Southeast Texas P-16 Council

The Kids Kollege committee set some firm deadlines this week to assure the Dec. 4 student event happens.

The committee also setup fiveworking committees

• Enrollment Chair – Karen Newton
• Partner Enlistment Chair – Todd A. Senters
• Curriculum and Enrichment Chair – Bertie Standley
• Publicity Chair – Kim McMurray
• Logistics and facilities Chair – Brenda Mott

Kids Kollege is project of the Southeast Texas P-16 Council and many partners. The project gives 7th and 8th grade students experiential exposure to careers in the Golden Triangle.

The first one-day session is set for Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010 at Lamar University and Lamar Institute of Technology. Exact times have yet to be decided.

Kids Kollege is designed to give students an appreciation of careers by hands on demonstrations and activities the day of the event as well has enrichment activities in the classroom for two weeks before the event. The program aims to

• Show a connection between the core curriculum (reading, writing, math, science) that students learn in school and how it is necessary for the career.
• Show students that career preparation is necessary to get good jobs. We aim to push hard the idea that post-secondary education (College,University, Military training, Union Apprenticeship etc) is vital to landing a job that will provide a good quality of life. The careers they will experience at Kids Kollege require study after high school.
• Introduce children to the college campus. We hope to make them feel comfortable in a college setting.
• Show them that the decision they make in the 7th and 8th grade as to what courses they take, and how hard they study, make a big impact on their future. Those decisions impact how prepared they will be for college and a career.

The committees will now begin work on lining up business experts to present the career classes.  It is also working to get school committee to the project and bring in other non-profit agencies that support education.

Initial support for thee program is from a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

For more information, check back with our web site frequently.  Email us at sbuser@setxP16.org or call the Southeast Texas P-16 Council at 409-880-7639

The Achieve Texas in Action Best Practices Guide has been released.  (Click here to download –7 megabytes).

The guide collects some of the best of what Texas educators are doing to implement AchieveTexas, the state’s college and career initiative. This booklet is organized around the eight steps featured in the AchieveTexas Implementation Guide. Using a color-coded map, readers can find specific examples of Texas school districts that have implemented the eight steps.

The goal of the booklet is to provide educators and other AchieveTexas  stakeholders around the state with step-specific, real-world examples of what their colleagues are doing to fulfill each step by featuring perspectives from students, counselors, and community partners.

The core of AchieveTexas is the 16 career clusters (see back cover) that are divided into 122 programs of study. The programs of study provide a model of the courses and extended learning opportunities that secondary students should experience in order to prepare for more education or employment in a specific career. This guide is designed to spread the word about what schools are doing in implementing AchieveTexas, so that these best practices can spread across the state.

Suzanne Haley, Health Science Technology Teacher at Vidor High School is featured on Page 38 of the manual.  The article features the collaborative the Vidor High has with Oak Manor nursing home.

“The facility welcomes dozens of high school seniors throughout the school to assist in residents’ daily care. Such activities include everything from helping seniors get up and down out of chairs to assisting them when they brush their teeth. The program has been a part of the VHS Career and Technical Education (CTE) program for 16 years and was a natural fit for the school’s AchieveTexas initiative,” the article  points out.