Infusion of writing skills in vocational education in the Phoenix Union High School District, 1995-1997

This study focused on the attempt in the Phoenix Union High School District to infuse academic writing skills into traditional vocational education curriculum. The FUSION Project based at Metro Tech/Vocational Institute of Phoenix, has designed and implemented classroom interventions whose goal is to improve writing skills of all vocational education students in the Phoenix Union High School District.;The FUSION Project at MT/VIP is supported by federal funds generated by the Carl Perkins Applied Technology and Vocational Education Act of 1990. The intent of the Perkins Act is to support programs whose purpose is to approve achievement levels of American vocational education students. One important and strongly supported tenet of the legislation is to foster integrating academic skills into vocational education curriculum. The goal of the FUSION Project is to infuse/integrate academic skills into all Phoenix Union High School District vocational education curriculum.;This researcher collected pre and post writing skill test scores for all vocational education students completing courses in Business Education, Technology Education and Family and Consumer Science Education during the two academic years, 1995-1996 and 1996-1997. This data was subsequently subjected to Repeated Measures analysis to determine if students receiving instruction from teachers who had undergone FUSION Project designed interventions performed at a statistically significant higher achievement level than students whose teachers had received no intervention. Comparisons were made within the three identified vocational education classifications.;Four groups were compared in the analysis: (1) teachers who received no intervention, (2) teachers who received staff development in-service writing workshops, (3) teachers who received no intervention but utilized FUSION Project curriculum specialists as team teachers, and (4) teachers who received staff development in-service writing workshops and utilized FUSION Project curriculum specialists as team teachers.;The results of the study were mixed: (1) Business Education reflected increased student achievement levels with each level of increased intervention, (2) Technology Education student achievement levels were unaffected by any intervention, and (3) Family and Consumer Science Education student achievement levels showed both a positive and negative correlation.;Recommendations of the study included: (1) increased emphasis on one particular type of intervention, In-Service/Resource, (2) examination of other proven infusion/integration activities for possible inclusion in future interventions, (3) revision of testing protocol to produce consistency and validity, and (4) design and incorporate an on going annual qualitative and quantitative assessment instrument.