My Plan for Education is to bring the trades (vocational training) back as part of the core curriculum in schools.
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Why?
People have a huge and diverse range of different skills and learning styles. Not everyone is good at math, biology, history and other traditional subjects that characterize college-level work. Not everyone is fascinated by Greek mythology, or enamored with Victorian literature, or enraptured by classical music. Some students are mechanical; others are artistic. Some focus best in a lecture hall or classroom; still others learn best by doing, and would thrive in the studio, workshop or shop floor.
The latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that about 68% of high school students attend college. That means over 30% graduate with neither academic nor job skills.
Even the 68% aren’t doing so well. Almost 40% of students who begin four-year college programs don’t complete them, which translates into a whole lot of wasted time, wasted money, and burdensome student loan debt.
Of those who do finish college, one-third or more will end up in jobs they could have had without a four-year degree.
The BLS found that 37% of currently employed college grads are doing work for which only a high school degree is required.
Over 53% of recent college graduates are unemployed or under-employed.
Yet despite the growing evidence that four-year college programs serve fewer and fewer of our students, states continue to cut vocational programs.
The U.S. economy has changed. The manufacturing sector is growing and modernizing, creating a wealth of challenging, well-paying, highly skilled jobs for those with the skills to do them.
The demise of vocational education at the high school level has bred a skills shortage in manufacturing today, and with it a wealth of career opportunities for both under-employed college grads and high school students looking for direct pathways to interesting, lucrative careers.
Many of the jobs in manufacturing are attainable through apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and vocational programs offered at community colleges. They don’t require expensive, four-year degrees for which many students are not suited.
The “college-for-everyone” mentality has pushed awareness of other possible career paths to the margins. The cost to the individuals and the economy as a whole is high. If we want everyone’s kid to succeed, we need to bring vocational education back to the core of high school learning.
it the smartest investment we could make in our children, our businesses, and our country’s economic future.
How do we bring the trades (vocational training) back to school with current budget restraints?
Eliminate state testing!
More than $1.7 billion is spent on standardized testing in the US each year, according to a study by the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings.
Another $669 million is spent on elementary assessments.
Between $34-65 per student per year is spent by the states on standardized testing.
Teachers already know which students excel in reading and writing and which ones struggle.
They know who understands mathematics in a snap and who has a hard time tackling the many different concepts.
If we were to give a class of students a standardized test, what would we find? We would find out exactly what the teacher could have reported her/ himself.
As a teacher I can say without hesitation, that the money, time, and resources spent giving out standardized tests would be better spent by investing in vocational training, youth mental health programs, and teacher supports.
As a teacher our job is to meet the needs of each individual student. It makes no sense that we teach to each individual student, then test them all the same.
State Testing is ineffective.
Standardized test scores are easily influenced by outside factors: stress, hunger, tiredness, and prior teacher or parent comments about the difficulty of the test, among other factors. In short, the tests only show which students are best at preparing for and taking the tests, not what knowledge students might exhibit if their stomachs weren’t empty or they’d had a good night’s sleep.
Standardized tests are racist, classist, and sexist.
Racial bias has not been stripped from standardized tests. Too often, test designers rely on questions which assume background knowledge more often held by White, middle-class students. It’s not just that the designers have unconscious racial bias; the standardized testing industry depends on these kinds of biased questions in order to create a wide range of scores.
Standardized tests scores are not predictors of future success.
At best, Standardized tests can only evaluate rote knowledge of math, science, and English. The tests do not evaluate creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, artistic ability, or other knowledge areas that cannot be judged.
In 2020, states were allowed to cancel standardized testing due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, thus showing the lack of importance of the standardized test.
What is the alternative to state testing?
Performance Based Assessments
Performance based assessments managed by individual schools to ensure students success.
This system of learning and assessment allows students to demonstrate knowledge and skill through critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and the application of knowledge to real-world situations. In other words, it helps students prepare for college, career, and life. Vocational training gives the students real skills they will need for whichever path they choose.
PBA also allows educators to create more engaging instruction and address learning gaps by observing over time. More creativity in the classroom creates more engaging lesson, which will help eliminate behavioral problems. Vocational training offers students the opportunity to be creative and create things they are proud of, thus increasing classroom engagement.
PBA gathers well-rounded information to better support their students’ success—a far cry from the “drill and kill” of state and federal standardized tests.
PBA allows students more choice in how they can show what they’ve learned, and it allows differentiated instruction for different learning styles.
Students deserve to have their learning assessed fairly, in a way that is based on real-life skills and knowledge.
Our current standardized testing system is both inequitable and ineffective at gauging what students know—and it's failing educators, too, making it nearly impossible to manage the high-stakes tests and foster true learning at the same time.
Can Performance based assessments be managed by individual schools to ensure students success?
Yes, in fact it can be.
Without any additional time or money, because teachers are already doing this on top of tracking state testing data.
There are so many misconceptions that plaque teaching. No one really know what teachers are doing in the classroom but teachers.
Teacher know and have know for years that standardized tests are an ineffective tool, a waist of time and money.
It takes more than a test to know who your students are, what they can do, what they are capable of doing, and how to reach them.
We are professionals and it is time we start to get treated as professionals.
Teachers have been educating the world for years, creating the world of professionals we have today. You can't have one without the other.
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