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By Megan Tagami at Honolulu Civil Beat
Career-based education has rapidly gained traction in Hawaiʻi schools, but not all programs are attracting boys and girls equally.
Natalie Watts loves her computer science classes at Campbell High School. The junior has studied everything from coding robots to creating online computer games and was initially attracted to the career track because of the technological skills she could gain and the high-paying jobs that could follow.
But when Watts recently participated in a presentation highlighting Campbell’s STEM programs, she received an unexpected question from the audience: Is being in the program “like going to an all-boys school?”
In the 2022-23 school year, 70% of students in Campbell’s information technology classes were boys. The school had a similar gender gap in its architecture and science programs.
Watts has always felt supported and welcomed by her male peers and teachers, but she also wants more girls to see computer science and engineering as a part of their futures.
Campbell is one of 46 Hawaiʻi public high schools enrolling students in career and technical education courses, which provide hands-on learning, internships and training to prepare students for life after graduation. Students usually enroll in a single CTE program throughout high school, taking multiple classes related to careers in fields such as nursing, teaching and engineering.
The number of students enrolled in CTE pathways has exploded in Hawaiʻi in recent years, amid debates about how to help students secure high-paying jobs after graduation and combat the state’s high cost of living. Nearly two-thirds of the class of 2023 participated in a high school CTE program.
But the programs aren’t serving boys and girls equally across the state.
In the 2022-23 school year, boys made up nearly 75% of Hawaiʻi CTE programs focused on STEM and information technology, and roughly 70% of programs focused on manufacturing. On the other hand, girls made up three-quarters of health care programs like nursing.
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