For high school students who choose not to go to college after graduation, what options do they have and how do they learn about them? These questions are the focus of a statewide task force on Education Opportunities for Non-College-Bound Learners. The New Jersey School Boards Association created the task force to explore what information and experiences our students need to allow them to plan well for their post-secondary education and career.
From the elementary grades continuing through high school, educators have long recognized that all students do not learn in the same manner. As a result, most NJ schools, and certainly Lawrence Township schools, have implemented multiple strategies to differentiate the curriculum and instruction for the twenty-plus students in each teacher’s classroom throughout the K-12 school years. So, as students differ in their abilities during their years in school, so too do post-secondary plans differ for the same students upon graduation.
College is neither the only option, nor the best option, for all students to continue their post-secondary education and career path. For a number of students, college requires taking on what can become debilitating debt. Some of these students later find themselves underemployed, and having great difficulty repaying their loans. The 21st century is likely to present with new opportunities for employment that are not yet defined or configured. And for many of these jobs, traditional high school and college programs will not be the right preparation.
Members of the statewide task force include the president, and the xecutive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, as well as a large number of representatives of Board of Education members from school districts and county vocational technical schools across the state. In fact, our own JoAnn Groeger, a member of the Lawrence Township School Board, has joined the task force and will be investigating such issues as, the relationship between the county vocational school and the regular high school, budgets necessary to implement what is known as Career Technical Education, a curriculum that supports a changing economy, as well as soft skills, apprenticeships and work study programs.
Rough data on New Jersey students’ post-secondary plans presented by the task force suggests that about 40% of our high school graduates statewide enroll in a four-year college program, while another 40% enroll in community college and the remaining 20 percent enter the work force. In Lawrence township, our statistics only vary somewhat from the statewide numbers. For the Lawrence High School class of 2017, 56 percent of our graduates entered a four-year college, with 31 percent enrolling in a community college, followed by 11 percent who entered the workforce upon graduation. To help inform our students about their post-secondary options, our guidance department offers a variety of programs and opportunities. All sophomores attend the Career Day at Mercer County Community College in December each year. High School students are provided with information about Mercer County Vocational Schools during their Junior and Senior years. On March 21st Lawrence High School will hold its annual job fair for students to attend during their lunch period
It is anticipated that the task force on Education Opportunities for Non-College-Bound Learners will present a final report by June of 2018. The Lawrence Township School Board will anxiously await their findings so that we can continue to address the post-secondary needs of all of our students.
from the schools,
