RE: CAMP SUMMARY Day 9: Draft Master Plan: RESPONSE

Thanks for your even-handed and comprehensive summaries...

The key weakness of the Master Plan draft, from my viewpoint, is its abandonment of Career and Technical Education.  In our education system about 70% of students do not complete any postsecondary education program.  We should definitely work to reduce that percentage, but we cannot in clear conscience ignore it, and that is exactly what is done when "university-oriented politics" takes over the high school curriculum.  Furthermore, it is a fact that ALL students, including the college-bound, will benefit enormously from a year of Technology Education.

The University of California is, by tradition, a brain trust for the State of great importance.  We tend, properly, to respect everything that comes out of it.  We expect it to provide perspective and guidance, and make certain through its input that our education system serves ALL students.  Somewhere along the line, however, the University of California began to direct high school curriculum to serve ITS OWN interests, rather than the interests of all young people in our state.  The push for universal obeisance to the UC "A-G" requirements is not in tune with reality or the actual needs of our students or of the state.  Failure to impart basic skills in a curriculum with steadily increasing hours on academics does not point toward "more of the same" which would be mindless focus on basics at the expense of Career Technical Education, Technology Literacy, free exploration of arts and other forms of human expression, and preparation for a rewarding career with a livable wage.

Here are two excerpts from today's summary that are especially on target:

> * What's missing: ... the value of contextual learning that takes place in Career Technical Education programs, [discussion of] workforce preparation at the secondary level, concrete programs and projects, hands-on skills training, the role of volunteer-based adult education programs.
>
> * The Plan must include a way that each student regardless of college/career plans can or could be self-sufficient after high school.



Seth Bates
Professor, San Jose State University
sbates@sjsu.edu