School-to-work has attracted a good deal of attention as today's most comprehensive approach to work-related education, with its combination of innovative classroom teaching, guided learning outside the classroom, and increased career guidance. Federal funding for school-to-work programs end in 2001. What will school-to-work's future be after that date? The answer depends largely on public understanding of its scope and promise. Contributing to that understanding, three new NCRVE studies focus on often overlooked aspects of school-to-work:
One of the great pedagogical advantages of vocational education is that it often includes learning by doing that enables students to apply the concepts they are studying. But as the rate of technological change has continued to increase and the organization of work has become more unstable, the specific procedural skills imparted by vocational training risk becoming irrelevant. At the same time, academic education emphasizes more abstract theory and general analytic skills which should have more enduring value. Traditional methods of teaching, however, often leave graduates unable to apply their knowledge in a practical context. Both vocational and academic education in their traditional forms therefore have certain strengths, but they are insufficient by themselves to prepare students for careers that will require continual learning in the context of work. In Germany, the dual system--linking schools with employers--provides a framework in which it is possible to combine the advantages of vocational and academic education. In countries that rely mainly on schools to provide vocational education, new initiatives have been designed in response to this challenge.
To inform the development of policy and practice in the United States, this report describes the apparent convergence of policies in industrialized countries toward four principles:
In 1994, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act articulated an educational reform that included innovative approaches to classroom teaching, guided learning experiences outside the classroom, usually at work, and increased career counseling and guidance. Initially, this approach was seen as most appropriate for students not headed for college. But researchers now see that it has the potential to serve as a model for all secondary schools--that school-to-work can prepare young people for work and college. This report makes the case for school-to-work as a college preparatory strategy, arguing that it can teach academic skills as well as and possibly even better than more traditional approaches. By making this case, we hope to expand the use of school-to-work so that all students have the opportunity to benefit from it.
. . . a good deal of the skepticism of school-to-work is based on misconceptions about its characteristics. In fact, the pedagogical arguments used to support school-to-work apply to all learning, not just learning for some students. A basic element of school-to-work is "learner-centered" or "authentic" teaching, which requires students to think, to develop in-depth understanding, and to apply academic learning to important, realistic problems. This pedagogic approach already has widespread support among many teachers and parents, yet few realize that this is a core component of the school-to-work strategy. The second basic element is guided educational experiences outside the classroom, particularly the workplace. Many researchers have come to see that this approach strengthens and increases the amount of knowledge that is learned, understood, and retained. For most professionals--teachers, architects, doctors, lawyers--internships and other types of work experience are central components of their education. The jobs that students take in connection with school-to-work are designed to contribute to the student's substantive education. The third basic element of school-to-work is a structured approach to help young people think systematically about their aspirations and how they can achieve them.
Over the last few years, educational reform has included a number of initiatives to expand and improve curriculum opportunities for all students. School-Work is the newest of these reform initiatives and is being implemented according to state-developed visions and systems for connecting schools and workplaces. As these new initiatives continue to hit the schools (e.g., Tech Prep, youth apprenticeship, school-to-work), both administrators and teachers are overloaded with opportunities for change.
The challenge for practitioners is twofold: (1) to match the educational principles of current initiatives with appropriate curriculum and instructional efforts for all students rather than limited segments of the student population, and (2) to meet the educational needs of our nation's rapidly growing diverse student population. However, it appears that as America's students and future work force become increasingly diverse in ethnicity, family, cultural, and economic background, the challenges they present to employers, educators and vocational educators, in particular, are not well understood. Indeed, the rapid increases in both the scope and magnitude of diversity present enormous implications for preparing individuals for productive employment in today's learning-intensive and technology-intensive work place. . . .
Further, while youth and adults are the central focus of vocational-technical education programs, we have relatively little information from students describing and evaluating why and how they entered programs or their perspectives on secondary and postsecondary institutions. As the field enters a new era of education and workplace reform, it is essential that the influence of new initiatives be viewed and examined from the students' perspective.
Damaris Moore, a member of the Dissemination Program, handles NCRVE's public information initiatives.