Techniques Jan 2013 - 44

Feature

Law & Justice CTE Program Offers a Handson Approach to Learning
By Jennifer Klein

“Behind the scenes we’re reading novels, improving organizational and study skills, and doing real-life math applications. CTE is the concrete that holds the bricks together. It gives subjects relevance and is applicable in a real-world way.” —Tom Washburn

om Washburn, founder of the Law and Justice Program in Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, sees career and technical education (CTE) as a framework for gains in reading comprehension, public speaking, math and science. “It’s a holistic approach to learning, framed by law and justice. Behind the scenes we’re reading novels, improving organizational and study skills, and doing real-life math applications. CTE is the concrete that holds the bricks together. It gives subjects relevance and is applicable in a real-world way.”

From a Seed to a Flower
The idea for a law and justice program began when Washburn was a police officer. Serving as a school resource officer in a suburban school, he was often asked to advise students on careers in the legal system, as well as asked to speak in various high school classes. He realized that a program that prepared students for careers as lawyers, police, federal agents and forensic scientists would be a viable CTE program. When his idea went before the school board, they initially declined. Washburn, who holds a doctorate in Education Leadership, transitioned to the classroom as a special education teacher, which would dramatically impact the design of the program. A few weeks into his first year of teaching he got the call that the board had decided to proceed with his proposal.

Fulton’s Law and Justice Program, started in 1997, was the first program in the country to combine law, law enforcement and forensics. “Right away other school systems took notice and began copying our model,” says Washburn. “We were the first school we know of that taught criminal forensics at the high school level. It didn’t hurt that CBS had launched the hit TV show “CSI” that same year. Suddenly, we had a waiting list of students hoping to enroll in the program.” Washburn discovered that the excitement of learning about forensics or criminal law could be used to reinforce academics. Now his training as a special education teacher began to influence how the program was implemented. “It is basically an academic bait and switch. We get their attention with the topics and use that to get them to read more or write more. Novels, magazines, whatever—I didn’t care so long as they were reading. I had a special-needs student rise four grades in reading in one year!” He began to look at how other academic subjects could be reinforced at the same time that the U.S. Department of Education began to encourage cross-curricular integration in CTE. “I was reading about this new initiative thinking, ‘Man, this is it!’ So in our next curriculum revision I was intentional to see it implemented more fully.” This drive to innovate led to the initial attention the program garnered, but
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Techniques

January 2013

Techniques Jan 2013

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