'Embedded learning' combines academics with trade classes at Career and Technology Center

Christopher Menz knows the tools of the construction trade: hammers, nails, saws, lumber, plaster and the Pythagorean theorem.

The 16-year-old from New Hamburg, Mo., is enrolled in the construction technology program at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. For three hours, the mostly homeschooled student works with his hands and his mind, learning everything from demolition to drywalling. Menz and his classmates are remodeling an old home, and last semester they worked on a commercial building.

But all that hammering and sawing is backed up by core curriculum. He's earning a high school math credit and dual college and high school credit in communication arts. Menz writes essays and journals on construction-related topics. At the same time, he's learning how to use Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheets to create billing and pay statements. In the applied math course, Menz is getting a bit of everything.

"It hit me on my geometry. It hit me on my algebra," he said as he finished up his day in the center's shop. "It hit me on my basics of math a little bit more to get me into using them again."

It's called embedded learning, a way of incorporating core subjects into career-based courses. And it appears to be netting positive results at the Career and Technology Center.

"The wonderful thing is, when children start doing math related to their technical or career areas of interest, it becomes much more meaningful to them," said Rich Payne, director of the Career and Technology Center.

The growing educational facility, under the umbrella of the Cape Girardeau School District, this year serves 418 students from Cape Girardeau Central High School and a dozen other high schools in Southeast Missouri, as well as 57 adult students co-enrolled in the three-hour daily blocks.

Students enrolled in the center's 20-plus programs boasted a 95.7 percent graduation rate in 2010, according to a report Payne presented to the Cape Girardeau School Board this week. That's more than 10 percentage points higher than the state graduation rate, and 22 percentage points higher than Cape Girardeau School District's 73 percent graduation rate.

Completion rate of courses last school year was nearly 99 percent, and the rate of secondary placement -- students who moved onto post-secondary education, into areas of jobs related to their coursework, or joined the military -- was 94.5 percent.

"I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that students choose to come here," Payne said. "If you are focused on your area of interest you want to go into, you're more likely to persist to graduation."

Payne said some students may struggle in classes at their high schools, often because they don't see the relevance of the coursework. But when they're enrolled in career education programs, "they flourish."

Career and technology programs include everything from welding to computer networking to health care. About 15 students are enrolled in the center's aviation program, which employs flight simulator training and 15 hours of flight time.

For many, the education is practical.

Zach Urhahn, 19, is in the welding program. At the end of the course, he'll earn his welding certificate, allowing him to move into the work force.

Urhahn is learning the importance of fractions in a trade that depends on perfection. It's that kind of embedded learning that helped him move through the program's required math, something he said he wasn't particularly good at in high school.

"If I can't see where I'm going to be using it, it's hard for me to grasp on to it," he said. "In high school you hear a lot of, 'When am I ever going to use this?' Here, you learn the stuff and we go out and use it."

For all of their successes, students enrolled in career and technology aren't hitting the mark in academic attainment. About 43 percent of students were proficient in reading and language arts last year, well under the state proficiency standard of 67.4 percent. Proficiency in mathematics was just below 51 percent, compared to the state benchmark of 63 percent.

Payne said the scores are based on Missouri Assessment Program testing, much of which is completed before the juniors and seniors eligible to attend the center are engaged in career coursework. Many schools in Missouri have struggled to meet proficiency targets in core MAP areas.

Banking on the successes of embedded learning, the Cape Girardeau School District continues to expand its career and technology course offerings, Payne said.

"I think we in education are trying to focus down to the lower level, where we are working with children as young as sixth grade on career education," he said. "We're increasing the rigor of the courses in technology ed, and we're trying to bridge the gap between the academic and technology side."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Instructor Sid Gerlach helps Hunter Baker, left, and Collin Senn with a project building rafters during a construction technology class Wednesday at the Career and Technology Center in Cape Girardeau. (Kristin Eberts)

1080 S. Silver Springs Road, Cape Girardeau, MO