Warner Seeks to Increase Career Focus in High School Education

Chris Dues didn’t used to feel excited about going to school. It was something that he had to do, but didn’t really enjoy. “I looked at classes in my freshman and sophomore years as repetitive. I just waited for the bell to ring,” he said.

An admitted B and C student at Langley High School, Dues said he had always planned to go to college but he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it and he had no idea what path to follow.

At the suggestion of a friend, as a high school junior, Dues decided to enroll in the Criminal Justice Program at the Marshall Academy at George C. Marshall High School. He had always been interested in law enforcement and was intrigued by the idea of learning more about the career opportunities. Now as a senior, Dues is hooked. He gets up excited about school. After attending classes at Langley in the morning, he gets on a bus to Marshall and spends the afternoon learning about the judicial process and the possibilities for future employment. He gets all A’s in his academy classes and he can’t wait to go to college where he plans to major in criminal justice.

These are the kinds of results that Virginia Governor Mark Warner hopes can be replicated in schools around the country as he introduced a new national educational initiative that was enhanced yesterday by the signing of an historic agreement between the Commonwealth of Virginia and 62 two and four-year colleges and universities to permit qualified high school students to take classes at them.

Speaking at a personal appearance last Thursday at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Warner unveiled the new National Governor’s Association’s plan to redesign America’s High Schools.

Warner, the chairman of the National Governor’s Association, has been working with governors Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, John Baldecci of Maine, and Bob Taft of Ohio to, as Warner said, “put into practice recommendations other governors can subsequently implement.”

The recommendations are designed to be inexpensive changes in education that can be incorporated into school systems by the end of the next legislative session.

Warner cited as a reason for the initiative recent studies showing only 70% of high school students graduate and barely half of African American and Hispanic ninth graders complete high school in four years.

Warner, whose wife was part of Marshall’s class of 1972, said that it is necessary to make high school more relevant for students in their junior and senior years. “Whether you’re college bound or career bound we want to make your senior year that much more viable,” he said to the audience made up of high school seniors, educators, and political leaders.

Using Marshall’s seven year old technical training program as an example for schools across the country, Warner said that high school has to be able to provide relevant career training and professional certification for students that don’t plan to attend college.

He stated that by providing professional certification as medical technicians, computer professionals, automotive mechanics, and other direct workplace skills, high school graduates could raise their expected annual salaries by $8,000, and would provide greater incentive to finish high school.

The present industry training program at the Marshall Academy offers professional certification in software technology, cosmetology, and automotive technology, to name a few.

Former Marshall Academy administrator now principal of McLean High School, Paul Wardinski said industry training has had a positive effect in making high school more relevant for Marshall students.

“For a lot of kids, they were still in school because of these programs,” he said. “It definitely motivates them.”

But Wardinski qualified Warner’s statement that students get involved in industry training programs as an alternative to college. “A lot of our students, 80%, have gone on to post secondary educational programs,” he said.

He added that the certification tests have allowed students taking industrial classes to show their knowledge. “On top of your high school degree, it really validates what you know.”

For Dues, the daily trips to Marshall Academy, or field trips to the police stations, the police academy, and even a local jail, has an impact even beyond the class’ syllabus. “It opens you up to the world, it doesn’t try to hide it from you,” Dues said.

Criminal Justice instructor Mike Birch said that academy classes have the ability to introduce students to professionals in a variety of fields. Birch emphasized the assistance of the Fairfax Police and Sheriff’s departments in helping the students get a first hand look at possible career fields.

“I think what we offer makes kids want to come to school,” Birch said. The national initiative presented by Warner also attempts to tighten the awareness of student progress and location. While acknowledging the particularly high numbers of students not finishing high school, Warner said that the numbers portray inaccurately the actual drop-out rates. In the present system when a students transfer schools they are listed at their previous school as not finishing high school, independent of their performance at their new school. In schools where transition is more common this can often lead to higher drop-out rates even when the schools are performing at adequate levels.

Warner’s plan would allow schools to account for student transience and get a better picture of the actual occurrence of student drop-outs. Warner mentioned during his presentation that the legal drop-out age should also receive attention and perhaps reevaluation as the group looks at nationwide school changes.

On a different tack, Warner touted a program that would create greater collaboration between community colleges and four year higher education institutions. At present many four year colleges and universities aren’t willing to accept community college credits or allow them only as electives rather than core class credits.

For high school students taking advantage of dual enrollment in their senior year, this could help them reduce the length and cost of their college tenure.

(Yesterday, the governor's office announced the historic agreement between the Commonwealth and 62 colleges and universities in Virginia that, in response to Warner's initiative, are willing to accept qualified high school students into some of their classes. Undergraduate campuses in Northern Virginia include George Mason University and Marymount College). Following his presentation Warner sat down to field questions and comments from students in a 12th grade international baccalaureate history class. After initial statements about school start times and mid-day naps, a question was posed about required testing from the No Child Left Behind act.

Presently, Virginia has its own Standards of Learning tests for core subject areas that are a requirement for students to pass prior to receiving their diploma.

Warner rejected the idea of required federal testing that would duplicate or replace the testing that Virginia has already instituted. “It’s redundant,” Warner said. “I don’t want a state like Virginia to be penalized.”

Warner took questions from the class as a way to emphasize the cooperation that the NGA educational initiative plans to organize with high school juniors and seniors. Warner said that 10,000 high school upperclassmen will be surveyed in order to create innovative ideas that will speak directly to student needs.

As for Dues he said that increased career training is a great way to start, “I look forward to these classes. There’s no reason to drop out if you have a passion for it,” he said.

Warner’s job and the rest of the governors will be trying to pass that focus on to the rest of the students in their schools.