At Wescosville Elementary in the East Penn School District, fourth-graders are in charge of running a doughnut shop.
It’s all pretend, but as part of the assignment, the students have $5,000 to start the business from the ground up. They’re responsible for paying rent and utilities, buying baking supplies and paying employees’ salaries.
The 9- and 10-year-olds discuss what people look for during the hiring process, research wages in food services, write interview questions and conduct mock interviews. They focus on eye contact, smiling, speaking clearly, posture, appropriate greetings and strong, confident handshakes.
It’s not new for districts to expose students to skills needed to find and land post-education careers. But nationwide, districts now are graded on how well they do it. The first report card came out in November. Another one — set to a higher standard — comes out in the fall. Schools, including charter schools, need to show the state that students, starting in kindergarten, are learning such job skills as making resumes, writing reports on industries and job shadowing.
After the Wescosville fourth-graders are done with their assignment, East Penn officials will log each student as having received career readiness and send that information to the state Department of Education.
The new accountability system is called Future Ready Pa Index and documents on a state website how well schools prepare students for careers.
Bethlehem Area Assistant Superintendent Jack Silva sees the benchmarks as a positive step.The state has tracked how students do academically on standardized tests, so it should also monitor whether schools are putting students on a career path.
“The career standards have the ability to be more suited to what the district’s goals are and that relates to the local economy and existing programs,” Silva said.
The career readiness benchmarks address feedback from industry leaders about recent graduates.
“We’ve heard very loud and clear from businesses and chambers of commerce they’re finding gaps in skilled workers,” said Matt Stem, deputy state education secretary.
Employers have reported young employees’ not showing up on time or lacking communication skills, said Alex Halper, director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.
“We are encouraged by the renewed focus on the federal and state level on incorporating career readiness into educational instruction at a young age,” Halper said.
‘College is not the only path to success’
Pennsylvania districts received grades in November that reflect efforts for 2017-18. Officials at a number of local districts, now that there’s a better understanding of meeting the state mandate, believe this year’s grades will more accurately reflect schools’ efforts.
Schools are graded on a 100 percent scale; 91.8 percent is the state average.
Districts must provide the state with six pieces of evidence of career readiness for each elementary and middle school student, and eight pieces for each high school student.
At the elementary level, that can include writing reports on careers or outlining business plans, like the Wescosville fourth-graders do. Middle and high school students could experience job shadowing or develop a career portfolio.
Ideally all such activities will be logged with the state as evidence of meeting the mandate.
The Catasauqua Area School District was already giving students on-the-job training with a program it’s had since 2010 with B. Braun Medical Inc., Superintendent Robert Spengler said. It includes a tour of the B. Braun facility and mock interviews.
The program covers many fields, said Christina Lutz-Doemling, director of Catasauqua’s curriculum and assessment, offering glimpses into different vocations.
“You not only get the chances to figure out what you want to do, but to also figure out what you definitely don’t want to do,” Lutz-Doemling said. “And that’s just as important.”
The early start in career-focused education has paid off for the district now that the state has begun to measure these efforts. Catasauqua excelled in the career standards benchmarks, scoring an above-average 98 percent.
The district secured a $17,600 state grant to help provide district staff with a greater understanding of industry trends, needs and opportunities. The employment landscape changes frequently, Spengler said.
“College is not the only path to success,” he said. “It’s our obligation to help students identify their skills and parlay that into an understanding to what careers and pathways are tied to those interests. That’s our role and our mission.”
Vo-tech schools, such as Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, have trained students in fields for decades. At LCTI, students typically attend homeroom at their home high school, and then are bused to the vo-tech school for instruction in areas including business, engineering, human services and technology.
The state’s new benchmarks means all students should have that exposure.
Michael Koch, Easton Area’s director of assessment and accountability, said the emphasis on career readiness marks a positive shift, especially considering the need for skilled workers in Pennsylvania and across the country in jobs that don’t necessarily require four-year degrees.
“A bachelor’s degree is great, but in some of these specialty areas it’s not necessary to spend four years on a degree when you can learn it in 18 months or get it on the job,” Koch said. “I think that’s a big change in our workforce in the future. We have to make sure we’re preparing our students for the same.”
In Easton, career readiness starts in elementary school. Koch said young students hear from people in different careers to see what type job might interest them and fit their personality. If a student dislikes working with people, for instance, hospitality might not be the field for them, Koch said.
In middle school, students use a program called Xello to do online activities that build a profile in part by asking them about their interests.
“[The program] will take those inventories and attach them to activities to explore career pathways that suit their interests and their skills,” Koch said.
Facing hurdles
Allentown’s three high schools scored well below the state’s average in career readiness, but not because the district doesn’t teach students about careers. At the district’s innovative, college- and career-focused high school Building 21, for example, most students spend their afternoons at internships at Lehigh Valley Health Network or The Baum School of Art in Allentown.
The scores might in part reflect the district’s difficulty in documenting required information for nearly 17,000 students, Dieruff High School college and career counselor Jeanne Grieger said. Dieruff, scoring a 78 percent on career readiness, has almost 2,000 students.
“It’s a huge challenge because of our large population,” Grieger said. “It’s a monster.”
A lot of the work, such as portfolios or essays on careers, is paper-based, Grieger said. Now teachers need to log it as evidence for each student.
So far, not all qualifying activities are being logged, Grieger said. Art teachers, for example, have portfolios for students that include peer evaluation and presentations.
“We knew the work was being done,” she said. “Individual teachers are now aware that we have to keep that piece of evidence and be more deliberate and overt.”
Another challenge for schools is balancing the time for these activities against the rest of the school day.
East Penn Assistant Superintendent Doug Povilaitis said it’s a matter of finding ways to integrate career readiness into the regular curriculum.
“We feel getting ready for after school is critical,” he said.
Despite the extra paperwork for districts, state officials hope the new benchmarks will better prepare a generation of students as they enter the workforce.
“Students have been graduating high school and find themselves struggling to identify the right career to pursue,” Stem said. “Collecting this evidence is so important.”
