The College and Career Pathways program is about to be in effect for its fourth year for the district. But do the students really enjoy the system?
Students were given a choice in their eighth grade year to choose a Pathway, but if students choose to change to a different Pathway, they can only do it during the first semester of the freshman year.
If a student wants to take tech cores outside of the pathway they’re in [after freshman year], that would help them with classes they want to take after high school.
— sophomore Thorstan Harris
“I think asking teenagers, let alone 14 year olds ‘what do you wanna do for the rest of your life’ to be, like, ridiculous,” senior Oz Vorngsam, who is not in a Pathway, said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was 14. And even when I did, it was completely different than what it is now.”
Business Teacher Joel Pabon said, “I think it’s difficult for students to really understand what they like and don’t like in high school and I do think the opportunity to have choice and for trial and error is important so I think them being able to choose their pathway and change it is something that needs to be looked at and possibly given more time for them to understand if they like that pathway or not.”
On top of having to choose a future so early, students are limited to the selections they have on offer for tech core. By not counting classes like theater, music, journalism, etc., as a tech core or an alternative to one, it becomes more difficult to take multiple classes due to fewer open blocks in schedules.
“I almost couldn’t fit all my music classes because I have to take AP art,” junior Hayden Getz said. “DIT gives me even less room. Because every creative design class only has two periods.”
With limited blocks open for the tech core, it can create scheduling conflicts for some students.
With only a couple slots for a tech core, students can be limited on what extra classes they can choose. As a result of Pathways, tech core adds one extra class to take in addition to the courses they need to graduate with the plan they chose. The only way a student can remove their tech core class is by taking the off–campus courses like CTEC and Early College Academy, in which a student may not be required to take a tech core.
Some students have ideas to change the pathways system to make it better in their views.
“Don’t limit your tech core to your pathway,” sophomore Thorstan Harris said. “If a student wants to take tech cores outside of the pathway they’re in [after freshman year], that would help them with classes they want to take after high school.”
