When parents begin planning for their child’s transition from high school to post-secondary education, it is important to remember that the concept of post-secondary education is not synonymous with college. There are many venues where education can occur, many of which do not involve a traditional four-year university.
As an educator at The Prentice School in Tustin, California, I see students and their parents struggle with this post-secondary education decision every year. In order to determine which path is right for your child I would recommend taking the following points into consideration:
- Initiate Open Dialogue: The best place to start when preparing for post-secondary education is by conducting a frank discussion with your child in order to define his or her career goals.
- Start with a Student’s Strengths: Begin by assessing the areas where your child excels. Once those are established, ensure that the goals you identify together are well-matched with those strengths.
- Consider Both Personality and Interests: Seek out a career path which suits your child’s personality as well as his or her interests. Too often, people conducting post-secondary educational planning are not looking realistically at the entire student. Instead, students may be counseled to pursue a career that is solely dictated by the student’s interests. Many students with learning challenges, anxiety, or fear find a career path successful if it suits their personality as well as their interests.
- Be Open: Consider various options when planning. At Prentice High School, we offer all of our students the opportunity to complete both a college preparatory program, as well as a specific vocational training. If your child’s school does not offer specialized training opportunities, it will still be important to have a candid conversation with your child about educational opportunities after high school. Being open to either vocational or collegiate education will be extremely helpful in ensuring the success of your child in his or her post-secondary studies.
Vocational Programs Provide Education with a Clear Destination
The choice to pursue a vocational field instead of attending college may be the right fit for many students. Vocational training may start early, during high school, in order to provide a student with specific skills, and to increase his or her confidence in a defined field of study.Check with your child’s school to see if they offer practical training through specific vocational programs, such as a Medical Assistant Program, or a Web Design Program. If your child’s school doesn’t offer those kinds of programs, and you’re exploring potential programs for post-high school education, ask the school guidance counselors for their recommendations. Many students with learning disabilities find school such a struggle; they are comforted by the fact that they can achieve success in an area where they can see the practical implications of the curriculum.
The benefits of these vocational programs can be three-fold:
- Increased Chance of Completing Coursework: By working towards a career where initiation to a skill, pacing of the curriculum, and educational supervision are each imbedded into the program, there is an increased chance that the student will complete the course work.
- More Helpful Job Environment: Many students with learning challenges need to have a job where there is meaningful supervision, as well as specific boundaries to the beginning and end of each work day.
- Staying Close to Family: For support, companionship, and encouragement, it is necessary to focus on careers and jobs that offer work in geographic areas near a student’s family.
Making a Four-Year Degree Obtainable
Many high school graduates with learning disabilities do opt to attend college. Often students choose to begin at a community college, with plans to transfer to a four-year college to complete a degree. Some of these students are successful, while others spend many years drifting from one course of study to another, and finally give up; time passes and no real progress is made professionally.If college is the post-secondary choice for your child, then it’s essential to provide them with extra support in order to ensure their success. Two areas where that support can be provided is in planning for college entrance exams, as well as school selection.
College Entrance Exams: Planning for Exams Like the SATs or ACTs
Thoughtful planning in preparing a student for any standardized test is essential so that the student knows what to expect, and understands the directions and the design of the test. We recommend conferring with a professional who can guide a student through the myriad of college decisions.
Selecting a Smaller College
If students are interested in pursuing a college degree, we often counsel our students to apply to local, small, four-year colleges because they have some major benefits over the large public or private universities.
Since IEPs are not recognized in college, and 504 accommodations may not be helpful enough, real meaningful support might come from college professors and the college academic support center. Students who can live on campus have easier access to the academic support center because it is usually housed near the center of campus or the library.
In addition, smaller colleges hire faculty who focus on teaching rather than on research. For this reason, the professors have an easier time identifying the students in the classroom who need extra time for re-teaching, and there is increased flexibility for professors to be more creative in the delivery of their curriculum.
In some of these smaller colleges, the focus is shifted from what the professor is teaching to what the students are learning.
The Bottom Line: Planning Is Essential
A realistic plan will require more than just a student’s wishes or a parent’s desires. Working with your child’s school counselor as well as a post-secondary education counselor to determine the correct road for your child is key to her or his success as an independent adult.The Prentice School is an independent, nonprofit, day school for Pre-K through 12th grade students with language-based learning differences such as dyslexia. The school also serves those with dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia (apraxia), and/or working memory, attention, auditory processing and visual processing issues.
