A former middle school teacher himself, Le Sueur said the emphasis has been on integrating the studies in sixth- through eighth-grade classes, an effort which ramped up at the start of the pandemic in 2020. He said the middle school years are crucial to informing kids of their options in CTE fields and giving them an opportunity to develop a passion for the subjects.
“(Middle school) is my favorite, because kids are just coming out of those baby years where they did everything mom and dad said, and they want to be just like mom and dad, to now deciding [they] can be [their] own person,” Le Sueur said. “If you wait [to expose them to CTE studies] until they’re in high school, it’s too late. They’ve already decided whether school is cool or not. They’ve already decided whether or not they’re going to have the same job that their mom or dad had. They’ve already decided whether or not they’re going to go to college. If we don’t launch them appropriately for middle school, then it’s too late when they’re in high school.”
Humble ISD’s new eight- to nine-week courses introduce the 14 CTE career clusters recognized by Texas, with a rotating roster of expert teachers covering different CTE-related subjects in an “exploration wheel,” Le Sueur said. They come in and bring their kit with materials for the subject, whether it be working on robots, 3D computers or gaming software, to allow students to engage with the contents.
While the courses are not mandatory, Le Sueur said that 1,800 sixth graders from the district’s 10 middle schools are cycling through them now in the second full year of the initiative.
“By the end of the year, the intent is that they’re exposed to all of our career clusters … and they have a better idea than at the end of sixth grade (what they want to study more),” he said.
When the students enter seventh grade, Le Sueur said, they take semester-long courses on subjects that appealed to them the most from the “exploration wheel” in sixth grade — one in the fall, another in the spring. He said if the students have room in their schedule for additional courses, they can add more CTE electives to their load. Then in eighth grade, they can choose as their elective a yearlong course in whatever subject they were most passionate about, receiving high school credit in the process.
Le Sueur said the district also trains counselors at each school on how to engage students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, on career paths and goals. Counselors meet with students twice a year to have hourlong conversations which have been worked out with the CTE department, Le Sueur said. He said that the district has had to subtract from the counselors’ workload to accommodate these career conversations, but they open a door for students to make more informed decisions.
Ultimately, Le Sueur said the goal of the initiative is to prepare students to make choices in high school about career tracks and certification programs they discovered in middle school.
“They will be able to make earlier decisions, allowing them to go deeper into chosen career pathways while in high school,” he said. “They will not waste money in college on career exploration that should have been done in middle and high school. They will graduate with industry credentials and internships experience that plays directly into a well-paying job during college or an immediate lifelong career.”
