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Educators start grappling with pinnacle of reform They turn their attention toward advanced-mastery requirements By Vicki Guarino Ten years ago, they were the bookends of Oregon�s education reform. Quickly linked in public discussion, they fused into a single acronym: CIM/CAM. To prepare Oregon�s youth for the demands of the 21st century, public school teachers would put students through demanding academic paces. The payoff for students would come after rigorous academic tests in the 10th grade to achieve the CIM � the state Certificate of Initial Mastery. After that, teachers would turn students� attention to the world beyond school walls. High school educators would help students prepare for life after graduation. Whether the choice be college, trade school or career, high schools would expose students to the information and experience they need to set and pursue their goals. In the process, students would earn the CAM, the Certificate of Advanced Mastery. That was the plan. Putting the plan into practice has demanded an overhaul of curriculum. Neither state education officials nor local teachers and school administrators are done putting CIM in place. The Medford School District, for example, still is shopping for textbooks. State officials are still trying to figure out how to appropriately test students� academic skills. And students are struggling to make the grade. Most high schoolers are not qualifying for the Certificate of Initial Mastery. Gaining the academic background to master the CIM tests will take students several more years, educators generally agree. With all the attention paid to CIM-related curriculum and test scores, CAM � the culmination of all the reforms and all the work by students and their teachers � has stood out more as a concept than a real part of public school education. That�s changing. Teachers and administrators now are starting to work out exactly what students should be doing to earn the Certificate of Advanced Mastery, and how they should be doing it. CAM is moving to the forefront of what has become a long process of education reform. In Southern Oregon, many educators took their first steady steps toward establishing CAM in their high schools just last week. Some 130 teachers and administrators met for three days in Klamath Falls to plot out CAM procedures and requirements. "I think until now, CAM has been real distant as far as what it means for kids,�� said Phil Long, Medford�s high school and middle school curriculum supervisor. Long was part a team of two dozen Medford teachers and administrators at the CAM conference. Staff from every school district � from rural Josephine County to northern Lake County � huddled district by district in small rooms across the U.S. Air Force�s Kingsley Field, working with professional facilitators and private business and industry specialists. The idea was to get educators some expert career guidance from inside and outside academia, said organizer Mike Van De Walker, the Jackson Education Service District�s regional coordinator for professional technical education. Schools set their own agendas defining the job they wanted to accomplish, and Van De Walker�s ESD team matched those needs with the specialists on hand. In the three days, the team from Rogue River High School worked out a CAM blueprint, complete with activities lists and charts. It can be applied to any of the state�s six CAM curriculum categories: natural resource systems, business and management, arts and communications, health services, industrial and engineering systems, human resources. Students pick an area of interest and, in Rogue River, would work out a three-pronged approach to earning the CAM, said Rogue River High School business specialist Kathi Sue Summers. There would be academic classes that in some way touch on the CAM subject area; special in-school activities; research and projects; and career-related work outside school. The Rogue River team agreed that CAM should be students� opportunity to explore career interests, to try and discard options. Better to begin the exploration as a teenager than a college grad, or after years of frustration in a dead-end job. Central Point educators agreed the Crater High School�s "school within a school" organization � where specialized schools of business and social services, for example, already meld academics, work experience and community service � would be expanded to accommodate CAM. Crater would set up academies for each of the six CAM endorsement areas. From there, the team outlined CAM requirements in six or seven specific areas: � academic class requirements; � career-related learning standards such as a demonstrated ability to perform procedures of parliamentary law; � assessments of skills such as public speaking; � career-related learning experiences which include earning and investing $1,000; � a documented set of activities comprising comprehensive career development; � establishing college and community partnerships by participating in programs, and � activities outside school. For the Medford team, CAM planning at the Klamath Falls session became an exploration of what 13 years of public school experience should be for the community�s youth. Most important, each graduate ought to know what a Medford diploma means to them. CAM was seen as the way to that understanding. "Our goal isn�t that kids get a CAM, but that kids have a plan," said Long. "We ended up with a basic framework for what it is we want for our kids to get from our system ... a plan for grade 13, whatever that is ... a vision for their next step." If the next step is into a job, CAM should be the course work, research and experience to bring the student closer to his or her career goal. If grade 13 is going to be a freshman year in college, then CAM will correspond to a college major. CAM should be about the application of academics and the connection with adult life, said Long. What CAM won�t be, if Medford�s conference panel has its way, is something more for students to pass � another bunch of tests like CIM. Under the CAM plan, class work would be more tightly focused than typical of past junior and senior years, but any diligent student would graduate with a CAM. "If they are on track, they should be able to get a CAM," Long said. North and South Medford High Schools, like most schools in the region, still have work to do before handing out CAMs � and time yet in which to work. The state Department of Education expects CAM to be fully implemented for students graduating in 2006 � this year�s eighth-graders. This class will enter high school next fall, and many educators say they want some outline of CAM in place for them to begin considering. At least one Oregon high school, however, already has awarded CAMs. Four Klamath Falls students graduated with a certificate and a diploma this spring. How other schools define advanced mastery and create the CAM is up to local communities � parents, teachers, agencies, private business and, ultimately, students, said Van De Walker. "We understand that CAM is going to look different from district to district.�� Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA