Connecting classroom and career

“It’s not like I’m ever going to use this stuff.” At this point, I can’t count how many times I have heard that commentary. It always seemed to come up more frequently when we were reading Shakespeare. If I wasn’t able to do some fast thinking and provide a clear connection, I would get to see the eyes glaze over as the student slumped in his or her seat and proceeded to zone out.

I recently spoke with Dr. Dennis K. Orthner, professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work, and Dr. Patrick Akos, associate professor of school counseling at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, about a program that makes explicit the connections between classroom content and career.

CareerStart

CareerStart is a middle-school strategy that focuses on promoting the relevance of core curriculum courses by relating the content of the course to career and job skills in the community. By promoting the relevance of the required core courses, the program seeks to increase student interest and engagement. The overarching goal of CareerStart is to positively influence the educational and career trajectories of all students, but especially those at risk of school failure.

Currently, over 600 teachers in seven school districts in North Carolina are using CareerStart lessons with over 30,000 students. The lessons illustrate the application of the core content in the professions of the surrounding community. By connecting to real-life scenarios, the CareerStart lessons can help students better see the connections between the content areas. For instance, language arts and math content are both applicable to fields of business and management. These connections don’t stop with the classroom; CareerStart emphasizes the involvement of parents, caregivers, other school professionals, and the community.

Lesson plans

A series of CareerStart sample lesson plans were written through a system of recommendation and peer review. There are ten sample lessons for each of the four content areas in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Each of these sample lessons were designed for a one- or two-day student experience and have been updated and modified for the 2011-2012 school year. The lesson plans will also be update to be in line with the new Common Core and NC Essential Standards rolling out in the fall of 2012.

Because the CareerStart lesson plans are aligned with the state standards, they don’t ask teachers to teach things they don’t already teach. They just add a focused illustration of how the content is used in a professional line of work. For instance, a sixth-grade lesson on sound waves (NC SCOS science standard 6.03) asks the question, “why does someone with a job in music need to understand the elements of sound?”

One of the great things about the lesson plans associated with CareerStart is that they are not designed as a lock-step system. Teachers can scaffold and customize the lesson plans to meet their own teaching style and their students’ needs. As it is important to highlight local professions, teachers are encouraged to modify these lessons as well as to create their own.

The LEARN NC website houses a body of lesson plans for each level:

• CareerStart lessons: Grade 6
• CareerStart lessons: Grade 7
• CareerStart lessons: Grade 8

CareerStart research

A long-term study to determine the impact of CareerStart is being conducted. This research, involving over 7,800 students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools, compares students attending middle schools that implement CareerStart to students at schools that do not. The current data tracks the students through middle school and on into high school. This research data shows that schools where CareerStart is implemented have students who are more engaged in their academic studies, have fewer unexcused absences, are less likely to get in trouble or suspended, and achieve higher test scores in reading and math. When these CareerStart students get to high school, they perform better on end-of-course tests, and have more credits toward graduation than their peers who did not receive CareerStart instruction.

So what?

Many studies have shown that student engagement begins to decline in sixth grade. CareerStart is a research-proven method that can combat this disengagement and increase the academic achievement of all students. Unlike some popular reform movements, CareerStart does not ask teachers to radically change the way they teach and conduct business in their own classrooms.

Tips

Ask your students about their career hopes.

Nearly all teachers recognize that students want to know how they will be able to use classroom content in the real world. But students are more interested than we realize in how classroom topics connect to their future careers. This is especially true for middle-school students. So engage them in that conversation.

Career orientation starts as soon as classes are selected.

While middle-school students aren’t typically ready to commit to a career, they are making life-long career decisions as soon as they start selecting their own classes. Students don’t often realize or recognize the impact their class choice can have on their future trajectory.

It can’t just be a guidance counselor thing.

Career education is something that all teachers teach, whether we acknowledge it or not. Our students take the things we teach them to their future jobs and careers. Making the explicit connections between academic content and career possibilities can’t be an effort that is undertaken only by the guidance counselors.

Researcher Bios

Dr. Patrick Akos

Dr. Akos’s research is conceptually based in strengths-based school counseling and centers on how school counselors can promote optimal development in early adolescence. In particular, his work articulates strategies to promote strengths and protective factors for students in middle school. In addition to his coauthored SBSC text, Dr. Akos has written broadly on developmental topics such as body image, racial identity, and resiliency; as well as education and counseling topics including aspiration gaps, differentiating classroom guidance, math placement in middle school, group work in schools, and the impact of counseling programs on academic achievement in middle schools.

A full biography for Dr. Patrick Akos can be found on the School of Education website.

Dr. Dennis K. Orthner

Dr. Orthner is a professor in the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill, Associate Director for Policy Development and Analysis at the Jordan Institute for Families, and the NC Program Director for CareerStart. His research interests include human services design and evaluation, public welfare and family policy, family strengths, and military families.

More information about Dr. Dennis K. Orthner can found on the School of Social Work website.