The U.S. on the other hand has a monumental disdain for anything that smacks of "tracking." The result is that an unacceptably high number of students choose to drop out of high school, or pay for vocational training after high school. Too many of our adolescents know that they have no interest in pursuing college, and yet, that seems to be the only option our educational system wants to prepare them for.
Of the 18,000 public high schools in the U.S., about 900 are vocational (or about 5%) according to the U.S. Department of Education statistics. Why the disdain? Why are we so reluctant to encourage teens to pursue careers as welders, electricians, computer technicians, or health care workers? These are good jobs and for many students, learning something useful would be better than marking time in a "comprehensive" high school completing low level academic courses.
The Economist article raises a good point.
America has a unique disdain for vocational education. . . . . However, many Americans hate the idea of schoolchildren setting out on career paths—such predetermination, they think, threatens the ethos of opportunity.This is the same sort of thinking (the every child is a unique snowflake thinking) that led us to such destructive curricular choices in K-12 education. In our attempts to educate every single child in their own unique way (differentiated instruction with whole inclusion of SPED), we have adopted curricula that are a mile wide, an inch deep, and so obsessed with not offending anyone at any time, that it fails to meet the fundamental objective of actually educating the kids.
Vocational and technical (now called Career and Technical Education or CTE) is so despised, that few kids are ever encouraged to pursue it, despite the clear benefits of higher wages and less time in training. The Economist article found statistics that show adult men with CTE training were more likely to be married and to have a 17% higher income.
The discussion following the Finland Phenomenon highlighted how badly we serve the needs of our youth with our current system. By age 25, the U.S. has a terrible record of achievement -- only 30% of 25 year old have completed a 4 year college degree and only an additional 10% have earned a 2 year associates degree. That means that 60% of our 25 year olds are either in the category of "some college" or no college. With results like that, its time to rethink our cultural disdain for vocational education.
Vocational training threatens the "ethos of opportunity"???! And boredom doesn't? When I have been sick and have laid on the couch and watched television of an afternoon, 50% of the ads are for personal injury lawyers and the other 50% are for post-high school vocational schools. And the ads for the vocational schools will often have an "I was going nowhere" testimonial to precede the meat of the ad. That's because a lot of people watching television in the middle of the afternoon are people recovering from something or young people who either did not go to college or who had "some college" and cannot find a job. Why kids have to waste their time in high school essentially serving as extras in a reality show for the so-called academic achievers is insufferable.
ReplyDeleteI am becoming increasingly frustrated with blogger. It just ate another comment. Argh.
ReplyDeleteI'll try again. My own thinking on CTE is evolving. Like many parents, I want to keep the college option available to as many students as possible, and I want every single kid that wants to go to college to have the eduction they need to succeed there. The GI Bill after World War II sent many untraditional students to college that might never have gone before -- leading to an explosion in living standards and opportunities. The American dream has been built in no small way on the belief that college was not just for the wealthy and well-connected.
ReplyDeleteWe've been pursuing the idea that college for all was possible. We've transformed our high schools to gear everyone toward the idea that they could (and should) go to college.
ReplyDeleteBut the drop out rate and the low college completion rates tell a story at odds with our more democratic, egalitarian ideals. We need kids to be prepared for good jobs that demand skills, just as much as we need college to be open and attainable.
But we have no reliable or fair method of sorting kids between college and vocational education tracks. I can't imagine permitting the 8th grade guidance counselors at any school I've ever known to wield that kind of power. Nor would I want a 13 year old to make a decision that clearly shuts doors to the future.
It's NOT up to the system to sort the kids. Children begin to sort themselves at around 14 or 15. Teenagers have access to so much more than their grandparents or parents in terms of information, technology and resources. What has happened is that college has become the narrow gate through which all must pass, either with or without collecting a degree. This is a waste of time and money. In Finland, 16-yr-olds are the ones making decisions about whether to choose a vocational track or not. And what's the deal with this "golden window" ... if you don't enter college as an 18-yr-old, then those doors are shut to your forever?!! Most decidedly not. Those GIs returning from WWII who took advantage of the GI Bill were in their twenties and sometimes thirties (like my dad, God rest his soul.) College for all is possible ... just maybe not everyone going at the same time or the same age.
ReplyDeleteCTE was invented to allow students the choice of either a vocational or college career. Supposedly, it works by requiring students to take the minimum math,science, and other requirements that would allow them to fulfill college entrance requirements, while also having them take vocational classes. (This was explained to me in this way by the principal of our local high school). Thus, students can still choose to go to college rather than set off on a track that doesn't lead there. The problem with this thinking is what Lynne points out in her post, which is that the core courses are so watered down because of "full inclusion" that even the college-track students have been jeopardized. The elimination of "ability grouping" (because it looks like "tracking"--it isn't) has resulted in teachers having to teach algebra classes which contain some students who don't even know basic arithmetic.
ReplyDeleteI'm also distressed by what passes for vocational education. In the Department of Education statistics, public high schools claim that over 90% of students graduate with at least one vocational education class. This could be as mundane as a personal finance course where students are exposed to a variety of concepts, like credit cards, car loans, and checking accounts, among other things.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the courses my kids have taken (and their friends) and it would be a gross exaggeration to claim that what is counted as a "vocational" course is remotely likely to prepare kids for a skilled job.
I work at the vocational county school. I am an "academic subject" teacher. We take students from the whole county , but mainly from the city areas. We offer about 30 career paths, including carpenters, landscape designers, IT tech, and nursing. We are selective, and the school can send a student back to the district school - if there are severe discipline problems or if he/she fails the "shop". If academics are failed (up to 4 classes), then the student can take summer/evening classes. From another point, we also offer a good number of AP/college credit classes in all academic subjects, including the ones that may be required for a student to continue education at the college level. For instance, I teach Anatomy and Physiology I (4 college credits from UMDNJ) for medical paths and criminal justice students, and next year I will also teach Biology I and II (5 college credits from Syracuse Univ.) Vocational schooling (if done properly)does not limit the students' choices in life, but rather gives them means of having "a trade in hands" just in case.
ReplyDeleteExo
Thanks, Exo!
ReplyDeleteYour school sounds like it should be a model for the right way to do vocational and technical education. As a society, we need to get past our biases and offer kids good choices to get the skills they need and want.