A History of Career Education in America

The following is an essay I wrote in a course I took to prepare me to teach. It’s always painful to reread something you wrote a while ago, but this one has some good information.

While most school children can tell you about Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and the impact it had on manufacturing, the impact that this and the many other innovations of the Industrial Revolution had on education in America are far less known.  This period of history saw the focus of education shift from a solely classical structure to one where “industrial education” was considered necessary so the new manufacturing industry would have enough skilled trade workers.  The parallel tracks of classical and vocational education continued through the 20th century with periods where more or less focus on the vocational.  However a shift in the way career education is viewed has allowed it to be fully integrated into today’s academic programs, a shift which I believe is for the better of career education specifically and education as a whole as well.

In the early colonial days to be educated meant to have a classical Latin or Greek schooling.  The first public school in the colonies, the Boston Latin School established in 1635, was the first of a long history of schools in the United States that trained students exclusively in what we know today as the liberal arts^[1]Annenberg Classroom. (n.d.). Education policy. Retrieved from http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/timeline/education-policy.  To be educated was a sign of distinction that was only for the few.  However, over time it was recognized that providing an education to all children would be a benefit to society and states started establishing statewide public schools, Indiana being the first in 1816^[2]Annenberg Classroom. (n.d.). Education policy. Retrieved from http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/timeline/education-policy.

Around the same time the industrial revolution began to take off, creating a need for a new workforce that possessed the skills necessary to operate and maintain these new industrial machines.  The first area where this need was officially recognized by the government was in agriculture.  The Morrill (Land-Grant) Act of 1862 bequeathed federal government lands in each state “to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts” in order to educate the many Americans who were adjusting to a new way of farming ^[3]Morrill Act of 1862, 7 U.S.C. §§ 301-307 (2012). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/304.  Leaders in industry believed that the emphasis on industrial training would also benefit their operations so they advocated for legislation similar to the Land-Grant Act that applied to other areas.  This led to the passage of the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act in 1917.

The Smith-Hughes Act provided federal funds for establishing a system of vocational education in the areas of “agricultural, trade, industrial, and home economics subjects” ^[4]Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act, 20 U.S.C. §§ 11-30 (1946). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/uscode1946-002020002/.  This was seen as a way to held the United States compete economically with the rest of the world through increased employment ^[5]Carleton, D. (2002). Landmark congressional laws on education. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 64..  However, while it was widely advocated at the time, vocational education was still considered a different path for a student than a college preparatory path.  Students learned the skills of a specific trade and did not spend much time learning higher order skills which were transferrable.  As Lynch noted the teachers of vocational programs were expected to have experience in the field they were teaching as their primary qualification while pedagogy and other related skills were considered secondary ^[6]Lynch, R. L. (1998, June). Occupational experience as the basis for alternative teacher certification in vocational education: Introduction. Retrieved from … Continue reading.  The language of the bill itself makes it clear that the funds it authorized were to be kept separate for purposes of vocational education only ^[7] Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act, 20 U.S.C. §§ 11-30 (1946). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/uscode1946-002020002/ .

This system of vocational education allowed many students to gain skills that were useful in their careers, but this model for what and how vocational education should be taught has flaws which have ultimately led people to rethink its value.  First it has long been postulated that vocational education set students up to fail should any changes to the skills needed for their trades change.  Hanushek, Schwerdt, Woessmann, & Zhang have identified that students in traditional vocational programs may have better job prospects and better pay shortly out of school as compared to their college preparatory counterparts, but that these roles are reversed by about age 30 for employment and age 45 for income ^[8]Hanushek, E. A., Schwerdt, G., Woessmann, L., & Zhang, L. (2017). General education, vocational education, and labor-market outcomes over the lifecycle. The Journal of Human Resources,42(1), … Continue reading.  Vocational education is simply not a recipe for long term success.  In addition to this, priorities changed in the mid 1980’s after the publication “A Nation at Risk”, a Reagan administration study that advocated major changes to America’s education system ^[9]National Commission on Excellence in Education, The. (1983, April 26). A nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform: recommendations (United States Department of Education). Retrieved from … Continue reading.  According to Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, the country “abandoned work-based programs in high schools” after this report to focus on academics due to the perceived failings of American schools ^[10]Sanchez, C. (2016, May 14). Career and technical education: boom or bust? Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/05/14/477343143/career-and-technical-education-boom-or-bust. para. 4..

Fortunately, this was not the end for vocational education.  It eventually garnered a new name, Career Technical Education, or CTE.  What was known as the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act was re-passed as the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and shifted its focus to include an integration of vocational and academic education into the same programs ^[11]ACTE. (2018, April). Moving forward. Retrieved from https://www.acteonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ACTE-History-PDF1.pdf.  This also imposed greater connections to secondary education than had previously existed which creates a wider array of opportunities for graduates ^[12]ACTE. (2018, April). Moving forward. Retrieved from https://www.acteonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ACTE-History-PDF1.pdf.  By having CTE as an integrated part of a greater educational program students can acquire both the knowledge needed for them to go far in academics as well as the skills that will make them successful in the workplace.  In addition to this the Association for Career & Technical Education notes that high school CTE students have a lower risk of dropping out, and are more likely to enroll in college ^[13]ACTE. (n.d.). About cte. Retrieved from https://www.acteonline.org/about-cte/.

So where does this leave CTE today?  Ultimately I believe that the shift in the last few decades towards viewing CTE as a pathway to readiness for all professions will strengthen CTE programs.  This view gives the opportunity for skills to be taught that make students more responsive to the needs of our changing world.  As the pace of technological innovation accelerates the old model of trade-skills focused vocational education could teach skills which would be obsolete in a few years.  Under the new CTE paradigm students will learn skills which are transferable to other career paths should the market shift.  Skills such as teamwork, a positive work ethic and integrity will be needed no matter what technology comes out next.

In addition to better preparing students for the working world, I believe that CTE integration will help overall academic performance.  Students can often feel like school work will never be useful to them in their lives.  Integrated CTE allows students to engage better with the school work and see how their academics can apply in real life scenarios.  This can help them stay interested in their academics since they know that it will be useful to them one day.

Based on the current direction of career technical education I look forward to being a part of it as a teacher in the near future.  I will have the ability to not just impart knowledge of a trade, but to guide them in acquiring skills that will make them adaptable to any field they take an interest in.