Under the leadership of Governor DeWine, Ohio has made expanding and improving career pathways a top priority. State policymakers have spent the last several years establishing a variety of initiatives and funding sources, with the goal of providing more and better opportunities for kids. Overall, Ohio has a pretty solid foundation in career technical education. But there’s still plenty of work ahead to ensure that all students have access to high-quality career-connected learning.
The state budget process that’s currently underway is an excellent opportunity for lawmakers to build on previous efforts. Unfortunately, it’s been a mixed bag thus far. Governor DeWine’s proposal was a solid step forward. But the House took several steps back.
It’s now up to the Senate to push Ohio forward on career-connected learning. Two issues in particular—career planning and industry-recognized credentials (IRCs)—should be at the top of their to-do list. Let’s take a look at the current state of play and recommendations for what the Senate should do.
Career planning
The issue
Current law requires every Ohio student in grades nine through twelve who attends a public or chartered non-public school to have a graduation plan that maps their academic pathway to a diploma. These pathways consider course and graduation requirements. Plans must be updated each year until the student graduates. They do not require students to think beyond graduation or consider potential careers.
Governor DeWine’s proposal
Last year, during his state of the state address, Governor DeWine called on the legislature to “make a very simple fix in statute to insert career planning into existing graduation plan requirements.” When he released his budget recommendations this February, he followed through. Under his proposal, students’ plans would be required to identify post-graduation career goals and align students’ high school experiences to those goals. To support the transition, DeWine charged the Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) with adopting rules regarding plan contents. (For more information on what should be required from DEW, see here.)
The House’s proposal
The House removed the governor’s proposal to incorporate career planning into current graduation plan requirements.
Recommendations for the Senate
The Senate’s first order of business should be to restore the governor’s career planning proposal. Thousands of students graduate each year with no idea how to pursue their interests or even what they’re interested in. By requiring schools to help students create graduation plans that align with their interests and future career goals, policymakers could take an important first step toward addressing the issue.
But they shouldn’t stop there. To be prepared for planning efforts in high school, students need in-depth opportunities to explore career fields and educational pathways during middle school. The Senate could provide those opportunities by requiring all students to complete a career exploration course during grades 6–8. Districts and schools should be permitted to meet this expectation by designing and offering their own course based on guidance from DEW or by partnering with a qualified organization.
Industry-recognized credentials
The issue
IRCs allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills and verify their competence via an objective, third-party measure. High-quality credentials can boost earnings and employment. And in Ohio, high school students can use IRCs as a pathway to graduation. To determine which IRCs qualify, a state-level committee reviews and assigns them a point value between one and twelve. Students must earn at least twelve points in one career field to qualify for the IRC graduation pathway, but they can bundle several low-point credentials to reach that threshold.
The problem is that Ohio’s current point value system doesn’t effectively identify credential value or encourage students to earn IRCs that will lead to better long-term outcomes. In fact, because of the flaws in Ohio’s current system, thousands of students are obtaining IRCs that are poorly aligned with in-demand, high-value careers. Recent data even suggest that Ohio’s urban districts are routing students into less rigorous IRC programs to ensure they receive diplomas.
Governor DeWine’s proposal
DeWine’s proposed budget eliminated the point value system and required the IRC committee to establish new criteria under which a student may use IRCs to earn a diploma.
The House’s proposal
The House eliminated DeWine’s changes. Doing so maintains Ohio’s current point value system and does nothing to curtail use of low-level IRCs to meet graduation requirements.
Recommendations for the Senate
The Senate should restore the governor’s proposed language. Doing so would put Ohio on the path toward solving many of its current IRC problems. The Senate could then build on that foundation by adding three key provisions.
First, it should require the IRC committee to link credentials to wages. If a credential doesn’t ensure that a student is financially better off for having earned it, then it shouldn’t be considered valuable by the state and shouldn’t be a pathway to graduation.
Second, it should require the committee to link credentials to two job outlook measures—one that focuses on short-term demand according to feedback from industry partners, and a second that considers long-term job outlook based on projected data.
Third, it should require the committee to establish a three-tiered system that assigns IRCs to one of three tiers (from highest to lowest value): Preferred, Valued, or Recognized. Although students should be able to earn an IRC in any tier, only credentials that are Preferred or Valued—those that are considered beneficial by employers, lead to well-paying jobs, and have a positive future outlook—should count toward meeting graduation requirements.
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Ohio policymakers have invested a great deal in career-connected learning. Doing so was wise—when implemented well, these opportunities benefit students, schools, employers, local communities, and the state as a whole. Ohio still has a long way to go before it capitalizes on all that potential. But if Senate lawmakers follow the recommendations outlined above and prioritize much-needed changes in career planning and IRCs, Ohio will keep pushing career education in the right direction.
