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Contact: Alan Richard
(404) 879-5544
Released: 1/11/2010

SREB Conference Helps Educators, State Officials from 14 States Improve Career/Technology Centers

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — The nonprofit Southern Regional Education Board will hold its second annual Technology Centers That Work forum on January 13-14 at the Omni Hotel here, bringing together educators and state officials to improve career/technology centers that high school students attend part-time.

Building on the nationwide success of SREB’s High Schools That Work (HSTW) and Making Middle Grades Work school improvement programs, Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) provides professional development and many other services to career/technology centers.

As the recession continues, enrollments in career/technical (CT) education continue to increase. TCTW has grown rapidly since its creation in 2007, to more than 125 CT centers in 12 states.

"Career/technology centers that students attend part-time hold tremendous promise in helping more students graduate from high school, and in leading more students to college and additional career training," Gene Bottoms, SREB’s senior vice president and the founder of HSTW and TCTW, said. "Improving CT centers should be a major goal for school district and states. The best of these centers offer excellent opportunities to all of their students, including many who are bound for two- and four-year colleges."

Speakers at this week’s conference will include Bottoms, along with Lee Burket, the director of career/technical education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education; Mark American Horse of Oklahoma, the American Career and Technical Education Association national teacher of the year; instructional expert Richard Blais, now with SREB; and other leading educators from technology centers in several states.

Teams of educators from shared-time technology centers and high schools will work with experts to develop a vision for shared-time technology centers to produce graduates who will continue their learning in postsecondary education or in work settings after graduation.

The event also will help educators work to make students’ home high school curriculum in grades nine through 12 link closely to their studies at the technology center; to ensure that technology center curricula are intellectually demanding and help build critical reading, math and science skills; to embed new technology into instruction, and more.

Educators, state officials and/or presenters will attend from these SREB states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Participants also will come from Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.

For more information about the conference, career/technical education, efforts to improve high schools in your state, or participating schools from your state, contact SREB Communications.

The Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB, based in Atlanta, was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. More information is available online at www.sreb.org.



Southern Regional Education Board
592 10th Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318-5776
(404) 875-9211


For additional information, please e-mail communications@sreb.org