Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Chance to Contribute

Most of us have been guilty at one time or another of saying “they should …” Of course you may have a long wait if you are waiting for “they” to fix everything. My father used to encourage me to “be part of the solution, not part of the problem.” Usually I heard this if he felt I was engaged in compounding the problem rather than solving it. How many times have you wished your students were better prepared in basic subjects like Math 
or English? Well now you have a chance to do something about it.


The National Assessment Governing Board, part of the U.S. Department of Education, is conducting research that will allow the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—known as “the Nation’s Report Card”—to report on the academic preparation required of 12th graders to enter various job-training programs after they graduate from high school. As part of this effort, WestEd, an education-focused nonprofit organization, is conducting a study that will determine what academic knowledge and skills are required for students to be placed in job-training programs such as yours. For more information about this project, you may find the Governing Board’s press release at http://nagb.org/newsroom/release/release-100810preparedness.htm . For more information about the Nation’s Report Card, please visit the Governing Board’s website: http://www.nagb.org .

I am encouraged that someone in the U.S. Department of Education is interested in the trades, specifically the HVACR trade. Maybe they are finding out what we already know – teaching people to work is the real economic stimulus the country needs. If you would like to be part of the solution, contact
Dr. Jennae Bulat at naep-jss@wested.org to learn more about the study. The study will take place during a 4-day workshop to be held June 28–July1, 2011, in St. Louis, Missouri. I cannot go because I will be in Alabama at the Alabama Council of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Educators meeting, but I thought I could at least recruit a few of my friends. They can’t use all of us, but I would love for them to have so many well qualified HVACR educators from all over the country that they have a hard time deciding who to invite. I know that we are all ready to be part of the solution. 

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