Pupils Shunted to Vocational Ed Fear It Can Derail College Dreams

At first, Leticia Paniagua thought her cosmetology class at Fremont High School was fun. She learned how to manicure by removing nail polish, pushing back cuticles and checking for hangnails. Other days she learned thermal hair straightening or blow-drying techniques.

But the 16-year-old sophomore, who hopes to attend USC and become a brain surgeon, never wanted to be in the one-semester class. She had asked for an academic elective like journalism that might help her get into a college. Because enrollment was filled in the course at the South-Central campus, her counselor placed her in cosmetology.

She tried to transfer out, but it was too late. Now she is worried that she might have to make up the credits required to be admitted to a four-year university.

Leticia is enrolled in one of six cosmetology or manicuring classes offered at Fremont. Those classes and others, including bank-telling, office work, floor-covering, computer technology and auto shop, are among hundreds offered on Los Angeles Unified high school campuses under the district’s Regional Occupational Program.

The program is designed to prepare youths for entry-level jobs in technical, trade, office and service fields. Many educators praise its success in teaching marketable skills and helping students attain jobs after graduation.

Others say some vocational classes offered through the program serve as dumping grounds for students in overcrowded schools. In some classes, as many as half the students are enrolled in vocational classes because there are not enough teachers available to offer more academic courses and electives.

And with a shortage of counselors to give good advice, teens like Leticia don’t realize until too late that such vocational classes will not help them get into a university.

Counselors May Not Know Students’ Names

“Many of these students’ decisions are made for them very, very early on. Not by intention, but by default,” said Jeannie Oakes, an associate dean of the Graduate School of Education at UCLA, who has written a book on inequalities in academic tracking. “These kids who say their counselor just put them in this class, their counselor is probably dealing with 600 to 700 kids and doesn’t really even know their name.”

The problem extends well outside L.A. Unified. In researching her book, Oakes looked at urban school districts in 13 communities across the nation and found a proliferation of vocational courses in schools with poor and minority students compared with wealthier schools. Also, wealthier students had access to better equipment and more computer-based vocational courses than students in poorer neighborhoods, she said.

Katynja McCory, a director for the South Central Youth Empowered Through Action community group, who has led protests against the shortage of advanced placement classes in schools in poor areas, said some of those same schools have an abundance of less challenging vocational courses.

For example, Locke High School in South-Central offers commercial photography, sewing and office clerk courses through the Regional Occupational Program. However, Palisades Charter Senior High School offers Web page design, graphic animation and digital imaging.

“Our students are being tracked into these low-wage careers,” McCory said.

Compared with hiring qualified teachers for college preparatory classes, finding teachers for vocational classes is easier because they are required to have only work-related credentials. Some of those teachers are part-timers, and all are paid from a countywide fund that is separate from the money for general K-12 classes. Also, the program eases the space crunch by holding some classes off campus.

“There are times when I would love to give them an art class if that is their interest, but sometimes I just don’t have the space for them,” said Lewis McCammon, an assistant principal and head counselor at Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles. “So when we have an opportunity, like our banking classes, I make sure we get the students into those classes.”

If enough students are not enrolled, those vocational courses may be cut, causing the overall class shortage to become even worse. “If I lose those classes, where am I going to put students?” he said. “The other classes are packed.”

McCammon is a fan of Belmont’s regional occupational courses, which also include office work, computer repair and auto shop. Such classes will not hurt college-bound students as long as they have fulfilled college admission requirements, he says. Also, they can gain a work ethic and learn investing or technical skills.

Vocational Classes Can Be Handicaps

But Walter Harris, associate director of admissions for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said applicants who have taken one or more of such classes are at a disadvantage.

“It doesn’t mean they’re not exceptional students, it just means that in the pool of competition, they didn’t have what the rest of the pool had.”

For example, he said, a student who has taken auto shop or floor-covering might lose out to another with British literature or calculus.

The occupational classes fulfill certain elective or technical course requirements for Los Angeles Unified School District graduation. But students need more than basic classes required for graduation to be admitted to most UC campuses, said Hanan Eisenman, a spokesman for admissions at the University of California.

Unless a high school proves to college admissions officials that a vocational course is academically challenging, such courses will not help a student’s chances, he said. Some computer courses offered under the Regional Occupational Program, for example, may prepare students for college-level work. But other classes, such as cosmetology and floor-covering, may not, he said.

The district spends about $9 million a year on the Regional Occupational Program, which enrolls about 17,300 students, including a few adults. Enrollment has grown by an average of 10% each year since 1999 as more schools request more classes, said Jean Batey, principal of the program.

She said most students are placed in the classes because they want them, instead of being forced into them.

“The value of vocational training is that students are able to actually attain some employable skills,” she said. “Some who opt not to go to college can leave high school and continue on into vocational schools, entry-level positions or work their way into four-year colleges.”

No Room for Them Elsewhere

Batey conceded, however that some students are assigned to the classes because there is no room for them elsewhere. “Realistically, we know things like that happen,” she said.

She added that most freshmen and sophomores are not allowed to take regional occupational classes because they need to fulfill other course requirements first.

Robert Irvin, a counselor at Fremont High School, said he discourages college-bound students from taking classes such as cosmetology or sewing.

If they wind up with such classes, they should see their counselor to find something different, he said. “A 16- or 17-year-old who has been in high school two years already should know how to” request another class.

On a recent morning in Dwight Organ’s bank-teller class at Belmont High, 30 students listened to an audiotape recording about the life of a reformed criminal. Lessons of the day were written on the board, including: Learn how criminals pass bad checks and define “crimes of opportunity.” Organ teaches students how to create resumes, interview for jobs, stay out of debt, invest money and deal with customers. Last year, 40 of his students were hired in banks after completing the class.

“The thrill for me is when I see a student come back and say, ‘Mr. Organ, I got my first job.’”

But not all students in the class want to become bank-tellers. One example is 17-year-old Richie Espinoza. He wants to attend UCLA to become a teacher or a writer, but the senior with a 3.2 grade-point average does not have the required classes to attend the university.

Part of it is his fault, he concedes, for not protesting or planning his course load early enough.

Richie said he has learned a lot about the economy and job-hunting in the class, but he would rather have taken an elective like journalism, debate or creative writing. None, however, was offered at the time, he said, and a counselor enrolled him in bank-telling.

Now, his plan is to attend a community college and transfer to UCLA later.

Parents’ Protest Brought Results

Israel Alvarado, 17, was first placed in an office clerk class, where he filed and learned data entry. After his parents protested, counselors gave him the more challenging bank-telling, said Israel. The course so influenced him that he now hopes to work for Bank of America and study finance in college.

But more than half of the students enrolled--many of whom want to attend universities--did not choose it, he said.

Organ agreed that a segment of his students are enrolled because they are interested in the class, but a majority “in all honesty ... come in because their career counselors need to place them in a class.”

While he tries to make the course worthwhile for all students, it “is really designed for students who are not going to college,” he said.

On a recent afternoon in Fremont’s cosmetology class, nearly 20 students grabbed peach or sea green-colored plastic finger bowls for a lesson in manicures. Meanwhile, 20 students in an adjoining room sat in front of triangular mirrors and took a vocabulary quiz on the study of hair.

Mariela Alferez, 18, took cosmetology for two semesters in a row because “it’s like a free period class,” she said. “It’s fun.”

She wants to attend Cal State Los Angeles and become a teacher, while also working in cosmetology on weekends to pay for school.

But Leticia is not as optimistic. She said she feels as if she has been neglected and shuffled around by counselors. “They don’t take the time for those who do want to learn,” she said. “They think kids from South-Central are not going to go to USC, we’re not going to go to college. They want us to do the manicures for the kids who are going to USC.”