Classroom Based Assessment helps students with career goals

A U.S. Department of Labor report states that 65 percent of students in school right now will find employment in careers that don’t exist yet.

Undeniably, it is a challenging task to prepare students for careers they don’t know the details of yet.

Ira Wolfe explained in an article on Success Performing Students, “Rapid technological change is changing the skill requirements for most jobs. Just as manufacturing saw a shift from 80 percent unskilled jobs just 30 years ago to 12 percent today, the next decade will see a shakeout of unskilled jobs in nearly every industry.”

Wolfe added, “Both educators and businesses have a daunting task ahead of them: teach students and employees skills to solve problems we’ve never seen before and won’t see for years.”

As a result, LRHS students currently enrolled in Economics participated in a Classroom Based Assessment (CBA) that required students to research a career they are interested in and explain its effects on the economy.

While it is not possible to write an essay on careers that don’t exist yet, the objective of getting students to think about their futures, the education necessary to enter a career, and the impact a career has on the economy will help them to later transition to the new, technologically driven occupations.

CBAs are defined by the State of Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) as “multi-stepped tasks or projects aligned to specific state standards… which target skills and knowledge necessary for engaged, informed citizenship.”

The CBAs are comparable to a simplified substitute for standardized testing in that it works to create accountability for students. The CBAs are researched based projects, and require students in kindergarten through their senior year to apply what they learn in class to issues in society.

OSPI’s website continued, “Completing an OSPI-Developed Social Studies Assessment at a proficient level requires students to demonstrate that they have met particular Social Studies [standards]… by applying their understanding of social studies knowledge, concepts, and skills to a specific context that is meant to be relevant to the civic lives of these students.”

Economics students benefited from the CBA not only by researching information, accumulating data, and drawing conclusions that will help them to make better-informed decisions about their futures.

Many students were able to find a practical career that combines their current passions and hobbies with education and training.

Student Camden Smith explained, “I picked athletic training because it has always been something interesting to me, as a lot of the jobs are near sports which I love.”

Smith continued, “I learned that many trainers work in hospitals, not just for sports teams. Athletic training can be impacted by the economy by the number of jobs available…”

Claire Roettger added, “I picked child psychologist… because I want to work with kids to help them through difficulties in their lives and hopefully gain mechanisms to help them down the road. I learned that it requires a lot of schooling.”

“My favorite part,” Roettger continued, “was learning what they do in the office and how they make a difference.”

Student Jack Anderson selected to research audio engineering.

He said, “I chose it because it would get to work with music and learn skills to begin my music career. It was surprising to find out that audio engineers can make around $100,000 a year with just an associate’s degree.”

“My career that I researched was to become an equine reproduction veterinarian,” Peyton Curtis said. “I chose this because I love animals, and I know I want to pursue a career in the medical field.”

As sophomores and juniors, the CBA was one of the first opportunities LRHS Econ students really took to consider what practical career they will choose to pursue in just a few short years.

Curtis finished, “The most difficult part was deciding what career to research, and then going deeper and looking for the most specific career that suited me.”

If the choice seemed hard now, the possibilities for careers will only expand over time as technology opens new occupations and new opportunities for students.