Dear Future President of the United States,

    What are your plans after school ? What do you want to be when you grow up ? What college do you plan on going to ? These are a few of the questions that we not only get asked hundreds of times a year by our teachers, but we ask ourselves the same everyday. There is no specific class that excels in demonstrating us real world/working world necessities in high school anymore. Yes there are classes that are useful like math, english, and history but they aren’t the same studies we would need like what you would get at a CTE school. A CTE school also known as a vocational school is a planned program of course and learning experiences that begins with exploration of career options, supports academic and life skills that enables achievements of high academic standards, leadership, and preparation for career and college (google definition). My point is not that high schools should be more like a CTE schools, my point is that you, as our future president, should do something to where we can get classes like that in a high school, classes that help us further our education and have more people graduating.

The then Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg,mentioned about public schools vs. CTE, “It’s an assessment-driven environment... CTE is not just about testing--it’s about these careers and using skills in the classroom in other ways”. This means that what we learn in these schools help us use those specific skills in other ways in the working world. If we were to get those practical life skills and put them into high schools, it would create more opportunities and a better pathway to graduating and working. In the article, Vocational students graduate at a higher right by Andrew J Hawkins, Hawkins mentions, “Low-income and minority students stand to gain the most, the report found. While the graduation rate for both black and latino boys at traditional public schools is just 52%, in CTE high schools they graduate at rates of 63% and 66%, respectively.” This shows that there is a 14% graduation rate difference between the schools. That may be a small percentage but the people that make up that 14% deserve a chance to graduate as I do. CTE schools only represent 8% of total school systems (hawkins). If we had CTE classes at high schools it would make a difference because we would get our core classes like math,science and english but in addition we would get classes like culinary arts or health care. Things that would help us not only in school to graduate but that would also help us for once we graduate and in the working world.

My name is Adrianna Amarillas, this is currently my senior year in high school. I currently go to a vocational school to study dental assisting for half of the day and then I go to a high school in for the other half. This has changed and impacted my life and education substantially, i get 3 classes in my high school which are math, civics and english. Then at my vocational school I take 1 class which is Dental assisting, there I learn more hands on skills, and those skills I perform in an actual clinic. I also learn things that would help me get a job in that field, for example, CPR and work based learning. This helped me tremendously because of the fact that I am a senior in high school and already know what profession I want to posses. Also it gives me both of the studies I need in order to graduate.

Because of that, I want you, the future president, to create classes inside of high schools that would provide work based learning like the CTE schools provide. Those skills would be monumental to have in high school so it paves a pathway into adulthood and the working world.

Thank you for taking the time to read and please consider our futures.

Sincerely,

Adrianna Amarillas

Foster High School, Tukwila,Washington