Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education

PROGRAM EVALUATION PROFILE

*Refer to Specific Recommendations for Improvement

Standard
Met

PROGRAM EVALUATION SUMMARY

The overall goal of this individualized, open-entry/open-exit program is to prepare students for careers in interactive media and Web design, which involves creating, designing, and producing digital media products and services used in businesses, training, education, entertainment, communications, and marketing. Currently, the instructor serves 27 students (20 adult students and 7 high school students).

The program's competencies are currently identified through Brainbench, Adboe, and ODCTE certification tests. The expectations are comprehensive and well defined for studnets to succeed in an individualized, competncy-based environmnet that is conducive to learning and sutdent participation.

Opportuniites to develop and apply leadership, social, civic, and business-related skills are provided through Business Professionals of America (BPA), the CareerTech student organization for high school and adult business and information technology education (BITE) students.

The facilities available to the program are conducive to learning and support an individualized, competency-based delivery system. Adequate space is available for team-building activities, individualized learning, conferences with individual students, and monitored student testing. Computers are set up on a three-year rotation, which ensures students are trained using current technology. The lab is currently equipped with seven PCs and ten Macintosh comptuers, which is reflective of industry trends wihin the media industry. The instructor is to be commended on the addition of Apple computers to her training lab as a result of input from her advisory committee.

The instructor actively pursues specific training and professional development activities that will enhance her ability to provide quality training for studetns. She is currently completing her master's degree as well as participating in numerous media training opportunities, including participation in a local Apple User Group. The school administration supports this emerging training area by encouraging the instructor to pursue the training necessary for this type of program.

A cooperative agreement exists with Redlands Community College that provides the opportunity for students to recieve up to 27 college credit hours for training received. This indicates that multiple success pathways are being made available for all students by giving them mroe options upon successful completion of the program. Students can go directly to work with their newly learned skills, or they can enter college knowing they have already earned college credit towards a degree.

The school pays the student organization dues for all students, resulting in 100 percent membership. This gives all BITE studetns the opportunity to paraticipate in BPA activites. The instructor is actively involved in the development of BPA activities at the local, state, and national levels. It is admirable that Ms. McMurry has beeen the advisor of several state BPA officers, which indicates that professional development and leadership training are high priorities. The school is also to be commended for allowing her to help at the national level in writing and editing tests for national competition.

The instructor has a stong industry representation on her advisory committee and she has utilized their input effectively for developing her program. She maintains ongoing communication with members of the committee who provide her with advice and suggesitons. She actively pursues activities - professional and in the community - that will provide opportunities of her students.

A wide range of integrated projects has been implemented into the curriculum, which provides students the opportunity to apply the skills that have been learned into a "real-world" situation. Some of those projects include: State BPA Multimedia Work Team, March of Dimes video, and Ryan Meacham Foundation website.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

A more specific three-year program plan needs to be developed that is revised annually and provides strategies to address the following areas: curriculum/technolgoy updates, instructional materials, professional development, equipment and supplies acquisition, budget development, facility rnovation, advisory commititee utililization, and career and technology student organization chapter development. This plan should clearly reflect the goals of the program.

Individualized career plans of study need to be developed to help each student progress through each level of training within their chosen career pathway. This plan of study should show the student what academic course are required for high shcool graduation, the CareerTech courses neeed for completion of a career pathway, and any articulated college courses that apply to that pathway. Sample plans of study can be downloaded from the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology website at www.okcareertech.org/okcareerclusters/ or on the State's Career Cluster Initiative website at www.careerclusters.org.

It is recommended that the college credit alignment be included on the student tracking sheets in order to reinforce the opportunities available and to help students keep track of credits obtained. It would also be advisable to maintain a master document that tracks the total colelge credit hours that have been awarded to students each year in the program. This could be a valuable recruitment tool.

Projects are the primary component of the work-based experience in the classroom and are clearly a part of the student's overall grad; however, it is not well defined how that grade is determined and how it is calculated into the overall outcome. It is recommended that this be clearly identified so that students are aware of the expectations.

INSTRUCTOR RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION:

I have worked very hard re-creating Plans of Study, which I call Individualized Training Plans, or ITPs.. They include the courses, Brainbench certifications and college credit.

There are now rubrics set up for each project, and I have clearly defined the grading scale so students know how much of their grade is allocated to each area. There are three areas: Daily Grade (30%), Project Grade (40%), and Test Grade (30%). This grading scale is also explained to the parents during our finalization of enrollment.

Recent changes in the Business and Information Technology Education (BITE) curriculum due to the implementation of the nation-wide Career Clusters Initiative and the importance of arrangin curriculum into courses and career majors was discussed with the instructor. It is obvious that efforts have been made to follow the Information Technlogy cluster model as defined by the BITE division. It is suggested that the instructor continue to align curriculum within the state model to ensure that students are receiving the required competencies. Individual course syllabi need to be developed (independent of LAPs) that identify specific competencies that will be measured/tested. It is also important to include on each syllabus the local course name, ODCTE course name (if different), and any articulated college credits associated with the course.

INSTRUCTOR RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION:

All IMWT's curriculum has been aligned to the career majors provided by the state department. Individual syllabi have been created for each course

It is recommended that teachers and counselors from the various partner schools continue to be rotated on the advisory committee from year to year so that new partnerships can be fostered. Since industry representation attendance is low at advisory committee meetings,the instructor should continue to seek additional methods for advisory committee participation, such as surveys, telephone calls, electronic communication (email, blogs, Web conference), etc.