September 5, 2010
September 5, 2010
Southeast Career Technical Academy (SECTA) is a four-year comprehensive career and technical high school accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. It is located in the Clark County School District (CCSD) of Las Vegas, Nevada. The course of study at SECTA consists of career and technical instruction as well as academic classes that meet college and district requirements, which leads students to a technical certificate and a high school diploma. Students have the opportunity to choose from 18 different majors that range from horticulture/golf course management to internet website design. Because the school offers multiple career and technical programs, a variety of academic courses and student activities, the school is able to satisfy the needs of those students seeking additional choices to the regular high school curriculum.
Established in 1966, the school now has over 1,800 students in attendance. The student body reflects the demographics of the Clark County district, evenly split among white, black, Hispanic and Asian. Even with the opening of another new regional tech school with a brand new, beautiful campus, SECTA continues to draw strong applications of students due to several factors, some of which include the variety of courses of study and also school safety. Last year alone, SECTA had 2,800 applications for the ninth grade, but space constraints only allowed for 650 students to be admitted.
The CCSD has grown exponentially over the last 15 years and is now the fourth largest school district in the United States. The district has adopted a policy to create five regional career and technical academies in order to hook students in to career technical education /and/ to keep there. The administration aims to give students courses in what interests them most while sneaking in English, math and science skills. If this is done successfully, the students are prepared to pursue many different career and education options upon graduation.
Also, the CCSD does not have standardized admission requirements for each technical academy. Rather, each school currently sets its own eligibility requirements and admissions process. At SECTA, if there are more qualified applicants than seats, there is a lottery process to select from among the students that meet the minimum entrance requirements. There is not additional screening to select only the most highly achievement students. There has been some discussion about moving all of the technical academies to using a standardized admission process, but at this time, nothing more has developed.
"Southeast Career Technical Academy provides career technical and academic instruction which imparts technological, interpersonal, and entry-level job skills and enables students to meet the rigors of post-secondary education.
In order to attend SECTA, students must complete the application process. SECTA is a very competitive high school. A student application is screened and scored on the 1st semester grades, attendance, citizenship, standardized test scores, current math placement and grade.
As students apply to attend SECTA, their GPA is taken into account. Students must essentially be on grade level in 8^th grade to attend SECTA. Because of this, there are no separate college-prep courses, but rather the entire curriculum is considered high level. In order to succeed at SECTA, students must have a desire to participate in a professional career-training program. They must also have average to above average study habits to participate in the rigorous academic and occupational curriculum. This is a program for those not afraid to be challenged in all areas of education and their future goals.
Design Element on Display Success Factor 4.b. "Career awareness and exploration activities"
Freshman students begin earning the necessary academic credits required for graduation. In addition, freshmen take a half-credit pre-occupational class entitled Tools for Success and another entitled Freshman Studies.
Sophomore students continue earning necessary academic graduation credits. Sophomores take either a one-credit introduction or two semester classes in their chosen career major as indicated on their acceptance agreement.
Beginning their junior year, SECTA students participate in a two-year professional career-training program. This two-year experience prepares college bound students for their major in college or professional career options.
The day begins at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 1.27 p.m. Students attend a seven-period day. This allows students to get ahead academically for graduation and provides the time necessary for their professional career-training program. SECTA also offers an extended day of up to nine periods, for programs that require a longer school day.
SECTA offers 18 majors that include:
The success of SECTA was observed by leaders with the CCSD, who decided to plan and construct four more career technical academies in the various regions of the Las Vegas valley. In 2007, SECTA became the new name of Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center in order to promote a positive image about the career and technical learning environment that is present at the school, and to become part of the five other career technical academies in Las Vegas.
Because of the success of SECTA, a bond for around $7 million recently passed for all five technical academies. The excellent statistics for retention, academic success, and graduation rates at SECTA justified the development of the new career academies. A proposed 2010 bond for another $9 billion was taken off the table in 2008, given the economic downturn.
The legislature has mandated a four-year academic plan for every incoming 9^th grade student in Nevada. Each year, students must sit down each a counselor, review/revise the plan, and then sign-off on it. The academic plan requirement was originally supposed to be rolled out in September 2007, but has yet to be fully implemented. SECTA has had similar requirements for its students for several years now and hopes to be a role model as other schools implement this new requirement.
Back to TopDesign Element on Display Success Factor 3.b. "Rigorous Academic Preparation"
Since 2000, the school has undergone a significant transformation, strengthening academic expectations for and performance of its students, and changing its perception as a low-end vocational education school to a prestigious school of choice. Students want to attend because of the school’s reputation for safety, and also for the driven curriculum that serves students who want to learn.
School leaders and teachers have very high expectations for their students. If a student begins performing poorly, he is put on a progressive discipline program. They also sign a behavior contract that states their behavior and/or grades will improve. However, if the student continues to do poorly and/or earns three or more “Fs”, the student must go back to his home school. This is all agreed upon when the student goes through the admissions process.
Students at SECTA are given responsibility for taking care of the school. For example, if a student eats lunch and does not clear the table, the camera in the lunch room is played back to see which student was responsible for the mess. The punishment is a week-long suspension. There is also a rewards program for students who take pride in the school and work to make sure it is clean and well taken care of.
The school has been working and will continue to do so on blending the academic and technical curriculum. The school believes strongly in project-based learning so students can learn contextually and hopefully see the bigger picture. The staff development is targeted completely around project-based learning.
The school also works to give each senior an opportunity to do an internship. These internships are considered a privilege and not to be taken lightly. The dress code is mandatorily conservative and tardiness is not tolerated. If a student has multiple tardies, they will not be recommended for a job.
There are currently 300,000 students in the CCSD system. In order to maximize the work and internship opportunities available to students, the school district is looking into creating a centralized online system to “match” students with a job that aligns with their strengths and interests.
SECTA used to be thought of as a "dropout school” to which low performing students who were at risk of dropping out were advised to enroll. In order to combat this perception as the school was revamping its image and delivery model, the principal focused on advertising, mass mailing, and contact with the local schools. Local principals, facilitators and counselors were brought over to SECTA for breakfasts in order to familiarize them with the school. The faculty and staff would take the visitors on tours of the school to show the different technical and academic programs available. Through these tours, SECTA successfully transformed the perception of other area educators, showing that the school is not just for poor performing students.
In order to promote the school, the principal began hosting bus tours for middle school students within CCSD. Initially, there were only four to five bus tours each year, while in 2008, there were 23 bus tour visits. The buses are organized and paid for by the central district’s CTE office, and students come on a voluntary basis. SECTA developed guidelines for the bus tour that include a 20-30 minute presentation about the school, “ambassador” tours, and tours of different programs.
SECTA also began to host tours for middle school counselors. After several successful tours, these counselors became some of SECTA’s biggest advocates. The middle school counselors gained a clear understanding of the myriad of opportunities available at SECTA, and began urging their students to at least consider applying to the program.
SECTA has also implemented an Ambassadors Program made up of exemplary juniors and seniors from the school. SECTA Ambassadors go to middle schools to talk about the school, and also host tours for middle school and other prospective students who are considering applying to attend the school. The ambassadors work to ensure that prospective students feel welcome, knowledgeable about the school and comfortable on their first day. One especially customer-focused activity is that ambassadors are responsible for calling newly admitted students three separate times throughout the summer prior to their beginning at SECTA. This personal touch has made a tremendous difference in getting new students to attend SECTA. In fact, after surveying the student body repeatedly, the school has determined that the Ambassadors Program has been the largest motivating factor in getting students to attend SECTA.
SECTA is the only school in the area to do its own "mall fair" where teachers and students set up tables with information about the school at local shopping malls. These fairs are conducted on the weekends and are completely packed. The mall fairs is such popular event that people begin lining up to attend at 4 p.m. despite the fact the fair does not start until 6:00 p.m.
Design Element on Display Success Factor 5.b. "Collaborative, mission-focused leadership
When the school began to change its delivery model about a decade ago and started focusing on integrating academics with CTE, Principal Richard Arguello outlined a very clear path and asked his staff to help achieve it. There was an understanding that this would be a slow, systematic change – not an overnight transformation. Because of this, the faculty and staff were realistic and patient about how long the change would take place. This was not a "rush job."
School leaders have also been adamant about setting and achieving goals for each individual school year. Each goal has one or more specific objectives regarding exactly what the achievement should be. For example, in 2008, the school set a goal to increase the proficiency scores on the spring 2008 English language arts exam by 9%. These goals are then closely monitored and evaluated throughout the year. If the periodic evaluations show that appropriate progress is not being made, the school does what is necessary to help achieve the goals – whether that is through additional assistance or an improved curriculum.
The students who attend SECTA are dedicated to acquiring a quality education. SECTA continues to have one of the highest graduation rates and lowest dropout and transiency rates in the district. In 2008, the average dropout rate in CCSD was 6.0 percent. At SECTA, the dropout rate was 0.4 percent.
While SECTA’s student achievement far exceeds the average school achievement in Clark County School District, it should be noted that SECTA has been classified as a school which did not demonstrate Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) during the 2007-2008 school year. Classification as not demonstrating AYP is due to the school's not meeting one of the multiple No Child Left Behind criteria in the English language arts (ELA) subcategory for Individualized Education Program (IEP). In order for a school to demonstrate Adequate Yearly Progress, all the NCLB criteria for all subcategories must be met.
| School | District | |
| Enrollment | 1,837 | 308,554 |
| Transienecy Rate | 3.0% | 34.7% |
| Habitual Truency | 1 | 2,117 |
| Discipline - # of Incidents Resulting in Suspension/Expulsion | 33 | 7,711 |
| Average Class Size | 25 | 27 |
| Total Cost per Student | $7,132.35 | $6,913.14 |
| Graduation Rate | 90.3% | 63.0% |
| Dropout Rate | .0.4% | 6.0% |
| Free/Reduced Lunch | 682 |
Richard Arguello (Principal)
5710 Mountain Vista Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89120
Phone: (702) 799-7500 #4305
Fax (702) 799-2007
http://www.webuildfutures.net/
Last Updated, June 2009
This case study was prepared by the Meeder Consulting Group, LLC, a firm providing research, analysis and strategic advisement on promising education practices. Hans Meeder, President of the firm, was formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, visit the website: www.meederconsulting.com.
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