Career Academics

By pairing up core-subject teachers with traditional voc. ed. instructors, a Michigan district tries to show that rigor can be built into vocational programs.

Lawrence, Mich.

One teacher was a carpenter long before he taught his first class. He paid his way through college working construction, started his own contracting business, and still makes cabinets and renovates houses in his spare time.

The other teacher’s passion is math and science. He is certified in both of those subjects and has a master’s degree in physics. But when he was building the roof on his house years ago, he realized he didn’t know how to do a crucial calculation with a framing square. So he relied on trigonometry instead.

Despite their divergent talents, Joe Stegman and Ken Mroczek can be found every Friday afternoon teaching the same high school construction-trades class here at Van Buren Technology Center. They’re just one of many two-person instructional teams this Michigan vocational school uses to weave more rigorous academic study into its courses. It’s a strategy that some observers predict other vocational programs will embrace to bolster their academics and attempt...