Is it time for high school students to start choosing majors? A significant number of American teenagers graduate from high school unprepared to take their next big steps toward adulthood, according to a study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education.
More than 40 percent of high schoolers do not follow a college preparatory track or take adequate career and technical education courses, and these missed opportunities can leave young people at a disadvantage after graduation when they enroll in college or look for a job, according to Stefanie DeLuca, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins, and Regina Deil-Amen of the University of Arizona.
Creating an underclass of students
“This group is a virtual underclass of students who are neither college-ready nor in an identifiable career curriculum,” DeLuca said. “They are likely to depart from high school having taken classes mainly from the high school general curriculum in which they received little to no job preparation or guidance. This group is also less likely to enroll in college, but if they do, they enroll at a remedial level and leave before earning a degree. Either path places them at risk for failure.”
DeLuca and Deil-Amen’s study, “The Underserved Third: How Our Educational Structures Populate an Educational Underclass,” was published by the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk in April 2010.
Analyzing data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study along with other studies, DeLuca and Deil-Amen found that today’s high schoolers fall into three categories: those on a college preparatory track, making up an estimated one-third of the student body; those who prepare for the post-graduation labor force through career and technical education programs, making up a quarter of the student population; and the more than 40 percent of high school students who don’t have access to adequate college preparation or occupational training.
The college-track students were disproportionately white and of higher socioeconomic status, and the most unprepared students were the poorest, disproportionately underrepresented minority students, immigrant English language learner, and first-generation college students.
For some students who delay preparation for four-year colleges or jobs while in high school, two-year colleges seem like a second chance. Some students manage to meet the requirements for highly selective two-year community college programs or make it through expensive occupational programs at for-profit colleges—both options can prepare them for more lucrative jobs. However, many others end up in less selective two-year degree programs and often don’t complete the requirements. When they do, such programs may lead to less economically rewarding jobs, DeLuca and Deil-Amen wrote.
To combat these problems, the researchers support the fusion of both career and academic curricula in high school to provide more feasible methods of opening up career and college options for all.
Georgia's 17 Career Pathway Clusters
The state of Georgia is about start requiring ninth graders to pick a career path and follow a class schedule that's at least partially tailored to it. Georgia's career pathway clusters include:
1) Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
2) A/V Technology and Communications
3) Architecture and Construction
4) Business, Management and Administration
5) Education and Training
6) Finance
7) Government and Public Administration
8) Health Science
9) Hospitality and Tourism
10) Human Services
11) Information Technology
12) Manufacturing
13) Marketing, Sales and Service
14) Public Safety and Security
15) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
16) Transportation, Distribution and Logistics
17) Energy
The objective is to raise career and college readiness for all students. Career pathways initiatives of some degree are already in place in most states. But next fall will be the first time that they become a mandate for all Georgia ninth graders.
State of Georgia School Superintendent John Barge and key lawmakers say the state has to make this move, if students are to have hope of getting the jobs of the future -- nearly half of which are forecast to go to people with an associate degree or occupational certificate.
“We must change how and what we do in K-12 education,” Barge said. The status quo isn't working, given the remedial courses required of many Georgia college students and the business community's complaint that many graduates entering the work force lack essential skills, he said.
