Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

The NWABSD Magnet School Consortium

Concerns and Curricular Philosophy

NWABSD Core Curriculum

Approved Career Pathways

Future Recommendations

References

Addendum I: UAF Course Syllabus Requirements

Addendum II: Programs of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: Culinary Arts Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: OE in Medical Coding Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: Certificate in Medical Assistant Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: OE Certified Nursing Assistant & Pre-Nursing (RN) Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: AAS in Dental Assistant Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: OE in Healthcare Reimbursement Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: Millwrighting Trades Program of Study (Vocational Certification)

CTE Program of Study Name: OE in Entry-Level Welding Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: AAS in Process Technology Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: Bachelors of Education Program of Study

CTE Program of Study Name: Certificate in Parapro Education Program of Study

Acknowledgements

Thanks for the Northwest Arctic Borough School District for inviting the UAF Chukchi campus to participate in the planning and development of the Magnet School. A special thanks is also deserved by Lesa Rohrer and Jon Wehde from the Northwest Arctic Borough for their help and assistance informing this report. Lesa Rohrer deserves special recognition due to her participation in a week-long workshop to help identify, formulate, and document programs of study within the chosen career pathways of Education, Culinary Arts & Hospitality, Process Technology, and Health. Cindy Lincoln also assisted in the Healthcare planning and deserves recognition for her effort and support. Thanks, too, to the Director of the Alaska Technical Center, Cheryl Edenshaw, for her work in establishing the Star of the Northwest Magnet School.

About the Author

Dr. E. Robert Mackey Completed a Ph.D in Public Policy & Leadership from the University of Arkansas’ J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences in 2008. With an emphasis in Higher Education Policy, Dr. Mackey has supplemented his education since 2008 with over 40 graduate hours of school counseling and curriculum design coursework through the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a certified Alaska Social Studies teacher.

Having relocated to Alaska in 2007, Dr. Mackey has worked for the UAF Chukchi Campus since 2009 and for UAF since 2007. A member of the Alaska Association of Career & Technical Education (AACTE), Dr. Mackey primarily works as the “Village Access Coordinator” for the UAF Chukchi campus.

Education

Ph.D.in Higher Education Public Policy & Leadership, 2008, University of Arkansas

Masters in Public Administration, 1999, University of Arkansas – Little Rock

Bachelors of Science in Education, 1997, Southern Arkansas University

Bachelors of General Studies, 1995, Arkansas State University

Introduction

For many, Tech-Prep education is a new concept. However, the idea is not hard to understand. Tech-prep is a Formula Grant program sponsored by the United States Department of Education through the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990. Tech Prep is an industry and education partnership aimed at strengthening links between secondary and post-secondary institutions and creating a highly skilled workforce technically skilled to immediately enter the workforce or pursue appropriate lifelong learning to reach their personal and professional aspirations (Francis Tuttle Vo-tech Center, and United States Department of Education, To reach this goal, Tech-prep has seven required elements:

  1. an articulation agreement between secondary and postsecondary consortium participants;
  2. a 2+2 , 3+2 or a 4+2 design with a common core of proficiency in math, science, communication, and technology;
  3. a specifically developed Tech Prep curriculum;
  4. joint in-service training of secondary and postsecondary teachers to implement the Tech Prep curriculum effectively;
  5. training of counselors to recruit students and to ensure program completion and appropriate employment;
  6. equal access of special populations to the full range of Tech Prep programs;
  7. preparatory services such as recruitment, career and personal counseling, and occupational assessment (United States Department of Education,

In addition to the required elements, it is also important to recognize the priorities placed upon Tech-Prep programs. Federal funding tends to give priority consideration to Tech-Prep programs that:

  1. offer effective employment placement,
  2. allow students to transfer to 4-year baccalaureate programs,
  3. are developed in consultation with business, industry, labor unions, and institutions of higher education that award baccalaureate degrees, and
  4. address dropout prevention and re-entry and the needs of special populations (United States Department of Education,

Therefore, to maximize federal support and build sustainable start-up, it is important to recognize, design, and implement a program that embraces the required and prioritized elements of the US Department of Education’s tech Prep vision.

The NWABSD Magnet School Consortium

While the Northwest Arctic Borough School District (NWABSD) is leading this effort, they are not venturing into the Tech-Prep effort alone. It is important to recognize that the NWABSD Star of the Northwest Magnet School effort includes an emerging group of stakeholders that contribute to the vision, planning, implementation, evaluation, and incremental reforms necessary for the Magnet School and Tech-Prep to succeed. Immediate educational stakeholders include the NWABSD, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Chukchi Campus (hereafter referred to as “Chukchi”), and the Alaska Technical Center (ATC). Industry and governmental support include Tech-Comico Red Dog Mine (hereafter referred to as “Red Dog”), NANA Inupiaq Regional Corporation, Maniilaq Health Corporation, the Northwest Arctic Borough, and the Alaska Department of Labor Alaska.

Each stakeholder brings important resources to the Magnet School and Tech Prep-Effort. For example, the Alaska Department of Labor granted a Workforce Labor Board Grant as planning and institution-building support. The Chukchi Campus has provided staff support and planning assistance for curriculum design and has pledged implementation support for the Tech-Prep and Magnet School efforts. Alaska Technical Center (the post-secondary institution within the NWABSD) has received $14 million in funding from the Alaska Legislature to add onto and remodel the ATC in order to bring the Star of the Northwest Magnet School to reality. Secondary students who are enrolled in the Star of the Northwest will take some of their classes in the ATC, Kotzebue High School and Chukchi College. Post Secondary students in the program will also have classes in each of the three schools. The first faculty member hired specifically for the Star of the Northwest in the Health Program is Cindy Lincoln.

Industrial and governmental partners also provide critical resources needed for planning and implementation. For example, Red Dog Mine contributed over $1 million in direct support of the NWABSD in FY 12. Red Dog is also critical in assessing the demand for and garnishing the support necessary for the Process Technology Career pathway. The Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly required by State Law contributes a portion of Borough funding towards NWABSD operations. NANA is a critical player that advocated the need for a Culinary Arts and Hospitality track for their businesses. Likewise, Maniilaq is a key stakeholder responsible for advocating for and supporting the health career tacks in the Magnet School and tech-prep efforts.

In addition to these stakeholders, the Star of the Northwest Magnet School anticipates other partners to emerge through this process as we complete implementation. As stakeholders join, we anticipate the opportunity to grow career pathways as demand warrants.

Concerns and Curricular Philosophy

Relative to most other schools and school districts implementing a Tech-Prep model, the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, the UAF Chukchi Campus, and the Alaska Technical Center are very small institutions. As a result, a significant economy of scale exists that must be overcome. Of the economies of scale challenges, the most significant is the lack of educators and administrators available to administrate this program. For example, the UAF Chukchi Campus only has three academic support personnel for all campus functions (advising, registration, financial aid, course planning and preparation, student services, graduation, marketing, etc…). Similarly, the NWABSD has fewer than 10 teachers at the secondary level. This lack of personnel limits the diversity of classes that can be offered within the budgetary realities of the NWABSD. However, these challenges are not impossible to overcome.

Realizing the challenges faced by a lack of education personnel, the planning focused on developing career pathways within the following bounds:

  1. Courses must overlap between different pathways to maximize teacher resources,
  2. Courses must be “Tech Prep” through UAF Chukchi as much as possible to limit per-student costs to the NWABSD,
  3. Tech-Prepped Courses must be “off the shelf” approved UAF courses for approved degrees of study that maximize the opportunity for credits to transfer into and apply towards a UAF degree,
  4. ATC and UAF Chukchi must collaborate and share resources to maximize the effective resources each possess within their separate organizations.

The overlapping of courses is the largest priority going forward due to the trend of declining resources facing secondary and post-secondary education. Having to “do more with less” is an uncomfortable but real challenge that must be overcome. Therefore, it is important to minimize the need for new staff to teach and administrate new programs and offerings. In order to maximize resources, Lesa Rohrer (NWABSD) and Dr. E. Robert Mackey (UAF Chukchi) spent a week of intensive planning to identify courses that were needed for most or all pathways. These classes needed for most pathways include:

  1. All High School Core Curriculum Courses,
  2. Introduction to Career Pathways,
  3. Computer Business Applications (CIOS F150),
  4. Advanced Job readiness (ABUS 183),
  5. Intro to Psychology (PSY F101),and
  6. Child Development (PSY F245).

The Northwest Arctic Borough School District has two options to fund classes for college credit. Depending on the number of students and availability of educational personnel, Option 1 is the traditional route where UAF Chukchi hires teaching personnel and the school district, student, and/or funding agency pays the tuition (currently $151/credit hour). Option 2 requires that the school district or a third-party hire the instructor. UAF would then only have to approve the teacher for UAF Credit. Using this route, the school district, student, or funding agency would only be responsible for $25 per credit hour. Potentially, there is also an Option 3 that is a hybrid and would involve UAF Chukchi hiring the adjunct, but with NWABSD reimbursing the cost of the adjunct.

Used strategically, Option 2 could save all stakeholders financial resources, build headcount, and minimize disincentives to participate related to financial cost. For example, Cindy Lincoln already works for ATC and the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. Therefore, students taking her class only incur a cost of $25 per credit hour. We could duplicate this model for several other classes, including all Process Technology Classes, Culinary Classes, Welding Classes, Millwrighting Classes, most Healthcare Classes, Introduction to Teaching, Intro to Health Careers, and many more. However, there are particular requirements that must be achieved before this option can be used:

  1. All NWABSD instructors must be approved to teach the class for credit by UAF prior to the class starting. This process usually takes 3-4 months and requires:
  2. A current typed resume with all job experience and education related to courses clearly stated (I recommend a “Highlight” section for each approval application for each course/
  3. Official Transcripts and certifications from all training related to position.
  4. A course syllabus complaint with requirements listed in Addendum I. When needed, UAF Chukchi Staff can provide past approved examples for courses from which instructors can develop their own syllabi.
  5. UAF must set-up classes prior to set-up classes prior to start date. However, instructors must be approved by UAF before classes are able to be set-up. Therefore, step #1 is critical.
  6. All students must register for the class prior to the start of the class.
  7. Students must have enough time to apply for funding (if necessary) for Tech-prep offerings. Note: High School students are not eligible for federal postsecondary financial aid (Pell grants, Student Loans, etc…).
  8. All approved adjuncts must complete required UAF safety and risk management training (OSHA Mandated) prior to teaching any classes.

Similarly, Option 3 (Sponsored Course) could also save NWABSD considerable money in specific circumstances.In this option, a NWABSD teacher could be approved as a UAF Adjunct but paid as a regular teacher by NWABSD. However, instead of registering students under the $25 per credit hour Tech Prep fee, UAF could register students under the $45 Sponsored Course Fee.The advantage of this arrangement, if approved by UAF Administration, is that the cost per student for NWABSD could be less than $25 per credit hour for 3-hour courses. Even though these students may be enrolled in 3 or 4 different sections of the same class with NWABSD, there is the potential for NWABSD to report grates and enrollment for a single UAF section of a sponsored course. For example, if a NWABSD was approved to teach 4 sections of Advanced Job Readiness (ABUS 183 - a 3 credit course) and each class had 25 students, the total cost to the NWABSD would be $7500. However, if UAF is able to set-up the instructor as a single section on the UAF side, there is an opportunity for this class to cost a flat $4500 for all 100 students. The difference between creating a class under the Sponsored Course arrangement rather than the Tech-Prep arrangementwould save the NWABSD $3000 in student registration fees. However, at the present time it is still unclear if this will be permissible by UAF and the UA System. If approved, this is a win-win for UAF Chukchi who gets additional headcount and for NWABSD who is provided the same opportunity for a lesser cost.

NWABSD Core Curriculum

Although there are four career pathways and many more courses of study, there is also a standard Curriculum that has been designed into each course of study. These courses, required for all students and compliant with Alaska State law, are:

Table 1: NWABSD Core Curriculum

Grade / Core 1 / Core 2 / Core 3 / Core 4 / Core 5 / Core 6
9th / English I / Inupiaq* & Geography* / Physical Earth Science & Lab / Math / Physical Education / Intro to Career Pathways* & Health*
10th / English II / US History / Biology / Math / Physical Education* & Family Living*
11th / English III / Government* & Alaska History*
12th / English IV

*= 1 Semester Class Offering

Approved Career Pathways

This program has four current career pathways. These include:

  1. Culinary Arts & Hospitality,
  2. Education,
  3. Healthcare, and
  4. Process technology.

While there are no current plans to add more programs, the possibility exists if these pathways show success and demand is recognized for additional pathways.

These pathways were identified by the Northwest Arctic Borough as high-need area for this region and its partners. For example, NANA Regional Corporation needs Culinary Arts & Hospitality trained personnel for their hotel and work camp management operations. The Northwest Arctic Borough School District, Maniilaq Corporation, and all of Alaska need more certified native Alaskan teachers and educators. Maniilaq Corporation also needs a high number of medical personnel in all fields to staff their Hospital in Kotzebue and village clinics. Finally, Process technology is a statewide need for the oil & gas industry, community water treatment, and mining applications. Specific to the Northwest Arctic Borough, Red Dog Mine, Shell Oil, and Nova Gold corporations have a high need for these professionals to staff current and future planned resource development extraction and processing.

Future Recommendations

  1. Due to summer closures at UAF Chukchi and NWABSD, articulation agreements between NWABSD and UAF Chukchi must be completed by May 31, 2012 for each class being Tech-Prepped.
  2. NWABSD should incorporate a process for incorporating UAF Chukchi Adjunct Approval processes into the new-hire process of the NWABSD. For example, when hiring a new English teacher, obtain permission to share resume and transcripts with UAF Chukchi to initiate instructor approval early.
  3. UAF Chukchi should obtain electronic (word format) course syllabus examples for all proposed tech-prep offerings and share them with NWABSD HR and Tech-Prep administrators so syllabi can be developed quickly.
  4. NWABSD and UAF Chukchi should aim to complete standard shared syllabi for Tech-prep courses do not have to be “re-invented” each time a new instructor is assigned.
  5. NWABSD should seek partnerships with Aqqualuk Trust and Maniilaq Corporation for Tech-Prep credit funding for students.
  6. UAF Chukchi needs to investigate the potential for “Option 3” means of paying for Tech-Prep courses (UAF Chukchi Hires the FT Teacher as an Adjunct and NWABSD Reimburses the cost for a single UAF Section to be delivered through NWABSD) as discussed in the “Concerns and Curricular Philosophy” section of this report.
  7. UAF Chukchi should create an “Adjunct Interest Session” where potential adjuncts can be lead through the UAF Chukchi application process and receive appropriate assistance to create syllabi, request transcripts for UAF, and revise resumes to efficiently maximize the opportunity for approval to teach UAF Courses.
  8. UAF Chukchi should create a 1-day adjunct orientation program where adjuncts can complete required training, complete any required paperwork, and answer adjunct questions.

Other recommendations are sure to emerge as the project progresses.