The Declining Value of Diplomas

As the school year begins students, teachers, parents and the community are filled with excitement and a willingness to try new things.  A new year is a new opportunity for success.
As the year starts, students and teachers are motivated to make the most of this opportunity on their way to earning their diploma.  Recently for me, this has begged  the questions of "How can we make the most of this opportunity while earning a diploma" and "What is the value of high school diploma?" 

Is a high school diploma worth anything?  Now, before you react viscerally, humor me for minute to consider if it really prepares kids to function in a global society where skills are key rather than knowledge.  Times have shifted where the knowledge we possess is only as good as our ability to translate that to action through our skills.  

Last week at our first in-service day, our new superintendent addressed the staff and spoke about his past experiences which have prepared him to lead our district in this very dynamic time in public education.  Mr. Applegate has a very diverse background that will be a tremendous asset to our district.  During his in-service address he posed the rhetorical questions of "What does a diploma allow a kid to do?   What does it qualify them to do? "  Now, we as educational masses have always responded with "It gives you the skills to be a functioning member of society,"  or "It will allow you to secure a job where you can live a comfortable life".  Recently I have started thinking that these may not be sufficient answers anymore.

Just last week President Obama initiated a conversation centered around skyrocketing college costs and how to control those.   As college student invest tens of thousands of dollars (and sometimes more) into a college degree, they have a sense of entitlement to higher paying jobs to justify the cost of a post-secondary education.  I can empathize with that entitlement, but the reality of the situation is that many times even a college education is not enough to equip them with the skills they need to earn those large salaries.  Employers want kids with certifications, skills, and competencies specific to their industry.  Employers are often forced to make large investments in new employees to bridge that gap between formal education and the real world skills they need to function in the working world.

Here is where I believe schools have a golden opportunity to serve students better.   For many years we have known that in order to work your way up the proverbial promotion ladder, it is imperative you obtain more education or higher certifications.  As school systems, why can't we use our Career and Technical Education programs to do just this?  How can we personalize these programs to the needs of our students to provide an opportunity to earn industry specific certifications prior to leaving high school?  

A logical step in that direction will be to partner with business and industry stakeholders to bring the experts in those fields into the process of preparing kids for life beyond K-12 education.  For far too long, we as schools, have been forced by the circumstances of the standards, assessments, and accountability policies to close the doors to local stakeholders with respect to real world problem- based learning because of the time demands of the aforementioned policies.  The time has come for us realize that this has not been positive for our students, schools, or communities.   Education is a diverse endeavor where the 'product' we produce is not truly quantifiable.  We produce a qualitative 'product' to meet the demands of the world.  This standards movement is founded upon lower level thinking skills and facts that are 'Googleable'.  I believe that by reconnecting education to the real world we can make our 'product' quality higher by giving students skill sets and credentials to be better prepared to enter the real world.  

This idea of partnering with local stakeholders and leaders can be a powerful tool to engage kids in learning content and skills.  This past week I initiated a conversation with Central Community College and our hospital administrator about the possibility of offering CNA/CMA (Certified Nursing Assistant/Certified Medical Assistant) classes to our school and community.  During that conversation Lyle Davis from Cozad Community Health System welcomed this idea and will be a key player in this idea coming to fruition.  While this partnership may be in the infancy stage, we hope that this will become the model for a number of other partnerships we will look to forge in the coming months.  In just a few moments of conversation with our Superintendent, we have already identified the possible certification/partnerships for several areas in which we have potential resources and experts in our community. Some of these certifications will be for those who will directly enter the workforce after graduation, while others will be geared toward students who may go onto earn advanced degrees from a post-secondary institution.  Our tentative plan is to bring together many of these industry and community stakeholders in the fall to determine what partnerships are possible to best serve and prepare our students for the real world. 

It is an exciting time to be a Haymaker.  It is even more exciting to consider the possibility of bringing local support and ownership of educational ventures back to our school and community.  We owe it to our students to work together to do everything within our power to fully prepare
them for the world beyond K-12 education.  I have little doubt in my mind that our stakeholders will be tremendous assets in these future endeavors.

Dustin Favinger
9-12 School Counselor
Cozad Senior High School