NEWARK – As Career and Technical Education Month commences, officials at Worcester Technical High School (WTHS) are introducing eight new programs to its curriculum next year that will be available for registration soon.
The new programs – business management, business administration services, industrial maintenance, baking and pastry, horticultural services, environmental studies/natural resources, homeland security, and geographic information systems (GIS) – will be available to students in grades 10-12 and four courses – business management, business administration services, horticultural services, and GIS – will also be available to rising freshmen.
Caroline Bloxom, WTHS principal, said planning for the new courses began two years ago and added that school officials sought the input of students, parents, teachers and principals in adding new curriculum.
“All of the programs we are adding are all Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) approved programs of study,” she said. “These programs come about through MSDE because of industry needs. A lot of stakeholders have had input.”
In addition to the new programs, Bloxom said three of the existing four-year programs only available to students entering ninth grade – pre-engineering, biomedical science and interactive media – will now be available to students entering 10th or 11th grades.
“So one of the things beyond adding new programs are we have made more entrance points,” she said. “What we learned was that society is more mobile now. So we would have students who would come into our school system in 10th or 11th grade, and they would say, ‘Wow, we would love to be in the pre-engineering program.’ The other thing, quite honestly, is that there are always students who mature after they get to high school. So they might not be thinking in the spring of their eighth-grade year, ‘I want to go into this.’ But maybe by 10th or 11th (grade), they would.”
Bloxom said those 10th or 11th-grade students who choose to enter one of the three four-year programs can now complete the course in two years by taking back-to-back classes each semester.
“Worcester Tech was able to reconfigure their schedule to allow teachers to teach more than one program,” she said. “It’s still within their certification areas.”
She added that existing WTHS instructors will be visiting school systems with the same programs and attending summer training sessions to prepare for the programs, as well as forming partnerships with businesses in respective industries.
Officials will present the new and modified programs to high school students scheduling for fall classes at WTHS in late February and early March.
Bloxom said WTHS will now have 30 programs in 10 clusters from which students can choose.
“When students participate in career and technology programs of study they not only graduate from high school prepared for post-secondary education, but also globally competitive for work and ready for life as positive, contributing members of society in the 21st century,” she said.
