Vocational Education

Thank you to Arthur Posey for posting this blog Arthur Posey is a retired high school guidance counselor and freelance blogger specializing in issues that relate to education (including education reform, TEFL and the importance of vocational schools. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him rafting his favorite rivers or fixing up his motorcycle. My uncle Dan was top of his class in high school, with excellent grades and promising SAT scores. Most of the colleges he applied to offered him full-ride scholarships. He went

The Salem News ran an edited version of this article. Here is the full length version. Vocational Education isn’t what it used to be.  If you graduated high school prior to 1990, your perceptions of, and experience with, vocational education is undoubtedly out of date.  It is no longer just an  alternative pathway for kids who are not on a college track nor is it an academic track that prepares students for entry levels jobs that only require a high school education or where academic expectations

I am starting a 3-part blog on linking education with a clear career path. Why?  A large percentage of our students are disengaged from learning.  Nationwide 50% of our kids do not go on to any post-secondary education (38% here in Essex County, MA), there is a growing gender gap showing boys significantly lagging in education, and an alarming percentage of remediation in community colleges and high public college drop out rates. Teen employment is at its all time low.  While the current recession has definitely