Shaping America's workforce for the new millennium

Improvements in the quality of America's emerging workforce can be attributed to public school career education curricula and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. That initiative linked curriculum reform to economic development through School- and Work-Based Learning and Connecting Activities. Other challenges remain: in-school evaluations of students must become more authentic and school officials must find alternatives to retention as a means of instilling cognitive and social skills in high school juniors and seniors. School-to-Work is succeeding. Twenty-seven states sponsor programs that are supported by local businesses and community stakeholders.

Corporate America and the federal government struggled through the 1980s and early 1990s to find reasons for America's decline as a leading competitor in a global free market economy. Commissioned studies pointed to national trade deficits and cheap foreign labor as factors, but also suggested career education programs in U.S. public schools were responsible for sending poorly trained workers to entrylevel positions in a competitive job market.

Recent improvements in workforce quality can be attributed to revamped public school career education curricula and the School-to-Work (STW) Opportunities Act, which became federal law on May 6, 1994. Since then, the government's commitment to improved training for high school students has been substantial. Seven hundred million dollars were appropriated to STW as "seed" money during its early years.

The Institute on Education and the Economy, which monitors the impact of trends in education on business, suggested in 1998 that School-to-Work legislation was "spurred by a national concern that America's students were not being adequately prepared for rapidly changing workplaces (p.1)." Its report cited 15 years of research about how students Learn and how teaching relates to the workplace and concluded that many high school graduates spent their early years moving from one low-paying job to another. STW is a comprehensive effort to change the focus of training primarily for high school students seeking jobs in America's business sector.

Twenty-seven states currently have School-to-Work programs in place. The initiative links education reform to economic development through three components. The first, which addresses School-Based Learning, was designed to provide career awareness and exploration through counseling at the earliest possible age, but no later than the 7th grade. Students are challenged to identify their interests and consider career options. Participants must select a career major no later than the beginning of the 11th grade.

School-Based Learning's focus is curriculum and instruction that integrates academic and vocational learning. Its success depends upon scheduled evaluations with students to identify their academic strengths and weaknesses and any need for additional efforts to master core vocational skills.

Work-Based Learning, the second component, offers a planned program of job training and experiences that have been coordinated with School-Based Learning. This provision requires schools to depart from traditional "tracking" of collegebound and non-college-bound students. One of STW's premises is that all high school pupils need both academic and workplace skills for productive careers. Work-Based Learning allows students to earn a Skill Certificate, which identifies its holder as having mastered core content and performance standards related to a specific occupation.

STW's third component, Connecting Activities, is its most crucial. It matches students with work-based opportunities and a site mentor who serves as liaison among the student, employer, school, and parents. It also provides assistance with job searches or additional training for pupils who complete the program.

While the School-to-Work Opportunities Act provides a framework for career training program improvements that have been needed since the mid-1970s, other challenges remain. As an example, inschool evaluations of students must become more authentic and less paper-andpencil oriented. Linda Darling-Hammond (1999) endorses authentic assessments because they are "performance based (and) engage students in 'real-world' tasks and evaluate them according to criteria that are important for actual performance in a field of work (p. 382)." Learning occurs through written products, construction of models, special projects, videotaped performances, or other demonstrable evidence that students have mastered content in a "hands-on" fashion.

Additionally, promotion and retention issues continue to perplex school officials. Research (Holmes & Matthews, 1984; Shephard & Smith, 1986) indicates that students who fail one grade are 40 percent more likely to drop out of school than children who haven't been retained; those who fail two grades are almost certain to quit before graduating. Clearly, retention as a tool contributes little to shaping a competent workforce. Shephard and Smith (1986) added that "contrary to popular beliefs, repeating a grade does not help students gain ground academically and has a negative impact on social adjustment and self-esteem (p. 86)." School-to-Work initiatives as early as seventh grade foster choices which preclude retention based on evaluation derived from paper-and-pencil tests.

STW restructures ways in which schools offer career education, but doesn't address students' interpersonal skills. Recent complaints from employers focused on student tardiness, inabilities with oral and written communications, and minimal competencies in basic mathematics and English.

Officials acknowledge a trend of increased tardiness and absenteeism among high school juniors and seniors, but there doesn't appear to be an easy remedy. In the larger context of school operations, tardiness is a small issue compared to other, more serious problems administrators face. A typical high school routinely checks in 15 to 20 students tardy each day, yet repeatedly arriving late for work in the "real world" Darling-Hammond mentioned is intolerable and likely will result in dismissal.

STW will influence students' mastery of core curriculum subjects by altering the process of how pupils select and train for careers. The U.S. Department of Education, in its 1996 Schools-To-Work Report to Congress, addressed improving fundamental weakness of entry-level workers by stating that "learning is organized around career majors, which provides a context for learning. . .and allows for connections between school-based and work-based learning (p. 31)." Students' choices of vocations early in school allow employers to become partners in training them in communications, math, and English skills associated with the careers they've selected.

The long-term prognosis for schoolbusiness partnerships is promising. The National Governors' Association reported shortly after STW's enactment that "nearly every state had begun developing some elements of a state school-to-work system (p.3)." State directors include among their biggest challenges a poor understanding of key STW principles by stakeholders and creating and sustaining collaborative efforts with public and private entities.

It is apparent that gains are being made in forming partnerships and stimulating interest in local communities, but patience is needed. Career education began to disintegrate three decades ago. Commitments and support from federal and state agencies, businesses, and schools will help to energize America's workforce of tomorrow.

References

Darling-Hammond, L. (1999). Performance based assessment and educational equity. Contemporary Issues in Curriculum, 2nd ed. (Ornstein, A.C., & Bohar-Horenstein, L., eds.), 382-402.

Holmes, C.T., & Matthews, K.M. (1984). The effects of non-promotion on elementary and junior high school pupils: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 54, 225-236.

Institute on Education and the Economy. (1998, March 15). School-to-Work Project Descries lion (Announcement posted on the world wide web]. Columbia, NY: Retrieved August 27, 1999, from the world wide web: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/-iee/school.htm.

National Governors' Association. (1994, July 16). Developing Systems of School-to-Work Transition: A Report on State Progress (Announcement posted on the world wide web]. Available from National Governors' Association, Hall of the States, Washington, D.C. Retrieved August 27, 1999 from the world wide web: http://www.ascd.org/services/eric/stw.html..

Shephard, L.A., & Smith, M.L. (1986). Synthesis of research on school readiness and kindergarten retention. Educational Leadership , 44(3), 78-86.

U.S. Department of Education. (1997, February 1). 1996 School-to-Work Report to Congress [Announcement posted on the world wide web]. Washington, C.C. Retrieved August 20, 1999, from the world wide web: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs /areas/issues /envrnmnt /stw/sw3swopp.htm.

DAVID L. GRAY

Education The University of South Alabama Mobile, Alabama 36688

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