Implementing School-to-Work:
Creating Multiple Pathways to College and Work for All Youth — Emerging Lessons from Pioneering Reforms and a Longitudinal Evaluation
A Forum — June 19, 1998
Employer’s Role in Linking School and Work
A survey of more than 200 businesses leaders shows that employers’ involvement with school-to-work activities has been steadily growing, according to a recent publication from the Committee for Economic Development (CED), Employer’s Role in Linking School and Work. Efforts must be coordinated and focus on bridging cultural gaps between the schools and the business world, states Robert Fleegler, Research Associate, CED. Employers should emphasize the value of education by requiring school transcripts when hiring an employee and limiting the hours that a student can work. Similarly, schools should be aware of the type of skills needed in the job market. Evidence on the impact of school-to-work initiatives on the job market is not available, but the employers involved in the process feel passionately about its importance.
School-to-Careers
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) has been actively involved in evaluating school-to-work initiatives from the schools’ perspective. MDRC’s recent report, Homegrown Progress: The Evolution of Innovative School-to-Career Programs, updates the status of the 16 initial school-to-work initiatives, which predate the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. According to James Kemple, Senior Researcher, MDRC, the study shows that the 16 programs have grown in number of participant students and employers, become more comprehensive, and are attracting more high-achieving students. Significant tradeoffs between program growth and intensity of school-to-work innovations appear to exist.
Career Academies
Career academies represent one of the most widely used approaches to integrating academic and vocational learning. Created in the late 1960s, career academies share three basic tenants: to create small learning communities (schools-within-schools); to establish partnerships between the school and the community, including employers; and to integrate academic and vocational subjects around a career-related theme such as electronics, health care, travel and tourism, aerospace, and public services. The implementation of these tenants varies. Some schools have open classrooms with groups of five students working together on projects that cut across several academic and vocational subjects with different teachers, while others have more traditional classrooms. Some link the different disciplines around a specific theme, while others provide career-related activities parallel to the teaching of academic subjects. According to Kemple, the academies try to match the career theme with the local job market. The National Academy Foundation (NAF), affiliated initially with American Express and now with Travelers Group, is an example of business-driven development of academies. NAF, the National Career Academy Coalition and several states have formed networks to support career academies. Career academies are expanding rapidly and now number more than 1,000 programs nationwide.
MDRC’s study is evaluating ten sites in Washington, D.C., Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Texas and will be following nearly 2,000 students through high school and for up to four years after they are scheduled to graduate. Applicants were randomly assigned to the academy by a lottery system. The study followed both the selected applicants and those who were not selected (control group) through their high school years. Academy students and the control group were surveyed during their first, second, and fourth year in high school, and one year after graduation. The survey findings are still being analyzed but emerging results show that career academies appeal to a broad representation of students and appear to function as a supportive community for all participants. Teachers report high degrees of collaboration between colleagues and a more personalized relationship with students. Career academy students recognize that their teachers hold them to higher standards. They have opportunities to work collaboratively with other students and consider the learning that occurs in the academy as relevant to their future. In comparison, students in the control group are less likely to see the relevance of what they learn for their future.