In Georgia, a plan to overhaul high school curriculums and move into career-based curriculums will be going before the state Board of Education this fall. High school dropouts are a common problem for many districts due to students not seeing the relevance of a high school course or boredom. Career-based curriculums are believed to engage students more because they can visualize the direct correlation from school to their lives.
The proposed curriculum would require students to choose a “career cluster” by the end of their sophomore year. Students would still be required to take standard core classes, however, in addition to their academics, they would take classes that they consider having a career in — and that would in theory be more interesting to them.
“If we can pull this off, then we’re going to save a lot of kids and we’re also going to get a lot of kids plugged into careers they enjoy. The kids hanging in there until they turn 16 where school may not have always been a lot of fun for them, we get them on a job site where they see how they’re going to apply this,” said Mike Buck, chief academic officer at the Georgia Department of Education.
Students will have the choice to change and explore other concentrations if they decide the “career cluster” they chose doesn’t fit them as well as they thought. However, some students voiced concern that they thought it was too early to decide what career path they wanted.
Do you think you would have been ready to choose a “career cluster” in high school? Do you think it would have been a helpful boost before transitioning to college or career?
Sources:
“High School Remake Would Put Georgia Students on Career Track.” 19 September 2011. The Associated Press. 19 September 2011. <http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/18/455683ghighschooldiploma_ap.html?r=2014203766>
