'Career Diplomas' Are Not a Lesser Option

By Jeffrey V. Bohl

I want to tell you about a school where students have life-changing educational experiences—more of them, and more often, than at any other school I’ve known. And I’ve known many schools and taught many different students—from 9th grade repeaters in the urban core of Miami to international award-winners at a public math and science academy in Michigan. I’ve also been a high school administrator in both urban and rural districts. And through all of this, one school stands out.

It is a smallish, specialty high school whose graduates are constantly returning to campus to visit with teachers, share their accomplishments, and thank staff members for their positive influence on their lives. This happens to be the school where I now work—the Capital Area Career Center , near Michigan’s capital of Lansing—and it has given me an educator’s greatest blessing: to be involved in an organization that changes lives for the better.

The school is a career-and-technical-education center that serves 11 public school districts. Its story is emblematic of CTE programs, which survive and thrive despite the nation’s currently stunted conversation about the...