Kate Kreamer has watched high school juniors and seniors decide they want to be architects, only then to run into a familiar problem.
They haven’t taken physics, Algebra 2, or other high school courses that are “actually going to set them up to be able to get into an architecture program,” said Kreamer, the executive director of Advance CTE, an organization that advocates for career-focused education.
That type of disconnect is one reason why it’s important to begin nurturing students’ thinking about potential careers earlier, such as in middle school, she said.
A national report released this week makes a similar case, on a larger scale. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on Opportunities After High School says the United States gives students plenty of choices but too little direction in exploring education and workforce options, post-high school, offering them “hundreds of doors without clear labels.”
The report, “Thriving After High School,” calls on government officials, K-12 and college leaders, employers, nonprofits, and philanthropists to help every learner succeed, which the commission defines as encouraging them to develop the skills, connections to the workforce and community, and financial stability to make smart decisions about post-high school options.
One of the goals, said commission co-chair Bridget Terry Long, is to help high school students explore their career options with confidence, rather than coming from a place where they are “scared and uncertain.”
The report recommends that policymakers, educators, and employers take a number of steps, including ...
The complete article is online at Ed Week.