Career Education Curriculum

Career education—preparing students with the skills to earn a living—did not come out of nowhere; it had its precursors. The first and maybe the most important of these was accountability. Performance contracting was one of the ways that accountability could operate. Performance contracting guaranteed that schools would achieve specific, measurable results within a specific time period at specific costs for a specific purpose. In other words, the schools would deliver on their promises. The process called for a school district to enter into a contract with an outside firm or teachers' group to accelerate the skill development of a limited number of educationally deficient youths, usually in such curriculum areas as mathematics or reading. Reimbursement to the contractor was based on the actual performance of students as measured by standardized achievement tests or by criterion-referenced and performance-based tests. When the period of the contract ended, the contractor turned over to the school system, the instructional program, and the learning systems that had been designed, packaged, and successfully demonstrated. The school system could then continue with the program. The program, often referred to as the curriculum or program of study, would become the essence or heart of the career area being developed.

It was against this backdrop that career education came into being. The chairman of the General Subcommittee on Education in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970, Roman Pucinski, believed that the schools of the day had one final chance to prove their worth to the nation by dedicating themselves to the preparation of students for the world of work. This was the vision of education for the 1970s.

Career education became a tidal wave in U.S. schooling. Nowhere in the history of education had a movement surfaced, spread as quickly, and had such far-reaching effects in such a short time as has career education. As the 1970s progressed, career education enlisted an impressive array of professional and civic associations as official supporters. Among these were the National Education Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals to name a few.

Career education was held out as the remedy for the then dismal state of affairs. It constituted a systematic attempt to integrate the school's curriculum for all students at all levels of the public schools. Career education was to help rectify the increasing numbers of dropouts. Educators were now called on to begin the mammoth, but indispensable, work of reform. The cause of career education was advanced by the efforts of Sidney Marland Jr., U.S. Commissioner of Education in 1970. In fact, career education became widely known as his pet project. Marland maintained that career education would be a part of the curriculum for all students, would encompass a student's entire academic career, and would ensure that every student leaving school, whenever that occurred, would possess the skills necessary to earn a livelihood. Few schools could afford not to make the switch to career education, Marland argued, because of the deplorable, wasteful record of general education that prepared the young neither for a job nor for further education. Marland pledged a major part of the Office of Education's discretionary funds to career education.

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