Leadership Letter: The Importance of the “&”

College & career ready: a ubiquitous statement schools use in their mission statement to describe the goal for its graduates. Yet, how often is college & career ready defined? As stated in “Making Career Readiness Count,” “The student performance indicators that states include in school- and district-level report cards and accountability systems should tell a story about what matters most to the states. Looking at these report cards and accountability systems, the story seems to be that the essential ‘and’ in ‘college and careers’ is actually an ‘or,’ with the focus on career readiness often limited to a subset of students.” In the past, it seems as students were divided into two group: college-bound or career-bound. Yet, as we have moved toward the goal of college & career ready, the importance of the “&” has become more and more apparent.
 
What is the definition of college & career ready? Conley defines it as “the level of preparation a student needs in order to enroll and succeed – without remediation – in a credit-bearing course at a postsecondary institution that offers a baccalaureate degree or transfer to a baccalaureate program, or in a high-quality certificate program that enables students to enter a career pathway with potential future advancement” (College and Career Ready, 2012). Therefore, if we are true to our school counseling mission, having students simply graduate from high school is not enough; we have to ensure they graduate prepared to move onto the next step. To do this, we must help them connect college and careers by focusing on the “&”. Too often, students enter postsecondary institutions without knowledge of or direction toward a career path. As counselors, we must facilitate students’ understanding that postsecondary education (college) is the route that leads them to their desired career. Just like every trailhead does not lead to the same destination, every postsecondary institution does not lead to said career. By focusing on the “&” and helping students identify career interests, we can steer them toward the postsecondary paths that meet their goals.
 
So, next time you do a “Plan for College & Career Readiness” meeting or deliver a Collaborative Classroom Instruction lesson, think about the “&” and its significance.  
 
Resources

• “Making Career Readiness Count,” 2014, http://achieve.org/publications/making-career-readiness-count
• “College and career ready: Helping all students succeed beyond high school,” by D. T. Conley, 2012.

Torilyn Gillett is USCA middle school vice president and a school counseling program specialist with Canyons School District.