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A new short report from Advance CTE and the Education Strategy Group provides some valuable insights into how state policymakers are thinking about preparing high school students for work. But it also highlights one of today’s big K-12 challenges: finding the right balance between getting students to aim for college or career.
Interested in reading more on K-12 education? Visit this selection on Giving Compass.
Under the new federal education law, states are submitting new school accountability systems to Washington; 17 states submitted plans in the first round. The report looks at whether states elevated career readiness in their accountability systems. Thanks to the flexibility of the new federal law and the public demands that we better prepare more high school graduates for work, states have the opportunity to redefine what it means to succeed in high school. So instead of aiming to make acquisition of a high school diploma synonymous with “ready for a four-year college,” states can prioritize the acquisition of work-ready skills.
New research by Hanushek and Woesmann adds to this discussion. They warn that over-emphasizing apprenticeships and CTE-style schooling may harm individuals’ long-term work prospects. “We find clear evidence that the initial labor-market advantage of vocational relative to general education decreases with age.” That is, helping young people acquire work-ready skills can help them land early work, but it can inhibit their ability to be prepared for changes down the line.
Vocational education has been promoted largely as a way of improving the transition from schooling to work, but it also appears to reduce the adaptability of workers to technological and structural change in the economy.
With so much changing in the world of work, so much excitement about new skills providers, and so much need to get people to work, there’s a danger that state K-12 policymakers could overcorrect and force schools to focus too much on the high school-to-work pipeline. We have to remember that the college-for-all mentality of the last generation came about for a reason: Too few students were prepared for college.
The development, submission, review, and approval of ESSA accountability plans is a window into how states are trying to find the balance.