High School. The committee, consisting of over 150 staff, parents, students, local business owners/workers, business partners, college admissions staff, and other interested community members, met several times throughout the 2017-2018 school year and were extremely successful in accomplishing goal number one, which was to identify the attributes/competencies that we want all Central Square learners not only to possess, but also excel in. Students enter at the Pre-Kindergarten level and before you know it, they are entering high school, and we need to make sure that we have done our very best job in preparing them all for college and/or career following their graduation from PVM High School. To better accomplish this, we are taking a systematic approach to strengthen the consistency of our Pre-Kindergarten-12th grade program. The following list of attributes/competencies is the result of many hours of collaboration between the Committee and administration: https://tinyurl.com/Attributes-Competencies-CS
Besides identifying these essential attributes/competencies, the Committee had several guest speakers, some of whom were former graduates from Central Square, that spoke about the pathway they had selected while at PVM and how the courses they selected at PVM and/or CiTi BOCES greatly prepared them for life after high school. They also provided feedback and suggestions on other courses we should offer that would further strengthen our pathway options. The goal of the College and Career Readiness Committee for 2018-2019 is to not only continue to strengthen our pathways through rigorous course offerings, as well as requiring all students to meet with their school counselor a minimum of twice each year, but by the end of this school year, we will identify the best approach to provide students with systematic opportunities to develop each of the attributes/competencies according to their grade level. We fully recognize that being an effective communicator and collaborator, innovative and critical thinker, emotionally intelligent, and a contributing citizen will look different at the primary, intermediate, middle school, and high school levels.
We are extremely excited about the opportunity to provide students with valuable information regarding their individual areas of strength and the possible careers that would best match their abilities. We are having all 10th grade students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, better known as the ASVAB. I am sure many parents will be initially concerned about the ASVAB as many parents do not want their child being recruited for the military and may think this is a recruiting ploy. I assure you it is not, and every parent must provide consent if they want the military to get the results. In speaking with different branches of the military, they fully understand that the majority of parents check the box that prohibits the military's use of this data and they cannot even attempt to contact students. They understand that most utilize the ASVAB to help students identify which career pathway would be the best fit. However, Central Square has a proud contingent of alumni that are active and veterans in the United States Armed Forces and providing students with the opportunity to take the ASVAB at no cost as many times as they wish absolutely benefits those students looking to enlist after PVM or attend college on an ROTC scholarship and then enter the military. The reason why this is huge for those students looking to enter the military (any branch) is because if students go to a recruiter to take the ASVAB (as it is a requirement to enter the military) the students can only take it once and that score literally dictates which type of program they can enter, which essentially leads to a career closely associated with the work performed in that type of program. If a school district administers the ASVAB, the students can take it as many times as they want starting in their junior year and only their highest score counts, which greatly benefits the students. The ASVAB is an aptitude assessment consisting of four parts: Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, and Mathematical Knowledge. Take a look at a very quick video clip: https://youtu.be/S_c588QTR2s
Our goal with having all 10th graders take the ASVAB is to provide the them with valuable information regarding the connection between their strengths and possible career pathways, but also to provide them with time to take the right courses for them according to their desired pathway. This information will add to the meaningful conversations between the school counselors, students, and parents/guardians. While we are planning to have all 9th graders take this exam, we are still providing the opportunity for any 10th-12th grade students if they are interested and that will be completely optional, and again, at no cost. The high school administration, district office administration, and school counselors will have evening information sessions in September about the ASVAB for any students and parents/guardians that are interested.
As I mention above, in what seems to be a blink of an eye, students enter the ninth grade and then are graduating, and we need to provide students with not only rigorous course offerings but we also need to provide each of them with as much information regarding their individual areas of strength that most students go through high school never realizing. We feel that the ASVAB (whether or not you allow the military to get the results) will be a huge leap forward in assisting students with the career pathway that best suits them. More to come..
If you are interested in joining our College and Career Readiness Committee, we would love to have you! We meet from 6pm-7:30pm in the PVM High School Cafeteria on the September 19, 2018, November 13, 2018, January 16, 2019, March 14, 2019, and May 15, 2019. If you are interested in joining, please email Pearl Horn at phorn@cssd.org and please write "College and Career Readiness Committee" in the subject line. Hope to see you on September 19.
