College & Workforce Readiness

South Carolina Launches Career-Preparation Initiative

November 29, 2005 6 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

It has been a tough sell that took several years to make, but South Carolina lawmakers adopted a career education program this year that they hope will prepare the state—and its young people—for the needs of a rapidly shifting economy.

The Education and Economic Development Act of 2005 requires each high school student, starting with next fall’s freshmen, to choose a “career major,” with guidance counselors’ help.

Under the law, all of the state’s public high schools must offer three or more clusters of courses focused on different types of work by the fall of 2007. The state has developed 16 career clusters that schools can use.

South Carolina leaders call it a model for the 49 other states.

“I believe the impact of this law will be to transform high schools in South Carolina,” said Inez Tenenbaum, who is in her seventh year as the state’s elected superintendent of education.

Students at B.J. Skelton Career Center in Easley, S.C., study electrical systems as part of their automotive technology class. Courses like this one will become more common under a new South Carolina education law.

The new program shows that politicians and business leaders are becoming more interested in the career training that students receive in high school, said Richard Kazis, the senior vice president of Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based group that works with states on education and workforce policies.

Governors and legislators are realizing they can’t discuss high school improvement without focusing in part on career programs, he added. “These programs were invisible for a while in a lot of the education reform discussions,” he said.

Building Support

Ms. Tenenbaum and supporters of the effort spent a lot of time laying the foundation before the law was passed in this year’s legislative session.

The work began with a task force of business leaders and others appointed three years ago by Ms. Tenenbaum, a Democrat, and Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican. The panel recommended a number of ways that high schools might better prepare young South Carolinians for economic changes in their state. It is just the kind of concern that is surfacing in other states as well. (“Idaho Board Softens Career Focus Following Criticism,” this issue.)

Once known for textiles and other types of manufacturing, South Carolina now relies more on tourism, but needs to create more jobs in technology and research, its leaders say.

“The goal is obviously to move toward the high-tech kinds of jobs,” said Bob Couch, the state director of career and technology education.

After developing the legislative proposal, state business leaders had to help convince lawmakers that career education was worth their time—and votes.

One of the biggest challenges was that some legislators had only distant memories of vocational education and wondered why such careers needed updating.

Some government officials questioned whether and why state funds earmarked for workforce development should go toward an education program.

“We had to get buy-in by some of the folks,” said Rep. Ronny Townsend, the Republican who chairs the House education committee.

A New Understanding?

The new law requires that schools begin developing career-inclusive individual education plans for 8th graders starting in the fall of 2006, with career planning starting for all students in grades 6-7 that year.

High school students must begin taking courses under those plans beginning in the fall of 2007, when high schools also must begin offering at least three of the state’s 16 approved career clusters.

Students will be asked to choose courses from those clusters that apply to their career interests, though they will be able to change their plans, Mr. Couch said. Clusters include courses on education, the arts and communications, hospitality, business, and information technology.

Full implementation of the law must occur by 2011. The career-planning process is modeled on the school improvement program called High Schools That Work, which is widely used by school districts across the country and is run by the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board.

Several South Carolina districts are piloting career clusters and other strategies that are part of the new law. Some students already are able to choose from the 16 clusters designed by the state, and officials say the signs are promising.

“There’s the new understanding that high school students really do want to see what’s out there” in careers and training, said Wayne Brazell, the assistant superintendent for instruction in Lexington County School District One, a 19,000-student district covering some western suburbs and rural areas outside Columbia, S.C., that is piloting the career clusters.

Schools and districts with fewer staff members may have a hard time fully implementing the law, Mr. Brazell warns. “It does mean a school really has to think about what you’re going to offer, and then do some long-term planning,” he added.

The state plans to add more than 400 new career counselors in schools over the next several years. Ms. Tenenbaum said her fiscal 2007 budget plan would request $14 million to reduce the number of students that guidance counselors serve in some schools from about 700 to about 300.

Requiring students to plan ahead for classes and careers starting in middle school first was required in a 1994 state school-to-work law, but those rules have not been strictly enforced, Mr. Couch said. The state estimates about 60 percent of students go through the process.

The implementation of South Carolina’s new law will be guided by a state-level council, which will include the governor and the state superintendent, or their appointees.

The Dropout Problem

Under other key pieces of the legislation, districts are required to draft dropout-prevention plans that must be approved by the state board of education, and the state higher education commission must formalize dual-enrollment rules to allow more high schools students to take college classes for credit.

South Carolina’s on-time high school graduation rate is as low as 51 percent, according to the Washington-based Urban Institute. Mr. Couch said the state’s own best estimate is that 67 percent of 8th graders go on to complete high school within five years. And one-quarter of college students from South Carolina high schools need remedial classes, he said.

Rep. Townsend said he hopes the new law and its focus on career preparation will help improve on-time graduation rates in the state, which were among the nation’s lowest even before they declined in the past decade. “I think it’ll help [students] stay in school, because they’ll find more interests that they can develop through these clusters, and I hope it will help with the dropout rate,” he said.

Funding for the dropout-prevention programs could be expanded under the law in 2006, said Mr. Couch. The state already is piloting some dropout-prevention programs that could be included in future funding under the law.

One of them is the Star Academy, at Gettys Middle School in Easley, S.C. The academy enrolls about 75 students in the 8th grade who have fallen behind one or more grade levels. The goal is to help 8th graders catch up and proceed directly into the 10th grade, giving them a boost toward finishing high school.

“I think we’re finally on the right track” in helping more students graduate, said Mendell H. Stewart, the superintendent of the 16,400-student Pickens County schools, where the Star Academy is located.

In a county that has seen manufacturing drop from covering more than 50 percent of the local tax base to about 11 percent in recent years, Mr. Stewart said, schools must help prepare a new kind of workforce, ready for jobs in technology and research.

The new law will help in those efforts, he said.“It’s very important for public school people and superintendents and teachers … to understand the importance of education in reference to economic development in the state,” he said.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness This East Coast District Brought a Hollywood-Quality Experience to Its Students
A unique collaboration between a Virginia school district and two television actors allows students to gain real-life filmmaking experience.
6 min read
Bethel High School films a production of Fear the Fog at Fort Monroe on June 21, 2023.
Students from Bethel High School in Hampton, Va., film "Fear the Fog"<i> </i>at Virginia's Fort Monroe on June 21, 2023. Students wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film through a partnership between their district, Hampton City Schools, and two television actors that's designed to give them applied, entertainment industry experience.
Courtesy of Hampton City Schools
College & Workforce Readiness A FAFSA Calculation Error Could Delay College Aid Applications—Again
It's the latest blunder to upend the "Better FAFSA," as it was branded by the Education Department.
2 min read
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn’t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. “It’s disappointing and so stressful since all these issues are taking forever to be resolved,” said Noyola, who receives grants and work-study to fund his education.
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, stands in the university's library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. He's one of thousands of existing and incoming college students affected by a problem-plagued rollout of the revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid. A series of delays and errors is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions.
Hans Pennink/AP
College & Workforce Readiness How Well Are Schools Preparing Students? Advanced Academics and World Languages, in 4 Charts
New federal data show big gaps in students' access to the challenging coursework and foreign languages they need for college.
2 min read
Conceptual illustration of people and voice bubbles.
Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Learning Loss May Cost Students Billions in Future Earnings. How Districts Are Responding
The board that annually administers NAEP warns that recent research paints a "dire" picture of the future for America's children.
6 min read
Illustration concept of hands holding binoculars and looking through to see a graph and arrow with money in background.
Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/Getty