P-Tech takes students from school to work


  • October 2, 2015
  • /   Reggie Dogan
  • /   education

Pine Forest High School prepares for a commencement. The school boosted at-risk students’ graduation rate by
eight points in a year, going from 52 percent in 2012 to 60 percent in 2013. / Photo by Michael Spooneybarger

We hear it all the time that our secondary schools should be about getting ready for higher education.

It’s become an article of faith in the school reform movement that we should be striving to prepare all students for success in — if not a four-year degree, then some other recognized and reputable post-secondary credential.

I’m grateful and proud that I attended college. It began a new chapter in my life, the beginning of new friendships, networking connections, and most importantly, individual, academic and professional growth.

College graduation is among 16 metrics in the Studer Institute's Pensacola Metro Dashboard that the Studer Community Institute uses to gauge progress and to provide an at-a-glance look at the area's growth, educational attainment, economic prospects, safety and civic life, with the aim of improving the community's quality of life.

With the cost of higher education rising and the return on the investment falling, is a  four-year degree the ideal goal for high school students?

Maybe not, primarily because all students aren’t college material, and we shouldn’t expect them to spend an extra four years in a classroom with nothing to show in the end except student loans  and no means to pay them off.

But there are some wonderful alternatives available, and one of them is called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-Tech for short.

In “What if the Answer isn’t College, but Longer High School,” The Atlantic magazine highlights a high school program that provides training and skills for students to help students prepare for careers that pay good money.

This is how it works:

Students in New York City attend P-Tech programs for six years. They leave with a high school diploma, an associate’s degree and skills to work for companies like IBM.

When students enter a six-year technology program to earn associate degrees that will lead to middle-class jobs at places like IBM, and when college.graduates take low-paying service and retail industry jobs while other college grads return to community colleges to get training for medical and technical jobs, serious questions arise about the current mantra of everyone has to go to college.

Read more about P-Techs in New York here.

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