Reality Check for Children

What do you want to be when you grow up? Most of us were asked this question many times as children. With a future of unlimited possibilities before us, we may have answered, naively but with youthful exuberance, "I want to be a fireman!" Or a teacher. Or a doctor. Or a professional ball player.

Eventually, a combination of maturity and reality steered us–or perhaps forced us–toward our current career paths, which may be vastly different from the aspirations we had in childhood. While many people find their niche and become happy, productive members of the workforce, for some the unfulfilled and perhaps unrealistic expectations of youth can lead to bitter disappointment, a deflated sense of self-worth, financial hardship, and unrealized potential. In many Pennsylvania communities, a lack of available jobs that match budding career aspirations leads to an exodus of young people–often called "brain drain"–as well as widespread underemployment. These factors in turn contribute to a stagnating economy, an aging and shrinking population, an eroding tax base, and other symptoms of decline.

Although there are no quick fixes to these problems, Carol Conroy believes part of the solution lies in the way we educate our kids about the world of work. "Historically, career education has been very job-specific," says Conroy, an assistant professor of education at Cornell University who recently finished her third Penn State degree, a Ph.D. in agricultural and extension education. "In the past, students were encouraged to explore several areas of interest, then pick one of those, and that's the job they would learn about. We've never focused on the notion of careers, which by definition implies a hierarchy–you start at the bottom and move upward in sequence. The jobs along the way are related, but may require a different level of training or education. In addition, some of these occupations may not even exist in a particular community, and if they do, there may be no available openings. Students need help in matching their interests, aspirations, and abilities to these realities, and that's not happening."

Conroy has swallowed a few doses of reality during her own career. As an undergraduate at Penn State Mont Alto in the 1970s, she thought she'd like to be a veterinarian. "One of my professors took me aside and told me that although my grades weren't bad, they weren't high enough to get into veterinary school," she recalls. "Even if my grades had been higher, he told me, vet schools probably wouldn't accept me because I was a single mother, and they would worry that I couldn't handle the time commitment and finances. He set in motion a process through which I developed a 'plan B.' I could have been allowed to blithely complete my undergraduate career with only that original goal in mind, and I may have been very disappointed with the results. But because one person took the time to share some reality with me, I was able to identify and pursue other options."

Between earning her academic degrees, Conroy gained substantial work experience in secondary science and vocational education, as well as in industrial and welfare training programs. She returned to Penn State most recently in 1992 to start her Ph.D. while working as a project associate in the agricultural and extension education department. "I've been lucky to have had the opportunities to pursue my education and career and not be pulled down by my circumstances," she explains. "From my personal experiences, I began to wonder why I was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of opportunities when others can't. So I started looking at what factors influence mobility in the labor market, particularly in the case of women and minorities. I have a minor in demography, and I've tried to apply demographic research methodology to career education to help rural areas develop their workforce potential."

A large portion of Conroy's doctoral research centered on a pilot project in rural Bedford County's Everett Area School District. The state education department had asked her to adapt a workplace skills curriculum developed by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States, of which Pennsylvania is a member, and to help a local school district integrate it into their secondary school program. The goal was to develop a model that could be used by any district in the state to infuse these workplace skills into the overall curriculum.

The project afforded Conroy a unique opportunity. "For the purposes of my research, we built an assessment component into the project," Conroy explains. "We developed an economic profile of the area and surveyed the students to determine their goals, aspirations, and perceptions of career choices. We asked them about their ideal and expected work roles. For adults, first and subsequent jobs typically are influenced by socialization, race, educational level, parents' education, family socioeconomic status, and other factors. I wanted to see which of these factors played a part in the development of these students' attitudes. I was especially interested in any gender differences, as well as differences between college-prep and vocational students. The aim was to provide data that would be useful to the school district as it plans its school-to-work transition programs."

Some of Conroy's findings are startling. For instance, of the 612 students surveyed, nearly 62 percent aspired to a professional occupation for which postsecondary education is needed. Yet the Everett district typically sends only 50 percent of its graduates to college. "Right off the bat, we have more students aspiring to college than are likely to go," says Conroy. "Statistics also indicate that about half of students that do go to college will not complete their degrees. So you end up with a substantial number of students who are unlikely to meet their educational and occupational goals and who will enter the workforce without many of the skills they need to be successful.

"Not only did many of these kids want to be professionals, but some planned to become doctors and lawyers–professions at the top of the hierarchy," Conroy continues. "College-prep males in the survey expected a starting annual salary of nearly $43,000 in their ideal job. Yet the kinds of jobs available in the area, based on parents' occupations, were predominantly in skilled and semiskilled labor and service industries. These findings indicate that many of these kids have unrealistic goals that don't match the educational and training levels they are likely to attain, and some will end up underemployed."

High school students attending the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Agricultural Sciences at Penn State have an opportunity to explore fields of study and careers in depth. Many other students lack information for making realistic career choices.

The biggest surprise to Conroy was the lack of gender differences in the survey data. "I expected to see tremendous differences between males and females in what they considered important when choosing a job," she explains. "We asked students about their willingness to move from the area and about the need for flexible schedules so they could spend more time with family. I assumed females would rank these as important considerations, but there were no statistical differences in the factors that influence their choice of jobs and educational levels. However, girls did have higher levels of aspiration and expectation. This tells me that women are no longer socialized to think that they don't have access to jobs due to marriage and family considerations. The danger I see is that–if the divorce rate and other demographics hold true–many of these young women who aspire to college either won't attend or will drop out, and they may end up as single parents who don't have the appropriate level of education to support their children."

"The results of Carol's research give school districts a basis for planning how to orient students to the labor market," says Dennis Scanlon, associate professor of agricultural and extension education and Conroy's adviser. "The question is, what will school systems do with this information? It's easier to recommend school curriculum changes than it is to change the economic realities faced by many Pennsylvania communities. But Carol is living proof that with proper guidance, students can overcome tremendous odds to become successful in the workforce, and she's dedicated to doing significant work to help our young people reach their potential."

–Chuck Gill