ALBANY, N.Y. - One of the richest scholarships in North America for high-school students isn’t for physics or calculus, but for starting a dead sedan.
The National Automotive Technology Competition sponsored by automakers and tool companies recently offered $3 million in prizes. It’s one of the ways industries encourage vocational education at a time when states and the nation are emphasizing math, languages and sciences.
As academic standards rise, some fear a decline in the vocational education that for decades has produced the nation’s entry-level craftsmen.
Matt Bushnell and Todd Clark, both from Albany suburbs, beat nearly 40 teams from as far away as Los Angeles and Toronto in the two-day competition in New York City. The test was to find as many “bugs” as they could in a modern car with 36 or more onboard computers — more than the Apollo lunar module.
They walked away with full scholarships to two-year automotive colleges and new cars upon graduation. The prize also included $35,000 in tools and equipment and a 2004 Toyota Camry to work on in class for their school, the Capital Region Career & Technical School.
Preliminary studies suggest fewer students are majoring in vocational education as states and the federal No Child Left Behind Act demand better performance in core academic subjects, said James Stone III, director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota.
“What I worry about is how we are turning a lot of kids off,” Mr. Stone said. “The impact is if you tell a principal or a school district or a state, ’Your funding is contingent on how many students show up every day and pass a test,’ that’s what you pay attention to.”
He said the center is studying how to better integrate core lessons in math, science and languages into vocational education. New York, Massachusetts and Michigan are leading such efforts, he said.
Vocational-education students increasingly have to pass college-preparatory math, science and language standardized tests required for all students, plus standardized tests in their vocations.
“In a very odd juxtaposition of education policy, we are now requiring an even higher standard for graduation for youngsters who go to a vocational school,” said Steven Sanders, chairman of the New York Assembly’s Education Committee. “I am told by people in vocational-technical schools that it is really discouraging youngsters from attending these schools, and in some cases, that means students drop out.”
In Washington and deficit-riddled statehouses, some education aid long reserved for vocational studies is being shifted to core academic instruction. The Association for Career and Technical Education based in Alexandria is lobbying against cuts in aid for vocational education under the No Child Left Behind Act.
“When we try to establish a one-size-fits-all approach, it invariably results in neglecting a whole cohort of students who were very well-served and society was very well-served by,” Mr. Sanders said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.