Getting to Work: A Guide to Better Schools

Work in Progress at MPR

Mikala Rahn and Gary Hoachlander

NCRVE is pleased to announce the completion of Getting to Work: A Guide to Better Schools. More than a year in the making, Getting to Work is a comprehensive package of strategies, activities, case studies, and other resources for teachers and administrators committed to improving how schools prepare students for a lifetime of learning and working.

Getting to Work begins with four principles that are the foundation for building a rigorous educational program that not only integrates academic and vocational curriculum but also links classroom instruction with work-based learning. Briefly stated, these four principles are:

Hold all students to high academic standards that are needed for the full range of postsecondary opportunities and for successful employment
Stress applications of knowledge and skills in the context of work
Adopt multiple assessment strategies for demonstrating achievement and understanding
Involve a range of workplace and community partners

The Introduction to Getting to Work provides readers with a self-assessment, based on these four principles, that will guide them through the five modules that comprise the Practitioner's Guide. Getting to Work also includes a Facilitator's Guide with an 89-minute video, one hundred professionally designed overheads, and detailed plans for professional development workshops.

Module 1: Education for Work

Education for work can occur in many different ways. Module 1 consists of four units, each developing an alternative organizational approach to work-based education:

Unit 1--Courses
Unit 2--Programs
Unit 3--Schools within schools
Unit 4--Entire schools

For each approach, the unit provides strategies for clarifying goals and objectives, adopting an organizational structure, developing a steering committee, and defining specific curriculum components.

Module 2: Integrated Curriculum

Integrating academic and vocational curriculum is a central feature of Getting to Work. Module 2 helps teachers develop integrated curriculum in four ways:

Unit 1--helps curriculum planners clearly specify the learner outcomes they seek to promote.
Unit 2--shows how to use industry- and other work-related themes to achieve broad- based integration throughout academic and vocational courses.
Unit 3--demonstrates ways to use student projects to link academic and vocational instruction, creating opportunities for students to apply a wide range of knowledge and skills to real-life problems.
Unit 4--offers strategies for connecting secondary and postsecondary curriculum into well articulated pathways of academic and career-oriented studies.

Module 3: Learning Experiences

Work-based learning provides opportunities to create exciting new learning experiences for students. This module contains four units that help teachers create four different kinds of work-based learning experiences:

Unit 1--Internships, cooperative education, and youth apprenticeship
Unit 2--School-based enterprise
Unit 3--Studios and laboratories
Unit 4--Activities that bridge classrooms and workplaces, including mentoring, job shadowing, and field trips

Module 4: Student Assessment

Getting a thorough understanding of how well students are mastering the range of knowledge and skills that are the focus of a work-based program depends on a variety of assessment tools. This module helps teachers better understand how to use four different kinds of assessment:

Unit 1--Written assessments
Unit 2--Performance tasks
Unit 3--Senior projects
Unit 4--Portfolios

None of these tools is inherently superior to the others. The utility of each depends on knowing under what circumstances a particular approach is most appropriate.

Module 5: Cross-Cutting Issues

This module contains eight units, each briefly addressing a subject that teachers often confront in using the strategies presented in the other four modules. These units are:

Unit 1--Scheduling
Unit 2--Staffing
Unit 3--Staff development
Unit 4--Diversity and equity
Unit 5--Student entrance and exit
Unit 6--Team building
Unit 7--Building relationships with workplace partners
Unit 8--Parent involvement

This module also includes a list of terms, resources, and a bibliography for the entire Practitioner's Guide.

Getting to Work is designed to be used with groups of administrators, teachers and community members in a variety of ways. It can help new programs get off the ground or more advanced programs implement missing components. It can be used for one-day inservices, study groups or a year long planning process.

Using Getting to Work's extensive Facilitator's Guide, a principal, district staff development coordinator or lead teacher could lead a team of teachers and administrators through the each of the five modules or any of each module's units. Alternatively, schools may wish to contract with NCRVE to assist with staff training and program development.

The entire package of Getting to Work will be available early in 1996 for a cost of $395.00, plus shipping and handling. The Practitioner's Guide, consisting of the Introduction and Modules One through Five may be purchased for $275.00, or each unit is available separately for $65.00. The Facilitator's Guide is $150.00. For more information or to order Getting to Work, contact NCRVE's Material Distribution Service at (800) 637-7652.

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