Reply to Wakefield or Arlington Tech for an A/B Student Who Will Most Likely Stay In-State for College

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Arlington Tech is a vocational school. They are trying to market it otherwise but it’s not actually college prep.[/quote]

This. Until the first few graduating classes show a strong percentage going to colleges with solid tech-related programs, this is an unproven go-tech program. That’s not a bad thing, but I wouldn’t send my college bound kid there until I know they are sending kids to college. [/quote]

No it's not a vocational school, it's a high school that offers elective courses that focus on skills for vocational careers. This is not some new concept and had been done in Fairafx county for 20+.

Kids go to college after taking these electives but the colleges might not meet the standard of some parents since it might not be UVA or W&M. A kid will earn a high school diploma. The votech classes are introductions and it might be possible for a kid to earn some kind of certificate for passing a test but to actually really go into the trade or line of work requires a high school diploma and then actual job experience which requires kids to be at least 18 yrs old.

[/quote]

It's also not a new, unproved thing in Arlington.  Tons of kids to over to the Career Center from Yorktown, W-L, Wakefield to take these elective classes, they just have to lose a class period to do so to allow for transportation time.  A small group of seniors were already taking DE English, math at the Career Center because they wanted more time to focus on their electives.  My friend's son did the video production series there, went on to major on it in college and now works in that field in LA.  He says he learned most of what he does every day at the Career Center.  One girl recently got a full ride to U of Michigan in engineering after completing the automotive technology classes at the Career Center.  Your kid who might want to pre-med can take classes in physical therapy, sports medicine, EMT.  Pre-vet, take animal science classes.  Architect - architectural drawing.  Lots of computer programming.

Yes, the non-college-bound student can take cosmetology classes, get certified in automotive repair, etc.  But the CTE classes also are very valuable for college-bound students.

The very positive experience kids have with the Career Center classes is why parents lobbied to create the Arlington Tech program.  It was not an idea the district came up with, although they now embrace it.[/quote]

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