Educators, CPI take global perspective

He Xinping has a goal to help reduce the dropout rate among students at vocational technical schools.

She’s the principal of BN Vocational School in Hainan Province, China.

The school she oversees doesn’t necessarily have a high dropout rate, but others in China do, Xinping said.

“It is very, very high,” she said. “Our goal is to help in their education to find sustainable jobs, and I want to see what makes (the Central Pennsylvania Institution of Science and Technology) successful.”

Xinping was among other Penn State College of Education Hubert H. Humphrey fellows who visited the Centre County-based career technical school Thursday afternoon.

The fellowship program allows professionals from other countries to spend about a year at a participating university in the United States for non-degree graduate-level study, leadership development and professional education opportunities.

The idea was sparked after Xinping met CPI President Richard Makin at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair, and they found a mutual passion for career technical education.

The event included 10 fellows — all educators — from institutions from around the world, including Moscow State University in Russia; the Ministry of Education in Moldova; Ministry of Education and Science in Armenia; University of Buea in Cameroon; and International University of Sarajeva in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The goal of the seminar and tour was to help the fellows get a better understanding of how a technical education school operates locally.

“The concept and model is very similar to us,” Xinping said. “We work closely with the local industry to make sure they’re (the students) ready for the workforce, but perhaps a bigger problem is keeping them in.”

The school she helps run primarily serves underprivileged youth, and it educates about 100 students a year in hospitality and engineering programs.

This year, CPI has about 520 secondary students and about 230 in postsecondary programs.

Vice President of Secondary Education MaryAnn Volders said CPI has a less than 5 percent dropout rate among high school students and prides itself on programs that align secondary curriculum with what CPI administrators called “affordable postsecondary” education in technical career fields.

“I think we actually help save these kids,” Volders said. “It saves them from dropping out of school.”

CPI is a career technical school that serves as an alternative secondary school for students in Bald Eagle, Bellefonte and Penns Valley area school districts, which allows them to learn a trade while still getting a high school diploma.

The three public schools help fund CPI’s annual budget.

Other funds come from tuition that CPI charges for postsecondary education programs.

While the mission Thursday was to help bring career technical education ideas to educators from around the world, Makin said he also hopes to learn from them.

“I think this is just the starting point to something that can be mutually beneficial,” Makin said. “The goal is to set up more meetings like this and foster this relationship.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Educators, CPI take global perspective."