An analysis of the Carroll County High School Building Trades program 3-year comparison within itself and with the entire school reveals several key points of interest. 

The program enrollment has been on a steady increase

• It is worth noting that the current instructors inherited a program that had 9 Building Trades II students in the Fall of 2004 and dropped to 6 in the Spring of 2005 due to 3 students failing a class required for graduation at the end of the semester.
• There is not much room left for the program to continue to grow due to mandated class sizes (maximum of 20 students).
• The current average enrollment is 18.25 students per class.
• The Building Trades program is reaching around 10% of the entire student population.  Carroll County High School is a comprehensive high school with academic, fine arts, athletics, and vocational programs under one roof, and is the only high school in the county.

Non-Traditional Enrollments

• The female enrollments, while fluctuating, remain in excess of 10% and have currently reached 14%.
• This is a strong result for a program such as Building Trades.

Race Demographics

• The program has a high to total white population.
• Carroll County High School currently is 97% white and this has risen each of the past two years of the report.
• Hispanic counts on the chart are misleading.  While the Hispanic total for the school is tallied, the SEDF reports for the individual program are now counting Hispanics as white.  Thus, no conclusions can emerge in this area.
• There are Hispanics being included in the white population of the Building Trades program.

There are four major points evident in the Completers Who Attained 80% of the Competencies Data Chart:

1.  The completer numbers appear low compared to enrollment data figures.  This is due to structured strategies to enable program access to a wide range of students, not just career seekers.  Therefore, not as large of a percent of students have schedule capacity to complete all classes required for completion.  There are also a large (high majority) of students who are completers, or are at least enrolled in one or more other vocational programs.

2.  The completer totals fluctuate.  This is due, in part, to the economic conditions of Carroll County.  Many of those students that would otherwise be completers are taking Work Release or graduate early to earn additional income.  This often happens just before the last segment in the program.

3.  The percent of non-traditional completers remains close to those of the over-all program enrollments. This is tremendous, considering the factors in #1 and #2.

4.  The Building Trades program has a large number of Disabled and Economically Disadvantaged completers (70 -80%).  This is a segment of the population that is most in need of career industry training and work place readiness skills.

External Analysis:

     The following statistics are based on the 2009 VDOE report for program testing using the NCCT-CORE test.

     Virginia Comparison

• Number of Students Tested:

                   Carroll County             #1 - 47 students

                                                          #2 - 31 students

                                                          #3 - 29 students

• Number of Students Passing:

                    Carroll County          #1 - 43 students

                                                        #2 - 24 students

                                                        #3 - 20 Students

• With only three schools in the state testing over 20 students, a pass-rate percentage would be an unfair comparison, however:

                                                     # (1-4) - 100% (testing 12,11,11,10 students)

                                                     # (5-6) - 93%   (testing 14,14 students)

                   Carroll County           #7     - 92%   (testing 47 students)  

• Carroll County High School Building Trades program tests and credentials significantly more students than any other program in Virginia with an exceptional pass rate for the number of students.

     District 7

• Number of Students Tested:

                   Carroll County             #1 - 47 students

                                                          #2 - 29 students

                                                          #3 - 13 students

• Number of Students Passing:

                    Carroll County           #1 - 43 students

                                                         #2 - 20 students

                                                        #3 - 12 students

• With only two schools in the district testing over 20 students, a pass-rate percentage would be an unfair comparison, however:

                                                     # 1 - 100% (testing 12 students)

                     Carroll County      # 2 - 92%   (testing 47 students)

                                                     #3  - 90%   (testing 10 students)  

• Carroll County High School Building Trades program tests and credentials significantly more students than any other program in District 7 with an exceptional pass rate for the number of students.

Internal Analysis:

     The Carroll County High School Building Trades program has been certification testing for seven years, with the impending testing session coming this May.  Testing started at this time because this is when Mr. Leggett and Mr. Warren started teaching Building Trades at Carroll County High School.  In collaboration and consultation with the vocational administration and seasoned vocational teachers, several decisions were made regarding testing.  First, it was decided to engage in testing.  Certification testing had not been mandated, but it was felt that it would be prudent to start gaining testing experience and gaining an understanding of a particular test.  Secondly, the decision had to be made as to which test to pursue.  NCCT-Core was chosen because it was based on the NCCER Core Curriculum textbook.  Core Curriculum additionally is the entry level course for the numerous other construction related textbooks offered through NCCER.  The next major decision was when to test.  The Carroll County High School Building Trades certification testing occurs at the end of Building Trades I.  Core Curriculum covers safety, tools, construction drawings, and soft skills, which are entry level concepts covered in Building Trades I.  Educational evaluation data indicates that students should test soon after receiving instruction.  A second factor to having Building Trades end of year-one certification testing stemmed from the DOE allowance of substituting a verified credit for successful industry certification testing.  Building Trades I has the greatest enrollment and the most students are allowed the opportunity to gain both an industry credential and a verified credit.

     While the preceding, was a historical reflection, it is important to base an evaluation upon not only the statistics, but also on the decisions that were made and why, to ensure that the objectives are being met and to what extent. 

     The Carroll County High School Building Trades program is indeed reaching a large number of students to attain a verified credit and an industrial credential, notedly, significantly more than any other Building Trades program in Virginia and District 7.  The value of receiving a verified credit has allowed some students to graduate that otherwise would not have met the Virginia Graduation Requirements.  As the pass rate has been increasing in recent years, this is due to two reasons.  One, because testing is based on text, there is instructional material that serves as preparation material and the instructors are able to adjust instruction based on test results.  Second, the NCCT results are broken down by content to show where more instructional time or revised strategies need to be pursued.  One such area has been math.  Upon receiving consistently low math scores, a new strategy emerged in the implementation of PLATO, the computer based math instruction program.  This allows students to focus on their individual problem area or areas, while not spending class time on mastered content.  At this point, the task is to maintain and increase this high level of success and to reach those few that are not passing.