CCSD Rearranging Deck Chairs Again

Notable for what it isn't--an inspired response to the requirements "of the new Education and Economic Development Act, which requires school districts to offer clusters of courses in career areas such as health, business and engineering." Oh, it may very well meet bureaucratic needs to fulfill the letter of the law, and it may even be the best CCSD can do at the moment, given its propensity to treat career courses like the poor stepchild of the school system. The latter is the problem.

I checked the CCSD website to see if further explanation (beyond Monday's P & C article) had been posted, but to no avail, so I am left to speculate on what the accompanying chart really means, i.e., what is NOT included in the shuffling of the deck chairs. [double-click on the image if you wish to read the chart].

• Students are being given nine days' notice to decide if they wish to transfer to another school for an elective? Will they or their parents fully understand what the elective provides in the way of career advancement?
• No bus transportation? Why not? So those who don't have access to a car can't transfer? According to the article, the state is providing funds for transportation.
  
• Why are Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate included on the chart at all? When did AP become Interdisciplinary Studies? Not. These are not career courses!
• Do the three zones extend to this so-called Interdisciplinary Studies? Hard to tell on the chart, but if they do, that means that students in North Charleston have no hope of AP unless they make it into the Academic Magnet.
• In fact, thanks to the "zones," students in the north area generally get the short end of the stick. Just look at the school ["engineering, etc."] offered to students at Stall and North Charleston. And they can't transfer to Wando because . . . ?
  
• Does Burke offer AP? If so, what?
• The label of "Schools" is grandiose, although I suspect generated by the new law. "School of Arts and Humanities"? This is a career cluster? You tell me--what is "education and training" in this "school"?
• Please note the wide open spaces under "School of engineering, industrial, and manufacturing technologies," especially in the areas of "manufacturing" and "architecture and construction." Isn't this area generally what people mean by career electives?
  
• And, then, under the "School of health, human and public services," just out of curiosity, what course prepares high school students for a career in government and public administration?
  
• In fact, looking at the whole chart, isn't that the problem: what are these "career" courses? Do they, in fact, prepare students for careers in those fields, or they serve as less academic "fill-ins" for students who have weak academic skills [you know, sort of like the "underwater basketweaving" course we all joked about in college--whatever it's actual name was].

The New York public school system has warehouses [I use the word advisedly] full of students in so-called career schools whose offerings have little to do with careers and more to do with pushing students through to diplomas. Let's hope that these "schools" don't portend the same fate.