In addition to producing research reports, NCRVE is engaged in promoting educational change. In fact, we are trying to make it possible for any student in a high school or two-year college to choose a high-quality, career-related course of study that leads either to employment or to further education, including a four-year college or university. Our pursuit of this goal includes working directly with schools and colleges in 26 big cities around the country.
The country contains about 16,000 public high schools and more than 1,000 public two-year colleges. NCRVE cannot assist all of them.
Fortunately, others can. The Center for Law and Education, Jobs for the Future, the High Schools That Work project of the Southern Regional Education Board, and other organizations are also working directly with schools and communities trying to create new, career-related curricular options. Heads of these organizations, myself among them, gathered on September 22 to figure out how to coordinate our work more closely. Representatives of private foundations and the federal School-to-Work Office also participated.
The meeting produced agreement to form a set of task forces that will plan joint efforts on workshops and conferences, curriculum development, on-site assistance to schools, employer involvement, research, and communication with the general public. By working together, we hope to multiply the effects that any one group can have by itself.
Even working together, reaching our goal will not be easy. But it now seems a little more likely.