Kansas FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES
National vision:
“To empower individuals and families across the life span to manage the challenges of living and working in a diverse global society. Our unique focus is on the family, careers and how they interrelate”.
WHAT IS FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES?
Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) is the comprehensive body of skills, research, and knowledge that helps people make informed decisions about their well being, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life. The field represents many areas, including human development, personal and family finance, housing and interior design, food science, nutrition, and wellness, textiles and apparel, and family relations. (Adapted from: www.aafcs.org)
WHAT IS FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES EDUCATION?
Family and Consumer Sciences Education introduce middle school and high school students to the skills and professions needed to meet the needs of individuals and families, be they their own or those they interact with. The skills learned are applied through experiential learning projects within the classroom and through the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) career and technical student organization. www.KSDE.org/KSFCCLA
Today’s FCS professionals practice in multiple settings. They are early childhood, middle-level, secondary, university/college, and Extension educators, administrators and managers, human service professionals, researchers, community volunteers, business people, and consultants who address the issues most important to our quality of life.
Family and Consumer Sciences Education directly addresses many of the issues of concern in today’s society including obesity prevention, bullying, personal and family finance and family relationships (see below for more information). It also introduces students to careers in the human services areas (early child, geriatrics, social work, credit counseling) as well as others (interior design, textile design, event planning/management, culinary arts and food science).
THE NEED FOR FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES EDUCATAORS IN KANSAS.
It is predicted that Kansas will need to fill approximately 1,000 FACS Education openings by 2018. (Source: www.onetonline.org). Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) Education is looking for enthusiastic, dedicated people to become middle and high school FACS teachers.
- High school graduates who want to earn a four-year degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education
- Adults who have a degree and/or work experience in a FACS-related career and want to become certified to teach.
You can make a difference in the lives of Kansas students. Contact the following universities to find out how you can earn a teaching degree in FACS Education in Kansas.
THE CAREER CLUSTER AND FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES CONNECTION
Kansas career and technical education (CTE) has adopted the career cluster model (www.careertech.org) . Kansas CTE is focused on building a skill set of employable skills in the CTE students enrolled. Family and Consumer Sciences Education addresses the Human Service areas directly, however courses can be found in eight other career clusters , in a total of twelve pathways. The course Intro. to Family and Consumer Sciences allows students to learn about all the pathways connected to FCS and as well provides an introduction to the unique field of FCS. To review course competencies and pathway design sheets, refer to the right side bar menu at the beginning of this webpage for links.
WHAT ISSUES DOES FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES ADDRESS IN TODAY’S SOCIETY?
FACS Ed addresses OBESITY :
*Nutrition and Wellness includes a study of basic nutrition which is a determining factor in an individual’s health and the health of those around them. Issues include wellness issues that affect nutrition and making sound nutrition decisions.
*Food Science links research to health by exploring nutrition through science principles to food related developments that affect health and nutrition related factors.
*Culinary Essentials is necessary to learn how to select and prepare foods safely for optimal health. (Research has linked the inability to cook to the obesity issue in today’s society.)
FCCLA National Programs that promote prevention: Student Body and Power of One—A Better You
FACS ED addresses Personal and Family Finance…
*Consumer and Personal Finance directly teaches Personal and Family Finance through the topics of budgeting, goal setting, consumer rights and responsibilities, and making sound financial decisions that impact individuals and their families, which are the skills financial professionals say are needed today.
*Career Life Planning helps students identify and plan for a successful future that includes setting education, career and personal goals. (See career development for additional information)
FCCLA National Programs that promotes positive financial and career decision making: Financial Fitness, Career Connection and Power of One—Working on Working
FACS ED addresses Bullying and healthy relationships…
*Family Studies addresses skills in relationship building, diversity, conflict resolution and communication skills that are needed to establish healthy relationships with peers and children and within families.
*The Targeting Life Skills Middle school curriculum directly addresses bullying prevention as well as other issues important to middle level students.
FCCLA National Programs that promote healthy relationships—STOP the Violence and Families First and Power of One---Families TIes
FACS ED addresses career development and employability…
*Career Life Planning can begin this process through interest inventories, goal setting and career exploration as students develop a plan for their personal and work life. (Taught at 8 or 9 grade level)
*Introduction to Human Services addresses those fields that are linked with providing for others in the human service profession from early child care to geriatrics.
*Career and Community Connections provides the opportunity for students to meet the needs of people and address community issues through service learning or internships with service professionals.
Additional FACS related occupational areas addressed include Interior and Textile Design, Culinary Arts, Event Planning and Management, K-12 Teaching and Government and Public Administration.
FCCLA National programs that promote employability skills—Career Connection, Leaders At Work, Dynamic Leadership and Power of One—Take the Lead and Working on Working
FACS ED addresses the NEEDS of people….
*Human Growth and Development includes a study of the developmental theories, ages and stages of human development from birth thru senior years.
* Orientation to Early Childhood and Foundations to Early Childhood addresses the skills need to provide for the needs of children from birth to age five including the role of the parent and childcare provider and care center design and procedures.
FCCLA National Programs promote families, children and communities—Community Service, Families Acting for Community Traffic Safety (FACTS), Dynamic Leadership and Power of One Families Ties and Take the Lead
RESEARCH THAT SUPPORTS THE NEED FOR FACS EDUCATION
Current Youth/Children Issues:
· Based upon the body mass index for children ages 10-17, 4.8 million children are classified as overweight and 5.1 million are classified as obese. 3
· 17% of all children, ages 6-17 are plagued with obesity related health issues. 4
· 53 of every 1000 children are born to unmarried women, ages 15-44; and of the 53, 22 are born to adolescent females ages 15-17.4
· 17 of every 100 children, ages 0-17 live in households where food is insecure, according to the USDA.4
· 20% of 8th-12th graders report smoking on a daily basis. 4
· 5% of children ages 4-17 had emotional and behavioral difficulties.4
· 12% of 12-17 year olds experienced major depressive episodes. 4
· 85% of the workforce in 2010 consisted of working parents, with working mothers outnumbering working fathers. 5
Family and Consumer Sciences Facts
· The need for quality child care is evident by the fact that 85% of the workforce are working parents. 5
· The Early Childhood area needs to fill 400,000 to 500,000 positions by 2018. 7
· Fifty percent of the fastest growing CTE programs are related to Early Childhood and Culinary Arts, which are both associated with higher than average employment growth.1
· FACS is the only CTE department to address the Human Services career cluster, the high demand fields which provide for the essential needs of children, families and the elderly.1
· Family and Consumer Sciences Education needs 552,000 teachers in the U.S. (960 in Kansas) by 2018.7
· Enrollment in approved FACS pathways generate additional funding to help offset the costs of offering them. 1
· The children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. They are the future parents and workforce who will face challenges of competing in a global society. Family and Consumer Sciences teaches strategies and empowers students to develop skills to overcome and/or effectively deal with the world around them. The skills learned are essential as they tackle the current issues of today.6
- Kansas FCS addresses the 21st century skills related to balancing work and family. Research proves that when your personal life is in order, work life is affected positively, a direct impact on all career areas. 8 (Source: http://www.familiesandwork.org/site/work/workforce/2002nscw.html )
CTE Facts
· 1 in 4 students “major” in CTE by completing 3 or more courses.2
· High school drop out rate was 4x higher for those students who were not involved with CTE as a 3.0 credit concentrator. 2
· CTE concentrators are more likely to go obtain post-secondary education than non-CTE concentrators.2
· There is no significant difference in college-readiness between CTE and non-CTE students as measured by the ACT test. 2
· 20% of jobs require a 4-yr degree, whereas 65% of the jobs require an associates or technical training.2
· Compensation for graduates with technical/associate degrees is rising faster than that for graduates with a bachelor’s degree, in fact 83% earn the same amount as a 4-yr degree holder.2
· Each year of high school CTE course completion is associated with almost 2% increase in annual earnings.2
· Studies have found increases in academic achievement in students with CTSO involvement as measured by standardized tests.2
· Students with disabilities showed significant improvement in post-school employment as a result of their CTE involvement.2
(Sources: 1. FACS Programs in Secondary Schools: Results of a National Survey, Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, Vol: 98 No. 1; pages 19-25, 2006; 2. Mulcahy, John, What Research Says About the Effectiveness of Career and Technical Education ,Peoria Unified School District, KACTE presenter, 2004.; 3. Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, 2007; 4. Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2009; 5. National Child Care Association, 2010; 6. Glover, E., South Carolina State Department of Education, Facts about FACS, May, 2010; 7. www.onetonline.org; 8. http://www.familiesandwork.org/site/work/workforce/2002nscw.html)
PROFESSIONAL AND SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS:
American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences--www.aafcs.org
National Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences— www.natfacs.org
Kansas Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences— www.katfacs.org