 he Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Perkins IV), which amended the previous Perkins Act, requires state plans to develop “programs of study” that combine career exploration with rigorous academics on the secondary level to prepare students for the postsecondary education required for most high demand, high skill careers available now and expected in the future (Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Perkins IV), 2006). Within the Act, there are clear requirements that, as part of the state level activities, a state agency must provide support for career guidance and academic counseling activities that will “promote improved career and education decision making by students (and parents, as appropriate)” (Perkins IV, 2006, Sec. 118-c-1). These activities are required to help students and parents identify appropriate education and training needed for “high skill, high wage, or high demand occupations and non-traditional fields” (Perkins IV, 2006, Sec. 118-c-1). The act also identified the professional development of teachers, faculty, counselors and administrators as critical state level activities to assist parents and students “especially special populations, with career exploration, educational opportunities, educational financing, and exposure to high wage, or high demand occupations and non-traditional fields, including occupations and fields requiring a baccalaureate” (Perkins IV, 2006, Sec. 118-c-3).
The Illinois Career Development Task Force, in their February 2008 report, Comprehensive Career Development for Illinois: Findings and Recommendations of the Illinois Career Development Task Force (Williams, Bragg & Makela, 2008), recommends that a comprehensive career development system be created and deployed in schools statewide (See http://occrl.ed.uiuc.edu/Projects/careerdev/files/CDTF_Final_Report.pdf). Career development includes programs, services, and resources that help individuals explore, choose, prepare for, and manage their careers. The Task Force believes it is critical to do this now because the high school dropout rate is 12%; further, 40% of college students do not complete their degrees. Illinois employers complain that new employees lack the critical workplace skills needed in the global marketplace.
The report details the benefits of career development programs for all students and expresses concern that some students do not have knowledgeable parents1 to aid them in career planning and academic choices. Other researchers express the same concerns:
Middle school is a crucial stage at which students and their parents must begin to make [complex] choices….many parents do not have the necessary information to help their children make the important early choices that will help them prepare to fulfill their college dreams. Worse still, it is often the parents who most need the information and who find it difficult to obtain, leaving their children at risk of not properly preparing for college. (Cunningham, Erisman & Looney, 2007, p. 4)
Studies confirm that parental educational and career attainment is a determinant of how much information and support for career development and college going will be given to students. Students whose parents did not go to college (first generation students) and hold jobs that do not require higher order skills or training do not see the linkage between high school to a future defined career path that might include continued education or training (Cunningham, Erisman & Looney, 2007; Rothstein, 2004). Those parents are less confident about the classes their children should take in high school (Cunningham et al., 2007). The selection of appropriate high school courses is also dependent on the educational attainment of parents. Fifty-two percent of prospective first generation students took college preparatory courses in high school compared to 75.9% of students who had at least one parent with some college. In addition 14.8% of prospective first generation students said they had no idea if their parents wanted them to attend college compared with only 3.1% of group that had at least one parent with some college (Gibbons, Borders, Wiles, Stephan & Davis, 2006). “The best schools try to address the alienation of many lower-class parents from their children’s schooling, because if parents get more involved they can help raise their children’s expectations of themselves” (Rothstein, 2004, p. 31).
Studies have shown that parents see themselves as important participants in the career development of their adolescents (Bardick et al., 2005; Morrow, 1995). However, Downing and D’Andrea (1994) found that parents often felt insecure about how to help their children in the career development process. Regardless, children express great compatibility with the career values, goals, and plans parents have for their children.
Of all the people to whom youth can turn for help with making career plans, most look to their mothers. The findings apply across gender, to young men as well as young women; and they apply across race, to minority youth as well as majority-culture youth. The results underscore the importance of parents as allies and resources for career counselors in facilitating youth career development (Otto, 2000, p. 111).
Counselors however should be concerned about how the career experience of the parent might shape the child’s exploration or aspiration to a range of career choices that the parent finds acceptable or understands. In a study of ninth grade students, researchers discovered that the majority of students had learned about careers from television or a parent (Gibbons et al., 2006). Both sources have the potential to limit or misinform the student whose career plan is being formed.
Many students and their parents lack accurate information about college. When surveyed, a majority of students and their parents overestimated college costs by more than 25% (Horn, Chen & Chapman, 2003). In a related survey of the parents of ninth graders, the same researchers found that few parents were actively helping their children investigate careers and the education needed to achieve them.
Involving – and educating – parents earlier is key. When school counselors educate parents directly, they also are influencing students indirectly as well. Programs that bring students and parents together may be particularly effective, especially if school counselors provide information and facilitate parent-student conversations about educational and career goals and encourage planning for next steps (e.g., college visits) (Gibbons et al., 2006, p. 176).
There are models for programs that deliberately build parental awareness of and involvement in career development activities and their benefits. When parents participate in the decision-making process for selecting courses, students choose more rigorous courses. During the Individualized Career Planning conferences held in middle school and again in high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, parents learn about graduation requirements, career clusters, career assessment, and their own child’s interests. “At these conferences, middle school parents are often surprised at their child’s stated career preferences. For many families, this may be the first conversation about how to use student’s interests and abilities when considering a career” (Newell, 2004, p. 60).
Kids to College (K2C) is another early intervention program involving middle school students and their parents. Offered since 1993 in more than seven states serving more than 41,000 students, K2C offers low-income middle school students opportunities to connect to staff and students from local colleges while learning about career options, study skills, and high school course choices. Students are encouraged to speak with their parents, teachers, and counselors. At the end of the program, participants and their parents visit the partner university or college. Pre- and post-tests of program participants demonstrate significant increases in knowledge about college going and the appropriate preparation for it as well as increased career aspirations. In addition, the number of students indicating that they had spoken with their parents about high school choices three or more times during the school year increased 36% for Hispanic students and 43% for first-generation students (Cunningham, Erisman & Looney, 2007).
Findings such as these indicate that certain groups of students are at risk for poor academic and career planning due to the educational and socio-economic status of their parents. There are simply not enough counselors or resources to do the type of outreach needed to educate all the parents of all the children in the importance of making the correct academic choices for their middle schoolers. Eleven states have met these challenges by creating default diplomas. In this approach, all students are automatically enrolled in the state’s rigorous course of study at ninth grade unless the parents, and often the principal, sign a waiver. Entrance to a lower curricular track is only permitted after a meeting with the student, parent or guardian, and a school official. “It is incumbent upon the school to articulate the disadvantages of opting out and the likely effects it will have on the student’s choices and quality of life as an adult” (Achieve, 2007, p. 7). A more restrictive strategy, the mandatory strategy, has been adopted by several states. In this approach, there is no opt-out possible. In one state, for example, a student can opt-out only if he or she chooses to take a more rigorous course of study such as advanced placement courses or international baccalaureate courses (Achieve, 2007). “Both approaches [default and mandatory] are designed to do away with the type of tracking that has existed for a long time…and continues to leave many students unprepared for the world they enter after high school” (Achieve, 2007, p. 7) Perkins IV supports these more directive approaches with language that insists on academic rigor at the secondary school level to enable all students to succeed in college, including those whose career plans include CTE education and an associate degree followed by years of work before continued college education (Perkins IV, 2006, Sec. 118-c-3).
In contrast to the statewide systems described above, Illinois’ secondary and postsecondary systems are decentralized and autonomous, giving them both local control and local responsibility, to create plans to prepare their students with the skills to meet the economic challenges of the future. Within these districts, as the work to develop career clusters and pathways unfolds, school officials and counselors, along with representative parent and community groups, need to create the approaches that give children more predictable access to rigorous academic and CTE curricula that will prepare them for college and careers. Given the wide variation in parental and student understanding of the impact that ninth grade career and academic decisions might have on postsecondary readiness, districts might consider approaches, such as those identified above. 
1 The term parent is used for the adult with authority to make decisions on behalf of the minor child.
Meryl Sussman is Associate Vice President of Economic and Community Development at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL. She is also a doctoral student in the Community College Executive Leadership Program at the University of Illinois and can be reached at sussman@cod.edu..
Reference
Achieve, Inc. (2007, December). Aligning high school graduation requirements with the real world: A road map for states. Retrieved April 3, 2008, from http://www.achieve.org/node/980
Bardick, A.D., Bernes, K.B., Magnusson, K.C. & Witko, K.D. (2005). Parents’ perceptions of their role in children’s career planning. Guidance Counseling, 20(4), 152-157.
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-270), S. 250, 109th Cong. (2006). U.S. Department of Education, downloaded April 3, 2008 from http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s250enr.txt.pdf
Cunningham, A.F., Erisman, W., & Looney, S.M. (2007). From aspirations to action: The role of middle school parents in making the dream of college a reality. Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy.
Downing, J., & D’Andrea, L.M. (1994). Parental involvement in children’s career decisions. Journal of Employment Counseling, 31, 115-126.
Gibbons, M.M., Borders, L.D., Wiles, M.E., & Stephan, J. B. (2006). Career and college planning needs of ninth graders—as reported by ninth graders. Professional School Counseling, 10(2), 168-178.
Horn, L.J., Nunez, A-M., & Bobbitt, L. (2000). Mapping the road to college: First-generation students’ math track, planning strategies, and context of support. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
Newell, J. (2004, February) Student career planning conferences in Tulsa middle and high schools help students and parents. ACTE Techniques, 79(2), 60-61.
Otto, L.B. (2000). Youth perspectives on parental career influence. Journal of Career Development, 27(2), 111-118.
Rothstein, R. (2004). Class and schools: Using social, economic, and educational reform to close the black-white achievement gap. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Williams, J.M., Bragg, D.D., & Makela, J.P. (2008, February). Comprehensive career development in Illinois: Findings and recommendations of the Illinois Career Development Task Force. Springfield, IL: author.
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