McCabe Hemmers
Reporter
Every year, several students who take career and tech education classes are chosen to take the annual Connecticut Career and Technical Education assessments, commonly known as “The Perkins test.” The name is actually misconceived by many but has been part of NCHS ever since the program started.
Department head, Jim Zambarano, has been part of the program for the past eight years. “The test has always been part of New Canaan High School ever since I’ve joined, but last year was the first year students can take the test online.”
Not every student is selected to take this test. “If the students meet the requirements, then it’s a federal mandate and they have to take the assessment.” To meet these requirements, the students have to take at least two years of a Career and Technical education course to be eligible. This year, 93 students will be tested in six different areas: Business finance technology, business management, marketing, family consumer sciences, pre-engineering technology, and video production systems.
By participating in the Perkins test, NCHS becomes eligible for state funding. Every year from this test alone, New Canaan High school receives a grant for $23,000. However, in order to receive these grants students must receive acceptable scores. “As long as the students meet the requirements for the assessment, we will earn $23,000. But if students do poorly, we can lose grant money” said he. Junior Will Nemiroff said he isn’t too nervous about the test. “I took it last year and it covers a lot of different sections. The good thing is, I’ve been taking [technology]classes for two years, so the test is really more of a review rather than seeing it for the first time, so I know what to expect.”
Since the test covers a wide variety of information, some students may do better in certain areas than others. “One of the nice things about the test is you do well on what you’re most interested in, plus it does not count towards our grades” Will said.
People might think that the CTE assessments might not be a big deal, but Mr. Zambarano said the test is a necessary step toward technologic advancement in our high school. “Schools that require funds require students to take the test in order to receive federal funds to better our programs” he said. “The money from the grant goes to things like our computers labs, our software, field trips, and training teachers.” A lot of the new material we see in our classes comes from the Perkins grant. “The money has been spent on our Mac lab, PC lab, child development got scale model babies with computer programming to get better simulations” Mr. Zambarano said. “If we didn’t have the grant we wouldn’t have any of that, it really raises the curriculum.”
NCHS doesn’t get as much money as to the rest of the state because it is already one of the leading schools in the state, but the $23,000 makes all the difference. “If we lost 20,000 dollars in our CT area, it would have a direct impact on student learning” Mr. Zambarano said. “By receiving this grant, we are able to make our school systems much more beneficial for everyone.” The test will start May 16th and end May 20th.
