Critique of the Health Science Program in the Public Service Academy

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Evaluation Model Critique

Treasure Coast High School is a breaking rank, small learning community high school that was established in 2006 under the leadership of Dr. Helen Roberts. Breaking ranks is a concept that refers to schools that are stepping away from the norms in education and doing things differently. There is a strong focus on data driven school decision making and the goal is to prepare students to be successful in the twenty-first century. The school has a capacity for 2500 students and employs approximately 175 teachers, staff and administrators. Due to the large size students are teamed by their English, math, science and freshman seminar teachers during the 9th grade and their English, math, science and social studies teachers during their 10th grade. Upon entering upper school (11th & 12th grades) students are teamed by their Small Learning Communities which support their Career and Technical Education programs selected during the 10th grade. Treasure Coast High boasts three innovative Small Learning Communities that support eight Career Academies. In this paper I will conduct an evaluation critique of the Health Science Program in the Public Service Academy. The goal is to see if it meets the stringent Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Academy standards set forth by the Florida legislation, senate bill 1908.

Evaluated Program Description

The Health Science program encompasses Health Science 1, Health Science 2, Allied Health Assisting, First Responder and Certified Nursing Assisting (CNA). There are three nursing professionals employed to teach this program. The first a Registered Nurse (RN) who teaches the Certified Nursing Assisting curriculum which leads to CNA Certifications; the se...

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...pe to receive funding. Fullan (2001) suggested that it takes time and nurturing to establish new programs. Evaluators should keep this in mind when conducting evaluations and when using the participant oriented evaluation approach.

If conducted well, the participant-oriented approach can offer the buy-in needed to remove the stigma of the evaluation process. Using this approach can provide stakeholders “with self knowledge and skills and an understanding of the power arrangements concerning their program and their locality” (Fitzpatrick et al., 2011, p.201). As stated by Cousins and Earl (1992) using key personnel capable of making decisions and who have a strong connection to the program can augment the usefulness and promote the actual use of the evaluation. It can also promote trust in the process and serve to remove any political stigma that may arise.

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