Philadelphia School District Uses Grant Money To Hire Head Of Technical Education
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia school district is overhauling its career and technical education classes, to make them more relevant to 21st-Century needs.
The district wants to beef up its vocational offerings in high-growth fields, and standardize its courses so that kids who graduate hold an industry-recognized credential.
Enter Dr. Clyde Hornberger, newly hired to create a plan to do that. He says there's a strategy in the works to attract highly-qualified teachers.
"We want someone who was an executive chef to be able to teach in culinary arts or someone who is a master technician to teach in the automotive because we want them to bring that experience to the classroom. And if you don't possess those high-level skills yourself, you can't teach what you don't know."
Hornberger says the district aims to increase the number of career and technical education students from 6,000 to 10,000 over the next five years.
Hornberger will be paid $50,000. His salary will be covered by a federal grant.
