SNP article I wrote about career centers

Career Centers deserve look from college-bound students

Educators spend millions of dollars on fads that are often under-researched or misapplied. In fact, a new body of research is examining high school reform and finding a large discrepancy between theory and reality.

For example, many schools started smaller “academies,” or schools within schools, to try to help students stay engaged in their learning. However, research is now finding, “This approach led to increased stratification of students by race, academic ability, and socioeconomic class,” according to a new book called Schools Within Schools: Possibilities and Pitfalls of High School Reform.

“Similar to many other educational reforms, the SWS [schools within schools] has been promoted and implemented without a solid base of empirical evidence to support it,” write the authors, Douglas Ready and Valerie Lee.

Educators struggle with the disconnect between what we know about learning and the way we design schools, so we often try to invent creative ways to connect the two. We know students learn better when we have smaller classrooms. We know students learn better when they are actively engaged in their subject matter. We know that students retain information better if they apply what they learn in real world settings. But, high school class sizes are growing and standardized testing is shrinking the time teachers have to do applied activities.

Rather than relying on the schools to find funds to invent new programs, parents need to educate themselves about the systems already in place, the programs that have already been tested, modified and tweaked. Career centers partner with local school districts, and they have evolved to fit modern educational needs. They no longer just serve students who want to learn trades; do not want to go to college, or students who are behavior problems at their schools.

While they still help at-risk students, many of their programs are designed for the college bound, offer college credit, and offer certifications to help students get a jump start. In fact, in 2006, the Delaware Area Career Center, the center that serves many of the northern Columbus suburban districts achieved a graduation rate of 98.8%. Over 60% of their students enrolled in higher education.

Students today have more educational options than ever before, and career centers are the best kept secret of those options. I am constantly returning to my mental rolodex of students who would have loved the opportunities they could have had if I had only known.