It is easy to get lost in selling the virtues of high school career academies and forget to point out the immense scale of our society’s educational problem. The problem is so immense that when you really understand it, it is unquestionably the largest and most significant social problem in America. The worst example of the problem is the annual crop of about one million high school dropouts. They are the vanguard of the well-known high school to prison pipeline. We know 70 percent of those in prison are high school dropouts. Also, 70 percent of the additional 4.5 million on probation and parole in America are high school dropouts. And we know the recidivism rate is also 70 percent. When you look at this high school to crime connection, one would think the enormous dimension of this problem would...

I went to work for San Diego City Schools in 1973. The next year I was promoted to work in the Career Education Unit. Staffing for the department included: a Director, one Curriculum Specialist for Industrial Technology, one for Business and Marketing Education, and one for Consumer and Family Studies and Health Education. These specialist positions were the people supporting the career technical education teachers in the secondary schools. They provided in-service training for teachers and consulted with principals of middle and high schools to help evaluate their program teachers. The department also had two Career Education Coordinators. One worked with elementary schools to support career awareness and one with secondary schools to support career exploration. I recall all ninth grade students...

We know high school career academies engage students in learning, increase student attendance, teach employable skills, dramatically increase graduation rates, and prepare graduates for jobs. All these great changes in normal high school student behavior are revolutionary. However, it is essential to understand what is the central factor that creates this altered student behavior?

The explanation by most high school career academy supporters is the relevance of the curriculum. They mean the kids see their skills developing that are directly related to real jobs. The reality of being able to go to work has a visceral reaction in young people that is very different than school for school’s sake. This relevance factor gives students a substantive reason to come to high school every day and pay attenti...

We know from research that many high schools have serious trouble engaging their students in learning. These high schools have low attendance rates, low test scores, and low graduation rates. Many of the kids from these schools end up in crime, prostitution, drugs, and prison. The school district’s answer is to push the kids off onto continuation schools or online courses. These alternatives do not constitute a real high school education, nor do they engage young people in learning. They are just being dumped to make the individual high school’s statistics look better.

 As a permanent educational intervention to address this problem, I propose high school career academies as the solution. Again, research shows career academies engage high school students in learning, graduate high proportions of th...

In his new book, Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford describes the reality of the impact of automation on jobs. Automation is already happening, but will continue at an accelerated rate to disrupt employment patterns in America and the world. Imagine manufactured goods costing half of what they do today. It doesn’t take an imagination because we already know that automation will do this. The negative consequence of automation of course, is what it does to workers. They will lose their jobs in droves. This is particularly perplexing in the case of manufacturing where the jobs pay well. Many of these manufacturing workers are essentially unskilled and the workers are not mobile and therefore not easily reemployable. We know how unemployment and poverty causes terrible lives of crime and incarceration. K...

The notion that class culture is the reason for student’s lack of success in American education is wrong and harmful. This concept of blaming economically low class culture for poor performance in education is code for racism. The notion that poverty causes dropping out of high school is racist. The educational establishment of America has allowed these coded excuses for poor student performance for many years. At the high school level, the worst student performance is dropping out of high school. This act of dropping out of high school presages very difficult adult lives.

We know high school dropouts have great difficulty in life after high school. High school dropouts are disproportionately represented in gangs, crime, prostitution, and incarceration. The school system blames parents for not crea...

The truth is that the United States has a mass of millions of unskilled people who are not worth a decent salary or benefits. This reality is this lack of job skills is due to a lack of leadership from school boards and their superintendents. Our school districts, cities, states, and businesses have just accepted an enormous high school drop out rate as part of our culture. A million kids drop out of high school every year. No one has cares enough to do anything about it. Yes, we now know 70 percent of the 2.5 million people in prison are high school dropouts, as are 70 percent of the additional 4.5 million on probation and parole. And yes, the recidivism rate is also 70 percent.

The solution to fix this deskilling of America is high school career academies. The time is now for every level of gover...

Only about 23 percent of the jobs in America require a college education. Therefore, the remaining jobs do not require a college education. American youth require an education that explains this reality and to learn what people do in various occupations and what education is required to prepare for employment. It’s time for leaders in America to understand that occupational education is a part of public education in America. This is essential because we know that 70 percent of students will not go on to graduate from college, with even fewer from urban high schools. This reality should make educational leaders aware of the importance of high school occupational education. A second reality is that most high school students know very little about any occupations in America. Most young people only kn...

Today, high school principals do not stand up and demand an appropriate education for their students. These educational leaders are smart and look around their high schools and see the great majority of kids are not going to college. Then, why don’t they stand up to demand reconstruction of their high schools into career academies? There is no other explanation than these people have chosen to take the money and not actually help kids. Unfortunately, this lack of professionalism of high school principals has been a problem for 30 years in America. Principals of high schools with many average and below average students as identified by test scores and grades, haven’t demanded changes in their high schools to appropriately educate these young people.

The first thing they should do this take a look at...

It is time for mayors to take responsibility for solving the root cause of crime, not just try to improve policing of crime. Mayors must understand that policing is a Band-Aid to crime, not a solution. Of course, there are ways to improve policing. You can improve recruitment to get smarter people, you can improve training, and you can improve retraining. You can improve management selection, management training, and personnel evaluation at all levels. The problem with improving policing is that it does not get at the root cause of crime. Of course, you must address ongoing policing issues, however, the far more significant issue is for mayors to confront the primary cause of crime in America, rather than the symptoms.

Mayors must face the reality that all policing is done after-the-fact and it is...