A Student Should Never Leave School Without it.

When eighth grade students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School march into their promotional ceremony, they will be marching into the pages of history in the field of education. The promotional ceremony of the new millennium at M.L. King Jr. Middle School will be the first time that an Atlanta Public Schools promotional program will include recognition of students by career field focus. This change in the traditional promotional ceremony format, was the result of the implementation of an innovative career education concept called Career Prep Success. Mr. Christopher Anderson, the assistant principal at M. L. King, developed the Career Prep Success Plan, over a fifteen-year period. The concept model program was implemented at M.L. King during the 1999-2000 school year.

The Career Prep Success Plan was developed specifically to address and eliminate the reasons for failure of large numbers of students. An important focus of this work is the role that the traditional middle school promotional and high school graduation ceremonies play in that failure. A major factor contributing to student failure to succeed is the failure to insure that each student selects a career field early in the education process. The motto for the Career Prep Success Plan is, "Your Career Field is Your Success Shield - Don't Leave School Without it." Early career field selection provides a sense of increased self-worth, which inspires students to apply themselves to learn and excel. Applying the format to the middle school promotional ceremony establishes the foundation for expectations of excellence in preparation of students for success in high school and the graduation ceremony. This format for high school graduation provides the light at the end of the
educational tunnel, an inspiration, and a goal with promise for which to strive. Enhanced affiliation with chosen career field professionals, mentors, and role models will help to build student self-esteem, encourage school attendance, reduce dropouts, improve student discipline and increase academic performance.

Mr. Anderson stated that, "As educators, we find ourselves not only teaching, but in a position to serve as marketers of these students into the next phase of their lives. The traditional middle school promotional and high school graduation formats violate basic marketing and sales strategies for controlling product quality perception by the target audience. In an increasingly specialized world, we need increasingly specialized recognition. The traditional middle school promotional and high school graduation ceremony formats clearly fail to meet the students' needs and provide a vision of success in the new millennium."

Career Prep Success Plan for middle school promotional and high school graduation ceremony format is patterned after the college graduation ceremony format. All students participating in this promotional or graduation ceremony format will have a career field focus and a vision for success after graduation. The parallel practice of the college level graduation ceremony provides evidence of the effectiveness of this concept in application and requires no additional analysis to understand its potential.