The Katy Independent School District (ISD), through a balanced, dynamic curriculum and a cooperative partnership with parents and community, will prepare students for the changes and challenges of the future, empowering them to pursue productive and fulfilling lives.
The mission of Career and Technology Education in the Katy ISD is to integrate career awareness, technical preparation, and academic excellence to train students to become productive citizens in a global workforce.
Career and Technology Education students will be . . .
The Career Guidance and Counseling Program strives to serve all Katy ISD students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The Katy ISD Tech Prep Model illustrates the process in which career awareness, career exploration, and focused education/career preparation is available to all students. The goal of this process is to promote postsecondary training and lifelong learning for all students.
Career counselors view "train-the-trainers" as a means to extend career guidance services to all students! Staff development is utilized to train professionals to better understand applied academics, local partnerships, school-to-work, articulation, career exploration/counseling, and postsecondary training options available for students.
Group counseling is the primary method of providing career guidance. Career guidance materials and assessment instruments are available for elementary students. American College Testing (ACT) provides materials that serve as a foundation for career guidance for secondary students. Career paths define possible career alternatives that are congruent with individual career interests, experiences, and abilities.
Integrated academics are utilized throughout the district to demonstrate the relevance of core courses as students pursue their career aspirations. Current computer-based materials are available in the Miller Career Center's Research Center and may be utilized by students/clients interested in attaining career information. Efforts are made to provide up-to-date information utilizing computer-based research in addition to current periodicals.
The Career and Technology Education Advisory Committee and the Tech Prep Advisory Committee are available to recommend and support career development activities for elementary and secondary students. The leadership of these committees provides the impetus to develop quality career education for all students.
Partnerships with the Holiday Inn, Houston Community College, Katy Medical Center, Private Sector Initiatives, and TECHFORCE 2000 (Gulf Coast Quality Work Force Planning Committee) afford students opportunities to receive more extensive career guidance from individuals in varied professions.
Students who have participated in the developmental Career Guidance and Counseling Program in Katy ISD will make wise career/educational choices that will help them to pursue their dreams! As students face a changing workplace with increased international competition and new technologies, they need the best possible information to determine how their abilities, interests, experiences, and values relate to their educational and career choices.
Auto Technology students are attending their English class and are working in groups on a project where they are to design and market a vehicle for the future. The Auto Tech teacher is available as a technical resource for the students. Later, these students will attend their Auto Tech class and receive a short lecture and demonstration on anti-lock brakes before working on shop assignments.
In Business Computer Applications, students are working on a computer graphics project. In their English class, they will be finishing a research paper on "Technology in the Workplace."
Students in Cosmetology are learning about the chemicals and concepts of hair color. After an hour lecture, students will work with patrons or on mannequins.
The Criminal Justice students are listening to an hour lecture in their Government class and then will hear an FBI agent discuss his career in their Introduction to Criminal Justice class.
The Health Science Technology students are changing into their lab coats to board the bus for their clinical rotation assignments at Katy Medical Center.
P.A.C.E. students are shadowing mentors in the workplace.
A career counselor is conducting a career planning workshop with a group of at-risk students from the Katy High School Career Connections class. The counselor is utilizing DISCOVER, the computer informational system. The other career counselor is meeting with educators and staff from Houston Community College to implement articulation agreements. The director is in administrative meetings all morning and will return at noon for the quarterly Tech Prep advisory committee meeting. Students from the Apprenticeship Programs will be the featured guests. After lunch, a career counselor will conduct a decisionmaking group and will be available for TAAS remediation. The career counselor for Tech Prep and the director will be formalizing their presentation for the annual State Tech Prep conference.
Overview
The purpose of the Katy ISD Career Guidance and Counseling Program is to
systematically assist students in developing the skills they need to enhance
their personal, social, educational, and career development. The Career
Guidance Curriculum is intended as a dynamic, flexible document. The scope and
sequence of this curriculum (Pre-K through 12) is identified as a framework.
Once the local campus needs have been identified through a needs assessment,
age-appropriate career guidance activities are designed at the campus level and
added to the framework. Thus, each campus has its own unique career guidance
curriculum within the Katy ISD Career Guidance and Counseling curriculum.
Career assessment is an integral part of the Career and Technology Education Career Guidance and Counseling Program. A variety of reliable and valid instruments serve as a basis to assist individuals in making decisions about education, training, and careers.
Current career development theories recognize that how individuals make vocational choices is a developmental process that goes beyond any single testing and feedback session in school. Katy ISD perceives career assessment as a means to stimulate career exploration and the exploration of self in relation to careers.
Full implementation of the Career Guidance and Counseling Program requires a partnership between administrators, counselors, parents, and teachers. Career guidance may be implemented as a separate subject area as in a specific course such as Career Investigation at the junior high school level or be infused throughout other instructional disciplines.
The counselors in the Katy ISD, at all levels (K-12), utilize individual and group counseling modalities in addressing students' self-concepts, developmental needs, and interpersonal skills. Each counselor is provided with a guidance curriculum. Topical guidance activities such as self-esteem, developing friendships, and other social skills are routinely conducted at the elementary level. In the secondary schools, guidance activities are provided by teachers and counselors through homeroom classes and on an as needed basis. The at-risk counselors provide many counseling activities that target the special population student. All counselors conduct parenting groups, which address developmental components in the adult population. Career counselors work with students, parents, and teachers in addressing the self-knowledge component. Assessment instruments, motivational materials, and computer programs are utilized in this process.
A number of collaborative efforts regarding social and personal development are met through specific courses at the secondary level. Courses that teach and promote self-concept and interpersonal skills include Advanced Child Development, Career Investigation, Comprehensive Homemaking, Health, Individual and Family Living, Psychology, and Sociology. The Career and Technology Education curriculum addresses leadership and personal development skills within its essential elements. The co-curricula clubs and organizations allow students to practice these skills. Drug Prevention Program coordinators are located on each primary and secondary campus and work with students in providing proactive activities aimed at increasing self-concept and social skills.
The Katy ISD's Adult Education Program consists of classes that address personal development and life transition needs. The career counselors are trained to administer the Myers/Briggs and are available to utilize this assessment along with the ACT DISCOVER for adults in comprehensive career planning. Career and Technology Education teachers have participated in the Myers/Briggs assessment as an inservice workshop for personal and organizational development.
Career counselors work with classroom teachers to define methods of integrating career development activities into the ongoing educational program. A number of optional career-related activities are utilized throughout the district such as career days, field trips, and tours of the Career Center. Katy ISD endorses national programs such as "Take Your Daughter/Son to Work Day." Students in the elementary schools learn about various occupations through career week programs, guest speakers, and special career guidance activities.
Dream Catchers, a student activity book, is utilized in the intermediate grades as a resource to assist students in developing career and educational awareness.
The Career Planning Program Career Guidebook and Katy ISD's Career Pathway brochures assist students as they consider educational and career opportunities. Sample High School Graduation Plans; Education/Career Plans, including Postsecondary Training Options; Job Family Charts; and Career Resources are included in these supplemental materials.
Career Investigation is available as an elective course option for junior high school students. This is an activity-oriented guidance course designed to develop greater knowledge and understanding of career and educational opportunities and options necessary to making meaningful and informed career and educational choices.
Computerized Career Information Delivery Systems (DISCOVER and GIS) are utilized for secondary school students and adult clients. These systems provide students with information about writing résumés, financial aid, and other kinds of career information.
GIS (Guidance Information System) is available on each high school campus in Katy ISD. The program gives students easy access to comprehensive computerized information on career and educational opportunities. Katy ISD Community Education provides opportunities for adults to participate in career planning during evening classes.
In the past, career choice was often viewed as a single event; today, career planning is viewed as a process that involves a continuing sequence of experiences and decisions related to educational and career choices.
Career assessment teaches students a structure for organizing occupations and postsecondary majors that will help with vocational and educational choices. A variety of career assessment instruments are utilized to assist students with career planning, preparation, and transition.
Explore the World of Work (E-WOW) is utilized in elementary schools and is designed as a career awareness and exploration learning activity that has a gamelike format. It helps students to become aware of job activities.
A Career Information Card is utilized in Kindergarten through 5th grade in an effort to identify individual student career interests.
All 8th-grade students in Katy ISD have an opportunity to participate in the Career Planning Program. This comprehensive career assessment is offered in the fall semester and results are distributed to students in conjunction with high school course selection.
The Career Planning Program measures student interests, abilities, and experiences. Results of the Career Planning Program encourage students to continue exploration in one or more career pathways, including Arts, Business Contact, Business Operations, Science, Social Service, and/or Technical. Students utilize the results of this assessment as they select courses for their individualized education/career plan. Students become more "focused" as they prepare for various career pathways.
The Career Survey is administered to 10th-grade students. This instrument confirms student interests and job activities, and directs those interests toward educational and occupational plans.
VIESA (Vocational Interest, Experience, and Skill Assessment) is a self-scored inventory that is administered to high school students new to Katy ISD in the fall of each school year. Simultaneously, workshops are held for parents utilizing "Realizing the Dream--Career Planning for the 21st Century."
Several cooperative education classes have utilized the COPSystem Interest Inventory to assist with student transition to the world of work.
A Career Planning Portfolio is an optional instrument that is available for high school students. This document serves as a personalized career planning journal that guides the student through the career development process.
DISCOVER, a computer-based career planning system, is available at the Miller Career Center for use by adults in the community. The information provided through DISCOVER is a framework from which adults can make informed decisions about career choices and possible career changes.
The Miller Career Center's Research Center is open to the community. Recent publications, job data banks, a computerized career information delivery system, and other job search information may be used by patrons of the school district.
Katy ISD's Career Guidance and Counseling Program identifies special needs students in Career and Technology Education classes according to the following classifications: special education or students with disabilities, LEP, economically disadvantaged, gifted and talented, at-risk, or educationally disadvantaged. Teachers are provided with a confidential list of these students from a computer-generated program which outlines the student's name, grade, and special population classification. Teachers are inserviced by Katy ISD's career counselor twice a year on topics which provide instruction in teaching and working with the special population student. Special population students are represented in every Career and Technology Education Program. Gender equity emphasis is promoted via poster contests and speakers in nontraditional career fields. Another computer program lists gender percentages as well as identified nontraditional students in each Career and Technology Education course. This information is shared with teachers so that they are better able to promote gender equity in their programs.
A number of support services are provided by Katy ISD's Career Guidance and Counseling Program:
Career counselors and Career and Technology Education staff have developed "user-friendly" materials that are available to families to assist individual students as they prepare for their future. The Katy ISD Career Paths serve as a foundation resource for secondary students. Parent Orientations, College/Career Nights, Special Education Advisory groups, ARD meetings, and Open Houses on the various school campuses provide opportunities to define and promote career education.
Parents are introduced to materials that will enhance their abilities to assist their children with career and educational planning. Realizing the Dream is a publication available to parents and is utilized as a vehicle to assist with career planning.
Newspapers, Career and Technology Education newsletters, and Katy ISD promotional materials all serve as other media sources to publicize Career and Technology Education Career Guidance and Counseling Program information.
Career counselors strive to train counselors, teachers, diagnosticians, librarians, and other professionals through special inservice presentations during the school year. Additionally, the Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium, Texas Education Agency, and other organizations provide opportunities for vocational and academic educators to become more involved in career guidance and counseling through participation in various professional growth conferences.
Professionals throughout the district are encouraged to attend professional growth conferences. The Career and Technology Education Department relies heavily on the professional staff to assist in providing career guidance and counseling to students.
Integrated activities are encouraged in all curriculum areas. Initial efforts for integrated studies in English and social studies have been very successful and plans include the expansion of formal integrated coursework in math and science. Vocational and academic educators in Katy ISD are professional and strive to work together as a team to foster a positive learning environment for students.
The Career Guidance and Counseling Program collaborates with the Guidance and Counseling Department in Katy ISD as well as the Special Education Department, ESL Program, the At-Risk Program, and the Single Parenting and Teen Pregnancy Program. Students in these programs are provided career assessments, transition planning, career guidance activities, and individual and group counseling.
The Instructional Technology Department and librarians provide the Career Guidance and Counseling Program with up-to-date resources, reference materials, and equipment. The career counselors offer librarians information to update elementary and secondary career resources.
The Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium, Tech Force 2000, and the Texas Education Agency provide additional funding, current job information, guest speakers, staff development, and workshop opportunities for teachers and counselors. Houston Community College offers articulated and dual credit courses for Katy ISD students. Houston Community College has designated one (1) counselor as a liaison to ensure that Katy ISD students have a smooth transition between secondary and postsecondary education.
These intra- and interagency collaborative efforts allow all students in the Katy ISD to be beneficiaries of a comprehensive Career Guidance and Counseling Program.
Businesses and industries are partners in education with the Katy ISD. Area businesses provide job opportunities, job shadowing activities, mentors, guest speakers, judges for student contests, advisors for committees and councils, and donations of equipment and supplies. Businesses and agencies that provide support services include Brookshire Clinic; Bureau of Apprenticeship; Department of Labor; Holiday Inn; Katy Chamber of Commerce; Katy Lions Club; Katy Medical Center; State Board of Cosmetology; and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program.
In addition to the above-mentioned businesses and agencies, the Career and Technology Education Advisory Committee and the Tech Prep Advisory Committee assist in the development of goals, planning, and acquisition of scholarships. These representatives provide our students with current job trends, needs, and skill requirements of competent employees.
The Katy ISD Board of Trustees, Superintendent, and other administrators support the Career Guidance and Counseling Program. Many serve as members of advisory committees and support the Career Guidance and Counseling Program as a targeted program. The significance of Katy ISD's Career Guidance and Counseling Program is reflected in Katy ISD's mission statement (see page 47):
Listed below are examples of program support provided by elementary, junior high, and high school principals:
Miller Career Center serves as a central site for Career and Technology Education in Katy ISD. Staff development, advisory committee meetings, and other training activities are conducted in Miller Career Center's Research Center. A computer lab is also utilized to provide computer-assisted career guidance for students/clients.
The career counselors work throughout Katy ISD to provide career guidance and counseling services. The staff maintains a good rapport with professionals in the district and are welcome resources on all elementary and secondary school campuses.
The costs associated with Katy ISD's Career Guidance and Counseling Program include salaries, assessment materials, resource and reference materials, transportation, printing and publication cost, and counselor travel.
These expenditures are funded by the local education agency (Katy ISD), state funding (per pupil), Perkins Act funds, and Tech Prep funds.
Two career counselors have the responsibility for coordinating the Career Guidance and Counseling Program in the Katy ISD. Résumés identify the extensive qualifications of these professional educators.
One career counselor/special populations specialist has the responsibility of enhancing opportunities for students identified as members of special populations. She coordinates TAAS remediation and works with individual students to maximize individual academic and technical performance.
The other career counselor/Tech Prep specialist is responsible for coordinating the Tech Prep initiative in the school district. He introduces students to various secondary and postsecondary training options. Additionally, he helps to formulate articulation agreements with postsecondary training institutions.
Both career counselors are certified vocational counselors. The counselors are also licensed professional counselors by the state of Texas, who obtain a minimum of sixty continuing education hours every three years to maintain their licenses.
The staff attends, hosts, and presents at a number of local, regional, state, and national conferences. These include Katy ISD Tech Prep and Integrated Academic Workshops, Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium, and Region IV Educational Service Center.
The director, counselors, and staff are avid supporters of professional development. The following are some of the conferences that were attended in 1993-1994:
Professional development activities provided by the staff included presentations for the Texas Education Agency Administrator/Career Guidance Conference.
Workshops for Katy ISD educators, counselors, parents, and service organizations were systematically planned. Some of the topics were as follows:
The career counselors have conducted evaluations throughout the past several years in an effort to improve the existing Career Guidance and Counseling Program. Written evaluations have been solicited from students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Verbal responses have been solicited from members of the Career and Technology Education Advisory Council and Tech Prep Advisory Committee. Evaluations have brought numerous improvements to the Career Guidance and Counseling Program.
The Texas Education Agency requests a "Secondary Completor Report" through the Vocational Education Data System (VEDS). Career and Technology Education teachers are asked to identify the program participants. Staff members call employers to secure specific job data after completors are identified.
Additionally, the Katy ISD participates in the ACT High School Follow-up Survey. The director and the career counselors review the follow-up information in a timely manner to identify student and employee concerns. The follow-up reports serve as a means of additional program evaluation and are utilized to improve the program and services.