Editorial Staff

Key Madison Park Program Lags Other State Voc-Techs, but Shows Signs of Improvement

/in , , , , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Read coverage of this report in The Boston Globe.

Co-operative education program far behind in terms of student placements, employer contacts

BOSTON – The co-operative education program at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, which places students in paid positions with local employers, lags far behind other Massachusetts vocational-technical schools in terms of both placements and number of employer contacts.  But with the school as a whole beginning to improve after years of turmoil, the co-op is also showing promising signs, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

“Madison Park has a key role to play in growing the Greater Boston economy,” said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios.  “But to reach that potential and, importantly, to create a bridge for low-income students to enter the middle class, the school must succeed in connecting its students to area employers.”

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education designated Madison Park as underperforming in 2016; implementation of a turnaround plan began that June.  Since then, the school has shown signs of improvement.  The graduation rate has risen from 57 percent in 2017 to more than 68 percent in 2019.  Over the same period of time, the dropout rate has fallen from over 6 to less than 5 percent.  Enrollment, which fell by half from 2005 to 2017, has since then risen by more than 17 percent.

Over 90 percent of Madison Park’s slightly more than 1,000 students are designated as “high needs,” meaning they are at risk of educational failure or otherwise in need of special assistance and support.  About 97 percent of the students are of color, 35 percent are English language learners, and more than 30 percent have disabilities.

In “Madison Park II: Capitalizing on Employment Opportunity,” author William Donovan reports that students become eligible for the co-op program in the third quarter of junior year, after they complete the required number of course hours.  To qualify, students must have a B average in the discipline in which they seek placement, at least a C average overall and a recommendation from a shop instructor.

Among the 25 regional voc-techs reporting on the 2018-19 school year (Madison Park is part of Boston Public Schools and not a regional school), an average of 28 percent of juniors and seniors were in co-op placements, with the range spanning from 13 to nearly 54 percent.  During the same year, Madison Park’s placement rate was 4.2 percent.

Madison Park’s placement rate improved to 8.1 percent the following year (2019-2020), but lagged far behind Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Billerica, which led all Massachusetts voc-techs with 68 percent of its juniors and seniors placed in co-op positions.

 

Madison Park Executive Director Kevin McCaskill identified two reasons that partly account for the low numbers.  One is attendance.  The average student attendance rate at Madison Park is 87 percent, and the school can’t recommend students with irregular attendance records to be placed with employers.  The other is students’ need for academic support.  After-school academic support needed to meet graduation requirements is a higher priority than the co-op.

Lack of industry connections has also been a problem.  Shawsheen works with 150-180 employers annually and Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School in Wakefield works with around 40.  LaTrelle Pinkney-Chase, who was hired to direct Madison Park’s co-operative education program in 2019, says she is working with 20.

But the Career Champions Network, a group of more than 40 business leaders, has pledged to use their contacts and experience to support the growth of Madison Park’s career vocational-technical educational (CVTE) programs.  In November, Pinkney-Chase and the network developed an action plan aimed at increasing the number of employers the co-op works with by 50 before the end of the school year.

Previously the co-op had focused on just a few of Madison Park’s 20 CVTE programs.  But with the creation of a computer programming and web development program and the return of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning program, the school is working to diversify the co-op program with additional high-demand sectors.

Pinkney-Chase now holds Zoom calls with freshmen to make them aware of the co-op and requirements for participation.  She receives lists from teachers of students who are eligible or close to meeting the co-op’s eligibility requirements and reaches out individually to talk to them about the program.

She conducts “spotlight interviews” with students who are in the program to talk about their co-op experiences.  All students receive an e-blast notification when the interviews are posted on the school’s YouTube channel.

Donovan urges Madison Park to recruit recent graduates who participated in co-operative education to come back and promote the program.  He also suggests engaging students in the school’s marketing major to help promote the program.

This is the second of two Pioneer reports on Madison Park.  The first, published in September, examined the school’s turnaround plan and reported on its progress as judged by a 10-year review conducted by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

About the Author

William Donovan is a former staff writer with the Providence Journal in Rhode Island where he wrote about business and government. He has taught business journalism in the graduate programs at Boston University and Northeastern University. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his master’s degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C.

About Pioneer

Pioneer’s mission is to develop and communicate dynamic ideas that advance prosperity and a vibrant civic life in Massachusetts and beyond.

Pioneer’s vision of success is a state and nation where our people can prosper and our society thrive because we enjoy world-class options in education, healthcare, transportation and economic opportunity, and where our government is limited, accountable and transparent.

Pioneer values an America where our citizenry is well-educated and willing to test our beliefs based on facts and the free exchange of ideas, and committed to liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Posts:

Yale’s Pulitzer-Winning Prof. David Blight on Frederick Douglass, Slavery, & Emancipation

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and guest co-host Derrell Bradford talk with David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

The Institute for Justice’s Michael Bindas on the SCOTUS, Carson v. Makin, & Expanding School Choice

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Michael Bindas, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice (IJ). They discuss IJ’s 2020 landmark U.S. Supreme Court win in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, and its implications for state Blaine Amendments, bigoted legal barriers that have blocked religious liberty and school choice for over a century, as well as the Maine school tuitioning case, Carson v. Makin, which was recently granted certiorari.

Nina Rees on the 30th Anniversary of Charter Public Schools in America

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara celebrate the 30th anniversary of charter schools with Nina Rees, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Blended Learning Expert Heather Staker on Student-Centered Lessons During COVID-19

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Heather Staker, founder and president of Ready to Blend. They discuss her work with the late Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn on disruptive innovation and schooling, as well as her book, Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools, and her recent publication, Developing a student-centered workforce through micro-credentials. 

Law Prof. Melvin Urofsky on Justice Louis Brandeis, the SCOTUS, & Dissenting Opinions

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Melvin Urofsky, Professor of Law & Public Policy and Professor Emeritus of History at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the author of several books, including Louis D. Brandeis: A Life and Dissent and the Supreme Court. Professor Urofsky shares insights on Justice Brandeis’s jurisprudence, and why he consistently ranks among the three most influential Supreme Court justices in American history.

Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher on Edu Federalism, School Choice, Learning Pods

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation. They discuss the growing popularity of learning pods, an education innovation propelled by K-12 public education’s failure to meet the COVID-19 moment. With as many as three million children enrolled in learning pods, 35 percent of parents participating in them, and another 18 percent interested in joining one, Butcher shares findings from his report on the role of pods in expanding parent-driven educational choice options.

Stanford’s National Humanities Medal Winner Prof. Arnold Rampersad on Langston Hughes & Ralph Ellison

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Professor Arnold Rampersad, the Sara Hart Kimball Professor Emeritus in Humanities at Stanford University and recipient of the National Humanities Medal for his books including The Life of Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison: A Biography.

The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews on An Optimist’s Guide to American Public Education

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Jay Mathews, an education columnist for The Washington Post and author of the recent book, An Optimist's Guide to American Public Education. Jay describes the three key trends in K-12 schooling that he views as cause for hope.

Poll Finds Mixed Views About Schools’ Pandemic Performance

A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts residents have mixed opinions about how K-12 education has functioned, but they tend to view the performance of individual teachers more favorably than that of institutions like school districts and teachers’ unions, according to a poll of 1,500 residents commissioned by Pioneer Institute.

Study: Systemic Failure in IDEA Implementation for Private School Students with Disabilities in Additional States

On the heels of a $3.8 million settlement for private school students with disabilities in Massachusetts for the state’s failure to comply with provisions of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that require provision of equitable, publicly funded special education services to students in private schools, a Pioneer Institute study finds that two states and three school districts around the country for which data are available also appear to be out of compliance.