Creating School-to-Work Systems: Partners in Progress
A Forum — June 30, 1997
Today's forum highlighted the findings from the preliminary evaluation of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. Part of a federal effort to better prepare American students for the world of work, the legislation provides seed money to states to create "school-to-work systems." The study was the first step of a multi-year national evaluation being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Presenting the findings at the forum was Alan Hershey, Project Director at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Hershey stressed that the first findings from the Mathematica study describe the very early stages of school-to-work implementation, and provide a baseline for gauging progress in later phases of the evaluation.
A Project Introduction
Hershey first listed the questions Mathematica is seeking to answer through the evaluation: Have states designed coherent school-to-work systems? Does school-to-work change the educational experience of the student? What happens to these students after they graduate from high school? Are the pilot programs following the ideas expressed in the School-to-Work Act?
Mathematica based their first evaluation report on two main sources of information; extensive site visits in eight states (Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Kentucky and Maryland) and surveys of a representative sample of all high school seniors in those states. Later visits and surveys will be used to document the evolution of school-to-work partnerships and changes in students' high school experiences and postsecondary paths.
Progress towards School-To-Work Systems
Mathematica examined the progress of the eight states in addressing five key components of school-to-work systems--creating employer incentives, promoting career development models, facilitating college enrollment, defining target career clusters and providing technical assistance to local partnerships. According to Hershey, all eight states presented evidence of working in each area, although only Oregon has fully adopted every component. This represents real progress, as Hershey explained, since "it's not easy to mobilize the political and intellectual resources all at once." Challenges notwithstanding, the eight states created 245 partnerships by mid-1996, and many partnerships are still forming their networks.
One obstacle to implementation has been the uneven emphasis on school-based and work-based learning components. The focus has depended, in part, on which governmental department houses the initiative.
Hershey then discussed an important and popular component of the school to work legislation--career development. Participation in career development was one of the stronger components of school-to-work in many of the states surveyed. This is partly because parents widely support career development activities and guidance counselors are beginning to focus their efforts and staff development activities on career preparation and awareness activities. Many career awareness efforts also predated passage of the School-to-Work Act. According to the evaluation, however, most individual students participate only in occasional and unconnected career development activities.
Integrating academic curriculum with work-based learning has been of lower priority than other school-to-work components in many of the partnerships. While there is enthusiasm about relating classroom instruction to occupational and career themes, progress has been slow. Hershey notes that this emphasis is new to many schools, so they fail to develop a curriculum that is challenging to students. In addition, some parents are wary of subjects becoming "too vocational."
Providing students with work- and community-based experiences has been a top priority of most local partnerships, although there are many obstacles to overcome to ensure meaningful experiences for students. These obstacles include the lack of time in a school day and funds for schools to get students to work. For employers, hosting large numbers of students is restricted by lack of staff and space to provide oversight.
While nearly 90 percent of students surveyed have jobs, there are advantages to finding jobs through school. According to Hershey, jobs students find through school involve more training, more diverse opportunities and more links to school curriculum.
While many partnerships are working to connect career development, workplace activities and career majors to school-based learning, relatively few students at this early stage of implementation participate in school-to-work systems which fully integrate all three elements. Two-thirds of seniors sampled said they have taken part in career development activities. About sixteen percent of the seniors sampled had a "linked workplace activity," and twelve percent said they had a career focus to their curriculum. However, fewer than three percent noted participation in all three of these aspects.