Ten years ago, students in David de Leeuw's anatomy and physiology course studied an abstract academic curriculum, loaded with material to memorize but short on real-life applications. When they learned about the heart, for example, they memorized its chambers and the order in which blood passes through them. Meanwhile, students in a health occupations course taught by one of de Leeuw's colleagues learned to take a person's blood pressure, without really studying the anatomy involved. The two curriculums, generally studied by different groups of students, were separate and distinct. Neither provided learning experiences that allowed students to combine both the theory and the practical applications of the discipline in a real-life setting.
That's all changed under the revamped curriculum used at the Oakland Health and Bioscience Academy in Oakland, Calif., where de Leeuw now teaches. The curriculum in anatomy and physiology teaches students the applications of academic knowledge, using a focus on diseases to place the study of the human body in a real-world context. Through experiences such as internships and long-term projects, the students, who are interested in possible careers in the health field, learn firsthand how medical professionals draw upon academic knowledge in their daily work. In the revised anatomy and physiology course, "our kids not only learn how to take blood pressure," says de Leeuw. "They learn to think, `What does it mean?' and `What would you tell people'" to explain the results?
The Academy, which opened in 1985, has paid dividends for students like Leuckessia Spencer. A self-described "worst-case scenario," Spencer had to endure a chaotic home life, shuttled from one foster home to another. Before entering the Oakland program, she eked out a "D" average and had no real plans for college or a career. "I was more concerned about how I was going to survive day-to-day," she says. But the school's distinctive curriculum and supportive atmosphere helped her to earn a straight "A" average by her senior year. She began college this fall and is thinking of a career as a health care advocate or medical journalist.
Driven by new economic realities, educators in Oakland and elsewhere are trying to revamp school curriculums to better prepare students for eventual careers. Good-paying jobs, once available even to unskilled laborers, today require workers who are able to solve complex problems, work well in teams, and learn new information and skills as conditions change. While preparation for work traditionally has been considered the province of the vocational education system, many experts now believe that curriculums for all students should address the knowledge and skills they'll need for today's jobs.
That goal raises a host of difficult questions, however. To what extent should the curriculum reflect the world of work? Should the curriculum for the future sheet metal worker and the future doctor be similar? And how can the curriculum be designed so that students are not forced to choose a career path prematurely?
Academics, Job Prep Separate
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to designing a curriculum better suited to the new workplace is the historical separation of academic skills and knowledge and the learning of a trade or job skills. Since the early part of this century, schools have maintained an "academic" track suitable to prepare students to enter a four-year college or university. Pupils in this track seldom experience a curriculum that pushes them to explore careers or ties their academic studies to information about their intended career field. Students in the "vocational" track learn job skills, but the academic component of their programs frequently is weak. By default, other students end up in the "general" track, where they choose from a mishmash of courses, often getting neither a solid grounding in academics nor salable job skills.
Although the system of tracks may have served its purpose during a different economic era, it no longer benefits today's students or today's workplace, experts say. Students today don't fit into neat categories like "college-bound" or "vocationally trained." Sixty percent of students who take vocational courses go on to some form of higher education, according to Brett Lovejoy, acting executive director of the American Vocational Association. And students going to four-year colleges are also well served by a curriculum that helps them learn about careers and that features links between their academic coursework and careers that may interest them.
If America is serious about preparing students to enter careers, then programs to improve their transition from school to work must include all students, experts say. Programs should be designed so that all young people will remain eligible for college, even though some may not go, says Larry Rosenstock, principal of the Rindge School of Technical Arts in Cambridge, Mass. "At its core, what this has to be about is detracking schools."
But what routes will permit most, if not all, students to succeed in the new economy? Increasingly, experts say that multiple pathways to careers need to be established—but they warn that pathways must not become euphemisms for high-status and low-status tracks. All students should have a challenging curriculum, infused with applications from real workplaces, that keeps open the options of going on to a four-year college, a technical or community college, a training program, or a job.
Creating "career pathways" or "career clusters" is one way to arrange the curriculum to preserve these options. These pathways should exist in a largely untracked system, with high academic standards for all students, Lovejoy says. For example, students in a health careers pathway would learn about the health field through electives and material integrated into academic courses. They would also learn about the different roles played by health professionals such as radiology technicians or doctors—and the kind of preparation needed to enter these professions. Such an approach, Lovejoy and others say, gives students a solid academic footing and helps them to see more clearly the path from school to a career.
Central Valley High School in Veradale, Wash., requires each student to select a career path as part of its Student Career Opportunity Paths in Education (SCOPE) program. The career paths are grouped into job families such as "engineering, science, and medical services," "creative and applied arts," or "business marketing and management."
School officials meet with employers to get a better sense of what skills jobs require, and to begin to develop curriculums to prepare students to enter those careers, says Dan Ruddell, community resources coordinator at the school. "We'll go into a personnel office and get the job descriptions" to see what each job entails, he says. The school's counseling program provides clear direction to students about what courses students should take to enter the various careers in each of the job families.
In each job family, entry-level, semi-skilled, and skilled and professional careers are described to students. In the engineering family, for example, avionics technician is an entry-level career, aerospace engineering technician is a semi-skilled career, and aerospace engineer is a professional career. In addition to fulfilling basic graduation requirements, students take the elective and advanced academic courses and undergo the work-site experiences necessary to stay on the track toward their intended career.
Although students often postpone thinking about careers—and how their curriculum may help or hinder their path to a good job—SCOPE helps students see how what they study in school is necessary in the workplace, Ruddell says. Ian Hughes, a senior at the school, agrees. SCOPE "has helped a lot of students get a head start on planning," he says.
To keep students' options open, Central Valley tries to give all students a thorough grounding in academics that will serve them no matter which path they take. Central Valley no longer refers to students as "college-bound" and "non-college-bound" ("We call them all lifelong learners," says Ruddell), and the school groups students heterogeneously in many of the courses. "In the real world, people with all different capabilities and interests work side by side," notes Ruddell.
Broad Preparation
The use of career pathways or clusters is, in part, a move away from a focus on training students for specific occupations. In the past, some experts say, vocational students have been shortchanged because they didn't end up working in a job for which they trained, or because the skills they learned in vocational programs didn't match the skills needed in the rapidly changing work force. "Technical skills don't transfer," says Rosenstock. "Clearly, we should not have programs that are occupationally specific."
A recent federal assessment of vocational education supports the notion that preparation for work ought to be more broad-based. The final report to the U.S. Congress of the National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) said that traditional vocational education programs are "too narrowly defined and too narrowly based." Instead of focusing on teaching students the particular processes and procedures used in a specific job, the NAVE suggested a system of "industry-based majors" that would prepare students, as much as possible, for some form of postsecondary education. According to the NAVE report, "occupationally specific procedures would be used primarily to teach underlying principles and concepts. Thus students might examine automobile engines to learn how electricity and combustion are put to work, but not specifically how to repair automobiles."
The call to submerge occupationally specific skills worries some experts, however. Vocational educators "for the most part, are increasingly teaching broad skills" useful in many occupations, says Lovejoy. But some students want to learn skills to take a job immediately upon graduation, he says. "There is a danger in the pendulum swinging too far" toward broad skills, he says. "I have some trouble seeing how you train an auto mechanic without going through specific training in automobile engines." A student might reasonably ask: "Is my skill in this cluster called `transportation'? And have I really learned to diagnose engine trouble?" Lovejoy says. Educators should ensure that school-to-work programs are as flexible as possible so that students retain the choice of receiving direct training for jobs, he says.
Careers, Not Just Jobs
The Oakland Academy, which enrolls about 240 students, tries to offer viable options for all of them, although their ultimate career goals differ. "We want students to be both job-ready and college-ready," says Patricia Clark, the Academy's director. Because many students in the program gain work experience in health facilities, some may end up taking jobs as hospital ward clerks or lab assistants upon graduation, says de Leeuw. The school also offers a training program for students who are at least 18 years old that leads to certification as an emergency medical technician, he says.
But the reality is that "there aren't that many good jobs that don't require some postsecondary training," says de Leeuw. So the Academy offers a "2+2" program that links students' last two years at the Academy with two years of study at a community or technical college. Other students attend four-year colleges, and many students combine their postsecondary education with a part-time job, capitalizing on the work experiences gained through the Academy. "We want kids to be able to go out and get jobs, but we want them to go for careers, not just jobs," says de Leeuw.
In a marketplace that is extremely competitive, it's more important than ever for students to develop solid academic skills and knowledge of—and experience in—a career field that interests them. Because the Bay Area is such a desirable place to live, it's not unusual for people with master's degrees to apply for jobs as secretaries at local hospitals, says Clark. But Academy graduates will have extensive experience working in hospitals, as well as communication and computer skills, she points out. "We've got to show that our kids are just as well prepared."
