Use Career Choices as the foundation for a required semester or year-long freshman transition
course for all 9th graders.
One challenge educators continually cite is that students are asked to make life-altering decisions
when they are as young as 13 or 14. Few schools have the resources to provide sufficient individual
guidance for all students; there are just not enough counselors within the school. The high number of
dual-career families or single-parent families compound the problem, because parental guidance is
less available. And, even though today's teens may appear to be sophisticated and self assured, most
lack real knowledge about the kind of life and work they would find most satisfying or what they need to
do beginning in 9th grade in order to realize their dreams and goals.
The activities in the Career Choices text and the Workbook and Portfolio center around selfawareness,
decision-making skills, and career and life awareness. Because it guides students through
a written life and career planning process that culminates in a 10-year educational and career plan,
Career Choices provides the platform that helps all students envision a productive adulthood, while at
the same time, the activities and discussions that helps students understand the consequences of
dropping out of school whether it is high school or college.
Click here for an example of how one district has instituted a Freshman Transition course.
Formula for success for dropout prevention |
