Quakertown Community School District Superintendent Dr. Freeman briefed the board on the district’s rollout of the RIASEC career-language framework and presented early results from a mixed-methods research study the district commissioned.

The framework: RIASEC (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional) is a career-interest taxonomy used as a reflective classroom language, the administration said. Quakertown adopted a dialogic, reflection-based approach rather than a test-centric use of the tool.

Study design and scope
Administrators said the study used surveys and interviews (a mixed-methods design) and surveyed more than 1,600 students in grades 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 between December 2024 and May 2025. The research was led by Dr. Christina Santos (PhD, University of Cambridge) with district staff and researchers, and the study underwent peer review; administration said the work is under strong consideration for publication in a career-development journal.

Key district findings presented
The administration summarized the study’s headline results:
- Improvements in career development and school-based well-being across grades 4–12 after five months of implementation.
- Increases in RIASEC congruence (students’ self-identified interests aligning with career themes).
- Rise in career identity scores (+4.5%) and RIASEC knowledge (+9%).
- A reported 14.3% increase in alignment between student interests and parents’ occupations, which administrators said suggests stronger family-career connections.

Classroom implementation and scale
The district described its implementation timeline: a 2023 pilot across 14 teachers, a district professional development rollout in January 2024, a larger opt-in phase in 2024–25 with coaching for about 70 teachers, and an expectation that RIASEC conversations would be present in all K–12 classrooms in 2025–26 (without a prescribed daily frequency).

Anecdote and classroom examples
Administrators and student representatives gave concrete examples: in elementary classes, teachers asked students whether firefighters aligned to particular RIASEC letters as a way to discuss job qualities; at the high school level students described applying RIASEC to a physics unit and to historical figures. Student representative Aiden said identifying letters helped him better understand peers and lead more effectively in marching-band settings.

Recommendations and next steps
Administration recommended continued regular, districtwide career conversations; ongoing professional development for teachers; family engagement; purposeful networking opportunities for students; and investment in teacher leaders to sustain implementation after outside consultants leave.

Board response
Board members asked for clarification and next steps; several members congratulated staff for the research and requested the final white paper be posted publicly. One board member asked that future research presentations be shared at a full board meeting (rather than only in committee) so more members can ask questions publicly.

Ending note
District leaders said the intent is to make career readiness a regular classroom practice rather than a single event and to keep the board informed as further data and a white paper become available.