 million grant will be used in three main areas: creating three county-wide positions for coordinating CTE programs; developing pathways between local schools and hot industries like aviation, tourism management, or electric vehicles; and marketing and branding.
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Doug CoombeAnn Arbor Student Building Industry Program students working on a house on Sedgewood Lane in Ann Arbor.
Thomas Pachera, director of CTE programs for AAPS, says his district has been focused on project-based learning around science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for some time, and CTE programs are right in line with that philosophy. He says AAPS' construction program, in which students build an entire house, is "one of the best programs in the state."
"If you ask anybody in the homebuilding world, they're trying to model their program after Ann Arbor's," he says.
Another benefit of broadening access to CTE programs is that students leave high school with a credential that can then be "stacked" with other credentials or degrees after they leave high school, if they wish.
"They're walking away from a state-approved CTE class that will offer a credential to students. That sets them apart from their peers and gives them a competitive advantage," Stemmer says.
Benefits and challenges of consolidation
Rowe and others who are looking into CTE consolidation say it's a matter of equity. WISD partnered with the Youth Policy Lab at the University of Michigan to commission a report, released earlier this year, called "
Inequities in CTE Access in Washtenaw County."
The report found that all students in Washtenaw County had access to fewer of these programs than the average across the state. Additionally, children of color and economically disadvantaged students in the county have less overall access to CTE programming than their peers.
"The east side of the county, in particular Ypsilanti, has really shrunk over time with its state-approved CTE offerings," Rowe says. "That was the impetus to explore the inequities and lack of access."
Equity was the spur, but consolidation is likely to promote more cross-pollination of programs as well. For instance, Pachera says AAPS has a "very robust auto tech program" that's overflowing with students.
"But we don't have a collision program," Pachera says. "Ypsilanti High School has a collision program, though, so if CTE was county-wide, we could send a few of our students [who are] more interested in collision over there."
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Doug CoombeAnn Arbor Student Building Industry Program students working on a house on Sedgewood Lane in Ann Arbor.
Pachera says the districts already cooperate. AAPS and YCS CTE students once rehabbed and sold an old Ford Bronco, with Ann Arbor students working on the electronics and sending the car to Ypsi for the final paint job. However, having more consolidated CTE programs would help those crossovers happen more easily and frequently.
Educational leaders agree that, while consolidating CTE programs is an important goal, there will be big challenges to consolidation as well, from transportation to salaries.
"Ultimately, the goal is that we want every student in Washtenaw County to approach graduation from high school with an informed post-secondary plan," Rowe says. "We simply can't spend 13 years with a student and have them graduate and say they don't know what they're going to do. We've got an aging workforce, and we need every student to be a contributing member of society."
With so many districts and consortiums in play, how would a consolidated schedule work? Would all CTE programs take place in the afternoon? How would students get back and forth from CTE locations to their home schools? How could Washtenaw County attract high-quality CTE teachers, and afford to pay them enough to stick around? Those are some of the big issues school districts and county officials must tackle.
Stemmer says the way CTE programs are currently run is already "a big ask" for students and families, who are trying to get in their state-required credits and then adding in a two-hour block of home building, for instance. And all the districts in the county will have to agree on what hours CTE programs are held and adjust hours for other curriculum in some cases.
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Doug CoombeAAPS lead homebuilding teacher Mark Valchine.
Mark Valchine runs AAPS's wildly popular homebuilding CTE programs. He says hiring good instructors and finding the money to pay them is also likely to be "a big roadblock." He says the best instructors could likely command a lot more money in industry rather than in teaching, and it might be hard to lure them away for CTE jobs.
Pachera says that's likely going to be a problem for the SWWC's cosmetology program as well. A new consortium might have to find a way to work life and industry experience into the rubric for pay scales, or else it wouldn't be able to offer an attractive salary.
Pachera says he thinks that, consolidation or no, county CTE programs should utilize Washtenaw Community College more than they currently do.
"I don't have the space or the money to build a lab. And why duplicate a half-million-dollar auto collision lab when we already have one of the best at WCC?" Pachera says.
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Doug CoombeMark Valchine with Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program students.
If students are being moved to other locations for CTE offerings, transportation will obviously be a big issue. But the related big headache is scheduling, Stemmer says.
"You can't duplicate million-dollar labs because of funding, so how can we create programs everyone has access to?" she asks.
It will require a lot of looking at calendars, making scheduling changes, and "getting everyone on the same page," she says.
"It can happen, and it will, but it will take a lot of people to understand the logistics of it," Stemmer says. "Where there's a will, there's a way."
Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.
All photos by Doug Coombe.