WORK IN PROGRESS

• At Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Professional Development and Educational Reform
• At The University of Illinois: Through Students' Eyes: Career Development Programs

At Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Professional Development and Educational Reform

by Curtis Finch

Educational reforms such as tech prep, the integration of academic and vocational education, and school-to-work transition have been or are being established in numerous high schools and community and technical colleges across the United States. Key to implementing these complex educational reforms is the professional development of teachers. Providing teachers with meaningful development experiences can be quite complex, especially when reform settings include a shift from individual teachers teaching their own specific subjects to actively collaborating with others both within and outside the schools in areas such as creating curricula, designing instruction, and teaching. Teachers engaged in contemporary reform are much more likely to function as members of self-directed, interdisciplinary teams. Such changes in the ways teachers function raises concerns about what new professional roles they have in reform settings and how their professional development needs can best be met. This article describes some of NCRVE's work on professional development, with special focus on helping teachers to improve their individual and collective talents and skills.

Educational Reform

Both the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 (Perkins II) and the School-to-work Opportunities Act (STWOA) called for reform that actively engages teachers in both horizontal collaboration (across teacher content areas as well as across schools, workplaces, and communities) and vertical collaboration (across education levels including high schools, community and technical colleges, and universities). Teachers who participate in these reforms are thus obliged to develop new capabilities. In 1993, Judith Warren Little noted the dominant teacher development model that focuses on broadening the individual teacher's expertise in teaching is not adequate to meet teachers' needs in the current reform climate.

The challenge faced when changing the model of teacher professional development is further confounded by traditional barriers that have separated teachers of academic and vocational subjects. Historically, there has been a strong federal commitment to support vocational education and maintain it as a system that was to a great degree separate from academic education. Although in recent years the emphasis has shifted to a more collaborative and integrated approach, the previous legislative philosophy continues to affect teachers' professional development foci and experiences. Thus, educational reform and professional development reform must be implemented together, giving sufficient consideration to the historical, philosophical, and contextual beliefs that educators have developed throughout their professional lives. If this is not accomplished, implementing long term reform may never occur.

Teachers' New Roles

Although many new teachers enter the teaching profession each year, there are a great number of currently employed teachers nationwide who must be informed about changes in the field, learn how to create more effective curriculum, and teach in new ways. The responsibility for providing this continuing professional development typically rests not only with the teachers themselves but with administrators, curriculum specialists, and professional development coordinators. But what should be the focus of this development?

Teachers' roles in integration may be organized around six different but closely related themes: cooperative efforts, curriculum strategies, instructional strategies, administrative practices and procedures, student outcomes, and teacher outcomes. The themes reflect a logical progression through stages of development for achieving the integration of academic and vocational education. Thus, integration advances from faculty cooperation and curriculum development to implementing new instructional strategies. Administrative practices and procedures are complementary to the integration process through fostering a climate for the achievement of successful integration; whereas student and teacher outcomes reflect the positive benefits that can accrue through integration.

Teachers engaging in school-to-work transition have a wide range of new and different responsibilities. In fact, all teachers can help students transition from school to work. Examples include involving students in organized workplace experiences, linking with employers and the community, and including workplace representatives in school curriculum and instruction activities .

What characteristics must teachers must have to conduct successful school-to-work programs? Among those identified by educators and workplace and community representatives are: understanding and meeting students' needs, maintaining relationships with the workplace, understanding the workplace (local to international), and demonstrating positive attitudes toward work.

Teaching and Learning in Reform Settings

This information can be used to show how professional development links with educational reform and pinpoint what both academic and vocational teachers should focus on as they begin to implement reform in educational settings. There are also suggestions for improving teaching and learning in high schools and community colleges where educational reform being implemented. Based on information gathered about teachers' roles in integration, educators may be systematically helped in organizing for and implementing comprehensive (whole school) integration. When integration is being implemented, emphasis should be placed on helping teachers to contextualize their teaching , collaborate with teachers from different teaching areas, and work as members of interdisciplinary curriculum and teaching teams. Continuing support for teachers should be provided by both school counselors and administrators.

Community Colleges. The foregoing comments are directed primarily toward educators at the high school level. Although community college faculty may find some of these ideas to be of value, community colleges serve an adult clientele and to some degree operate in ways that are quite different from secondary education institutions. Other sources may thus be more relevant to community college educators--for example, the Illinois Task Force on Academic/Occupational Integration, or A Sourcebook for Reshaping the Community College: Curriculum Integration and the Multiple Domains of Career Preparation by N. Badway and W. N. Grubb (MDS-782). Suggestions from these sources include:

• Access useful information nationally about integration research and implementation from clearing houses, web sites, conferences, and other community colleges.
• Provide academic and occupational faculty with integration practicums focusing on applied experiences that can be easily used in instructional settings.
• Provide faculty members with meaningful learning experiences in the workplace that they can apply to their instruction.
• Revise curriculum planning and teaching practices so they align with the integration process and its outcomes.

School-to-Work Settings. Ways that teachers' professional development needs in school-to-work transition settings have also been identified. Thirteen areas of professional development practice were offered by academic and vocational teachers and others in Meeting Teachers' Professional Development Needs for School-to-Work Transition: Strategies for Success, by C. R. Finch, B. J. Schmidt, and M. Moore (MDS-939). Some are known by all teachers, however, others are less common. Among the areas that can serve as focal points for teachers who want to become more successful at organizing and conducting school-to-work programs are visiting the workplace, gaining work experience, and interacting with workplace representatives. These and other activities can assist teachers in learning more about school-to-work reform and in the process draw from a wide range of learning opportunities that exists in school, workplace, and community settings.

Several Promising Approaches

Although there are many different ways professional development may be offered to teachers, several approaches have been explored in depth and show much promise in meeting teachers' needs. They include work-based learning, the mini-sabbatical, and the case study method.

For some time, a search has been conducted for innovative teacher learning programs. In 1998, based on a national search, V. Hernandéz-Gantes identified five programs where workplace learning was most promising. These five programs were examined in detail and their common characteristics identified. Basic elements were the strong commitments these schools have made to professional development as well as the initiatives they used to connect professional development opportunities with work-based learning. This information is especially valuable to schools that want to maximize the benefits derived from professional development when reform that includes workplace learning is initiated.

Created as part of a project focusing on designing classrooms that work, the mini-sabbatical is an approach designed to assist teachers in learning how to make meaningful curriculum and teaching changes that are reflected in reform focusing on integration and school-to-career transition. The mini-sabbatical's goal is to enable teachers to acquire skills and behaviors that will:

• increase their knowledge of work practice.
• help them create a high-quality, integrated curriculum that incorporates both domain-specific (e.g., academic, technical) and general (e.g., problem solving, communications) skills.
• help them design classrooms that promote authentic learning, and
• help them develop assessments that provide meaningful feedback to the students and teacher.

The mini-sabbatical was developed based on a need to break teachers out of their traditional teaching molds: teaching curricula that are school-based and subject-specific. To accomplish this, a prototype set of professional development experiences was identified and prepared. Described in Designing Classrooms that Work: Teacher Training Guide, by K. Ramsey, C. Stasz, T. Ormseth, R. Eden and J. Co (MDS-963), the experiences range from applying ethnographic techniques in the workplace to designing authentic lessons. During the six week mini-sabbatical, teachers are lead through these experiences in such a way that they not only learn valuable information about the workplace but also develop skills in translating workplace observations into meaningful contextual learning experiences for their own students. The experiences enabled teachers to increase their knowledge of work practice, create integrated curricula, adopt teaching roles to support authentic learning, and develop alternative assessments. Unlike many short, one-shot inservice education efforts, the mini-sabbatical serves as an excellent example of holistic professional development where teachers are taught and coached from concept to actual practice and beyond. This approach has great potential as a vehicle for changing teacher practice to more powerful models that more closely align with integration, school-to-work transition, and associated reforms.

Another promising strategy to help meet teachers' professional development is the case study method. Cases that portray important aspects of real situations are frequently used in areas such business and law to bridge the gap between basic knowledge and actual practice. However, they can also offer teachers opportunities to apply knowledge in realistic situations and allow greater personal reflection than didactic coursework or trial and error methods. Assessments of case study use in education and other fields have shown that participants enjoy them and in the process can improve their problem-solving and decision-making skills. Building on information about teachers' roles in integration, cases were prepared to aid educators in developing problem-solving, decision-making, and team-building skills as they implement integration in their schools. These cases, described in Preparing Teachers to Successfully Integrate Vocational and Academic Education: A Case Study Approach, by B. J. Schmidt, C. R. Finch, S. L. Faulkner, and J. Kandies (MDS-780), are organized around four functional themes: (1) Cooperative Efforts, (2) Curriculum Strategies, (3) Instructional Strategies, and (4) Administrative Practices and Procedures. The 46 cases have been field tested and used extensively in teacher professional development programs.

For More Information

You can order the documents described in this article by phone (800) 637-7652, by e-mail, NCRVE-MDS@wiu.edu, or by sending your request and/or purchase order to: NCRVE Materials Distribution Service, Western Illinois University, Horrabin Hall 46, Macomb, IL 61455.

Executive summaries and/or full text of recent NCRVE publications are available electronically on NCRVE's various online services. If a document is available at our Web site, the online location is listed underneath the pricing information in this article. To connect to NCRVE's World Wide Web site, point your WWW browser to <http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/>.

You can also contact me directly at the following electronic or U.S. mail addresses:

Dr. Curtis Finch
NCRVE Site Director
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Vocational and Technical Education
115 Lane Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0254
<crfinch@vt.edu>

Curtis Finch is a professor and NCRVE site director at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: Through Students' Eyes: Career Development Programs

by Zipura Burac Matias and Carolyn Maddy-Bernstein

"I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. One of the surveys I took indicated that I should go into law so the counselor arranged for me to shadow one. After that I decided I would not like to be a lawyer at all. Now I'm going to study to be an architect."

"I've always wanted to be an aeronautical engineer but the test on career interests I took last year showed that I would be better at something else. After I spent a day shadowing one I think I will really like that career. I've checked the computer in the Career Center for state colleges that offer aeronautical engineering and have been accepted to attend the University of Illinois."

"I am going to join the U.S. Air Force Academy when I graduate from high school. I've done all my homework and have been admitted."

"I am going to (a technical institute) to study to become a cosmetologist. Afterwards, I will open my own beauty shop. I'm taking courses this semester to help me become a good entrepreneur."

"I`ll probably go to a library or a resource center where I can find out about other jobs I might like and where to go from there."

"If I'm still in this area, I can always ask to use the resources here and do some research."

"If I have to go back to school I know how to search for a school where I could get what I need and look for financial aid."

Students from community college settings are frequently older and may be embarking on a second career. Many of these students, when they have access to good career development programs, use the college's services and marvel at their new-found knowledge about themselves and the wide variety of options they have. They often tell us they have learned they can do something they would never have believed possible. Brenda, a community college student who is a carpenter, is taking courses that will later transfer to a university level degree in music merchandising. She said she has always liked music and sang in choirs but didn't realize that she could be in a music-related career. Information about the music career cluster from the college's Career Center gave her the idea of exploring this area as a second career. At the time of the interview, she was working part-time in a music store to learn more about musical instruments and also how to run a business.

The following exemplary program descriptions highlight the activities that led to the above responses from students. A short background of the exemplary program search is presented first.

The Exemplary Program Search

During 1998, the National Center continued its third annual search for exemplary career development programs. The objective of this search is to identify programs that could serve as models for those who are working to develop or improve their career guidance and counseling programs. After an evaluation of applications by a national panel of reviewers, the highest ranking programs were further evaluated by a team from the US Department of Education, NCRVE, and professionals with expertise in the field.

This year, the site visit team selected four programs as exemplary and three as honorable mention (see descriptions on following page). Each program used a different approach to their career development effort. One high school uses an individual planner that serves as a guide for students as they learn about themselves, think of a career, and plan experiences related to the career. Another high school combined resources in their career center with the teamwork of counselors, teachers, aides and volunteers to make sure students reach their goals. A community college used a Careers class and several programs to serve the students' wide variety of needs. A school district used an articulated district-wide plan of career development, from kindergarten to high school, that was delivered by counselors, teachers, a school-to-work coordinator, and volunteers.

NCRVE's Office of Student Services began the career development program search in 1996. The evaluation of the programs uses a strict research-based criteria and involves a two-step process. The criteria is based on the original work of L. Allen Phelps and Thomas Wermuth regarding the exemplary special populations program search. Building on that criteria, and with advice from a committee of experts in the field of guidance and counseling, the career development program search evolved into its present form. The search is undertaken in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and two organizations: the American Vocational Association and the National Association of State Career Guidance Supervisors.

Beginning with a national call and news release about the search, applications are distributed to states who disseminate them to promising school districts or programs. Information about the search is also distributed to national and regional newsletters and publications for dissemination. A panel of national experts in the field review the applications and those which receive the highest ranking receive a call for a site visit. A team from the US Department of Education and NCRVE conduct the site visit. The aim of the site visit is to verify information described in the application and to understand the program further through face to face interviews with students, parents, business partners, teachers, counselors, and administrators. The site visit also includes a tour of the school facilities and examination of relevant program documents.

The exemplary and honorable mention programs each receive a plaque of recognition from the National Center and the Department of Education. Representatives of exemplary programs also make a presentation about their programs at a national conference. This year's recipients will present at the Careers Conference 1999 on February 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin.

In addition to the presentations, programs will be featured in a NCRVE monograph, journal articles, and at the World Wide Web. On their own or with NCRVE staff, program representatives participate in national and regional workshops designed to inform the field about innovative ways that they have improved their career guidance and counseling programs.

Schools also host visits of others interested in learning more about the programs. For example, the Volusia County, Florida Career Connection Program hosted over 300 visitors from in and out of state during 1997-1998 after receiving the exemplary program award.

Information about the exemplary program search, as well as the 1999 search may be obtained from Dr. Zipura B. Matias, NCRVE University of Illinois Site, 345 Education Building, 1310 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, Tel.: (217) 333-0807, Fax: (217) 244-5632, email: z-burac@uiuc.edu, and web site http://ncrve-oss.ed.uiuc.edu.

Zipura Burac Matias co-directs the Career Development Program Search at the NCRVE University of Illinois site. Since 1989, she has worked with NCRVE to research and identify exemplary programs.

Carolyn Maddy-Bernstein directs the Career Development Program Search and has directed the Office of Student Services at the NCRVE University of Illinois site.

EXEMPLARY CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

For additional or more detailed information about each of the programs, contact the program representative listed. This information, as well as previous years' recipients, is available on the web at http://ncrve-oss.ed.uiuc.edu.

Dorchester District Two Career Development Initiatives

Janice Jolly, School-to-Work Coordinator
1101 Boone Hill Road
Summerville, SC 29477
(803)832-7026 ext. 14062
FAX (803)821-3989
jjolly@dorchester2.k12.sc.us

Dorchester School District Two serves over 15,000 students from grades K-12. Its coordinated, comprehensive career guidance and counseling program begins at the kindergarten level with career awareness activities and lessons that incorporate the National Career Development competencies. Counselors and teachers provide classroom career development curriculum, service learning opportunities and school-based enterprises. At the K-5 level, examples of these activities include Wee Deliver, a school post office run by the students while performing tasks that call for the integration of math and language art skills; and the Cookie Factory Banking Program, a school-based, multigrade student-run cookie factory and store where students sell stocks, as well as cookies. The factory was opened with a loan from a bank. A bank representative also comes in and provides a seminar about saving, opening an account, etc.

In the middle school, every sixth grader takes an interest inventory and begins to explore areas of their highest career interests. During the seventh and eighth grades, mentoring opportunities are also offered based on the students' interests. Students stay with their mentors for two to three hours each month to either shadow or conduct full-scale experiments. In the eighth grades, students take various inventories, conduct research on their highest interest areas, and begin to think of potential courses for the ninth and tenth grade levels. They begin work on their career portfolio they will keep through 12th grade. They also enter relevant experiences in their Student Career Planner. They participate in well organized field trips to businesses and career schools. In addition, they learn about careers and economic planning decisions using The Real Game, an educational game that is incorporated year-round into the Social Studies curriculum. Students may participate in VIP Tutors, a peer tutoring program designed to assist students with special needs in skill development and other school activities. During Career Fair and Career Vehicle Days, students investigate three different occupations through interviews and information from booths and report their findings in a written and oral assignment for their language arts classes.

In the tenth grade, students are assessed using PLAN, an assessment tool that identifies a student's interest and abilities while measuring his/her achievement. Using this information as well as all they have learned about themselves throughout the program, students develop their course of study for the eleventh and twelfth grades. Counselors and teachers work to help students plan their courses and also to consider various work-based experiences such as internship, service learning, mentoring opportunities, apprenticeship, coop programs, cadets, and school-based enterprises. For example, students in the Teacher Cadet program observe and teach classes at all levels K-12. All students are given their Student Career Planner at the end of the senior year.

The delivery of the district's career development activities exemplifies a true partnership between the counselors and teachers. Each K-12 counselor is responsible for ensuring all 500 students they are assigned master all the competencies in the personal/social, academic, and career counseling domains. Counselors also facilitate activities that will ensure all students have opportunities to develop skills in all twelve National Career Development competencies. Counselors accomplish this through cooperation with teachers who incorporate activities that address the competencies designated for their respective levels. The school-to-work coordinator and the teachers compiled their lesson plans in two activity books, Career Connections K-5 and Focus on the Future K-12, which are available to all teachers in the school district.

La Crosse Central High School Guidance/Career Center

Doris Skogstad, Counseling and Guidance Department Chair
1801 Losey Blvd. South
La Crosse, WI 54601
(608)789-7900
FAX (608)789-7931
dskogsta@sdlax.k12.wi.us

Central High School is a comprehensive high school serving about 1,300 students yearly. The school has a comprehensive career guidance program that is built on a three-step approach, namely: (1) Know Yourself, (2) Explore the World of Work, and (3) Make a Match. The program has a Career Center facility located near the guidance offices. The Career Center offers a multitude of career materials and computer stations with exploration and planning programs. In addition to the regular office hours, the center is open in the evening twice a month for parents and students to use the facilities or confer with counselors.

Know Yourself: In the first step of their program, counselors work with the students to help them understand themselves, their interest and values related to work and life. Freshmen write an essay on their dreams for the future which is graded by the English teacher and a copy submitted to the counselors for their use. They then take a battery of assessment instruments in the career center.

Explore the World of Work: During the second step, counselors, teachers, aides and volunteers help students learn more about careers and the world of work. Students are aided by a variety of resources available at the Career Center, including a number of computer software programs and on-line resources. Students learn career planning, how to conduct a career search, today's top jobs, and trends in the labor market. They also explore various materials and conduct computer searches for information regarding postsecondary options and financial aid. The assessments and research that students conduct are designed to help them decide on either of six career pathways available to them in their school.

Make a Match: This phase is designed to help students understand various aspects of jobs in a career cluster. Students have a wide range of experiences including career fairs, field trips, and resource people who speak to classes about their careers. They may also participate in any of the following paid or unpaid activities: youth apprenticeship, coop programs, mentorship, certificate programs, and job shadowing. Students can also opt to take a one semester, elective Careers class during their freshman year that provides a wide variety of activities to assist them in their career development, including the development of a portfolio and a resume.

The high level of involvement by the business community greatly enriches the program. They host a summer teacher job shadow program that is very popular. Students are given the opportunity for both paid and unpaid experiences in local businesses. In addition, business representatives participate in advisory committees, mentoring programs, and make classroom presentations.

To determine program effectiveness, counselors use the results of a senior survey administered before they exit the school. Additional information regarding satisfaction with services is provided by ACT from questions incorporated into the test. Parents, especially those who come during the evening hours, also fill out a survey regarding services and usage.

Lewis and Clark Community College: Career and Employment Services

Dr. Sonjia Peacock, Professor/Counselor
5800 Godfrey Road
Godfrey, IL 62035
(618)466-3411 ext. 4123
FAX (618)466-1294
speacock@lc.cc.il.us

Each year, the college serves around 5,000 students in a wide variety of programs. A major component of the career guidance and counseling program is offered through Psychology 130, an elective class taught by several teachers including the special populations and adult education coordinators. About 250 students take the class per year. Those not enrolled in class avail themselves of the curriculum through well-advertised and popular individual and/or group meetings with counselors. The class also has an online version.

Support services personnel include part-time counselors, student aides, and volunteers who work to assist students' career development. For example, staff from LCCC join the Association of American University Women (AAUW) to conduct a middle school gender equity program run by volunteers. Teachers who are academic advisors also work with the counselors to ensure students receive necessary information about their credits and goals.

There are a number of collaborative efforts between college faculty and staff and the community. Various businesses collaborate with the college through coop programs; the AAUW local chapters collaborate with the college in offering an annual program for girls; the college also offers a job matching service for local companies such as Olin Corporation and Florissant Mutual Co. to provide customized training to employees or would-be employees; Nuevo Technology provides paid positions for the coop and apprenticeship programs, and small businesses around the area actively participate in both coop and apprenticeship programs.

Students' transition from school to further education is facilitated by academic advisors in various transfer programs. The career placement office assists students to transition to work by arranging interviews, connecting students with work opportunities, and other referrals to businesses. There is a staff member who assists students with special needs (e.g., students with disabilities or those trying to advance from welfare to work) to access the services they need to succeed. The college also maintains flexibility in their offerings to make sure that students get the credit they deserve. For example, the Jobs 100 class for welfare-to-work students is available as an independent study or as an elective.

The career guidance and counseling program undergoes constant changes depending on the needs of the students and the evaluation and feedback from users of the center. Data collection includes the number of users of the career center and their degree of satisfaction with services provided. The college also receives employment data from the state as well as transfer data from universities.

Past and current students who were interviewed by the site visit team feel the college offered them an opportunity to get to know themselves and select careers that match their interests and aptitudes. Overall, they feel the LCCC instructors "care about students." They like the atmosphere at the college and feel that they are "like a family here."

Rich South High School: Horizon Program

Phyllis P. Nixon, Counselor
5000 Sauk Trail
Richton Park, IL 60471
(708)747-5500
FAX (708)747-5565

Rich South High School serves over a thousand students from a middle class community in a suburban area south of Chicago. Each student has a personal educational and career plan developed through a structured four year career guidance and counseling program called Horizon. Because of the plan and the experiences associated with completing the plan, each student has identified a career area that fits his or her interests and aptitudes. More importantly, they are aware of their educational options and have lined up experiences both at school and in the community that will help them understand and better fulfill their future career plan.

The career guidance and counseling program is delivered through a four-year developmental curriculum taught by guidance counselors in cooperation with the social studies, English, foreign language, technology, and math teachers. Teachers incorporate career development curriculum into their classes. They fully support the program and encourage their students to be actively involved. As proof of their belief in the program, those interviewed by the site visit team reported that they periodically bring their own children who attend other schools to use the Rich South career center's resources.

Changes in the guidance and counseling curriculum are made based on input from a Career Advisory Council composed of teachers, parents, students, and business representatives who meet once a month. Additional feedback is obtained from the Focus Group for Career Education made up of business representatives, the Superintendent, and the Vice-Principal who meet quarterly.

Students avail themselves of work and community experiences through the following: (1) the Community Experience Program--an on-the-job career research experience for juniors and seniors, (2) a local mall which provides space and entrepreneurial assistance to the marketing class, (3) a job shadowing experience for at-risk students offered in coordination with the Business Education Career Initiative (BECI) and the South Suburban Gang Initiative, (4) the Internship and Cooperative Education Program for seniors who meet prerequisites, and (5) Career Fairs. The BECI program involves over forty businesses who provide the day-long job shadowing experience.

Teachers and counselors believe their school "is successful because of everyone's willingness to find out how they can change what they do so students acquire the skills that businesses want." To help teachers design lessons that are more meaningful to the students, the school has initiated a Teacher Job Shadowing (teacher exchange) program where teachers observe a worker in a chosen industry. The worker in turn comes to class and observes the teacher.