By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Hays High School saw a 42 percent increase in students taking Career Technical Education courses between the 2017-18 school year and this spring.
The student/seat time at the HHS went from 702 in 2017-18 to 998 this spring. CTE contact minutes also jumped from 30,186 in 2017-18 to 42,914 this spring.
John Linn, HHS assistant principal, presented the information to the school board at its meeting Monday night.
“It has made a dramatic increase, and I think that is going to continue to go up,” Linn said.
He said the increase is consistent with state- and nationwide trends as more emphasis is placed on connecting K-12 education with post-secondary education and careers.
State statistic indicate CTE students are more academically successful than their peers.
Ninety-nine percent of Kansas CTE high school students graduated compared to the state-wide average of 86 percent. Ninety-three percent of high school CTE graduates in Kansas enrolled in college, enlisted in the military or were working within six months.
HHS has nine Career Clusters with nine Career Pathways.
The Career Clusters include:
- Arts, A/V tech, communications
- Information technology
- Marketing
- Finance
- Agriculture, food and natural resources
- Hospitality and tourism
- Human services
- Architecture and construction
- Manufacturing
Both female and male students are utilizing the CTE Pathways, according to state and national statistics.
Linn said an emphasis by counselors and the use of Career Cruising program, which helps students explore and plan for careers, have both led to more students enrolling in Career Pathway courses. Students take an interest inventory beginning in the eighth grade as part of Career Cruising.
The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) was signed into law by President Trump on July 31. This measure reauthorizes the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides $1.3 billion annually in federal funding, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, for CTE.
The district received two Perkins grants this year including a $1,550 grant to purchase a drone for the ag program and $29,431 grant to purchase a plasma cutting system for the manufacturing program.
Just last Friday, HHS learned it received grants to purchase a multi-process welder and a large format printer for AutoCAD.
Linn said HHS’ goals include increasing student enrollment in CTE courses. However, most of HHS’ classes are full.
“We have turned kids away at younger ages,” he said. “Obviously they have opportunities as they get older, but we have to turn younger kids away, because we are full in a lot of our CTE classes.”
HHS is also seeking to add pathways in high-need areas, including teacher training, and health and bio science.
“That is one goal of mine as we progress through next school year is to find the resources that we need to add a couple more Pathways to our program,” Linn said. “That again will increase our numbers in Pathways.”
Linn said the CTE program needs more instructors. The manufacturing program is down to two instructors from three. Classroom space is available if a half- or full-time instructor could be added.
Linn also said he is working with NCK Tech and FHSU on articulation agreements to add Pathways.