Seattle district needs to be schooled on students' realities
Training for jobs has shifted to community colleges. But shouldn't we offer opportunities to relate career interests to classes in high school, even if it contradicts the mantra of college for all?
Lawrence W. Cheek
Seattle Public Schools will face yet another round of changes: new board members, another new superintendent, and what is probably Leadership version 14.0 since I became involved in the 1970s, professionally while on Mayor Charles Royer’s staff and personally during my children’s K-12 years. So when I began to consider the upcoming changes, it struck me that it’s a good time for the district's leaders to re-examine a part of their system. They need to focus on vocational education.
Recent news reports about our schools reflect concerns about birth retention statistics, dropout rates, and underachievement. These are some of the same issues I heard at school board meetings 30 years ago. Now, a 2011 report by the Harvard Graduate School of Education gives a perspective that reinforces impressions I formed back then. Three stories on my experiences at the local, national, and international levels will serve to illustrate why I came to the conclusion about what is missing in the schools that might encourage potential dropouts to remain in school.
When I worked for Mayor Royer, I visited a center for dropouts. I talked with two young women about why they left school. Both said their high school counselors strongly advocated college. It seemed they did not offer alternatives when told by the young women that college did not interest them.
One young woman said she wanted to be a cosmetologist but was not allowed to transfer to the high school that provided some training. I surmised that neither woman found the school day to be relevant or felt there was no reason to stay in school. A sample of two is not a survey, but it made an impression.
My second story comes out of the nine domestic study missions I organized for the Seattle Chamber and City of Seattle. The first trip was to Baltimore. Royer was interested in examining the city's successful low-income housing programs and the Chamber was interested in their convention center, and both wanted to learn about the Baltimore experience with waterfront redevelopment. When I asked the Baltimore mayor's staff for suggestions on other programs we could learn from, they recommended a visit to their vocational high school.
The principal took me on a tour. As we were walking through the auto repair shop, he whispered to me, “These young boys want to learn how to repair and modify cars. We are teaching basic skills. You want to repair a car, you must read the manual. You also need math. Our secret is using their interest to keep them in school and teach them skills.”
He said that while the classes taught job skills, they were also teaching basic skills in all the vocational subjects. If you want to be a cook, you need to read and do math. The vocational program was a means to an end, not an end in itself and seemed like a reasonable educational approach.
After that visit, I had a staff member prepare a memo on vocational programs in the Seattle School District. He found that most programs had been eliminated. Community colleges were once part of the school system. Edison Technical School was established in 1946, offering vocational and adult education classes for returning vets who wanted to finish high school. Twenty years later, it morphed into Seattle Community College. After that, vocational education became available only after graduating from high school. Obituaries following the recent death of the highly respected George Corcoran, one of the founders of this system, remind us of this story.
Educators developed a new policy for our country called “college for all” during this period. The problem is that many of the kids drop out during high school. They don’t go to a university or community college, and don't receive the skill training.
The third story comes out of organizing 13 international study missions for the Trade Alliance of Greater Seattle and the Seattle Chamber. On two of the trips to Germany I had the delegation explore the German educational system and its vocational component. Students on a vocational track went to high school two or three days a week and to the company training center the other days.
The company training centers were excellent. The city of Stuttgart had one for their utilities. In Munich, the BMW training center was very modern, and although separate from the actual factory, had students producing parts that went into the cars. Student applicants had to be accepted by both the company and union. Upon graduation, they had a guaranteed position, provided they maintained a good standing in their training.
From these experiences, I concluded that those students not inclined to go on to college or university should have an opportunity for a good quality vocational education. But conversations I had with local officials on vocational training made me feel guilty, since I questioned the college for all philosophy.
Then I read Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Pathways to Prosperity.” The first section of the report discusses the challenges: the over 20 million non-college bound youth and the changing nature of work requirements, including the need to receive at least a high school education. It's referred to as "the persistence of the forgotten half." The report contends, “Teens who have good high school work experiences are more likely to be inspired to stay in school, graduate and adopt ambitious goals.”
The second section of the report explains why the current system fails so many youth and makes suggestions to fix it. “College for All might be the mantra, but the hard reality is that fewer than one in three young people achieve the dream,” the report finds. It may be the dream of educators but it is clearly not the dream of all students.
The United States has the highest dropout rate in the industrialized world, according to the report. “Many drop out because they struggle academically. But large numbers say they dropped out because they felt their classes were not interesting and that high school was unrelentingly boring. In other words, they didn’t believe high school was relevant, or providing a pathway to achieving their dreams.”
That passage reminded me of that experience sitting on the front steps of the dropout center many years ago talking with those two young women.
The Pathways report, which I would recommend for reading by our school leadership, contends that the European system provides young people a better method to make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It suggests the Nordic system as a better fit for our country rather than the German system we examined during our international study missions. In Finland and other Nordic countries, students are allowed to choose their educational direction at a later age than in the German system.
Finally, the report recommends that our youth need multiple pathways as a vision for school reform. We need to re-examine technical education in the Seattle school system and work to make schools relevant to all the students.
Washington state has a series of skill centers. Each serves multiple school districts. The Sno-Isle center in Everett serves 14 school districts. The Puget Sound center in Burien serves four districts. The Seattle district does not use the Puget Sound center. In fact, the district’s strategic plan does not make vocational education a major priority.
The city could use some of the new family levy to do a major examination of the Pathways report and make recommendations to develop a strong vocational program. This is directly in the city government’s interest. Fewer dropouts and more graduates would help our economy and lower costs dealing with youth crime and street problems. An inspired high school graduate with a vocational interest becomes a candidate for community college system rather than for the county jail.
I’ve read that $50 million is needed to pay off the district's administrative center. Why not offer the new superintendent a fresh start and put on the ballot a short-lived tax to pay off the building? This could be coupled with funds for the conversion of one of our high schools into the finest vocational high school or skills center in the United States.
Boeing will face the retirement of substantial numbers of skilled workers over the next 10 years. Several community colleges have excellent aviation-related programs. The need will be there if we can excite students to continue their education and prepare themselves for our workforce. This is just one of the skill areas where jobs will become available.
Education tends to be an insider’s game. One of the quotes to introduce the Pathways report is by Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City's Schools, who calls it, “A must-read paper that focuses on the need to develop meaningful career training as part of comprehensive school reform.” Our region leads the country in many areas of innovation; why not career training?
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 7:51 a.m. Inappropriate
I have been waiting for years for this clear-headed perspective. Bill Stafford makes good use of his diverse background in writing this exceptional piece. Grant Jones
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 8:09 a.m. Inappropriate
As a high school student, I completely agree with this article.
I don't ever remember a single high school teacher of mine telling me "this is a skill that will help you in life," or "this is a skill that will help you get a job." We are told all through high school that none of high school matters. We are told that we must play a grades game, and if we do well at that game, we will go to another magical place called college where we will actually be trained for life. It is no surprise that there are more fitness studies majors than physical science majors. They've been taught for 4 years about how to play the grades game, and so they just do the same thing in college. The pick the easy classes to get As.
To fix this, more vocational classes, which actually have a significance for students, would be absolutely necessary.
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 8:23 a.m. Inappropriate
Mr Stafford
We are a group in early stages of developing a curriculum and local support to teach high school students about electric vehicles of all sizes and applications (mobility scooters to trains etc). They would be competent and knowledgable service and repair technicians at the end of the course. We will not downplay the need for math and reading skills but will emphasize the need. Students will be required to read the manuals themselsves and do their own calculations.
If you could take a minute or two to contact me we would like to sit down with you and discuss the issues addressed in your article and leann from your experience
Thank you
Dan Bentler
dan.bentler48@yahoo.com
206 768 9363
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 9:37 a.m. Inappropriate
Amen, brother! I've noticed recently a Seattle high school that's just been renovated. Their former shops seem to have been turned into the school's library. At the same time, there are Seattle schools which do have real professional-technical education programs: West Seattle High School and Garfield High School have automotive programs (one of which helped me out when I had a flat tire). There is the Running Start program. Also, Lake Washington Institute of Technology has a program that combines high school academics with vocational preparation.
In my own life, I've attended community college, 4-year colleges, and a technical college. And I'm a BIG fan of community and technical colleges. Students are ill-served when they are only encouraged to attend 4-year colleges. As you say, not everyone is suited to go that route. Community and technical colleges do NOT dumb down their curricula. Since I just finished at Lake Washington Technical College with a certificate in Social and Human Services, I think I'm qualified to speak to that. People don't teach at Lake Washington Institute of Technology without expertise--experiential and even advanced academic--in their fields. The college has industry advisory groups which inform the various programs what needs to be included in their classes to best equip their students for employment in their chosen fields. This also means high schools need to retain their career centers, preferably prioritizing their budgets so they have knowledgeable, experienced people staffing them. Also, ALL high school counselors need to be conversant in both which 4-year college may be the best fit, as well as which community/technical college may have the employment prep program that's the best fit for a particular student. And school districts need to rethink their tech-prep philosophies and move away from the notion that every student needs a BA/BS. How about also that AA/AAS/certificate? That student you refer to becoming a plumber or IT specialist or auto mechanic may be the person who fixes your pipes or your computer or your car (and make more money than you do!) And when there are no construction/maintenance professionals--glaziers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, custodians--our buildings are dirty, their windows are broken, the plumbing doesn't work, and the renovation may not pass the building inspection or survive the next earthquake. So, this is the long way round to saying: emphasize and enhance vocational/technical-professional education in high school. People with skills keep our infrastructure healthy so we can work, study, and play!
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 10:06 a.m. Inappropriate
Astonishing..you are missing a MAJOR piece of the story. We are in the midst of historic cuts to education. Over the past 4 years SPS has sustained enormous financial losses from the state. Last year, SPS had to close a $45M funding gap. This year, the district will have to close a $25M funding gap. I wish I could remember the funding gaps from previous years...but, they were significant.
Quit blaming the new board.
The district has had a Career and Technical school plan. It can't be funded.
Geesh. How did they let you even publish this article?
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 2:44 p.m. Inappropriate
I don't think that Germany's education model is a particularly compelling example of a successful system that the United States ought to be following, certainly not by PISA standards. German kids are actually tracked already at junior high school age into one of three separate kinds of school (a college-prep track leading to university studies, a vocational track leading to an apprenticeship and work in a skilled trade, and a remedial third option for kids with lower grades, learning disabilities, or other obstacles that basically disqualify them for the other two types of school). German kids do not really expect to change tracks easily once they are tracked into one or the other school, and thus most do not.
The result of a system like this is that it reinforces class distinctions at an early age, and it creates entitlements and expectations among college-bound kids: they're in a college-prep school, so naturally they will end up attending one of Germany's (almost uniformly mediocre) universities, no matter how poorly they do. But late bloomers (i.e., many boys) also find it hard to shift tracks later in life because the system is quite rigid.
By contrast, the Finnish model, which is much more successful, is completely and strictly egalitarian up to age 15, and the last 3 years of school are tracked toward polytechnic (vocational/engineering/professional) or university (academic/medical/legal) degrees and career objectives.
One core problem we have is that the word "vocational" in the United States implies low quality and low status, so if we started using the term "polytechnic programs" instead of "vocational programs" while really raising the bar for the applied skills and apprenticeship opportunities these programs offered, perhaps that could make some headway in the U.S.
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 3:15 p.m. Inappropriate
I would concur wholeheartedly! As an electrician who works as a foreman or general foreman, at times I have been asked to speak at schools about careers. The last time I spoke at a high school, my strongest comments were regarding Math and English. If you cannot do math, or communicate in complete sentences along with writing reasonably coherently, you will not succeed in the electrical trade.
When I made this presentation, I was placed in the art room at the school. I was able to include the vision of an artist when I discussed the installation of conduit and the making up of electrical panels. All students need to be illuminated (bad pun) to the idea that all education is relevant to what the student envisions themselves doing as a career. This is the responsibility of any adult, be it parent, teacher or administrator. Anyone who comes in contact even peripherally with the student needs to accept this duty.
I personally believe this is the primary failure of education. Educators cannot see the relevancy of their work to other work, thus it is the responsibility of parents, family and friends to point out the relevancy.
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 4:27 p.m. Inappropriate
Actually, the head of CTE in Seattle Schools, told a School Board committee that they ARE moving forward with new CTE programs. It would only have taken a phone call to find that out. Hmmm.
Posted Tue, Jan 17, 10:24 p.m. Inappropriate
Hold on now, before we go gaga over the "honest-but-humble-labor" nonsense. A cosmetologist earns, on average, about $25,000/yr. Exactly how many children and what kind of life would that support? Where would this person, most likely, have to live and where would his kids go to school? The best the SPS has to offer? The Bush School? The schools the Seattle Chamber and the Trade Alliance folks send their kids to? Yeah, right.
An auto mechanic does much better--$35,000/yr. If she scrimps and saves, she should be able to afford a modest house in, say, 50 years. Ah, luxury!
Get real. With this logic exactly how long would it take before we have a glut of cosmetologists and auto mechanics? But now that I think of it, we would be able to enjoy really cheap haircuts and car repairs on our BMWs. Hmmm.
Sorry, Mr. Stafford, but this is pseudo-blue-collar solidarity. The professions you and I mention are noble, decent, honest professions but they are not rewarded or protected as they should be. Do they have guaranteed health insurance? Decent sick/vacation/family leave provisions? Safe working conditions? Germany, for example, has a big, tough, strong safety net that protects these professions, even honors them; the U.S. economy doesn't give a rat's ass. When the Chamber and the Trade Alliance get behind a progressive tax structure, guaranteed health insurance, paid sick-leave, then I'll listen to your defense of directing educational dollars to low-paid, work. But not before.
The "lets-grow-the-economy" line doesn't cut it because the economy only grows for some.
Posted Wed, Jan 18, 9:18 a.m. Inappropriate
The Finnish system of Polytechnic (vocational, engineering, professional) and University (academic, medical, legal) would make sense and work for us here. The trades presented as a booby prize is insulting and using ed dollars to lead kids to low-paid work is misguided. We should blur the line between high school and college to encourage cross pollination. Having a middle school / high school campus adjacent to the community college campus is a way to encourage that. We're working on a vision for that on the Wilson Pacific site at 90th near Aurora that is just a couple of blocks from North Seattle CC. We're calling it Licton Springs Community Schools Campus. We have a facebook group if you're interested in that, please join us there.
Posted Wed, Jan 25, 9:44 a.m. Inappropriate
The manager of Seattle Public Schools' Career and Technical Education program, Dr. Shepherd Siegel, encourages us to adopt a broader definition for the word "college" to include all post-secondary education. That includes learning at four-year university, community college, vocational training, apprenticeships, and certification programs. It's all college because it is all post-secondary education.
Now, take that definition of college and read through everything again.
Posted Wed, Jan 25, 4:57 p.m. Inappropriate
You can learn about the new skills center in Seattle, and the four courses for which we are accepting applications NOW for Fall 2012 at www.seattleschools.org and going to the Career + Technical Education website under the 'District' pull-down menu, and through 'Departments'.
This is a great opportunity to demonstrate the need for advanced Career + Technical Education courses. In addition to the courses taught by about 100 excellent CTE teachers in our middle and high schools, our skills center will be offering (and open to all of Seattle Public Schools' high school students 16 or older, or having > 10 credits):
* Aerospace Science and Technology at King County Airport
* Microsoft IT Academy/Cisco Networking at Rainier Beach High School
* Digital Animation/Game Design at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment @ Seattle Center
* Medical Careers at West Seattle High School
Cross-credits for core academics are available. Thank you for your strong interest and support of career and technical education programs.
Posted Thu, Feb 2, 4:13 p.m. Inappropriate
The Seattle School district has had a program for the last 15 years that allows students to dually enroll in both high school and a vocational program at Seattle Vocational Institute, part of the Seattle Community College system. It is called the Bright Future Program, and won the Golden Apple award. This program has fought for vocational education. The founder of this program, Reza Khastou, made many attempts to get support from the Seattle School district over the years. He was usually met with a complete lack of interest on the part of the school district administrators. Now, Shep Siegel is touting his new vocational program as a new way of thinking. Instead of supporting a program that has demonstrated success, he is choosing to throw taxpayer money at an unproven venture. It is great news that the school district is finally recognizing that the college bound path is not the only option that high school students should have available to them. Our dropout rate is way too high, and it is painfully obvious that a solution needs to be found to make education relevant for our young people. But let’s use the experience that is available, and give our support to existing programs, allowing them to expand and grow.
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