NCJ Number
69898
Journal
California Youth Authority Quarterly Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer/Fall 1980) Pages: 74-79
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The California Youth Authority, which operates programs of academic, vocational, and survival skills education, is assessing educational needs and upgrading the curriculum.
Abstract
A task force report identified the Youth Authority's total educational assessment process as needing to include the areas of vocational assessment, achievement level, primary language capabilities, survival skills needs, and special education needs, vocational aptitudes, and academic testing through the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) have been further funded and encouraged. With respect to academic education, improvements have been made through the addition or supplementary services in reading, mathematics, and languages; the establishment of better high school proficiency standards; the implementation of a pilot bilingual education program; and the expansion of services for individuals with special education needs. Vocational education has seen the addition of a coordinator on a systemwide basis, of a 5-year plan for vocational education, of a liaison with industry and a long-range training plan for vocational personnel, of the beginnings of competency-based vocational education, and of alternative ways of meeting the needs of the limited-English, non-English, and special education students. The Life Survival Skills programs is being given priority with assurances of survival education in each schools' curriculum of staff training and development activities, of outside resource development, and of integration of appropriate competency-based materials. Attention to staff development is being realized with the establishment of staff training in competency-based curriculum methods and on the use of advisory committees and occupational resource centers, and of assessment team orientation and training. Finally, measures to aid the evaluation of the Youth Authority's education program have been instituted, including standards development, utilization of the Program Monitoring and Evaluation System, and development of proficiency standards.