Florida’s high school graduation rate increased to 71.9 percent in 2005, up from 60.2 percent in 1999. Now is not the time to abandon the high standards set for our students! Tremendous gains have been made in the past seven years; we must move forward and embrace the future.

Students need to be engaged in planning for their future. In order for middle school reform to lay the groundwork for success in high school and beyond, middle schools must become more rigorous. In Florida, students will be required to complete a personalized academic and career plan during the seventh or eighth grade through the Florida Academic Counseling and Tracking for Students (www.FACTS.org) online advising system.

High school students will select an area of interest as part of their personalized education and career plan, to better engage them in planning for their future. They will be required to earn four credits in a major area of interest, similar to those for college students. This may be in the arts, advanced academic studies or career preparation. Flexibility will be allowed so students can change their area of emphasis. Increasing the rigor and relevance of high school has never been more critical in preparing students for college and career.

Research-based career and professional academies—combining a rigorous academic curriculum with an industry-driven career curriculum to create a “school-within-a-school”—will help students become better prepared to enter the workforce. These academies will offer students a unique opportunity to focus their interest in a specific area of study.

Any high school student or adult learner who chooses to participate in a “Ready to Work” certification program will receive job skills training and credentialing. The program will assess students’ readiness in certain job skills, and will enable  them to obtain an occupation-specific credential that provides employers with a clear picture of the individual’s job skills, based on a consistent statewide standard.

Allowing students to declare a major will connect them to the learning process. Students previously turned off by school will embrace learning once that connection is made. As a veteran high school teacher, I can speak with authority: By preparing our students for the challenges that await them, more of our students will engage in fulfilling their goals. The dropout rate will decrease and society will be better off.

Why should we impose additional choices on our already overwhelmed secondary school students? Adults frequently make ill-advised choices for their careers. Many are unsatisfied with their current occupations and make changes soon after they enter the working world. Would we expect high school students to fare better?

Most secondary school students are not prepared to make rational, educated decisions about their future. The Higher Education Research Institute found that 43.7 percent of our nation’s college freshmen in 2005 cited “parents wanted me to go” as the most important reason for their choice of colleges. If we ask our students to choose a high school major, what percentage will make a career choice based strictly on parent opinion? And what do we say to an average high school student who decides he or she wants to be a neurosurgeon? “Sorry, pal, choose again.”

Each year, millions of people change jobs for different reasons. They may be dissatisfied with working conditions; their salary, benefits and retirement package; or the climate of their workplace. Many people, however, stay at a job in spite of these problems—if they truly enjoy what they are doing.

This is the key point, the one that seems to be lost on proponents of high school majors: We find these dream jobs through life experience, not by filling in the right circle on a secondary school registration form.

And whose responsibility is it to guide these near-adults as they make their choices and fill out forms? Overworked guidance counselors? These professionals are already swamped and in short supply. They are responsible for an avalanche of paperwork mandated by local, state and federal agencies, not to mention the paperwork involved in college admissions. The new law does nothing to ensure adequate staffing in school guidance offices.

Guidance counselors don’t need another responsibility to add to their ever-expanding job description. How can one more unfunded and unsupported venture—this time a high school major requirement—help ease the strain on our nation’s schools?

If there were intensive career education programs in high school, this proposal might be a viable option. However, these programs are either nonexistent or few and far between. Most people have no idea what their chosen field entails until they begin their course of study. They don’t realize their limitations or personal talents until their first year of college, or later in the workplace.

High school students not only need time to explore their options, they need time to explore life. They need a chance to make their own mistakes, retrace their footsteps and find the path that leads to their future.