Over 100 students from across Judson Independent School District (JISD) applied to a new four-year program offering high schoolers the chance to graduate with both a high school diploma and industry credentials or an associate degree.
JISD is in Live Oak, a city within the San Antonio metro area.
A live lottery was held on February 8 to select incoming 9th graders who would enter one of three specialty programs being offered within the JISD P-TECH program this fall.
P-TECHs are open-enrollment high schools where students fulfill all standard requirements to earn a diploma over four years while simultaneously receiving an industry-focused education.
“I like to say P-TECH is an early college high school with CTE [Career and Technical Education] sitting on top,” explained Eric Pawkett, the academic dean at Judson High School, according to Community Impact. “That’s the sauce that makes it extra special.”
Those entering P-TECH will attend either the Collision and Repair program, the Pre-Dental program, or the Pre-Nursing program.
“We originally planned to have 30 students start in each of our individual programs,” Pawkett explained, according to Community Impact. “But after the wave of applications, we got the okay to allow 50 students into our Pre-Nursing program.”
JISD’s Innovation Department is behind this and other open-entry academic frameworks and programs.
Since its establishment in 2021, the Innovation Department has been tasked with developing personalized pathways for district students from elementary to high school. Rather than focusing just on the classroom, these pathways have aimed to prepare students for the job market.
To accomplish this, JISD partnered with Alamo Colleges and industry entities.
As Pawkett explained, P-TECH will be expanded over time, but the three specialized programs that will get things started were selected in line with the demands of the current local job market.
“Within the Alamo area, certified dental assistants, patient care technicians, and collision repair specialists are all highly-needed jobs,” Pawkett said, according to Community Impact.
A Texas Workforce Commission conference held late last year identified several labor concerns affecting Texas, as The Dallas Express covered. The IT, manufacturing, and healthcare industries, especially nursing, were listed as critical areas at risk of facing a future shortage of workers.
Similar initiatives to improve student pathways into the job market have been undertaken within the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
As The Dallas Express reported, Tarrant County Community College is one of many institutions of higher education working through public and private partnerships to create a pipeline of workers for the local workforce.
It also offers high schoolers several options to earn college credit from as early as grade 9.
Moreover, Dallas ISD offers its students the opportunity to opt for P-TECH. Depending on the campus, its specialized programs include software programming, pre-engineering, health sciences, logistics, early childhood education, and more.
Yet, as The Dallas Express reported, data from the Texas Education Agency showed that 12% of graduates earned an associate degree while 10% earned industry-based certification in a trade in 2022.
Lackluster graduation results were recorded across the district in general, as evinced by its student achievement score. Only 81.1% of Dallas ISD students seniors graduated within four years. Comparatively, 87.2% of JISD’s Class of 2022 got their diplomas on time or early.
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