Should high school prepare you for college, or for work?

Many teachers and school leaders regard this as a false choice; school should prepare you for either, right? Certainly, the Common Core State Standards were developed with the idea that all students should graduate from high school prepared for both college and career, so that the course of their high school education would not limit their life options.

California's high schools once had a strong emphasis on career. For example, in 1987 nearly three-quarters of high school students were enrolled in courses explicitly designed to prepare them for a career. By 2014-15 that share had shrunk: somewhat less than half of California high school students were participating in courses deemed to have a career-oriented purpose, according to US Department of Education data from the Perkins Collaborative Resource Network. These courses, once known as "vocational education", are now generally known as Career and Technical Education (CTE).

Listen to Carol's interview with Eric Rice, Director of College & Career Pathways in the San Francisco Unified School District

California has had several systems for the delivery of CTE: middle school and high school courses, as well as community colleges, private universities and colleges. Historically, career-oriented programs received a combination of state and federal funding for career centers in high schools, which in most cases included a physical location. When those centers were cut, career support was turned into a program under the name Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCPs). Today, if a career program exists in your school district it has probably jettisoned the name "ROC" and rebranded with a name like "linked learning program" rather than ROC. Here's why: with the shift to the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) during the Great Recession, dedicated funds for most categorical programs, were combined to give school districts increased control over their (smaller) budgets. Some districts eliminated ROC programs in high schools, relying on community colleges to pick up the slack.

At the same time, another consensus emerged that the success of a high school or a district should not be defined only by its ability to produce graduates ready for college. Career readiness should be a goal, too — all students should have access to many pathways to success.

As the Great Recession eased, the California legislature recommitted funds to career education in the form of grants through the California Career Pathways Trust (CCPT). K-12 school districts and county offices of education can compete for these grants along with community colleges and other programs.

Differing Views on CTE

Vocationally-oriented programs, when effective, can provide a "pipeline" connection between high schools and employers. On one hand, this type of program is great, right? Participating students graduate directly to jobs in their community, and local employers build a deep connection with local schools. For some students, CTE helps increase their motivation and engagement with school by connecting schoolwork with the real world.

On the other hand, such pipelines raise civil rights concerns. A long-term study of economic microdata in the United States and other countries shows that over the course of time, students that pursue a career-oriented track in school tend to have "less adaptability and diminished employment later in life." If schools direct low-income students and students of color into career-oriented courses rather than college-oriented ones, they perpetuate economic divisions.

According to a 2016 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Californians broadly agree with the statement that "a college education is necessary for a person to be successful in today's work world." The poll found particular agreement with the statement among respondents who were nonwhite or who had lower household incomes. Only respondents who were white or who had higher incomes were more likely to agree with the statement "there are many ways to succeed in today's work world without a college education."

Source: PPIC statewide survey "Californians & Higher Education", Dec 2016.

Linked Learning

A high school reform strategy called Linked Learning attempts to put the idea of preparing all students for both college and career into practice. The idea is to develop programs that, according to advocates, can provide all students with access to a different kind of high school education, integrating rigorous academic instruction with a demanding technical curriculum and work-based learning. This approach, when well implemented, gives students opportunities to "learn by doing" in a work setting, sometimes including formal internships. Precedents exist in California and nationally in the form of career or partnership academies. Research on the effectiveness of Linked Learning programs has shown particularly positive results for Latino students.

College is not for me.
I want to work and earn.
Teach me what I need to know
so I can work and learn!

Career Pathways

California has been taking a long, winding road toward career readiness as a goal for students, partly because definitions can be slippery. What does "career ready" mean? In 2005, the California State Board of Education(SBE) took a step toward concreteness by adopted a comprehensive set of CTE model curriculum standards designed for grades 7-12. The standards specified research-based learning goals in 58 career pathways in 15 industry sectors. The standards reflected both general knowledge and specific career-related skills. In 2013, the State Board adopted model curriculum standards for Career Technical Education aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

In 2016, Education Trust-West examined the role of career-oriented courses in students' "pathways" after high school. In a study titled Meandering toward Graduation: Transcript Outcomes of High School Graduates, the authors document extensive mismatches in which courses students take vs. what they ought to take in order to be ready for college or career.

Over a fifth of career-oriented high school courses taken in California in 2014-15 were in "arts, audio-visual and communications" subjects

In 2018, as part of the Getting Down to Facts II project, researchers from UC Davis and elsewhere examined the success of CTE Pathways in A Portrait of California Career Technical Education Pathway Completers. A key motivating question of this study was to look for evidence of academic harm. Are there important patterns in which students have access to CTE courses? When students are offered career-oriented courses, do they lose interest in math and reading?

On average, the study found little difference:

The California School Dashboard evaluates completion of a CTE pathway as an indicator of College and Career Success. (More about the California School Dashboard in Lesson 9.7)

The study found that with few exceptions (most of them in charter schools) students in California high schools have access to career courses. However, only a small proportion of high school students complete a career pathway. In about 150 high schools in California, more than 50% of the 2015-2016 graduating class completed CTE pathways. In 22 schools, all graduates completed CTE pathways. The study found that students' academic performance on the California School Dashboard varies with the pathway completed.

Internships

Internships for high school students are rare. High school students fortunate enough to land an internship gain experiences that can help them see their own future in a way that classroom experiences alone cannot deliver. An internship can also assist a student with determining whether or not they are on the right career path. And it’s often the first time that they must prepare a resume and practice job-interviewing skills.

Setting up effective internships is challenging. Schools must include local employers in planning and developing educational programs. Crossing organizational boundaries to create public-private partnerships has proved difficult. School districts have the authority to invest such programs, but tradeoffs are always difficult to make.

Unsurprisingly, the internet has sprouted solutions that savvy students can use to search for internships and other opportunities, such as idealist.org.

Buzzword Summary

All of the following buzzwords relate to efforts to combine learning and career. Pay attention, now - there could be a test. Just sayin'.

• Linked Learning
• Vocational Education
• Career Technical Education (CTE)
• Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCPs)
• Internships

Notice that "blended learning" is not on this list? That's because blended learning refers to the use of technology for learning in classrooms. Ah, the joys of education jargon...

Divided opinion

No, there is not universal agreement that all high schools should emphasize CTE, or support internships, or use the Linked Learning approach. CTE has opponents as well as advocates. Some college advocates view CTE as a distraction from the hard work of creating and executing successful college-preparatory programs.

Realistically, not all students (or parents) want the same things out of their high school education, but nearly all see some college or other postsecondary education in their future. School districts need to be equipped to deliver both types of instruction at a high level of quality and in a way that no student is shut out from the classes they need.

Updated July 2017.
Updated November 2018.