I believe high school should prepare each young adult to be ready for a life of self-sufficiency in a free society. The perfect high school experience would be hard work, but it would also engage a young adult in purposeful, relevant life preparation.
But how is high school doing in America and in Centralia School District?
When polled recently by the national nonprofit YouthTruth, less than half of U.S. high school students felt that what they are learning is relevant.
In the United States, only four out of five students complete high school, according to a recent Washington Post report, and Centralia has almost the same rate. Of the 264 Centralia students in the class of 2017, more than fifty dropped out.
Of those who do graduate from high school in Washington and who go directly into college, more than one third need to retake high school math or English.
I believe these disappointing results are a product of the state’s uniform approach to high school. Graduation requirements in America are unusually lock-step, as if some government committee can design and spoon-feed a perfect one-size-fits-all approach to a young adult’s education goals.
Most of the rest of the world has not embraced this kind of uniformity. In most other countries, students have selected from among various pathways. Those with vocational goals also have a rich array of options to give them the appropriate preparation.
Research indicates that high school participation and the students’ sense of belonging are higher in Europe, Scandinavia, Canada and Mexico where secondary schooling is more likely to be customized to student differences.
Young people want to own the responsibility for their learning, and if we provide more options they are more likely to find a pathway that they believe in. A student is less likely to quit a path they have chosen for themselves — even if it is more rigorous.
I believe many high school students have drifted through and sought the easiest path to get a diploma rather than taking control of their education with purpose. Unfortunately, those without attentive parents are the most likely to be drifting.
High schools offering a uniform approach to graduation requirements also risk producing graduates who are neither ready for college, nor ready for any particular livelihood. It does seem that too many graduates are retaking high school content in college.
The remedy is to expand the options for young people, and to get them to take the steering wheel rather than aimlessly putting in time at the high school.
For Centralia School District, this would mean investing in an expanded range of options for young adults and expecting students to make critical decisions about their own education early in high school.
I particularly believe vocational education needs to be enhanced.
Fewer than half of the students who graduate from Centralia enroll in college.
Of those employed, only 37 percent are in occupations requiring some level of college education. A good number of lucrative careers and vocations do not require college. In fact, even of those who have obtained a degree, at least ten percent of these are “underemployed” in positions which do not require a degree.
Some career preparation options already exist, but are little-known and underutilized – options like New Market Skills Center, online Running Start, technical college Running Start, the alternative programs like Olympia Regional Learning Academy, pre-apprenticeships and solid vocational programs leading to certification in the area’s high schools.
In the Centralia School District, expanding options would mean improving vocational education, but also promoting our vocational offerings. When I speak with students who have discovered these options, they regularly tell me they wish they would have started sooner on the pathway they love.
On April 25 the Centralia School Board has a planned meeting dedicated to our career and technical education offerings. If you believe that the district leadership team should invest resources, time and staffing to improving our vocational training opportunities, please join us at the high school at 5 p.m. April 25 to speak out for vocational education.
If you believe that vocational education needs more emphasis, ask the school board to make the investment in the staff, schedule, student guidance, equipment, and community relations to provide some world-class vocational education options.
By expanding options and making students take the steering wheel, students are more likely to take responsibility, finish high school and succeed in life.
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Jami Lund serves on the Centralia School Board of Directors and is an education policy analyst for the Freedom Foundation. He can be reached at jami@jamilund.com
