Summary

Ashley Meyn

Engl 250

A.R. Mallory

January 27, 2014

Since our society is constantly changing and adding many new aspects each year, it is important to make sure that our youth are provided with the skills and education necessary to thrive in this new fast paced environment. The state of Mississippi was struggling, like many states, with issues concerning violence, child poverty, teen pregnancy and a massive increase in the technological advances. Youth was in dire need of instruction on how to cope and combat these issues in the most appropriate ways possible.

Although many states face the issues described above, Mississippi is particularly unique in the sense that it ranks 49^th.

Child poverty and teen pregnancy rates are higher than the national average and continue to rise. Many of the decisions that lead to such issues are made by teens that currently lack the education that would provide them with knowledge and how to better understand the decisions they are making. As a nation it is our duty to take on these issues and contribute to the well being of these children; after all, today’s youth will be tomorrow’s leaders.

According to Sheri Lokken, a professor at Mississippi State University, family and consumer sciences professionals took the initiative and developed a curriculum that was based on meeting these newfound issues head on with support from technology based classrooms. It was decided that the first three years of the program would be considered a beta in order to gather more information so as to analyze and enhance the way in which we go about teaching this new information.

In 1994, the Mississippi state government passed and funded Mississippi house bill 1467. The bill stated that, “Before 1997 all local school districts shall provide programs of education in family and consumer sciences in grades 10-12, which include coursework in responsible parenting and family living skills”. (Lokken, Preliminary impacts of an innovative FCS curriculum, Iowa State University E-Library). In addition, the committee formed to produce these new programs recommended adding courses that pertain to: nutrition and wellness, family and individual health, personal development, child development, and resource management. Along with the subject of the course, professionals from secondary schools, college faculty, and the MDE outlined several other aspects of the course including: credits, length of the course, competency levels, suggested objectives, and teaching and assessment strategies. Along with the education based features, the course creators factored in such details as requirement for the classrooms, software and materials needed for each course, and an array of other facets that detailed how these courses would be taught in newly improved classrooms.

In order to more easily incorporate the new framework for the courses, teachers are to be trained for two weeks in the summer, prior to the beginning of the school year. The training included the foundation of understanding concerning the six new courses, how to use and teach with the new technology acquired, and also a proficiency test that required each teacher to create and present a 20 minute PowerPoint lesson on one of the various topics relating to one of the six courses. Each presentation was also copied and distributed to participants in order to build an arsenal of teaching resources that will be useful in the classrooms.

As in this case study, the course content of Family and Consumer Sciences does have a significant role in the overall education children are sent out of high school with. Though the program has not been around very long, it has already shown positive impacts on pregnancy statistics.  It has worked in this state, and can be affective in other states as well.

Bibliography

Lokken, Sheri L. "Preliminary Impacts of an Innovative FCS Curriculum." Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences 93.4 (2001): 58-62. Iowa State University. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://mars.lib.iastate.edu:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=viewOnlineTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=TN_ericEJ634101&indx=1&recIds=TN_ericEJ634101&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=0&fctN=facet_frbrgroupid&vl(192264181UI1)=all_items&frbrVersion=2&scp.scps=scope%3A%28ISU%29%2Cprimo_central_multiple_fe&fctV=6411965212512181597&tab=default_tab&dstmp=1391195690572&srt=rank&mode=Basic&tb=t&vl(freeText0)=Preliminary%20Impacts%20of%20an%20Innovative%20FCS%20Curriculum&vid=ISU0&frbg=6411965212512181597&vl(203425888UI0)=any&dum=true&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&gathStatIcon=true >.