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We are back in the KLRU studios on the University of Texas campus. This is our
last live segment of American Graduate Day.
We're here to talk about where the rubber meets the road: college and career
readiness. The end point of the K to 12 spectrum.
We have our guests Dr. David Laude, senior vice provost for enrollment and
graduation management at the University of Texas at Austin.
We have Lynn Garcia on the board of Breakthrough Austin.
And we have Dr. Billy Harden, the head of school at the brandnew Goodwill
Excel Center,
which offers a high school diploma program for adults who have dropped out.
So my first question goes to you, David. In this day and age
in Central Texas as we project where youth are heading and where our careers
and job openings are heading,
are we talking about the same thing when we talk about college
or career readiness? Are they one in the same thing as we think about our high
school graduates?
>>I think that's a very complicated question because
on the one hand we have to ask when a
child is ready for adulthood. There are a lot of things that a student has
to do other than just
learn a lot of content material to get ready for some technical career.
They have to learn responsibility. They have to learn integrity.
And that has to happen some place.
At the same time, we are talking about
kids, especially coming from under-resourced backgrounds, who really
question the value of a college education without
taking the time to ask is that college education going to very specifically get
me ready
for my career as a an engineer or as a lawyer.
So you have that balance. A lot of folks believe
that time spent between the ages of 18 and 22
just growing up is one of the most important things you can do while you
sort out who you are
and yet that's a very difficult thing for somebody who comes from
an adversity background to really be able to trust in.
>>Lynn, at Breakthrough. You start very early
with this notion of 'you kids are going to graduate high school and be ready for
college.'
When does that start and what does that conversation look like?
>>We're in two ISD's
right now, Manor and Austin. And in Manor. we start in the fifth grade. In
Austin we start the sixth grade.
And what we're trying to do is an all hands on deck
approach to tell students that day can graduate from college
and to give them the extra resources that they need so that
the bumps along the road that may have been normal for me
don't derail them and end their road on their path to college.
There's been a study from the Austin Chamber of Commerce that says
86 percent
up new jobs in Austin require a college degree
and so all we want to do is if a student embraces an alternate route, we will help
them there.
But what we want to let them know is we are here. We are here early. We are
committed to you
from the sixth grade until you graduate college and we'll do whatever it takes
from summer programs
to weekend programs to sending you a care package in your freshman year
to make sure that you finish and that you are on the path that
you want to be on. And what ends up happening is it changes the trajectory
of the entire family's
economy. Because once one student makes it through,
the younger siblings do and it's a real change for folks.
>>Billy, you're embarking on a grand experiment.
And at one degree you've got folks who are motivated,
'I'm coming back and getting this high school diploma.' I imagine they'd
learned some lessons along the way.
And so as we talk about kids, who are in the K to 12 pipeline, what are you hearing from
these adults
who are saying 'I wish I had' or 'If only,'
this could have happened. Where I am right now could have happened years ago.
What are some of the things you're hearing?
>>What we hear most is their high school experience was a
place where they were pretty much assessed and then when they weren't
successful,
felt disenfranchised by the school system. So if I was starting to fail
in a certain area,
it appeared that I was not going to be successful in any area and many of them
left because of that. Then some left just because life happened to them.
And for some of our older students there were not
programs in place like Breakthrough that could help them
to find resources to keep them in school.
So they left and they tried life and now they're returning
because they see other opportunities and some of them it's just that
thing of that internal 'I want to see.
Now can I achieve a high school diploma
so I feel better about myself?' And then many of them are seeing
their friends and relatives who are being successful in different fields and
other choices have opened up to them and now
what we're doing at the Goodwill Excel Center is providing them with choices
for both.
They get their high school diploma but at the same time they are given an
opportunity or encouraged
to get a technical training, a CT or
CNA or trainee. Or we also help them
for the college track. We don't want to disenfranchise them a second time around.
We want to provide both for them
and we do a lot of counseling with them. >>Our conversation is just beginning.
We do need to cut over to Kennedy, our student correspondent for her last live
spot.
Take it away, Kennedy. >>Thanks, Ben. This is our last time talking to
our viewers live from KLRU Studio 6A as a part of American Graduate Day 2014.
I'd like to remind you that everyone can find all the stories we've talked
about tonight as well as today's local panel discussions
on our website klru.org/AmericanGraduate.
Tells us what you'd like to hear when it comes to education in our area.
Use the hashtag #AmGradTX. From all of us at KLRU,
thanks for watching. Back to New York.