Vocational Education Statistics Troubling, Though Misleading

The California Department of Education has some troubling news for the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Unified School District as a whole. The problem, however, is that we really don’t know how troubling it is.

As a story by Times staff writer Lucille Renwick points out, Valley high school students are spending less and less time in vocational education courses, even as fewer Valley high school graduates are going on to state colleges.

That seems to be a pretty clear indication that fewer Valley students are prepared for an experience-hungry and skills-oriented job market. But the state’s annual High School Performance Report, released late last month, contains only the most basic assessment of vocational education course participation. It does not go nearly far enough in telling the school district or school board members what they need to know. Moreover, some of the statistics are misleading.

For example, the state figures show that only nine of the 33 high schools in the Valley exceed the state average of 9.2% of student hours logged in vocational classes. Of course, that doesn’t sound very good. But it’s hardly an accurate way to assess strength or weakness. It is rather a sign of the state’s own weakness in coming up with a meaningful way to determine whether non-college bound students are truly being prepared for the workplace.

Measuring success by the number of hours spent in vocational studies is about as meaningful as declaring that a school’s advanced placement studies program is thriving as long as several students are taking the courses. In both circumstances, the time on task doesn’t matter a whit if the student hasn’t received real training, or can’t pass the advanced placement exam.

There are other problems. As Renwick’s story pointed out, the participation figures for each school do not include the potentially high numbers of students who are taking vocational course work off campus at facilities such as the Mid-Valley Occupational Center.

And local school officials cannot afford to buy into the “higher attendance equals success” equation.

Merely steering more students toward vocational offerings is not the answer. Turning such courses into a dumping ground for least favored students was part of what ailed vocational education in the first place.

The best vocational programs stress academic rigor, real work opportunities, decision-making responsibilities, positive peer group reinforcement, and teachers (and actual employees) who serve as mentors, not just as instructors. Students are attracted to such programs, and attendance takes cares of itself.

Glendale High School, for example, and Burroughs High School in Burbank, have high participation rates in vocational programs because they meet many of those criteria.

What’s needed is a comprehensive assessment of the schools that have had the best track record in launching students toward their career goals.

A simple roll call of who shows up for class is, by comparison, meaningless.

The time on task doesn’t matter a whit if the student hasn’t received real training.