Marshall County Board of Education Updated on Career Tech Programs
Emma Delk Trending
Marshall County Director of Career and Technical Education Bob Wilson detailed the progress of the Career Technical Education programs at county high schools during Tuesday's board of education meeting.
Wilson began by providing an overview of the CTE program, outlining the 18 CTE concentrations at John Marshall High School and the four CTE concentrations at Cameron High School. This year, 130 and 24 students have taken all the required courses in a CTE concentration at John Marshall and Cameron, respectively.
In the same way the general summative assessment measures students' reading and math proficiency, Wilson said the CTE program uses tests from the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute to measure CTE students' competencies in concentrations. Superintendent Shelby Haines noted that the NOCTI testing measures individual competency and different concentrations of competency as a whole group of students.
"The NOCTI tests give us an individual report and scores for groups of kids, such as the students in the welding or broadcasting programs," Haines said. "The scores help measure how prepared they are for life after school and their job readiness."
BOE members also received a rundown of the various programming hosted at John Marshall centered around CTE students. According to Haines, the school hosts a speaker series every second and fourth Tuesday of each month, during which an industry worker informs students about the ins and outs of their career.
"These 'lunch and learns' begin to teach kids about the opportunities available for them after they graduate," Haines noted.
On the third Wednesday of each month, a presenter from WVU Medicine visits John Marshall to discuss the opportunities available to CTE students in the medical field.
The upcoming "Marshall County CTE Girls in Stem Day," hosted at John Marshall High School on Oct. 8, will also engage female elementary school students in the county with the various STEM program offerings. The day will include a demonstration by the Middle School Robotics Team. Haines noted that the event would coincide with National Girls in STEM Day.
In addition to providing information on CTE programming in the county, Wilson gave an update on the county's GED program. Marshall County had 13 high school equivalency graduates for the 2023-24 school year.
According to Wilson, Marshall County also hosted over 200 Pearson Vue test takers this year. These tests provide certifications for various fields, including education, medical, accounting and insurance.
During her report, Haines gave an update on the threats made to schools in the county following a nationwide wave of online threats. She said the county continues to work with Marshall County Emergency Medical Services Director Tom Hart and a safety simulation was in the works for early June.
Haines noted Marshall County EMS were also collaborating with Jody Korn, director of transportation for Marshall County Schools, to determine the time and procedures for transportation in case of an emergency.
Haines said the school had received a "number of reports" on the "See Something, Send Something" app, which is the school's channel for staff, students and parents to report threats. Haines noted the "positive trajectory" of people choosing to report threats on the app as opposed to spreading them on social media, which she added allows them to "address any problem."
"I just want to remind everybody about the 'See Something, Send Something' app because we want people to share information in the correct channels," Haines said. "We want you to share it with somebody who can help and not share it on social media, which just causes more chaos."