Category: Apprenticeships

Reinventing High Schools for the Future

If you’ve read my blog before, you probably already know that I’m a passionate fan of problem-based learning experiences and real-world, hands-on learning. These approaches help students learn to work collaboratively for a meaningful purpose, to think critically to justify their solutions, to build schools that focus on real-life skills integrated with academic content, and to prepare for a future ever more uncertain.

Recently I’ve collected an array of schools that do just that. Each has a different focus, but all of them value the life skills their approaches develop. For example, the Grand Rapids Public Museum School (GRPMS) has learners work in small and collaborative cohorts co-taught by teachers. The community is their classroom, and their mission is to “use place-based design thinking and the museum context to create learning experiences that develop confident, creative, and competent thinkers, doers, and leaders.” They have an impressive list of core competencies as goals: “Read Critically; Reason Quantitatively; Learn Independently; Lead Inquiry; Explore Social Phenomena; Communicate Effectively; Collaborate on Teams; Build Community; Design Solutions; Develop Self-Knowledge; Cultivate Well-Being; and Think and Act Globally.” (https://grps.org/schools/high-school/gr-museum-hs/) At this school, housed inside the Grand Rapids Public Museum itself, students “help museum staff collect, process, and curate new materials in a design lab where they play a role in designing and updating existing exhibits.” They’ve found artifacts like a spacesuit from an Apollo mission and a flapper dress from the 1920s, and they’ve recorded interviews about the artifacts and created podcasts. (https://xqsuperschool.org/where-we-work/grand-rapids-public-museum-school) At this school the content is integrated across subject areas, and classroom activities are blended with community-based experiential projects. How powerful that approach must be!

Another example, Elizabethtown High School is the only high school in its northeast Tennessee district, in a region hit hard by opioid epidemic and poverty. Teachers there invited a sociology class to design a school that could earn an XQ Super School grant.  As a result, they added two new classes the following school year, “Community Improvement” and “Entrepreneurship.” Students were able to work in the community; build relationships with government, non-profit, and business leaders; and start their own community project or business. One sociology class “investigated and helped solve a cold case from the 1980s, leading the authorities to identify the murder suspect.” They started in 2018, and subsequent students continued “investigating links between that crime and a series of murders. In 2024, their work became the subject of iHeart radio’s hit true-crime podcast series ‘Murder 101,’ now set to become a feature-length film.”

Other students there have found their own opportunities to make a difference. A student is now liaison to the local school board, and the at the prompting of students, the school has a Cyclone Student Center where students can find school resources and college information. (https://xqsuperschool.org/where-we-work/elizabethtown-high-school) Yet another student took on painting murals in the community during her senior year, even though she knew nothing about it prior to that effort. As an alumna, she still leads this ongoing project that’s transforming the downtown. Another student learned how to network and build relationships to make art “a viable business endeavor while providing a public service.” (https://ehs.ecschools.net)

These schools are not alone in their reinvention of high school. Crosstown High in downtown Memphis, a charter school with about 480 students, is sited within a one-million-square-foot landmark with over 40 business and agencies. It recruits students from all over Memphis who then learn “through projects, such as analyzing pollution in local soil and its correlation to cancer rates.” (https://xqsuperschool.org/where-we-work/crosstown-high) 

The learning framework at Crosstown High is action-based:

  • Center learning around authentic, real-world problems
  • Incorporate student voice and choice
  • Build in feedback, revision, and public exhibitions
  • Align projects with both academic content and transferable skills

(https://crosstownhigh.org/adult-learning)

In 2024, award-winning documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch premiered “The First Class,” a documentary that goes inside Crosstown High to tell the story.

Check out Thomas A. Edison High School is an anchor school among the 100-plus city high schools participating in FutureReadyNYC, a consortium for career-connected learning. Their students choose from thirteen different career tracks that allow them to seek internships and earn industry certifications. They can also earn college credit. The school focuses on developing five essential skills—communication, collaboration, giving and receiving feedback, design thinking, and professionalism. That focus guides classroom work, with students and teachers collaborating to co-design curricula suited to the modern world and workplace. For example, an English class may include a student-run theater. (https://xqsuperschool.org/where-we-work/thomas-edison) They don’t focus on career skills in place of academics; they integrate the two. Their vision: “Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School envisions empowering every student to become a leader of tomorrow by excelling academically, technically, and civically through strong collaboration among faculty, students, parents, and community partners.” (https://www.taehs.org)

Take a look at Brooklyn STEAM Center, a school that “delivers innovative, industry-informed experiences that empower students—treated as young professionals—to shape their futures. (www.spacesmith.com) The Brooklyn Navy Yard behind the school hired Spacesmith, a design firm keyed to each client’s mission, to expand it. As a result, “school leaders and contractors, along with architects and interior designers from Spacesmith, put the entire high school body in the driver’s seat to design their future.” Already a bastion of student-centered learning, the school sought student input both pre-design and during design and construction. Students played a central role in designing quieter and more private spaces, adaptable classrooms, acoustic and health-grade materials, and glazed classroom entrances enhance transparency and connection. They learned a whole new level of advocacy and collaboration. (https://schoolconstructionnews.com)

My own students experienced this kind of learning in my problem-based learning classroom. Even as they worked for the school, public and private agencies, and a Chicago law firm to solve real-world problems, they met curriculum standards and developed academic skills. You can read all about it in Tales Told Out of School, my teaching memoir.

At a time when students are so disengaged and often not even present, offering learning opportunities that prepare them for the future is an invaluable approach. American public schools suffer from inertia, and change is somehow always harder than it should be. It’s up to all of us – students, parents, teachers, taxpayers, citizens – to demand that change occur now.

Maine Is onto Something

I stumbled onto a program in Maine that may become a national model. Now used in 84 high schools (about 2/3 of all Maine high schools), Jobs for Maine Graduates “teaches high school students 30 ‘soft’ or ‘durable’ skills — including communication, leadership, goal-setting, and adaptability — and awards badges to students who master them.” (https://www.the74million.org)

Created by the Maine state legislature in 1993, this program initially focused on at-risk students. Officials are now expanding this approach in a separate non-profit, GenUS. It starts in middle school with practice of simple skills like accountability, budgeting, and digital safety. High school students can earn “Micro-credentials” by submitting “Evidence of Learning” that is reviewed against clear rubrics; successful demonstrations are awarded as digital badges with embedded metadata, making skills visible, portable, and recognized by colleges and employers. “Aligned with learning standards, Maine’s Economic Strategic Development Plan, and national frameworks, Micro-credentials form the building blocks that stack into larger Credentials of Value within the GenUS Competency to Credential Model.” The goal is to expand this program nationally. (https://gen-us.org/)

Maine also has an Extended Learning Opportunity program [ELO] “to help Maine youth gain a better understanding of their career opportunities, acquire valuable foundational and 21st Century skills, as well as create meaningful connections to employers in our state.” These hands-on experiences, which emphasize community-based career exploration, take place outside of the traditional classroom, and students can earn elective or core credit. “These programs include paid work experiences, expanding educational opportunities in rural Maine, work skills development, and increasing engagement of otherwise disengaged youth. ELO Expansion Grants totaling $7.1 million have been awarded for 38 ELO programs across Maine covering 13 of Maine’s 16 counties since 2022.” (www.maine.gov/)

By 2025, Maine DOE grant-funded ELO programs have seen:

  • 3,000+ core and elective credits earned.
  • 6,000+ student participants.
  • 3,000+ new school-employer partnerships.
  • 8,000+ community and business engagements.

(https://mainedoenews.net)

Yet another program launched in 2022: the Maine Outdoor Learning Initiative is “a statewide effort to connect Maine’s young people to the outdoors through engaging, hands-on learning opportunities. In its first two years, more than 2,500 students have participated in programs ranging from hiking and kayaking to farming and forestry.” An expansion grant in 2024 increased its reach to about 4,000 students. (https://content.govdelivery.com)

Maine also has an apprenticeship program for learners 16 years of age and over that has grown dramatically. “In 2019, 757 registered apprentices, or 26% of the total, were ages 16–24. By 2025, that number had more than doubled to 1,591, representing 42% of all apprentices statewide.” It is a work in progress. While areas like construction, manufacturing, healthcare, education have thrived, the state lacks a consistent set of benchmarks applicable to all industries and a coherent statewide strategy for employer engagement and youth recruitment. (www.maine.gov) To address those concerns, Maine has been accepted as one of the ten states to participate in The Future Ready Apprenticeship Center as an “Apprenticeship America” center. (www.careerwiseusa.org)

More localized programs exist, too. Career Access through National service and Outdoor Education, or CANOE, “will offer classroom instruction, experience through service and in-person training modules with Maine-based outdoor businesses and professionals… to create pathways into and to expand year-round outdoor recreation jobs in central and western Maine, in fields such as fishing, whitewater guiding, trail building and maintenance, outdoor business, retail, manufacturing and hospitality.”  Because jobs in rural Maine are scarce and because the outdoor recreation industry is a major contributor to Maine’s economy, this program aims to equip participants with the skills they need “to access good jobs while advancing the region as a four-season outdoor recreation hub.” (https://mainebiz.biz)

We know that too many American youth suffer from anxiety and depression. Today’s youth have grown up during a pandemic, an epidemic of school shootings, and a breakdown of norms and institutions. They are battered by the threats of polarization, climate change, the impact of AI, misleading social media, etc. We know that too many aren’t hopeful about the future. Why don’t more states develop the kind of leadership that Maine is modeling. We may not be able to solve all the problems that bedevil them – and all of us – but we can show them a path that leads to a more hopeful future. We can offer them more agency. We know how. It’s time for us to make it happen.

Preparing Learners for the Future

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce produced a report, America’s Divided Recovery, proving that “Over 95 percent of jobs created during the recovery have gone to workers with at least some college education, while those with a high school diploma or less are being left behind” (https://cew.georgetown.edu). They warn that the recent job recovery focuses on high-skilled professional and managerial jobs, while the low-skill blue-collar jobs lost have not rebounded. Clearly education has a significant impact on lifetime earnings, and, according to a new report by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup, “the benefits of higher education go far beyond employment and earnings; a postsecondary degree can improve outcomes in everything from personal health and character to civic engagement and relationships” (insidehighered.com). How, then, do we re-engage students in their education and offer them a better life because of it? Student-centered classrooms are a potent start, but considering the options for our students after schooling has never been more important. Not all students can or should go to college. The job market has changed, and schools need to prepare students for the new realities they will face.

Ryan Craig, author of Apprentice Nation, points out that we’re last among developed countries for apprenticeships, with only half a million, which equates to only 0.3% of the workforce. He argues that apprenticeships, because they are real, paid jobs and allow students to check the fit of a potential career, are the best pathway, especially for underprivileged and first-generation students who tend to be bogged down with student debt (the74million.org). In the United Kingdom, apprenticeship providers go to big companies to set up and run apprentice programs where high school students work for a reduced apprentice wage and get experience (Ibid.).

Opportunities are few and far between in this country, but California has established “Apprenticeship Innovation Funding” that offers employers $3500 for every apprentice they hire and train (dir.ca.gov). The state of Indiana is transforming public high schools “by making career skills a major focus through more internships, apprenticeships and a drive to earn career credentials before graduating” (the74million.org2). Indiana will offer $5,000 Career Grant Scholarship Accounts for grades 10-12 to pursue career training.  State Rep. Chuck Goodrich, a sponsor of the bill that created the scholarships, said, “We want our students to graduate with not only a diploma, but also a credential, currency they can take with them” (the74million.org3). In Indianapolis, Victory College Prep High School “has placed every 11th and 12th grader in internships with companies or nonprofits for 10 school days a year the last five years, other than some pandemic adjustments” (the74million.org2). Staff acknowledge the need for more worksites to participate, and they are building the program.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis argues that, “A fragmented approach—where high schools, postsecondary institutions, and employers all work in their own silos— shortchanges everyone” (the74million.org4). Colorado has been a leader in preparing learners for the world of work: “roughly 53% of high school graduates in Colorado earn college credit or industry credentials through dual and concurrent enrollment while in high school, saving them an estimated $53 million annually on tuition costs. A growing number also participate in apprenticeship and “learn while you earn” models” (Ibid.). Although the state already has intermediaries pairing businesses and youth as well as Pathways in Technology Early College High School models, it has created a task force “to develop and recommend policies, laws, and rules to support the equitable and sustainable expansion and alignment of programs that integrate secondary, postsecondary, and work-based learning opportunities” (Ibid.).

Some individual schools around the country are beefing up their Career and Technical Education programs. John Handley High School in Winchester, Virginia, offers programs in Business, Information Technology, Health and Medical Sciences, Marketing, Technology Education, and Trade and Industrial Education (www.wps.k12.va.us). Elgin, Illinois, just received a YouthBuild grant for 16-24-year-old students who didn’t graduate high school; it provides mentoring and on-the-job training (haeelgin.org). In Georgia, the German-inspired Georgia Consortium for Advanced Technical Training (GA CATT) starts students in Coweta County south of Atlanta as apprentices sophomore year, likely the youngest members of any apprentice program in the U.S. For example, Walker Reese finished his three-year apprenticeship as a maintenance technician as he finished high school last spring and walked into a full-time job at Blickle Wheels and Casters in the city of Newnan. (the74million.org5). Such programs are common in Germany.

I am a big believer in a liberal arts education that empowers learners to think and to problem solve, but such an education on its own may not be enough for many students. The American “college for all” mentality does not serve all students well, as many fail to graduate or end up underemployed and in debt. It also does not serve the country well, as it fails to feed the pipeline for skilled workers in specific fields. We should learn from other developed countries and build apprenticeship programs and meaningful career and technical education. Then we will be serving both our students and our national interest.