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** Weekly Update
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A newsletter from The Hechinger Report
Sponsored by:
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In this week's edition: Indiana and Wisconsin are two of several states boosting career and technical education for high schoolers ([link removed]) . Schools are struggling to bring students back after the pandemic ([link removed]) . Plus, veterans and their advocates say the process of getting GI Bill benefits has gotten even slower since cuts to government staffing ([link removed]) .
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[Edgar Soto, a senior at Concord High School, in Elkhart, Indiana, is gaining workforce experience through an apprenticeship with the company Alpha Systems. Credit: Camilla Forte/The Hechinger Report]
** How Indiana revamped high school
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The numbers were discouraging, and in some cases getting worse. Nearly 30 percent of Indiana’s high schoolers were chronically absent in 2022. Only about 52 percent of students in the state enrolled in college in 2023, a 12-percentage-point drop in seven years. Fewer students were pursuing other paths, too: The share of students enlisting in the military, for example, declined by 41 percent from 2018 to 2022.
When Katie Jenner toured the state after becoming education secretary in 2021, she heard from many students who said they simply didn’t value high school or see how it would help them. “That was really hard to hear,” Jenner said. “We had to look in the mirror and say, ‘OK, this is the reality. Let’s do better.’”
Jenner and her team began redesigning what high school looks like in Indiana, in an effort to make it more relevant to young people’s futures and help them gain a better grasp of career paths. For too long, she and others argued, kids had been pushed to plan for four-year college, yet only about half of seniors actually enrolled, and those who did go often dropped out before graduating.
When a draft of the plan was released in early 2024, it drew fierce protest from many parents and educators who worried the state was prioritizing workforce learning over academics. Jenner and her staff reworked the proposal, eventually crafting a plan that alleviated some, though not all, of the concerns.
The “New Indiana Diploma” — which was signed into law in April and goes into effect for all incoming first-year students this academic year — gives students the option to earn different “seals” in addition to a basic diploma, depending on whether they plan to attend college, go straight to work or serve in the military.
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Early Bird Registration & Housing are now open for NAEYC's 2025 Annual Conference ([link removed]) November 19 -22 in Orlando, FL! Join us for the largest gathering of early childhood educators worldwide. Access cutting-edge research and practical ideas, and find inspiration through meaningful connections with a diverse community of your peers!
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** How this Wisconsin school built high-end training sites on campus
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While the unemployment rate of Rock County, which includes Beloit, is 3.6 percent, only slightly higher than the state’s 3.2 percent, there’s a worker mismatch in the city, according to Drew Pennington, its economic development director.
Every day, 14,000 city residents travel outside of Beloit to work, while the same number commute into the city to fill mostly higher-paying jobs, said Pennington.
So when Beloit decided to revamp its public high school in 2018, CTE and work-based learning were at the forefront of the transformation.
The 1,225-student school now has three academies that cover 13 different career paths. After ninth grade, students choose to concentrate in an area, which means taking several courses in a specific field. Students also have the option to do work-based learning, which can mean internships, a youth apprenticeship or working at high-end simulated job sites inside the school.
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** Adding bus stops, serving biscuits and gravy, and catching butterflies
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Chronic absenteeism, when students miss 10 percent or more of the school year, is 50 percent higher across the nation than before the pandemic. Researchers say it’s difficult for schools to address the problem because it is both so intense, with students missing huge chunks of the school year, and so extensive, affecting both rich and poor students and even high achievers. And the reasons vary widely, from asthma and bullying to transportation problems and the feeling that school is boring.
Talking about the problem isn’t enough. Researchers say they want to study more schools that are making headway. It remains unclear if there are broadly applicable fixes or if each school or even each student needs individual solutions. Some underlying root causes for skipping school are more complex than others, requiring psychotherapy or housing assistance, which schools can’t provide alone. Here are a few examples of how very different communities are tackling the problem.
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** 'Complete nightmare'
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Student veterans and advisers say VA cuts are derailing their educations.
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“Delays, errors, and employees that don’t know anything. No one knows anything right now.” ([link removed])
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** Reading list
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How some states are keeping kids with disabilities in child care ([link removed])
Ohio, other states aim to help providers create inclusive programs for young children
Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more ([link removed])
The president is working to eliminate the Education Department and fighting ‘woke’ ideology in schools. A week-by-week look at what he’s done
OPINION: Tutoring can be a great training ground and a ready-made pipeline of future educators ([link removed])
Tutoring provides a much-needed on-ramp into the teaching profession. School districts should pay attention
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