Students learn career skills to make a living Anchorage School District is rolling out a major shift in its high schools to require career-focused along with traditional academic classes. The effort is aimed at getting more high school students to actually come to class. About half of Anchorage high school students are physically in classes, well below the 90 percent known as necessary to ensure later academic and career success. That’s what school officials have told Anchorage business leaders in a series of briefings. The Anchorage School District’s “career academy” project is now in advanced planning and will be implemented starting fall, 2024, school officials said. Under the plan, all Anchorage high school graduates will participate in a career pathway as a graduation requirement along with academic requirements. Next fall, incoming freshmen (9th graders) will do orientations on careers. The following year, in fall 2025 as 10th graders, they will pick a focus like health care, engineering, or another field. Soft skills like communication, working in teams and being motivated are included. Once underway, improvements are expected in attendance and higher graduation rates. ASD is modeling its program after similar efforts in Akron, Ohio and Nashville, Tenn., both considered similar to Anchorage in size and socio-economic profile, and where there were gains in attendance, fewer suspensions, and graduations. Anchorage schools are partnering with the Ford Next Generation Learning on this with a $15 million U.S. Department of Education grant. This is nothing really new. That career classes and technical education stimulate young people has long been known. Rural Alaska school districts in Northwest Alaska and on the Seward Peninsula have seen a direct link between students in career classes and improved graduation rates. That’s because career classes tend to connect young people with why they’re in school, to learn skills to make a living, and because hands-on work in small groups is more stimulating than traditional classroom learning. The challenge for career education is that it is expensive. Teachers are hard to recruit, and specialized equipment is expensive. Given budget crunches school districts in recent years have tended to focus resources on maintaining traditional academics at the expense of other courses. Rolling out a new program in the midst of the current serious financial challenge for Anchorage schools might be a problem, however. ASD, like other districts, is also dealing with the unfunded state mandates of the new Alaska Reads Act. Anchorage is better equipped than many other districts to handle the new reading requirements, but the extra staffing and coordination needs of the new careers program will add a new burden. Still, there are big upsides to this. That Anchorage schools are taking the initiative is being well received by community leaders. Also, the career and workplace “soft skill” focus is widely supported in the business community, which is concerned about labor scarcity and the drain of younger people out of the state. Support from business leaders will also help temper the anti-public education mood among many legislators that has translated to the current shortfalls in funding for schools. The 59 percent physical attendance rate in high schools means that high school students were in class 52 percent of the time needed to achieve a 90 percent attendance rate that is considered needed for academic and career success. School officials have said that the online classes students say they watch are often an excuse for not coming to class. This was hardly reassuring to business leaders listening to the briefings, who say they need employees who will show up on time. — Tim Bradner www.AlaskaAlliance.com 27 Born and raised Alaskan Nikola Maccabee went straight from high school to a career in mining. Photo Courtesy Pogo Mine
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