Technical Assistance to Schools

Through a grant from the Vermont Department of Education, VWW held its first annual Gender Equity conference in 1999. For two years, teams of Vermont educators from schools throughout the state attended the conference to focus on the needs of their individual schools. Developed for the conference, VWW's Gender Equity Toolbox is a manual that addresses best practices, harassment, school environment, and diversity, among other topics.

VWW provides assistance and support to individual technical centers in their efforts to recruit, retain, and support nontraditional students in their programs. In this capacity, VWW has been engaged in a consultative role at five schools in the state: Center for Technology, Essex, Southeast Career Development Center, Cold Hollow Career Center, River Valley Technical Center and Randolph Area Vocational Center. We're engaged in two primary spheres of activity:

• Identifying important issues and perceptions that affect school climate and, by extension, nontraditional student enrollment and retention;
• Outlining strategies that are likely to make a difference in a school's capacity to recruit, support, and retain nontraditional students, male and female.

Our work can take the following specific forms:

1. In-service training designed to help school personnel define the concept of gender equity, establish a framework within which school personnel can begin addressing issues of climate, recruitment, and retention, and develop a shared commitment within the adult school community to addressing those issues.

2. Identifying ways in which course materials, room decor, and teaching strategies can better support nontraditional students. Through classroom observations and individual meetings with a core group of self-selected teacher volunteers, VWW will provide ongoing assistance to help school personnel ensure that their classrooms and academic programs are equitable and safe.

3. Working with school personnel to support them in recruiting nontraditional students by organizing Career Challenge Days, in- or after-school or weekend workshops for middle and high school students, outreach to parents, making presentations to sending schools, and by actively engaging students in recognizing the value of a diverse classroom and in the work of recruiting nontraditional students.

4. Identifying and enlisting the participation of nontraditional professionals who can serve as role models, mentors, and as co- or guest teachers. This work would be ongoing and responsive to faculty needs and interests.

5. Integrating selections from VWW program curricula (relating to team-building, communication, job interview skills, and goal setting, for example) into existing academic programs.

6. Developing strategies to better welcome and integrate pre-tech and nontraditional students upon their arrival.

7. Working with interested nontraditional students to sponsor student-led workshops at VWW's annual Women Can Do Conference.