Successful tech prep and school-to-work initiatives typically have six core components that enhance students' opportunities to make a successful transition from high school to college:
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For students to be successful in the shift from the secondary to the postsecondary level, they need to be supported by a well-planned and well-executed educational transition system. Unless the educational system is designed to maximize student opportunities to move on to college, a successful transition will happen for some, but not all. Over the past several years, NCRVE researchers have learned there are many factors that contribute to successful transition experiences for students. Successful tech prep and school-to-work initiatives typically have six core components that enhance students' opportunities to make a successful transition from high school to college (Bragg, 1995):
These six components should underpin any secondary-to-postsecondary transition system, and various strategies can be employed to put these components into operation. The following discussion highlights these components and demonstrates how various state and local entities are executing them.
Rigorous
and Engaging Learning
When
the goal of education is to encourage student involvement from the secondary to
postsecondary level, it is essential that students become engaged in learning
in a serious way at an early stage. Student transition is enhanced when
learning in grades K-12 is rigorous, engaging, and carefully linked to
postsecondary learning. Educational experiences that are student-focused and
project-based help students connect with the learning process (Resnick, 1987;
Rosenstock, 1991). When this happens, students are more likely to advance
toward higher-level academic and occupational competencies that are necessary
for success in college.
The New York City Technical College in Brooklyn, New York, has accomplished this goal by offering high school seniors a college-level interdisciplinary transition course that also satisfies a high school English credit. Known as "Great Thinkers in Science," this course integrates math, science, and technology in an exploration of Galileo, Kepler, Darwin, Freud, and Edison (Frenkel & Gawkins, 1995). By integrating academic and vocational content and teaching methods, faculty in Brooklyn and elsewhere create practical and challenging curriculum for students. Cooperative learning strategies are often associated with integrated curriculum to encourage students with diverse backgrounds to work together, learn from each other, and remain actively engaged in learning. At Delgado Community College in New Orleans, for example, after being introduced to project-based learning, students are seeking more opportunities to participate in collaborative team projects, emphasizing the need for team-building involving students and faculty (Dornsife, 1997, p. 151).
Beginning at the secondary level or even earlier, any core curriculum that links secondary to postsecondary education should ensure progressively rigorous subject matter. Such is the case in Oklahoma City where the Consortium to Restructure Education through Academic and Technological Excellence (CREATE) is tackling the challenge of aligning curriculum in grades 9 through 14 (Dornsife, 1997, p. 149). Other local partnerships such as the Mt. Hood Education Partnership in Gresham, Oregon, are accomplishing similar goals. Starting tech prep in the mid-1980s long before most of the rest of the country, the Mt. Hood Education Partnership has learned that students profit most when sequential curriculum is based on competencies and outcomes, rather than curriculum guides and course syllabi. At the secondary level, core curriculum focuses on academic (math, science, English, and other liberal studies) competencies that are intimately connected to career pathways composed of broad career clusters.
This approach is not confined to the secondary level, but provides a foundation for reshaping the postsecondary curriculum as well. Rather than limit curriculum reform to the secondary schools as many educational consortia do (Grubb, Badway, Bell & Kraskouskas, 1996), community college administrators and faculty in the Mt. Hood Educational Partnership are involved in the development of curriculum that extends from the middle- and early senior high level through at least grade 14, sometimes into four-year college and university studies. At the college level, course work should be even more academically rigorous, providing college graduates with the wherewithal to obtain satisfactory career opportunities, but also seek further education throughout their lifetimes. NCRVE researchers Grubb, Badway, Bell, and Kraskouskas (1996; Badway & Grubb, 1997) observe that community colleges have lagged behind high schools in the implementation of tech prep. Dramatic changes in content and teaching methods are needed to ensure that students transitioning from high school to college are successful. Changing what is taught is insufficient to improve student outcomes significantly. We must leverage change in teaching methods too.
Formal
Articulation Strategies
Formal
articulation agreements legitimize secondary-to-postsecondary transition
opportunities for students. Through formal articulation agreements, transition
becomes a reality for students. Educational administrators and faculty can gain
confidence that the transition process is feasible. Students and their parents
can realize that college-level studies are attainable. In terms of tangible
benefits, formal agreements give students a leg up on college by reducing
repetition of course content that they have already mastered. Theoretically,
formal agreements can also become the vehicle that draws more high school
students to community colleges, because these agreements put into writing a
well-planned and endorsed course of study showing a pathway to college. Often
matriculating students fail to cash in on articulated credits when they enroll
in college. However, exceptions exist and some communities have successfully
implemented formal articulation agreements.
Implementing
Articulation Agreements
In
Victoria, Texas, over one-quarter of all graduates of the twenty high schools
feeding into Victoria College participate in articulated courses. Though not
all high school graduates continue their postsecondary education at Victoria
College, a sizable proportion do. Some are engaged as full-time students;
others take only a few college-level courses that transfer to a four-year
college or university. Regardless, the large proportion of students in either
group who have accessed dual credits have realized both monetary and time
savings. To many students, the latter benefit was of equal or greater
importance. Building on these kinds of local successes with articulation, the
state of Texas currently engages in a statewide articulation initiative with
the goal of increasing access to college to an even greater number of students,
allowing matriculation from secondary to postsecondary education throughout the
state (Bragg & Dornsife, forthcoming).
Addressing the importance of articulation, but also the difficulties in implementing it, Dornsife (1997) concluded that even though students enrolled in NCRVE's Urban Network schools, they have not always received credits for the articulated courses they completed to the full extent possible. Network partners hold firm to the belief that articulation has important benefits for students in real and significant ways. Unfortunately, articulation courses are still not publicized widely in many consortia. Even when they are, students often have difficulty understanding what they mean and how they will benefit. But where teachers take the time to explain the idea of articulation and the specific time and monetary savings it can give students, we see heightened use of articulation agreements by students. Summarizing the thoughts of several Network partners, Dornsife argues, "Articulated course sequences are a powerful means of keeping students directed.... [A]s more students experience the benefits of sequenced courses, they will recognize the advantages.... In short, the [NCRVE Network] postsecondary partners support the philosophy `if we build it, they will come'" (p. 154).
In addition to financial and time-saving benefits, academic benefits are evident for students who participate in an articulated curriculum, which helps students prepare for more advanced academic work than they might have thought possible. At the Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium in Dayton, Ohio, 10th-grade tech prep students are given the same academic assessments that are used for placement at Sinclair Community College. High school students are informed of their performance on mathematics, reading, and writing exams, including helping them to understand which courses they would be eligible to take at the community college, if they were transitioning today. Often students learn they would need to take remedial courses in college before they could register for college-level ones, heightening the motivation of these young students to continue to more advanced academics while still enrolled in high school. Students are counseled as to the secondary courses they should take to ensure their readiness for a successful transition into college-level academic courses, without remediation (Bragg & Dornsife, forthcoming).
Indeed, students in the Miami Valley Consortium are matriculating to Sinclair Community College without remediation at an impressive rate. At a time when remediation rates soar in community colleges (McCabe & Day, 1998), only 9% of tech prep students require remediation in math and 7% in English, showing that the remediation rate for tech prep students is only a fraction of that required by the general population of freshman students since. (At Sinclair, about 80% of entering freshman require remediation in either math or English.) The Miami Valley Consortium's experience demonstrates that a more academically prepared pool of high school students can lead to a more constant stream of college-level enrollments, with lesser remedial needs. In the future, higher-quality postsecondary programs can be offered because the need for remedial services is reduced. Consequently, resources can be redirected from developmental education to other academic programs and services. Thus, as the caliber of matriculating students increases due to better secondary preparation, postsecondary programs increase in quality as well.
Local
Partnerships and Advanced Skills Articulation
Articulation
agreements can work in several different ways. Sometimes formal articulation
agreements provide dual credit (high school and college) for students who have
taken college-level academic and technical courses prior to completion of high
school. When local partnerships such as the one in Gainesville, Florida,
designate specific curricular areas or programs as "dual enrollment programs,"
students have a much clearer understanding of what will be required of them to
be successful in the transition from high school to college (Hershey,
Silverberg, & Owens, 1995). When successful in advanced high school
courses, students feel more confident about continuing to the postsecondary
level and are more likely to succeed when they get there.
Another beneficial approach to formal articulation is referred to as advanced or enhanced skills articulation. The key advantage of this model is its focus on creating a seamless and increasingly rigorous program of study that has a logical progression from the secondary to the postsecondary level. Again, at the Miami Valley Tech Prep consortium in Dayton, Ohio, students are eligible for an enhanced skills or honors diploma at Sinclair Community College (Olson, 1997). In addition to the Associate's degree, students are eligible for a special credential indicating they have mastered competencies beyond the typical two-year college level. In addition, students who participate in the tech prep program at the secondary level are also eligible to receive a scholarship from Sinclair. Created by the college's endowment, tech prep students are guaranteed free tuition if they continue to Sinclair as full-time students and maintain high academic standards. For tech prep students finishing high school, advanced skills articulation is a powerful incentive to continue their education at Sinclair. For students who would forgo college because of financial difficulties, knowing these funds are available can make all the difference in a student's decision to go on to college.
Educators in school-to-college transition systems should think about articulation as "incentive." The two concepts should be intertwined. When educators think of articulation as merely a bureaucratic or curricular process, students don't pay attention. Why should they? They don't see what's in it for them. But when articulation processes are oriented toward student needs, they can be a powerful "incentive" for students to continue on in college. From almost any student's perspective, articulation agreements that deliver valuable course content and college credit, thereby reducing tuition, are worth paying attention to. But to ensure their full value, educators should design articulation agreements that are not unduly burdensome (i.e., extensive testing or college-level coursework), that are easily understood by students and their parents, and that deliver college-level credits at both two- and four-year colleges (Pauly, Kopp, & Haimson, 1995). Without taking these steps, articulation agreements are not likely to appeal to students, losing their potential to entice students to participate in college.
Meaningful
Linkages Between Theory and Practice
Secondary-to-postsecondary
transition systems can be strengthened when students learn to integrate theory
and practice. School-to-work opportunities should be used to link learning in
the school setting to the genuine laboratory of the workplace and community.
The gulf between theory and practice in educational curricula is detrimental to
student learning, particularly for those who have difficulties learning
abstract concepts without concrete examples and practice. To encourage learning
for all, school-to-work opportunities connect the theory and practice inherent
in both academic and vocational education. The philosopher John Dewey advocated
a similar philosophy of education nearly a century ago. Specifically, Dewey's
notion of "the shared practices of community that are the roots of human
learning" (Wirth, 1992, p. 182) runs parallel to school-to-work and tech prep
when learning is centered on the relationships between and among occupations
and other subject matter that is integrally linked to the roles adults fulfill
throughout a lifetime.
In keeping with the broader notion of school-to-work transition, work-based learning can provide opportunities for students to observe and experience "all aspects of the industry," as is advocated in the Perkins II and III, Tech Prep, and STWOA laws. In various localities throughout the nation, tech prep and school-to-work have been combined skillfully to enable students to pursue rigorous school-based learning linked strategically to work-based learning (U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, 1995). In the new Perkins III, work-based learning has become a more explicit goal of tech prep programs, ensuring that tech prep initiatives that were once mainly school-based will now have work-based learning activities that are carefully connected to school-based learning.
In Danville, Illinois, and Guilford County, North Carolina, high school academic and vocational curricula have been integrated with college-level career majors using a combined tech prep/youth apprenticeship approach (Bragg & Dornsife, forthcoming). In these tech prep/youth apprenticeship programs, which have profited by learning from one another through a continuous improvement and benchmarking arrangement, students can pursue intensive work-based learning opportunities through youth apprenticeships in such career fields as manufacturing, accounting, banking, and various health occupations. School-to-college matriculation rates are exceptionally high for these students. For example, 95% of high school youth apprentices in Danville, Illinois, have continued their education at Danville Area College, the region's community college. Most of these students plan to continue to the baccalaureate level after finishing the Associate's degree.
These communities have achieved what Berryman and Bailey (1992) suggest are the three keys to effective work-based learning programs. First, they offer learning experiences that reflect the demands of modern work. Youth apprentices in Illinois and North Carolina are mentored by employees in the workplace to facilitate their learning about current and future employment requirements. Second, effective work-based learning programs deliver broadly applicable knowledge and skills that are crucial to preparation for careers or further education. In neither the Illinois nor the North Carolina program are youth apprentices expected to conform to narrowly specified jobs. Instead, they rotate through a wide range of career options. Finally, effective programs emphasize theory and practice and the fascinating interrelationships between the two. Faculty who teach in these two programs are engaged in on-the-job professional development experiences in local businesses and industries, often through summer internships, thereby enhancing their ability to make linkages between students' in-school and out-of-school learning. For students, transition initiatives can be enhanced by using individualized career plans (ICPs) that show how academic and vocational competencies can be the centerpiece of an educational program. Whether using youth apprenticeships, cooperative education, school-sponsored enterprises, or other work-based learning models, lessons learned in Illinois and North Carolina demonstrate how work-based learning can facilitate school-to-college transition.
Outcomes-Focused
Curriculum
Outcomes-focused
curriculum establishes clear goals for student performance throughout the
secondary-to-postsecondary transition process. Identifying outcomes linked to
occupational and academic standards helps to ensure that graduates acquire the
competencies they need to be successful in attaining their desired goals,
whether that be immediate employment, enrollment in further education, or some
other plan.
Identifying
the Primary Outcomes
In
a national study of Tech Prep coordinators, Bragg, Layton, and Hammons (1994)
learned that fifteen outcome areas have a high or very high priority to local
implementation efforts, reflecting a wide range of preferred outcomes for
students who engage in transition experiences. Three broad categories of
outcomes identified by the tech prep coordinators were advanced academic and
occupational preparation, successful school-to-college transition, and
effective employability and interpersonal skills acquisition.
These outcomes are consistent with the standards and measures discussed in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS, 1991) as well as the federal vocational legislation, the Goals 2000 Act, and the occupational credentials advocated by the STWO legislation (Orr, 1998b). Later results obtained by Bragg (1997) reinforce these findings. In a research activity involving administrators, students, and business representatives from eighteen of NCRVE's Urban Network sites, exemplary tech prep and school-to-work curriculum was thought to require the following clusters of outcomes:
Exploring
New Forms of Assessment
To
ensure that these curricular outcomes are attained by students, alternative
learner assessments should be used. Calls for new forms of assessment are being
heard from various corners of the educational reform arena (Darling-Hammond,
1995), not just vocational education. Bailey and Merritt (1997) point out that
a growing number of selective colleges are recognizing the merits of students
having interests and commitments outside of school. By utilizing alternative or
authentic forms of assessment such as portfolios, projects, or
performance-based assessments, students can demonstrate their knowledge and
skills in a realistic manner (Murnane & Levy, 1996; Resnick & Wirt,
1996). States such as Maryland, Oregon, and Wisconsin are experimenting with
new forms of assessment for college and university admission. Forthcoming NCRVE
research from Maidl Probbenow (forthcoming) will help us to understand the
impact of these new admissions policies on student transition into four-year
college.
Beyond alternative assessments, a focus on continuous improvement should be a high priority for secondary-to-postsecondary transition initiatives (Bragg, Kirby, et al., 1994; Bragg, Layton, et al., 1994), necessitating the use of program evaluation that is highly sensitive to changing measures of quality. Evaluation measures should capitalize on both incremental change and more dramatic breakthroughs. An emphasis on measuring incremental (systemic) change is particularly important to enhancing improvements in quality over the long term.
Local leaders tell us that executing any form of evaluation of tech prep and school-to-work is tremendously difficult (Bragg et al., 1997; Hershey, Silverberg, Owens, & Hulsey, 1998). Problems with identifying program participants, defining required curriculum elements, sharing information across institutions, and acquiring sufficient resources has impeded evaluation on all levels. For this reason, it is extremely important for state agency leaders to provide technical expertise and support to local practitioners to ensure that evaluation is implemented in meaningful ways. States such as Florida, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Texas, and Illinois have engaged in systematic efforts to evaluate tech prep (Bragg, 1997). Most of these states also provide technical assistance to local consortia to improve local utilization of evaluation results to improve programs. Concerted efforts are being made at the state and local levels to ensure that educational programs as complex and far-reaching as tech prep and school-to-work are implemented successfully and sustained over the long term.
Access
and Opportunity for All
Secondary-to-postsecondary
transition opportunities need to be accessible to all students. At the start,
tech prep was seen as most viable for the "neglected majority" (Parnell, 1985),
but not necessarily for all students. However, with the passage of the federal
STWOA legislation and increased understanding of the problems created when
students are segregated from their peers, views of tech prep have changed. More
educators now describe tech prep as appropriate for students who appear at
every point on the academic ability continuum (Bragg et al., 1997), and they
link it closely to STWOA activities that are perceived as appropriate for all
students.
Worrying that the label of "all students" excludes the college bound, NCRVE researchers argue for the inclusion of college-bound students in school-to-work experiences. Bailey and Merritt (1997) contend that work-based learning holds potential for deeper and richer learning for college-bound students, and that colleges should capitalize on that learning. Stern et al. (1995) argue that if school-to-work initiatives do not attract the college bound, they will perpetuate the second-class status of vocational education. Without doubt, neither parents nor students want to be associated with education that hampers college admission.
As secondary academic standards rise, more students need be prepared to attend community college and four-year college. Recognizing this issue, local communities are increasingly more often engaging in concerted efforts to ensure that students who participate in Tech Prep or School-to-Work also fulfill college prep requirements. The College Tech Prep curriculum in Hillsborough County, Florida, typifies this approach (Bragg & Dornsife, forthcoming). In Hillsborough County, College Tech Prep enrollments are growing because of the advantages this model affords students by preparing them to matriculate to either two-year or four-year colleges. Recent findings show that while over one-half of high school graduates who participated in tech prep in high school continued to Hillsborough Community College, matriculation to four-year college is substantial. One-third of Hillsborough's tech prep graduates go on to four-year colleges immediately after high school graduation.
If educational programs designed to enhance secondary-to-postsecondary transition are to benefit all students, the idea of inclusive education--education for "all students"--has to be more than rhetoric. Secondary-to-postsecondary articulated curriculum must do more than simply acknowledge learner differences. It must value the diversity that individual students bring to learning and support their unique goals and academic pursuits. It must encourage and support the progress of students who have serious financial need, enabling them to continue to progress further in school than they might have otherwise.
To facilitate student access, opportunity, and success throughout an articulated program, various support services are needed. Preparatory and developmental services need to be provided to accommodate learner needs of an academic, career, or personal nature. Guidance and counseling, academic and career assessments, career information, and job placement services should also be provided to ensure that students' academic and social needs are met. NCRVE's Office of Student Services has conducted exhaustive national searches to identify exemplary programs that support successful transition from high school to college. In one of these award-winning sites, the North Harris College in Houston, Texas, a shared counselor partnership program has been instituted with two service area school districts to facilitate successful student transition by sharing counselors who focus exclusively on helping students make the transition to college. To reduce potential conflict between educational entities, these counselors are paid jointly by the high schools and community college. At another exemplary site, Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, students are provided extensive support services by the Career Planning and Employment Services unit, which plays a central role in Parkland's efforts to facilitate success in career decision-making, development of employability skills, and completion of transitional processes.
Longevity
Through Collaboration
Collaboration
on all levels is essential to the success of student transition from the
secondary to the postsecondary level. If the goal of enhancing student learning
is central to the secondary-to-postsecondary transition effort, it must be
achieved through collaboration. Joint planning involving academic and
vocational faculty at both the secondary and postsecondary levels is essential
to overcoming turf battles. Dornsife (1997) points out that difficulties can be
overcome if people take the simplest and easiest step: Go out, meet, and talk
to one another.
At the Volunteer State Community College in Nashville, Tennessee, staff development training involving faculty from both the secondary and postsecondary levels was instituted when tech prep and school-to-work first came along, partly to enhance communication and break down barriers. Local Nashville leaders attribute much of their success to this strategy. In the CREATE partnership in Oklahoma City, faculty who engage in collaborative endeavors are rewarded with special opportunities to attend workshops and conferences. Potential problems over control of curriculum and distribution of resources were resolved when people began talking to one another and seeing how they contribute to a common goal--to assist students in their successful transition to college and work.
At the organizational level, collaboration is required to ensure that educational institutions and other interested groups, such as business, industry, labor, parent groups, student groups, and community-based organizations, have a clear understanding of their roles and contributions. Through transition programs, formal consortium partnerships can provide a foundation and ready network for ongoing communication and collaboration. An active exchange of information via meetings, the Internet, newsletters, and other means promotes an environment that can sustain curriculum reforms that span the educational system. In the best of situations, these organizations create the curriculum blueprint and lay down the foundation for its implementation and continued operation.
Orr (1998a) points out that local systems are highly dependent upon state interpretation of federal policies and that these interpretations have a direct influence on local transition systems. Orr's research in four states (Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina) shows that the more boundaries, goals, and practices mesh between existing secondary and postsecondary programs, the more effective new transition systems will be. Whether simple or complex, it is important to remember that the most effective governance systems involve a wide range of community groups in real and significant ways (Hershey, Silverberg, & Owens, 1995). Without broad representation, the chances are slim that students--particularly students least likely to see themselves as college bound--will succeed in the transition process.
Finally, many different collaborations are required that involve students, both directly and indirectly. In the classroom, cooperative (group) activities are important to helping students engage in realistic and active learning. By employing a constructivist curricular approach--actively engaging learners in the creation and sharing of knowledge--students are provided the opportunity to engage with their peers in learning opportunities that they deem beneficial.
Learning can take place outside the classroom through student leadership organizations as well. In Danville, Illinois, high school students participate in the Tech Prep Student Leadership Academy where they gain additional insights into leadership. These students are actively engaged in mentoring younger students and their peers at the high-school level. Danville engages students in student/faculty and peer mentoring relationships at both the secondary and postsecondary levels. Students work together and with designated faculty to negotiate various school-to-college and school-to-work transitions.
Our recent interviews with students involved in tech prep and school-to-work programs reveal that those who have little support from home to go to college reap important benefits when a teacher, counselor, or peer helps them think through complex decisions about college and work (Dare & Bragg, 1999). Later, reflecting on their decisions and experiences, students believe they would not have been successful without the continued support they received from teachers and peers.
Ensuring
Accountability and Quality in Future Transition Initiatives
Evaluation
is critically important to the institutionalization and sustainability of tech
prep, although concerted efforts at evaluation have been lacking. To this end,
the National Association on Tech Prep Leadership (NATPL) has exerted leadership
and offered direction to consortia throughout the nation that are attempting to
implement evaluation efforts. Key elements of recommended evaluation practices
for tech prep address such areas as curriculum, professional development, and
student outcomes.