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3 Valley career centers earn A’s
Choffin, MCCTC and TCCTC get high marks in skill attainment
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
All three Mahoning Valley career-technical centers earned A’s in the Technical Skill Attainment measure on the latest Ohio school report cards.
The component measures the proportion of students passing technical assessments. They are to evaluate skills and knowledge learned in a student’s career-technical programs.
Mahoning and Trumbull county career and technical centers and Youngstown’s Choffin Career and Technical Center each earned A’s on the technical skill attainment component of the report cards.
MCCTC earned B’s for both four-and-five-year graduation rates and an A for post-program placement.
“We’re always striving to improve,” said John Zehentbauer, MCCTC assistant superintendent.
Post Program Placement measures the ratio of students who are employed, join the military, are in an apprenticeship program or are enrolled in post-secondary education or advanced training within six months of graduation.
“The two [measures] where we got A’s is where we spend a lot of our time to get students jobs and get them employed or in post-secondary training or college,” Zehentbauer said.
The four-and-five-year graduation rate covers the percentage of students who graduate within four or five years of enrolling in ninth grade.
Most career-technical centers, though, begin in 11th grade so the first two years of students’ schooling they aren’t even at the career-technical centers.
The law also allows special needs students to enroll in career-tech after four years of high school and they too are included in centers’ graduation rates.
“If students come to us, we take most students, even if they’re credit deficient,” Zehentbauer said.
A student who enrolls at MCCTC as a third-year junior, for example, would count against the center’s graduation rate.
“We’ve had conversations with the state about how to adjust for that,” he said.
But the state wants centers to get students through in five years regardless.
Besides its A in Technical Skill Attainment, Choffin earned an F in four-year graduation and a D in five-year graduation rate and a B in Post-Program Placement.
“That really to me, measures what we really do here,” said Choffin Director Joseph Meranto referring to the Technical Skill Attainment and Post Program Placement components.
He maintains, though, that Choffin’s data isn’t calculated correctly.
Besides including time before Choffin students are even enrolled there, the graduation rate calculation doesn’t include private school students who attend the center. That includes students from Cardinal Mooney and Ursuline high schools and Valley Christian Schools.
“Those are students who typically graduate in four years,” Meranto said.
Those students don’t count though because as private school students they aren’t part of the Education Management Information System, the state’s public school data collection system.
Some students come to Choffin already credit deficient, the director said.
“The things we really should be accountable for are technical skill tests and Post Program Placement,” Meranto said. “That shows that when they leave here, they’re moving on.”
TCTC earned a B for four-year and an A for five-year gradation rate and a B in Post Program Placement.
“We’re not satisfied,” said Superintendent Jason Gray. “We’re constantly striving for excellence. In some areas we use the information to help drive any future improvements.”
One of the reasons the school earned a B for four-year graduation is because of its high ratio, 30 percent, of special education students.
Some of those students take advantage of the option to enroll in career-tech after four years of high school.
“It’s what’s best for the kids so that’s a hit we’re willing to take,” Gray said.
The center is focusing on Post-Program Placement, he said.
Mary Flint, TCTC’s high school director, said center personnel are looking for more opportunities for job shadowing for students and strengthening relationships with industry.
Among the initiatives is signing day, similar to when student athletes declare their intent to enroll and play at a particular college or university.