A new state report says that the Rochester School District should make some changes in the way it handles career and technical education programs.
Experts with the State Education Department say that by most measures, career and technical education programs in Rochester schools are failing to help students be career-ready for the 21st century needs of employers.
That according to information released by the city school district and superintendent of schools Bolgen Vargas who commissioned the group of experts to conduct an objective review of the programs with a special focus on the high schools at the Edison Technical Education Center.
The report proposes some major changes at the Edison campus including contracting with BOCES to provide oversight. Another recommendation the report suggests is that the school board consider closing the two career and technical schools at Edison and have BOCES offer those kinds of programs to students from every city high school at the Edison campus.
Vargas says the some of the findings in the reports may be painful to hear, but he says they call for changes that will restore the strength of the district's career and technical education programs.
