When it Comes to Career Exploration, Middle School is Prime Time. Are States Getting the Message?

We at ASA are, unashamedly, like a broken record about one thing: middle school is the best time for kids to start career exploration. The research confirms it. And we tell it to anyone who will listen. We are tirelessly pushing the national agenda to ensure younger kids nationwide have access to educational programming that will ensure they don’t fall into the category of opportunity youth--18-24-year-olds who are neither in school nor the workforce.

So, when it comes to proliferating career readiness programs in middle school, what are schools, districts, and even states, up to? At this year’s ASU+GSV Summit Julie Lammers, ASA’s SVP of Advocacy & Corporate Social Responsibility, moderated a panel that was put together to explore this important topic. She was joined by Paul Herdman of Rodel, Stephanie Simpson of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), and Kathleen Mathers of the Education Strategy Group (ESG).

Here’s some of what was shared.

Kathleen contextualized the scope of how much progress has been made as well as the scope of the challenge by summarizing the national landscape of career readiness initiatives: “We looked across all 50 states at middle school career exploration and asked, ‘Have they set a vision for this work? Have they begun to build policy around that vision? And have they likewise begun to build infrastructure to support implementation of that vision?’ The good news is that there’s a lot of very strong, yet nascent, work in-place across the country. And you would expect it to be nascent at this point because the shift to career exploration is relatively new. We found that states have done a very good job at recognizing the opportunity in Perkins to use federal dollars for their work…They’ve done a pretty good job at beginning to build policy and infrastructure. Where we saw gaps is around the more advanced posture for career exploration. There is a gap between policy vision and implementation. Students by and large told us they’re still getting most of their career guidance from family and friends, and not as much in school.”

Stephanie answered the question, “Why middle school?”

“Developmentally, kids are primed for [career readiness and exploration] in middle school. It’s the second most acute developmental phase other than birth to age three. Kids at this age have the capacity to think abstractly. At the same time, we know that, while a student might not drop out of school until their sophomore year, they’re starting to think about it in sixth grade. If we aren’t seeing them at the middle school level, we’ve lost them. And that’s why we call middle school ‘the last best chance.’?

Every school (and every community) is different. And they all need to have a solution that’s tailored to their community. So, we want to provide guidance in terms of what good career exploration looks like.”

So, what does good programming look like? In part, it looks like more collaboration and better ability to share best practices.

Paul shared experiences and challenges from his work in Delaware, where Rodel is working to transform the state’s education system to be more equitable and effective, including with career readiness programming. “We [in the U.S.] are extremely fragmented. There are really no systems of excellence. So, part of what we’re trying to do in Delaware is build that system of excellence. And now, we have about 30,000 students in our career pathways efforts. That means close to 70% of our high school students are involved in a pathway which includes a work-based learning experience, industry recognized credential, access to college credits and more. We still have a lot of work to do…Our kids have about 15 different pathways they’re exploring while in middle school. And the goal is to double that in the next few years.”

We often talk about career readiness programs in the abstract or in summary, but I think it’s important to bring it to life with real stories. Paul added an example of a school that really exemplifies the value of career readiness programming and how it serves middle schoolers so well.

“There’s a school – Kuumba Academy in Wilmington – that’s an arts-based charter school. They start off with an exploration of who you are. They discuss identity and do some work to figure out what they’re individually interested in. But then they get to go out into the field and into the community, in 6th and 7th grades. By 8th grade they’re building a capstone project and being clear about their interests and their plan for after high school.”

Want to hear more? You can watch the entire panel conversation here .