Photo: Wakulla Middle School technology teacher Jessica Mapes helps a Wakulla Middle School student

Wakulla County Schools Release: Middle School Students Earn Technology High School Credit and Industry Certifications

February 22, 2013

Riversprings Middle School and Wakulla Middle School students are learning technology skills that will prepare them for careers and college. In addition, they are earning high school credit and industry certifications they can apply towards jobs in a course called Computing for College and Careers (CCC).

Technology teachers Scott Rossow at RMS and Jessica Mapes at WMS agreed to implement this first year of teaching a high school credit technology course because they felt that some of their 8th grade students were ready to do advanced work. Forty-three students are now in the process of earning industry certifications in the Microsoft Office “bundle” such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Students can earn one or more of the certifications and then continue on at Wakulla High School in Career and Technical (CTE) programs such as Digital Design, Web Design, and Accounting, which also have more industry certifications. Or, they can use the CCC class as their high school graduation requirement in CTE if they do not choose to go on in those areas.

Even the WHS Engineering Academy implemented this year is realizing that CCC is a must for working with the Autodesk Inventor software that students will earn industry certification in if they pursue the Engineering Technology program.

Rossow and Mapes report that students are being highly successful in the class. Some have already earned one or more of the certifications.

Notes Superintendent Robert Pearce, “We want to offer our students more and more opportunities to be successful as they prepare for college and careers. Technology is something that touches every job they could possibly pursue. ”

Wakulla High School CTE teacher Hunter Tucker and Career Specialist Sarabeth Jones met with Rossow and Mapes over the summer and helped them replicate the CCC course just as it is taught at WHS according to Florida Department of Education state standards. States Jones, “We look forward to middle school students coming to WHS with some of their college and career skills already underway. Middle school students are incredibly capable of achieving industry certifications they can use to give them an advantage in the job market.”