The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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PETITION OF:
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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PETITION OF:
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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.
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An Act recognizing vocational technical learning in educational assessment. |
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to immediately provide for an appropriate recognition of vocational-technical learning in educational assessment in the commonwealth, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Section 1D of Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as
appearing in the 1998 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out lines
85-93, inclusive, and inserting in place thereof the following:—
(iii) The “certificate of occupational proficiency” shall be awarded to
students who successfully complete a comprehensive education and training
program in a particular trade or professional skill area and who have
successfully completed an academic assessment tailored to the particular
academic objectives of vocational educational programs. The occupational
component of the certificate of occupational proficiency shall reflect a determination
that the recipient has demonstrated mastery of a core of skills, competencies
and knowledge comparable to that possessed by students of equivalent age
entering the particular trade or profession from the most educationally
advanced education systems in the world. The academic component of the
certificate of occupational proficiency shall be designed to measure the
specific academic competencies most central to the particular trade or
professional skill area in which the student has pursued a course of study, and
shall take into account the additional, non-traditional academic
accomplishments inherent in a vocational educational program.
The academic and educational components of the certificate of occupational
proficiency shall be developed by the board after consultation with and an
opportunity for effective input by local vocational education administrators
recommended by the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators.
Separate standards shall be developed for each particular trade or professional
skill area. Attainment of a certificate of occupational proficiency shall
satisfy, as a condition for high school graduation, the requirements of a
competency determination under Clause (i) of this section, provided that no
student enrolled in a program of vocational education shall be required, as a
condition of graduation from high school, to attain either a competency
determination or a certificate of occupational proficiency until the fourth
school year following the promulgation by the board of the standards for a
certificate of occupational proficiency for the particular trade or
professional skill area in which the student has pursued or is pursuing a
course of study.