The IVE League Incorporated

IVE is a dynamic program, it will never be completely finished because it is designed to respond to changing needs of the students and the communities in which they live--whether that community is a small town, a major urban environment, or the global economy of the next century. The only element that will not change is the fundamental requirement that IVE programs provide an education which enables students to follow any career choices they select. 16. "Why should I support your program instead of some other worthy cause?" Because we represent you and the changes you want to see in contemporary public education. We have decided to work in the general public arena (as opposed to the politically-controlled systems) for several reasons. The first of these is that we--as parents, teachers, administrators, business people--recognize there is no better investment in our nation's future (and therefor in our own future) than a strong, effective, and consistently applied education system. For the past thirty years we have concentrated on educating two generations of college-bound students, seemingly ignoring the fact that college is not the preferred educational goal of more than 70 percent of the population. So while we have seen the cost of education rise steadily, we have seen it seemingly less and less able to motivate and hold the average student. More tragic, however, is that in our efforts to educate everybody, we seem to be losing the high-end student at almost the same rate as the low-end student. We are seeing drop-out rates (the numbers of students who do not graduate within the same cohort they began their education) of fifty percent and higher in many areas. And most educators seem not to recognize or are choosing to ignore the reason for this escalation--the students simply are not motivated. As a result we are also seeing a rise in welfare dependency, a rise in crime statistics, a rise in unwed and teen-age pregnancies, and a rise in single-parent families. Here are two statistics you might want to consider. It costs society more to maintain an individual on welfare that it does to send them through Harvard or Stanford. We regularly spend almost three times more to keep an individual in prison that we spend to educate him or her. Now, is there any more worthwhile or important program than one which has even the potential of motivating students to stay in school. 17. "Do students need anything special to succeed in Integrated Vocational Education courses?" When completed, the IVE program will span the seventh through twelfth grades--middle school through high school--so we would expect the student to have successfully completed the fifth grade. But the IVE program is designed in such a way as to have a certain amount of remediation built in to it so previous levels of accomplishment in a traditional environment are not any measure of anticipated IVE performance. At a minimum, however, the student should be able to read and write the or her native language (at the present time, all materials are being prepared in English) and have a fundamental ability in math. 18. "How does Integrated Vocational Education deal with Special Needs Education programs?" Special needs students will always have special needs. IVE will not change that reality. But the techniques which improve general education--like peer teaming, conflict resolution, and group leadership training should be effective in many special education environments as well. Moreover, with an understanding of multiple intelligences and neuro-linguistic techniques that is part of the IVE program, teachers should find it easier and more comfortable to work with students which, up to now, have been identified as "problem" students. 19. "Who is behind the Integrated Vocational Education program?" The driving force behind the IVE League is Founder and Executive Director Donald E. Werve, Jr., M.Ed. He founded the parent corporation of IVE League in 1984 and started actual development and refinement of the IVE concept in about 1991; not so much as a broad education reform as to find out what could be done to answer some of the critics of American Public Education. As part of this research, he recruited small groups of teachers, school administrators, community business owners and managers, working parents, and students to answer three questions: What do you feel are the most important functions of a public education system? Are you satisfied that today's public education system is performing those functions? If you think changes are necessary, how would you like to see the system change? He originally intended to use the answers he received to create several articles on public impressions of American education. But the answers they found demanded more! 20. "Who pays the bills for all this work?" The same people who are paying the bills right now--which means you and me! But these bills are not in addition to what we are already paying. IVE is not something else added on. It is a different way of doing what public education is already trying to do: We live in an educated society. IVE is not a "bill" for some expense that will never end. It is an opportunity to make an investment in the future of American education; one that will provide a greater benefit than the money we are already spending. Insofar as the development costs, most of those costs have been covered up to now by out-of-pocket expenditures of the people who have worked on the development. There have also been individual and corporate supporters, but our operating budget has never exceeded $5,000 in any given year. That, however, will change as IVE development moves to the next most logical stage--the development of a charter school that is run using IVE learning concepts and materials.. So as a second answer to your question, we are hoping the answer will become "Everybody. You, your friends, neighbors, and business associates." We are hoping you believe, as we obviously do, that Integrated Vocational Education is an answer to the needs of 21st century students--worldwide! We invite you to become a member of the organization or, at the very least. take out your wallet, purse, or checkbook and make your contribution to the future. 21. "What do you want from me?" At the risk of repeating ourselves, we are not much different in out needs than many other broad societal endeavors. Continuing development of a program like IVE needs three things: People.