EDUCATION COLLEGE TO RECEIVE $11 MILLION FOR NEW CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION CENTER
COLUMBUS, Ohio –- The Ohio State University’s College of Education will accept an $11 million, five-year federal grant today (12/13) to inform career and technical education professionals at every level about successful work and work transition practices.
“The goal will be to improve secondary and postsecondary career and education programs,” said Floyd McKinney of COLUMBUS (43220), who will direct the new National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education. He is a senior research specialist in the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE), also affiliated with the education college.
Another U.S. Department of Education grant also creates a National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota. The funding of the Research and Dissemination Centers is the result of a collaboration of five universities: Ohio State and Minnesota, along with Oregon State and Pennsylvania State universities and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Johns Hopkins University and the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, D.C., are associate consortium members.
The Ohio State project will use Web sites, e-forums and videoconferencing in addition to traditional printed publications to reach educators across the United States. The center will translate research conducted at Minnesota into practices and promote other strategies that have proved to be successful for secondary and postsecondary career and technical education.
The dissemination center also will give teachers, counselors, administrators and policy-makers opportunities to learn more about career and technical education, and suggest ways to improve teaching techniques.
U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who supported this and other job training initiatives, said, “The center’s programs will ensure the American work force is prepared to meet the challenges in today’s global economy.”
Added U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Columbus (15th District), “The Ohio State University deserves to be recognized for its efforts to further the field of vocational education. OSU has one of the most prestigious career instruction programs in the nation, and it has continually worked to improve the quality and effectiveness of vocational education. Through its leadership of this consortium, OSU will be able to better prepare our work force for the challenges of the 21st century. I commend Ohio State on its efforts to provide leadership and knowledge to those pursuing vocational and technical education.”
William E. Kirwan, president of The Ohio State University, said, “The College of Education here has a long history of excellence in career and technical education. We thank the Department of Education for recognizing our efforts to ensure American employers have the best-trained employees.”
“The dissemination center will utilize the research center’s findings about work force development and education, and develop distribution systems to professionals and educators at the secondary and postsecondary levels to improve the preparation of individuals across the spectrum of careers,” said Michael Sherman, director of the Center on Education and Training for Employment and the college’s School of Physical Activity & Educational Services. “An additional component of the dissemination center’s work will be to evaluate the success of these distribution systems to actually affect secondary and post- secondary career and technical education practices and outcomes.”
The site director is N.L. Caslin, of COLUMBUS (43221), who is chair of the Department of Human and Community Resource Development in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
In addition to faculty members from Ohio State’s colleges of Education and Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, researchers include staff from CETE and the ERIC Clearinghouse for Career and Technical Education.
College of Education contacts:
Floyd McKinney, 614-292-9899 or mckinney.84@osu.edu
Michael Sherman, 614-292-0956 or sherman.4@osu.edu
U.S Dept. of Education contact:
Ricardo Hernandez, 202-205-5977 or ricardo_hernandez@ed.gov
College communications contact:
Gemma McLuckie, 614-292-4658 or mcluckie.1@osu.edu