Whether through student surveys, higher rates of chronic absenteeism or declining college enrollment, a growing body of evidence — particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — suggests that students are increasingly distancing themselves from traditional high school and fundamental questioning of the four-year college course as the norm.

That's a reality for David Coleman, chief executive of the nonprofit College Board, which oversees two core institutions in the graduate world: the Advanced Placement program and the SAT exam – both programs that have historically been aimed at high school students who take a Plan a visit to the university.

While most students say they need post-secondary education, and enrollment in AP courses and the number of SAT test takers continue to rise, Coleman recognizes that a large subset of students are put off by high school and do not make proactive plans for secondary school. At the same time, students say they would like more opportunities to learn about career opportunities and prepare directly for these opportunities.

That’s why the College Board recently made a significant shift in the area of ​​career exploration and preparation. The AP program, long dominated by traditional, core academic subjects, is expanding to include career and technical education courses with the introduction of two such courses this year that could help students gain both college credit and industry skills. And now that students have taken the SAT, when they receive their score reports, they learn what career options they could have if they were a good fit.

“For many students, they see high school life as middle school — again, with emotion,” Coleman said Oct. 21 at the opening session of the College Board’s annual forum here in Austin. “If we want to be relevant, if we want to work together to achieve new levels of relevance, the college board must fundamentally change.”

The new program offers high school and college credits as well as industry qualifications

While the proportion of high school students enrolling in college has generally declined in recent years, the number of students in undergraduate certificate programs has declinedthat train students in industry-specific skills has grown.

As a result, more and more secondary schools are investing in supporting their students as they explore careers.

One such career exploration tool is Career and Technical Education (CTE).

A June survey from the EdWeek Research Center found that 66 percent of school and district leaders say their districts provide students with access to CTE pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials to expose students to career options.

And 62 percent of educators said their district offers more career and technical education courses today than it did 10 years ago.

In keeping with this national trend, the College Board's AP program is piloting the Career Kickstart program which extends the AP model to CTE.

“The goal is to offer courses that meet high school credit requirements while allowing students to earn college credit and an industry-recognized certification,” said Clare Bertrand, executive director of career strategy at the College Board.

The CTE courses largely follow the format of traditional AP courses. The college board sets a framework, teachers receive specialized training, and students may be able to earn college credit if they perform well enough on an end-of-course exam.

The College Board is piloting two CTE courses this school year. AP Networking Fundamentals and AP Cybersecurity Fundamentals are year-round courses that some schools around the country are trying it out. They include practical problem-solving activities that cover the fundamentals of the subject matter and prepare students to tackle the current – ​​and rapidly evolving – cybersecurity landscape.

Students who enroll in the pilot this year will be able to earn high school credit and, based on their AP exam scores, be eligible to receive a voucher to cover the cost of exam preparation and testing for the relevant industry-recognized CompTIA certification .

“Does this student need to go to work immediately? No, not at all. They can choose to do an internship, they can choose to get an apprenticeship, they can use that qualification to actually get a better paying part-time job while they're doing a post-secondary program,” Bertrand said. “There is a lot of flexibility in how these credentials are used.”

The college board is working to ensure credit transfer for courses, in large part through partnerships with community colleges, Bertrand said.

Although a CTE program in nature, the college board encourages schools to offer the Career Kickstart courses in addition to existing AP courses such as AP Computer Science Principles.

“We must end the unproductive divide between vocational and general education in high school and college,” Coleman said.

SAT becomes a career conversation starter

Students who took the College Board's SAT last year may have noticed a different way the organization encourages students to explore potential careers.

As the college board prepared to move the SAT digitallyleaders heard from educators answering questions from their communities about scoring the SAT on students' math and reading skills applied to their careers and whether students should take the exam if they are not planning on a two- or four-year degree program, said Priscilla Rodriguez, senior vice president for college readiness assessment at the College Board .

In response, the college board deployed a new tool to highlight potential careers for students.

The organization worked with HumRRO, the Human Resources Research Organization, which matched the skills tested on the SAT with the skills needed in 1,000 occupations in a U.S. Department of Labor database.

For the first time last year, students were able to access a Career Insights tool in their SAT score report – a chart depicting six different career interest areas based on students' SAT scores. It contains information about career paths, what post-secondary education the careers require, and how in demand those careers are in the students' home states.

The college board doesn't want students to think that these are the only six careers the SAT recommends for them, Rodriguez said. Instead, the new tool is intended to serve as a conversation starter for students so they can explore different career fields.

“The fact is that all students go to different places after high school,” Bertrand said. “So how do we make sure they have all the information about all these different pathways? But again, college is a career path. It’s part of the wide range of opportunities available to students.”