What Is Next for School-to-Career

A Forum — June 4, 1999

The school-to-career movement grew out of a concern that the public education system was not preparing American youth as well as possible for the transition from school to further learning and the workplace. Proponents of school-to-career agreed that:

• most youth need help making the transition to adulthood
• youth need to improve both their academic achievement and their career prospects to attain a successful transition
• this educational strategy requires new relationships between the schools and the community, particularly the business community
• reforms must be systemic
• states and localities must have flexibility to address specific needs
• gradual implementation will avoid the customary cycle of an initial outburst of enthusiasm, followed by a lack of interest and energy

These basic principles were incorporated into the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA), which set the foundations for school-to-career initiatives across the country. The STWOA sunsets in 2001 with little congressional support for its renewal. It is time then to reflect on what has been accomplished, including successes and failures, listen to what the best practitioners are doing to sustain the initiatives after the Act sunsets, and ask questions about the future of school-to-career. This reflexive analysis is the focus of What is Next for School to Career?, a report written by Richard Kazis and Hilary Pennington, from Jobs for the Future, and funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation with assistance from the Public Education Network. In presenting the pre-publication draft of the report, Richard Kazis, Vice-President of Jobs for the Future, invited the public to offer comments and reactions to the paper as a way to jump-start a discussion on the future of school-to-career.

Hilary Pennington, President of Jobs for the Future, observes that some of the current predicaments of the school-to-career movement can be attributed primarily to four factors:

• a shift in political dynamics -- since the promulgation of the STWOA, political support for school-to-careers has dwindled;
• the model's complexity and ambition -- the comprehensive approach of school-to-career proved a challenge during the implementation phase and, in some places, the excitement ran out before the model was well established;
• mistakes in some early implementation strategies -- the emphasis on K-12 education with little interest in postsecondary linkages and institutions created the wrong impression that school-to-career is not related to the transition to further education and alienated many parents; also, a premature rush to get to scale without a clear understanding of the complexity of the program hurt the quality of the implementation
• the isolation of school-to-career from the standards-driven reform movement in schools -- although school-to-career also strives for high expectations and academic standards, the two movements evolved separately and school-to-career reforms were left out of standardized assessments in most states

The report recommend that the National School-to-Work Office and the states use the remaining STWOA resources to sustain and promote what is best about school-to-career, based on five priorities:

• support leading innovators;
• put more emphasis on data collection and analysis, particularly on job-related and postsecondary outcomes of youth who experienced school-to-career;
• strengthen the infrastructure of partnerships and support intermediary organizations that act as liaisons between schools, employers and the community at large;
• reach out to potential allies in other reform movements, including charter schools and after-school programs; and
• seed the creation of an independent resource and documentation center."

In Maryland, school-to-career was seen as an opportunity to link schools with economic development and workforce preparation, says Katherine Oliver, Assistant State Superintendent for Career, Technical and Adult Learning, State of Maryland. Instruction is built around career clusters and employers are given options on how to contribute to the system. The state is committed to continue the initiatives after 2001 and is analyzing the best strategies to address the challenges of finding additional resources to pay for programs and training, expand community support, and improve data collection with follow-up of high-school graduates.

A key factor for the success of school-to-career in Philadelphia is the continuity of the educational process, says Cassandra Jones, Director of Education for Employment, School District of Philadelphia. Continuity is important, because the implementation of school-to-career requires changes in attitude from teachers, students, parents, employers and postsecondary institutions. In Philadelphia, school-to-career was implemented as a K-16 system that involves all students, without an Aopt-out@ alternative. The implementation developed slowly, from a Aboutique@ approach to scale, and the standards movement was integrated into school-to-career with the incorporation of project-based assessments. One of the key challenges for the continuity of school-to-work, according to Jones, is to change teacher understanding that school experience must not be limited to the school walls. Also, the basic skills that students must learn will accompany them through life, whether they enroll in a four-year college or go to work. Therefore, high expectations and high standards must be applied to all students.

School-to-career is a system-building approach, explains Steve F. Hamilton, Professor, Cornell Youth and Work Program, Cornell University. A system, as opposed to a program, must have a place for everyone, be coherent and establish clear connections between its components and with other systems. Each level of system-building -- national, state, local and single-school -- presents different challenges. For instance, it is difficult to introduce comprehensive changes in regional partnerships, because the school districts within these partnerships maintain their own superintendent and school boards with their own perspectives and priorities about education. Even within the same partnership, the implementation process varies significantly. Some places started school-to-career before the STWOA, while others have only recently moved in this direction. States also vary in their commitment to school-to-career.

Hamilton also explains that only a few studies show that youth who were exposed to school-to-career have a better sense of career direction and increased college persistance, and data on youth-related outcomes, such as postsecondary graduation rates, employment rates or wages is still scarce.

The school-to-career movement has brought to people=s attention the need to better prepare youth for successful adult life and showed ways to accomplish this goal. The time has come for all those involved in school-to-career to think creatively on how to sustain the progress made and continue improving the quality of the initiatives.

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