On Wednesday, August 27, The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published a blog post titled "Tracking the 'career' in college and career ready." In the post, the AEI outlines one of the major challenges in ensuring that students graduate college and career ready - namely, identifying an effective method to measure career readiness.
AEI is right to join the discussion of this important issue, which ACTE has worked on extensively in the past to identify and share effective methods of evaluating career readiness. In doing so, AEI has added its voice to a number of organizations that have expressed an interest in moving the discussion about how to measure career readiness forward. The Career Readiness Partner Council, which represents a broad spectrum including business and industry, education and workforce organizations that are interested in these issues, previously released a statement calling for greater emphasis on career readiness measurements.
There are, however, promising state-led approaches that shed some light on ways to overcome these challenges. For example, Kentucky has implemented a system requiring students to demonstrate two forms of career readiness indicators - "career-ready academic" on WorkKeys or the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), and "career-ready technical," which is measured by attainment of an industry-recognized credential or passing the state's technical skills assessment, the Kentucky Occupational State Skills Assessment (KOSSA). In fact, according to Making Career Readiness Count, a publication by Achieve and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, "A total of 29 states publicly report a career-focused readiness indicator, build one or more into their accountability system, or both."
While these examples of state-led efforts are a great start, there is still more to be done to ensure that effective measures of success are in place for educational institutions. ACTE remains committed to working with leaders from business and industry, state and local governments and federal agencies to ensure that America's education system is preparing students for college and career success.
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