School districts have been looking for ways to introduce students to potential careers for decades.
Many schools offer traditional career technical education programs (formerly known as vocational education). Some companies offer apprenticeships and internships that provide students with training in a specific industry, often resulting in a professional qualification upon completion.
Other school systems have established partnerships in which employers and schools work together to create classroom curriculum and, in some cases, reward students with college credit or put them on a path to employment. The purpose is
About this insider
David Miyashiro is the superintendent of California’s Cajon Valley Union School District. During his tenure, he was named Superintendent of the Year and named one of the “Top 35 Regional Leaders in Personalized Learning” by the White House and U.S. Department of Education. Under his leadership, the district received multiple awards, including the National School Boards Association’s Magna Award for Digital Learning.
San Diego’s Cajon Valley Union School District takes a unique approach to introducing students to professions and careers early on.
David Miyashiro, the superintendent of the 17,000-student school system, has listened to feedback from employers and others in the community to ensure that students, starting in kindergarten and graduating on the 8th, have at least 56 different grades. We have launched a program that provides access to work experience. School year.
There’s a lot more to it than that. Students don’t just indulge in internships and work experience; They are encouraged to define their interests through the district’s curriculum. “Our kids can talk like no one else,” the superintendent said.
Miyashiro spoke to EdWeek Market Brief contributor Ruksana Hussain about the program’s origins, how it works, and how it differs from traditional career tech education approaches.
What was the idea and impetus for this program?
Twelve years ago, when I was superintendent, the first conversation I had with local leaders was with the city manager who oversees the police department, the fire department, and all the services that are funded by taxpayers. I asked him what you would do if you had jurisdiction over the school.
First of all, he said he would stop criticizing the most important jobs in our country, referring to the large naval bases and Marine Corps bases here in San Diego, as well as civilian and non-civilian jobs. But also, our area of San Diego has a lot of skilled workers in automotive, construction, development, trades, etc., but these fields don’t require a four-year degree beyond high school, so we He said he was accusing. Leaders from the Department of Defense, police and fire departments, and local business communities said the same thing.
Where has the conversation about stereotypes associated with certain careers led you?
What I took away from that conversation is that we need to reinvent the system. There is a company called Junior Achievement. There, a 5th grade experience called BizTown allows kids to try out careers, learn interviewing skills and spend a day pretending to be someone in the business community. We said, how can we take that one-day experience and use it every day in school, especially for low-income kids?
We taught intentional careers in each grade year, starting in kindergarten, using a framework called World of Work. We used a research and occupational typology called RIASEC. RIASEC was developed decades ago by John Holland to help the military determine the best benefits for people. I work as part of their service.
How is the program structured?
Children have at least six career experiences created as a project-based learning type of curriculum. Not only are they learning about their careers, they’re also learning about themselves. Does this activity seem fun to me? Would I do this again?
By the time children graduate from 8th grade, they have at least 56 job experiences. They had a lot of conversations about self-awareness, self-identified what they were most interested in RIASEC, and by the time they entered our high school, they spent 40 percent of their time outside. You can pursue your career. The community at the internship is purposeful and intentional. And our goal is to achieve our vision of happy children, healthy relationships, and gainful employment.
Between World of Work and the TED Presentation Literacy Curriculum, where they learn to articulate and tell their stories in talks like TED, our kids can talk like no one else.
How does your school district decide which careers and paths to introduce to students?
We used O*NET, the government job database, to find out (and this was about nine years ago) which jobs were in demand along the growth trajectory and worth studying for kids. I looked into what kind of things are out there. And it’s a moving target. Since RIASEC is 6 letters, we said early on that we were going to start with at least 6 careers per grade.
The minimum RIASEC career a child will experience is one per year per grade level, but we will continue to build on these careers and invest in them so they can continue to learn throughout the year.
Does your program incorporate technology such as AI to assist students in their career exploration?
Yes, some of the teacher tools we’ve reviewed so far allow teachers to create customized lessons for each child through prompt engineering. Based on Samantha’s fourth-grade experience and RIASEC self-report, what would be the next logical career experience for her? And to help her understand these careers, what would be the next logical career experience for her? What kinds of classroom projects can you create using these materials?
AI can provide that, providing customized lessons and experiences that help kids continue to expand their career exploration.
Career Pathways and CTE programs, if you get your child into the program and they like it, great, they’ll probably finish it. If not, what are they going to do now?
Are there any other ways to incorporate AI other than creating lessons?
On the assessment side, we are experimenting with tools to interview and question children. I just finished engineering at a theme park. Please tell us about your prototyping experience. Also, what skills are most important for prototyping when thinking about the next big roller coaster? And kids talking and interviewing AI. AI can capture the language a child is expressing and the depth of their knowledge to help score and get some kind of assessment of a child’s abilities.
This is a great place for kids to practice their interviewing skills before attending an in-person interview. We are currently experimenting with simulations using increasingly sophisticated chatbots and AI.
How replicable is the World of Work program, or are there anything unique to your district that makes it difficult for other districts to imitate?
One of the things our teachers have done well is embed it throughout the curriculum. Teachers label RIASEC whenever possible. It gives children more background and opportunity to understand it.
Because our teachers were part of the creators of this curriculum and involved us early in the conversation about what to prepare our children for, we had a purposeful approach to helping our children find gainful work. They are passionate about the idea that career development is necessary.
How is that different from how the process has played out in other districts?
In traditional school districts that focus solely on test scores and reading and math scores, teachers won’t see value in this type of curriculum. It requires a leadership vision, particularly at principal level, that puts the onus on people to ensure children build these skills and dispositions. I think some of the barriers are vision, leadership and recognition that this is important.
Were there other public school initiatives that could serve as a model for what the district has put together?
Yes, Big Picture Learning influenced us. It is a charter school organization. P-TECH and Da Vinci School where we learned. And now the Indiana Department of Education is considering a statewide model that would move to skills transcripts rather than content and time-based systems.
and engage high school students in paid youth apprenticeships. That’s something we haven’t achieved yet, but we hope to do in our next career development. Paying for youth apprenticeships in high school means kids don’t have to take classes on financial literacy, but they also have the ability to earn, earn, and manage money while in high school, including their own accounts, before it leaves the system. acquire that economic knowledge.
One potential concern with putting students on a career path early on is creating a rigid path that doesn’t encourage students to consider all options. How can you avoid that in your district?
CTE programs and career pathway programs have such risks. Because we believe that every child has his or her own path and that career exploration and subsequent training should be tailored to him/her, we (not included). Because it allows kids the flexibility to change, try things and then pursue it further or move on to something else as guided by their mentor. Career Pathways and CTE programs, if you get your child into the program and they like it, great, they’ll probably finish it. If not, what are they going to do now?
These are the risks of some CTE and career pathway programs that are adopted with positive intentions, but that track children and how to pivot if they don’t align with the children’s interests. will not be given.
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What is the relative value of a college education, and how does your program address college and non-university needs?
The benefit of O*NET and the resources we use is that if I want to achieve my career goals, I am showing my kids what steps they need to take to get there. Masu. And research and the latest statistics prove that all children are human, no matter what industry or job requires post-secondary study to achieve their career goals. That means there is. That might look like a two-year college, a four-year college, a trade school, an apprenticeship, or a certificate program. There are many different paths to get there.
Do you think companies involved in curriculum, assessment, PD, and other areas can do better to serve students with career and technical education ambitions? Or where is the market lacking?
Companies in this field have a try-and-judge mentality of “take this evaluation” or “this is what you should pursue,” but they miss the point. Because children most often do not have enough life experience. Please answer those questions accurately.
It’s like asking a kid who’s only ever eaten macaroni and cheese whether he prefers Mediterranean, French, or Chinese food. I can’t answer that.
