The polarized arguments were familiar this week at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation forum in San Jose on a-g, the set of 15 courses required for admission to a four-year state school.

• The establishment of a-g as a district’s default curriculum has opened up opportunities for students who never imagined themselves college-capable. If instituted with academic supports for struggling students, an a-g curriculum will not lead to a higher dropout rate but will offer more students, especially minority children, higher level courses. That’s been the San Jose Unified experience, Linda Murray, the former superintendent who instituted a-g, said. Making a-g standard could avoid what Neal Finkelstein, a senior researcher at WestEd, described as the “heartbreak” of many seniors who discover they’re a few credits short of being eligible to go to college. (Listen to my interview of Murray on why districts should adopt an a-g curriculum.)

• The spread of a-g has narrowed the academic curriculum, San Jose State engineering professor Seth Bates said, and all but destroyed once-thriving career technical education programs that gave students hard skills for real jobs in electronics, construction and manufacturing. A-g has not contributed to a higher rate of college attendance and graduation. It has led to more than half of high school students entering the workforce unprepared, without skills.

But Finkelstein and other speakers also agreed it’s a false dichotomy.

The common ground can be career pathway academies, the programs within comprehensive high schools whose goal is to prepare students for careers and college, since nearly all students will need some post-secondary education.

The academies are part of a growing multiple pathways movement that blends a-g academics and work-place learning. The state is funding 464 career academies, and there may be 250 more as stand-alone small schools and other hybrids. They’re in electronics, agriculture, energy and green technology, health science and medicine, computer arts, the building trades and nine more areas.

What they have in common, according to a report by EdSource, are access to enough courses to fulfill a-g; work internships or job-shadowing; career technical training to prepare students for the workplace; and support services for students needing extra help.

Bates expressed reservations about the multiple pathways approach. While it can add real-world relevance to academic disciplines, he fears it will further subvert traditional job training programs.

The best pathway academies are indisputably impressive. I recently visited the Construction Tech Academy at Kearney High in San Diego, where I saw students who plan to become engineers taking courses at a nearby community college. They had taken the same construction and CAD design classes as students who want to become building trades apprentices and construction managers. The full a-g load is not required but it is encouraged to keep doors of opportunity to college open.

EdSource cited studies showing that students in career academics have better school attendance, are more likely to pass the high school exit exam and are more likely to complete the a-g course load

With substantial funding by the Irvine Foundation through grants administered by ConnectEd California, the multiple pathways movement is spreading. But there are also challenges, teacher supply, preparation and development being the biggest.

Two reports due out in the next month will detail the obstacles and opportunities. WestEd will report to the Legislature on what needs to be done to expand multiple pathways.  As part of its annual report on the state of  teaching, the Santa Cruz-based Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning will focus on college and workplace preparation.

They should make for important reading.

By John Fensterwald on November 18th, 2009