cific occupations. In more recent years, however, the goals of vocational education have expanded to include preparing youth for entry-level work as well as to help foster career advancement and entry into further edu - cation and training. For instance, educators have been called upon to integrate academic and vocational edu - cation. Most public U.S. high school students participate in vocational education. At one point in time, nearly all public high school graduates (97 %) completed at least one vocational education course, and 87 % completed at least one occupationally specific course. With the prolife - ration of postsecondary education in the United States, coupled with concerns around low-income youth of co - lor being tracked into non-academic programs, however, these rates have gone down. Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment The Advanced Placement program offers students the opportunity to take college-level courses and exams in high school and earn college credit, advanced place - ment, or both at many colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world. By earning college credit in high school and skipping introductory courses in college, youth are able to save time and money as they work to - ward a college degree. Similarly, dual enrollment refers to students being enrolled concurrently in two acade - mic programs (high school and college), which allows them to earn introductory college credit. While these programs allow students to reduce their future college course load, it is telling that usually only higher socioeco - nomic students are able to enroll in these courses.
English Language Learners Youth who do not speak English as a native language are referred to as English Language Learners (ELLs or ESL – English as a Second Language). As of 2021, the - re are approximately five million students in public schools in the United States who are English Langua - ge Learners. These youth can participate in language assistance programs to help ensure that they acquire the needed English proficiency while also meeting the academic content and scholastic standards that all stu - dents are expected to meet before graduating. It is ho - ped through participation in these types of programs that a young person’s English language proficiency will improve while also further connecting them to the American society. This ultimately leads to improved educational outcomes. Other School Aspects Student Clubs While there are no particular high school committees wherein students have voting power and, therein, auto - nomy on a school level, there are student councils whe - re students can vote on class representatives. There are also extracurricular student clubs, such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes (religious athletic society) and Delta Phi Alpha (German National Honor Society) that offer a va - riety of activities that may or may not be organized by school officials. For school subjects, students can also form Math or History Clubs as well and branch off into academic competitive groups such as Debate Club or Sci -
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