By ALISON GLASS
Anderson Independent-Mail
May 31, 2005

South Carolina high school students would be required to choose a career path well before entering college or the work force under a bill signed by Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday.

The Education and Economic Development Act will require students — starting in the 10th grade — to choose a study focus, such as health science, finance, information technology or arts and humanities. The law has been in development for the past four years.

Anderson educators said the new law would not move the county’s school districts in any new direction.

"We’ve anticipated this for quite a while now," said Robbie Binnicker, principal of Wren High in Piedmont. "For us (at Wren High) there won’t be any dramatic changes."

The school now offers 16 different "career clusters" of courses in four different "schools of study," he said.

"Any time a student has a focus or a purpose for taking a particular class, I think it really helps all around," he said.

Anderson School District 5 officials will look at the language of the final version of the law in coming weeks to determine what the school system will need to do to comply, assistant superintendent Jeff Wilson said.

The two high schools in the district already have different schools of study, and the district likely will develop more career clusters, Mr. Wilson said.

"We’ve known for a long time that, with or without legislation, we were wanting to move in the direction where we would have more clustered courses for students," he said.

Belton-Honea Path High School has several schools of study, and plans for Pendleton High School include creation of three schools of learning on the campus. Each school would focus on one, or possibly a few, academic disciplines.

Guidance counselors will play a key role in implementing the new law, which calls for putting more counselors in high schools, South Carolina Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum said. Several Anderson-area educators said Tuesday that in order for schools to meet that goal, it will be important for state lawmakers to phase-in allocations of state money for more counselors over the next few years.

High school graduation requirements will not change under the law, and students could change their career clusters.

School districts also will have to lay the foundation for clusters of study by providing career awareness activities in elementary schools, according to the law. Middle schools will have to let students identify career interests and abilities and align those with career clusters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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