Techniques October 2012 - 48

Feature

LE3AD Academy Builds Professionalism in Vocational Students
By Candace Hall

P

The LE3AD model encourages students to tackle problems in teams with guidance from teachers… “The goal is to get them ready to go out in the workforce or to go on to college and be successful in whatever skills they’re learning,” said Pam Foster, a LE3AD teacher.

rincipal David Wheeler had an epiphany about two years ago, and it came from of all places, an emergency room. Just a few years into his new job at Southeastern Regional Vocational-Technical High School, in South Easton, Massachusetts, he took his mother to a local hospital and could not believe the attention she received. All the medical specialists seemed to swoop in and work flawlessly together. It was almost as if they were working as one person, anticipating each other’s steps. “It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, and it got me to thinking if I could get teachers to do that,” he said.

rest of the school to be called Innovation Academy or LE3AD—a combination of five majors, which would include legal and protective services, computer technology, environmental engineering, electronics and architectural drafting.

Getting Started
The program started in the spring of 2011, and it is innovative in many ways. The students’ main project was to build a town from scratch by forming a town government, designing roads and infrastructure, providing the necessary services, adopting laws, and attracting and approving businesses. The students also participated in town meetings that are modeled after the traditional version still practiced in most New England towns. One dilemma they faced was how to make all the components of the program work and still teach the specific vocational skills necessary to graduate from a technical high school. Wheeler realized it was possible due to new technology and integrated learning. Students can learn faster using the Internet, videos and online learning. Vocational high schools have also lessened the number of hours needed for vocational time in a program from 2,000 to 1,500 before graduation. Extra time not spent learning the rote skills of a vocational major are then put toward problem solving. The LE3AD model encourages students to tackle problems in teams with guidance from teachers. “The academy
www.acteonline.org

An Idea Is Born
Though he quickly criticized his own reaction, fearing he was thinking too much like a technocrat, in the end he decided to follow his heart. He called together his faculty of 160 teachers and told them about his mother’s experience at the hospital. He then challenged them to find a way to work together during the students’ vocational hours—a period when students and teachers work in their separate shops. What resulted was vastly different than what he had expected. Instead of attracting teachers from the same vocational cluster—such as construction, plumbing and electricity—he had teachers from across-the-board sectors volunteer. They proposed that they combine their shops into one program separate from the

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Techniques October 2012

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