Special Population: Low-Income High School Students
Background
While high school students’ dropout rates in general are declining, dropout rates for low-income students are still four and a half times greater than those of higher income students (Stark & Noel, 2015). This is important because, according to Bridgeland, Dilulio and Morrison (2006), from Civic Enterprises, “Dropouts are much more likely than their peers who graduate to be unemployed, living in poverty, receiving public assistance, in prison, on death row, unhealthy, divorced, and single parents with children who drop out from high school themselves” (p.3). Low-income students that drop out are essentially continuing the same cycle that they were raised in.
Unique Challenges …show more content…
117). Furthermore, they state, “[...] if these factors are compounded by limited knowledge about potential career opportunities youth are likely to foreclose on future options” (p.117). While these factors make it all the more important for low-income students to receive career counseling, low-income schools are often under-resourced and might not be able to provide career-specific counseling to all students. By not having access to career knowledge and support for career exploration, students will leave high school without the tools necessary to start a career. While these barriers to career counseling for low-income students are substantial, there are ways to provide career counseling services in low-income schools. One example would be to implement career exploration workshops on a large scale during advisory periods in high schools. Advisories typically run at least once a week for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, these advisory time blocks often become wasted time, as teachers have no subject to teach. Career exploration workshops would be an effective use of this …show more content…
Each week, one advisory teacher will bring his or her classroom to the library or computer lab to participate in a career development workshops composed of various activities covering career knowledge, assessments and guest speakers from a variety of fields. For the first workshop, the students will be instructed to sign up for an account to take interest profilers on the California Career Zone website. They will then be instructed to research the various careers that are presented to them. Students will be asked to make salary comparisons between careers (e.g. bls.gov), the majors and degrees that are required for career choices as well as what schools offer those
Background
While high school students’ dropout rates in general are declining, dropout rates for low-income students are still four and a half times greater than those of higher income students (Stark & Noel, 2015). This is important because, according to Bridgeland, Dilulio and Morrison (2006), from Civic Enterprises, “Dropouts are much more likely than their peers who graduate to be unemployed, living in poverty, receiving public assistance, in prison, on death row, unhealthy, divorced, and single parents with children who drop out from high school themselves” (p.3). Low-income students that drop out are essentially continuing the same cycle that they were raised in.
Unique Challenges …show more content…
117). Furthermore, they state, “[...] if these factors are compounded by limited knowledge about potential career opportunities youth are likely to foreclose on future options” (p.117). While these factors make it all the more important for low-income students to receive career counseling, low-income schools are often under-resourced and might not be able to provide career-specific counseling to all students. By not having access to career knowledge and support for career exploration, students will leave high school without the tools necessary to start a career. While these barriers to career counseling for low-income students are substantial, there are ways to provide career counseling services in low-income schools. One example would be to implement career exploration workshops on a large scale during advisory periods in high schools. Advisories typically run at least once a week for an hour and a half. Unfortunately, these advisory time blocks often become wasted time, as teachers have no subject to teach. Career exploration workshops would be an effective use of this …show more content…
Each week, one advisory teacher will bring his or her classroom to the library or computer lab to participate in a career development workshops composed of various activities covering career knowledge, assessments and guest speakers from a variety of fields. For the first workshop, the students will be instructed to sign up for an account to take interest profilers on the California Career Zone website. They will then be instructed to research the various careers that are presented to them. Students will be asked to make salary comparisons between careers (e.g. bls.gov), the majors and degrees that are required for career choices as well as what schools offer those