The following are challenges faced by the Carroll County High School Building Trades program:

1.  Students have to pay the SkillsUSA registration fee themselves.  This creates a barrier for many students who are not sure why they should become a member if they do not plan on competing.  Additionally, the Building Trades registration sheets are smaller than the number of students that represent the program in competition.  This is due to the fact that, while they are indeed members, they registered through another class and show up on that program's registration sheet.

2.  The Building Trades program does not have or participate in any school sponsored employment co-op or internship programs.  This is due to liability issues that could fall back on the school, the program, and even the instructors according to the administration.  This belief originates with an incident of a student death in another program, yet has established a precedent for similar programs in the Carroll County School System.

3.  The major barrier to 100% student credentialing in the Building Trades program is the diverse range of student aptitudes.  This range has included the school’s valedictorian to mid-functioning IEP individuals.  An enormous task surrounds addressing and meeting the needs of each student with a program of instruction that represents rigor for each individual.  An additional issue arises in the fact that to fully cover and prepare for the NCCT-Core certification test, numerous sections of the text fall outside the parameters of the competencies for the program.

4.  Student enrollment is another challenge.  When the current instructors designed the Building Trades program upon their arrival the Carroll County High School, they determined that there were structural issues contributing to the excessively low enrollments in the Building Trades II program.  The decision was made and executed to  meet the scheduling constraints of as many students as possible, not just to bolster enrollments but to allow an opportunity for interested students regardless of chosen career path.  While this has been effective and has increased the non-traditional percentages there is now a large diversity of interests and abilities.  To maintain enrollments requires rigorous and relevant instructional content.  It is difficult to anticipate the needs of each class with each new semester, due to the potential diversity of each student which impacts each individual class.  Data support this with the large number of disabled completers and a successful dual enrollment program with Wytheville Community College.

5.  While competency attainment is high for completers, the number of completers is low when compared with the total program enrollment.  This is compounded by the large percentage of economically disadvantaged students.  Students pursuing a Standard Diploma will meet the graduation requirements earlier than they will finish the required course schedule for the program.  There is a desire to enter the work-force quickly in these economically challenging times, and graduating early or utilizing the work-release program seems attractive to many of the program’s potential completers at the expense of the Building Trades program and the students themselves.

Strategies that the Carroll County High School Building Trades program plans on implementing to address challenges:

1. With such diversity within each class, there are plans to implement enhanced reading strategies.  This is not only to better address the understanding of the text and performance on the text-based certification test, but also to assist students with increasing their reading skills and overall reading level and comprehension.  Many of the continuing education classes taken by the program instructors will assist with this goal.  Additional diversification strategies will involve finding appropriate computer programs to accompany the usage of PLATO on the classroom computers.

2.  The second concern is one addressing the lower or fluctuating number of completers compared to the total class enrollment and potential.  The strategies required will entail early identification of probable non-completers, one-on-one meetings to help the student better plan for the future, and realization of  the long-term benefits to completing the Building Trades program.  Additionally, if a list of potential employers is established and job placement becomes available to completers, this will be additional incentive to continue that last semester, become a completer, and ultimately get a better job with long-term payoffs.

3.  The current economic situation in Carroll County creates a bleak outlook for the local construction industry concerning employment potential.  Thus this is the perfect time to continue with an education.  In times of economic prosperity, it is difficult for students to see the advantage of taking time away from work and a good paycheck  to enhance their education.  While a depressed economy creates the perfect time, due to less lost wages coming from a job that has been taken based on availability rather than interest.  The strategy is to convince students that they will be much better off in a short period to utilize their earned credits in the Wytheville Community College Construction Technology program to get a tradesman's license or at least further their skill base in construction, thus making them a more attractive employee in the short term and a skilled, higher wage earner in the longer term.  This can be accomplished by: having field trips to WCC;  inviting guest speakers to come and share their success stories; and spending more time showing program students how the dual credits they have earned fit into the certificate and diploma programs and how close they may be.