Superintendent Joe Gothard is looking to make student internships and career-focused classes a hallmark of his tenure with St. Paul Public Schools.

In his first state of the district speech since taking the job in July 2017, Gothard said Wednesday that students too often see no utility in what they’re learning.

“’Why do I need to know this, or why should I take this class?’ … Our goal is to eliminate these questions,” he said.

Each comprehensive high school in the district will have its own work-based learning coordinator next year, Gothard said. They’ll work to get more businesses providing guest speakers and hiring St. Paul students as interns.

College and career paths are one of five focal areas of Gothard’s strategic plan, SPPS Achieves. He wants to see career-related curriculum from preschool through 12th grade and for all students to make personal learning plans to guide their class selection with an eye toward the workforce.

Last year, 15 percent of St. Paul district high schoolers failed to complete their expected web-based career-exploration tasks.

Gothard shared the podium Wednesday at Washington Technology Magnet School with two students who took a class on exploring the teaching profession, in partnership with the University of Minnesota.

Both Washington students, Chee Vang and Sherry Xiong, said they hadn’t seriously considered teaching as a career until taking the class. They now hope to teach in St. Paul after college.

If they follow through, Vang and Xiong will help fulfill another goal of the strategic plan — boosting the number of teachers of color. Twenty-one percent of the district’s students, but 80 percent of its teachers are white.

Michelle Leba, curriculum coordinator at Washington, said that during high school she was interested in teaching and medical careers. She ruled out the latter during a career exploration class, which included a “field experience” at a Minneapolis hospital.

“Within one hour of being there I knew that any career in the medical field would not be a good fit for me,” she said. “I was grateful I figured this out in high school.”

The other points of emphasis in Gothard’s strategic plan are school culture, effective and culturally relevant instruction, family and community engagement, and program evaluation. Related Articles St. Paul district reports enrollment drop as pandemic moves school online

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Wednesday’s speech also served as the district’s required annual public meeting on its formal achievement and integration and World’s Best Workforce plans.

The report highlighted a solid graduation rate and progress on kindergarten readiness, but third-grade reading scores fell far short of the target, with just 35 percent testing proficient last year.

“The state of the district is good,” Gothard said, “and our strategic plan, SPPS Achieves, will make it even better.”