Lynn Tech receives JFYNet Award

LYNN – Despite a limited technology infrastructure and a smaller amount of academic classroom time in the school’s schedule, Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute has been able to achieve academic success and infiltrate new technology in to the school’s curriculum as education continues to change along with technology.Because of this effort, faculty members from LVTI were presented with the fifth-annual JFYNet Achievement Award earlier this month at the State House in Boston.JFYNetWorks is a non-profit education and workforce development agency based in Boston. The agency conducts computerized education programs throughout Massachusetts, including at LVTI, in an effort to further learning and technology development in local schools.The JFYNet Achievement Awards are given each year by the organization to select schools, individuals and community agencies that have made “significant contributions to the cause of improving student achievement in Massachusetts through the use of the organization’s computerized education program.”The awardees are honored for their demonstrated capacity for innovative thinking and their “determination to create the best possible learning environment for students,” for using the power of technology embodied in JFYNet to make their classrooms a source of energy and hope for their students, and for helping move public education in Massachusetts into the digital age.For the first time in the award’s five-year history, JFYNetWorks chose to honor vocational schools exclusively with the awards, because of the added challenges facing those students in the new MCAS-intensive curriculum.Schools like LVTI, where students focus on a specific vocation spending the majority of the day in shops preparing for a career after school, are still required to meet state-sanctioned marks on the MCAS test, which focuses on math, science and English. With less time in the classroom studying these subjects, teachers are faced with the challenge of keeping students’ skills sharp as they head into the standardized tests.As part of the effort at LVTI, faculty have integrated creative technology programs to help students advance academically and further understand cutting-edge technology that they will need when entering the workforce.”We are honoring vocational schools this year because these hard-working institutions get too little notice for the academic work that they do,” said JFYNetWorks Executive Director Gary Kaplan. “They are held to the same standards of academic performance even though they only have half of the academic class time of non-vocational schools. That they can still get the job done is a testament to their efficiency.”Kaplan said in the company’s experience working with LVTI students and faculty, the school has shown a commitment to academic excellence.”Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute has made good use of JFYNet with a limited technology infrastructure,” he said. “Their teaching staff is enthusiastic and creative.”Awards were also presented to Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, the Malden Public Schools, Timony Grammar School (Methuen), North Shore Technical High School, Shawsheen Valley Technical High School, Randolph Community Middle School, Superintendent Richard H. Silverman of Randolph, Superintendent Ralph E. Hicks of Spencer-East Brookfield, Superintendent Arthur W. Stellar of Taunton, Sen. Joan M. Menard, Rep. Patricia A. Haddad, Sen. Robert A. Antonioni, Mayor Richard C. Howard of Malden and Secretary of Education Paul Reville.