Can Schools Actually Engage Students in Effective College and Career Planning?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses the difference between teaching foundational academic skills and trying to do specific career preparation in K-12 schools.
Key Takeaways
- Foundational skills matter more than career-specific prep - Schools should focus on strong academics rather than trying to prepare students for specific careers
- Career planning is often superficial - School-based career planning activities rarely provide meaningful guidance
- College readiness is career readiness - Strong reading, writing, math, and critical thinking skills prepare students for any path
Transcript
I've been seeing a lot lately about college and career planning, career readiness, different types of post-secondary planning.
It seems to me that about 25 states require schools to help students develop individual plans for college and career readiness.
And I think There's something here that's good, but I think there's also something that we need to be thoughtful about when it comes to responsibilities like this being placed on schools.
And certainly it's logical to say, okay, well, a lot of our students are going to be going to college.
All of our students are going to have to do something after high school.
So of course, schools should engage students in a process of planning for their life after secondary school.
I think there's a certain logic to that, but I think we have to be careful about things that are logical and not make the leap from saying, well, this just makes sense into saying, yes, this is actually possible.
I think before we say schools should do something, we should make sure that they actually can.
And I think there are some very real limitations on our ability to engage students in post-secondary planning.
And part of the responsibility here that I think we can take good responsibility for is we can ensure that all students have the knowledge and skills that they're supposed to have, right?
We have certain things that we are supposed to teach, certain places that we're supposed to get students in terms of their learning.
And I think we've got to stay focused on that mission.
I think what is less certain that we really need to be thoughtful about is can we actually prepare students for specific career pathways, for specific interests?
What jobs will exist in the future?
I mean, part of the rationale for education is that we don't know those things.
We don't control those things.
And there will be jobs in the future.
that we can't prepare students for directly now because we don't know about them.
They may not exist yet.
They may not exist for a long time.
And I think that makes it always worth revisiting those questions of what do we want all students to know and be able to do?
What should we be teaching?
And if we get too specific with career preparation, we can end up doing some things that don't serve students well.
So let me know what you think about this issue.
I think there are some good things we can do and some less helpful things that we can do as far as career preparation and helping students choose a pathway.
I'm not sure we should be helping students commit to a specific career track or a specific job, but I do know that we should dedicate ourselves to helping students develop the knowledge and skills that they will need.
But let me know what you think.