Resources allow an emphasis on college
Editor’s Note: Journalism students at Ursinus College, supported by a grant from Project Pericles, dedicated a semester to interviewing students at Montgomery County public high schools to get their perspective on the impact Pennsylvania’s inequitable school funding had on their education.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
For students at Pottstown and Perkiomen Valley High Schools, this choice is partly made for them.
Though these public schools are located in the same county and only miles apart, one seems to emphasize the trades, focusing on vocational education, while the other aggressively prepares them to apply to college.
Both paths can lead to success, but why should your career path depend so much on where you happen to go to high school?
On the college track at Perkiomen Valley
At Perkiomen Valley, numerous college preparation programs and resources are offered.
Maggie McGovern, a senior, said the school “always sets up college visits, even if they’re virtual.” She said part of the college prep at Perkiomen Valley includes instruction on how to complete the FAFSA, a form to apply for federal financial aid for college.
Indeed, students are set on a pathway to college well before they apply.
Ben Minardi, a graduate of Perkiomen Valley and current student at Ursinus College, recalled the counseling process at his alma mater.
“At least once a year we met with a school counselor, and at least from like sophomore, junior and senior [years], they definitely started to be like ‘okay, this is what you’re going to have to do to start applying for colleges,’” Minardi said.
Many curricular offerings are geared toward college preparation as well. The school offers many Advanced Placement courses (which confer college credit), with 65 percent of students taking at least one AP exam according to U.S. News and World Report.
Asked about AP courses, Perkiomen Valley High School Principal Cyndi Moss, said, “that’s actually something that we’re really proud of.” She noted that over 50 percent of students who took an AP exam passed with a three or higher out of five on the exam.
In addition to these college preparation opportunities, students at Perkionmen Valley are able to participate in the technical programs at the North Montco Technical Career Center. They may choose to study there part-time or full-time (about 140 students are currently enrolled part-time and nine students
enrolled full-time). Programs offered at the vocational tech school include automotive engineering, cosmetology, and horticulture, among others.
Jeremy Klach, a current sophomore at Perkiomen Valley, is enrolled part-time in the Protective Services program at North Montco. In this program, Klach and other students learn about standard law enforcement procedures and get training as emergency medical technicians and firefighters.
Klach hopes to get a job with the Department of Homeland Security someday, with a plan to go into the Army to help pay for college beforehand.
While Klach enjoyed the program, he said he dealt
with various transportation issues that made him late to his classes. Because North Montco Technical Career Center is about 10 miles from Perkiomen Valley’s campus, he would have to get on a bus after arriving at high school to take him to the vo-tech school for the two and a half hours he would spend there out of the school day. But because “the tech buses tend to be a bit late,” class would end shortly after his return, causing him to miss most of this class.
Although Klach said his experience at the technical school was positive, the transportation issues speak to the lower priority technical education has in the district.
Only about 8 percent of
Perkiomen Valley students are enrolled in the vo-tech programs; it is not well-integrated, and it’s hard to imagine the district allowing college prep students to continue in a situation where they struggled to make it to class, he said.
Tech ed is on campus at Pottstown
In comparison, Pottstown High School offers on-campus vocational programs.
The students have a selection of courses from their Career and Technical Education program, which can include construction, automotive, cosmetology, cooking, and engineering. These programs give students opportunities to help them secure a job after graduation and work against the difficult financial situations that many Pottstown students face.
One student, Ariana Torres, is enrolled in the construction
curriculum.
“We would go into our shop area, which has all our tools, all the equipment we need, all of PPE. ... we would go to different places in our town or go to different areas ... and we would actually work on places,” she said, adding “we would sometimes go to colleges, too, like for trade schools to see what they’re about and if we really want to go to those trade schools or not.”
Some of her projects included building a shed and doing demolition on a building. She said that as a level-two student in construction, she would spend two hours in each session. Torres said she hopes to go to college or find a job after high school, both in pursuit of a career in construction.
Another student, Akira Love, is enrolled in engineering with hopes of becoming an HVAC technician:
“I started taking engineering in 10th grade …. people would take those CTE classes ‘cause if they can succeed in them, then they at least have a little bit less to worry about financially because, you know, for example, I’ll put in as an HVAC technician: they’re looking for them. So people will take that class, become an HVAC technician, make that money, save up, and then go off into whatever direction they decide they want to go into,” Love said.
Both students mentioned the school’s “employability points,” which refer to credit that students get towards their grades for participation in class.
John Armato, the school district’s director of community relations, has been working in the district for 51 years. He praised Pottstown’s CTE programs.
“We are one of probably … not more than a dozen … high schools in the state of Pennsylvania that is what’s referred to as a ‘comprehensive high school,’” Armato explained.
“That means that we have career technical education programs like construction, like auto technology, like cosmetology, health occupations. We have all of those career technical education offerings in the same building as we have all of our academic offerings,” he said.
But aside from the CTE program Pottstown offers, Armato said more is necessary to give students a good shot at success after graduation.
“In a public school, what should we be doing? Providing quality educational opportunities for kids to become successful adults. And the less opportunity we provide them to get the knowledge and experience they need to do that, the more we jeopardize their ability to be successful,” said Armato.
Due to a lack of funding, Pottstown students who want to go to college “are at a disadvantage because we do not have the same opportunities to provide a number of AP or honors courses that kids can take that would help prepare them better for college,” Armato said. “We have a very limited number that we’re able to provide them.”
Compared to the 65 percent of Perkiomen Valley students taking AP courses, only 30 percent of students at Pottstown have taken at least one AP exam, with only 8 percent passing one or more of these exams, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The relative lack of college prep offerings at Pottstown should not take away from the robust technical programs at the school, but the discrepancies between these schools speak to the ways that a student’s career can heavily influenced by the opportunities in a given district.
And in Montgomery County, those opportunities are far from equal.