When "Career and College Ready" Means Only (or Mostly) "College Ready": Perspectives From Stakeholders in Six Rural and Small Communities

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Rural College Preparedness and Family Support

Abstract

This study of rural stakeholders’ perspectives related to college and career readiness exposes a nuanced dynamic that extends beyond pragmatic concerns for preparing students for the future. Using extensive rapid reconnaissance ethnographic interviews, or Sondeos, the data reveal a complex set of economic, political, and sociocultural conditions influencing changes in the secondary curricula offered in the six rural and small school districts studied. As college preparatory courses “crowded out” Career and Technical Education (CTE) offerings, stakeholders experienced a concomitant sense of losing something they described as real-life, relevant, and rural.

Authors

• Kathleen M. Budge, Boise State University

• Davin Jules Carr-Chellman, University of Idaho

• Kathryn Marie Canfield-Davis, University of Idaho

• Elizabeth Wargo, University of Idaho