Career magnet schools affect students in unexpected ways. Their graduates take more college courses than one would expect based on their test scores; they are less likely to drink or smoke; and they are more likely to say that their parents have promised them financial help with college, although they are not more affluent. All these results are far outside the reach of any cognitive model of the role of high school, and so a new conceptual framework is important. Such a framework is presented in a new study from Teachers College, which looks at the relationship between adolescent identity, school-to-work transition programs, and the development of competencies needed to succeed in the world of work and ongoing education. The study is based upon both a thorough literature review and in-depth observation of 110 graduates of New York City high schools.
Educators who try to teach these competencies as skills in secondary schools can run up against some problems. For example, typing is a new skill, and when students learn to type, they begin a new activity with which they have little or no experience. On the other hand, by the time they enter high school many individuals have already learned various competencies: ways of interacting with other people, well-developed habits of mind, and particular ways of using resources like time or money. For each individual these competencies are the result of a particular lived personal history. To what conditions, events, people, and expectations did each person have to respond and adapt? What resources and opportunities were available? Each person has a lifetime of habits of mind, beliefs, and attitudes which are adaptive to their particular environments.
Yet, students still need to acquire "workplace know-how" as described by SCANS. What can high schools, charged to prepare students to "work smarter," do to develop workplace know-how that is markedly different (if necessary) from students' own ways of interacting with their physical and human environments?
In a comprehensive educational setting, emphasis can be placed on creating complex situations which require and support adaptation to an environment similar to what they will experience in a high-performance workplace. Our study suggests that reframing school-to-work transition within the context of adolescent identity development is more fruitful than relying on a work-related skills perspective. Why? Because several studies have found strong correlations between "identity achieved individuals" and the attributes and competencies that underlie descriptions of "skills" needed by future workers.
Editor's note: This article is based on a chapter from a book which will be available in a few months from the Materials Distribution Service. To be put on the waiting list for this book, MDS-779, please contact the Materials Distribution Service, by phone (800) 637-7652, by e-mail, NCRVE-MDS@wiu.edu, or by sending your request to: NCRVE Materials Distribution Service, Western Illinois University, Horrabin Hall 46, Macomb, IL 61455.
Anna Allen is the associate director of the career magnet project at the Teachers College Site of NCRVE. For further information about this project, contact Anna Allen by writing to her at 804 Brackenridge Street, Austin, Texas 78704 or sending email to pebble@inetport.com