An examination of interviewee responses concerning reasons for implementing a middle school STW curriculum revealed the following seven categories of responses:
These categories are described below. Selected comments made by interviewees (teachers, principals, guidance counselors, administrators, coordinators, and program evaluators) have been included to assist in describing the nature of each category.
Enhancing Curriculum Relevancy
The most frequently cited reason for implementing a middle school STW curriculum was to help students make a connection between school learning, the workplace, and future living. Several interviewees indicated that middle school students generally do not connect the classroom and the "real world," and that middle-level educators needed to find more creative and innovative ways to answer the question, "Why do I need to learn this stuff?" One technology director stated,
We really felt like, even at this age, that some kids were having some difficulty seeing the correlation between what was going on in the classroom and what was going on in the world of work. And some of the kids do not see the relevance for getting an education and studying the things that we study in our curriculum. Giving kids the opportunity to get into the workforce and see how various language arts skills and mathematics skills and science skills are being applied, really seemed to make sense. We felt that it would really give them a good understanding as to what education was all about.
Interviewees indicated that in order to bridge the gap between schooling and the workplace, instruction and classroom activities must link career experiences and academics in relevant ways. Curriculum content must be viewed by students as having a meaningful and lasting connection to their lives. The STW approach was viewed as a way to "give the content a context." A technology coordinator remarked that "School-to-work gives validity to what we do as educators." A dean of students explained,
I think that when you teach kids out of books, they don't always understand why they're learning something. And some of them learn it just because that's what they're supposed to do. But the population that we work with, they need to see, they need to know, it's relevant to their life. School-to-work is meaningful to the kids. They know why they're learning something. It applies to real life. It gives them a purpose for everything they do.
Interviewee responses also revealed that for curriculum to be relevant, it must be realistic. One seventh-grade language arts teacher stated, "We thought the students would be much more interested in learning if we could give them an experience that was realistic." An eighth-grade language arts teacher also emphasized this point:
To me, school-to-work is the best, it's realistic. It sets up a goal for a student to reach. It's okay to learn the things that are valuable at school, but if you never do anything with them, by the time you get to twelfth grade, it's a moot point. So, school-to-work in my opinion, gives a very realistic place for skills to be used. In order to be able to hone and sharpen your skills and perfect your craft, you have to be able to use those skills in other places outside of where you learned them.
Another eighth-grade teacher felt this realistic and relevant approach gave meaning to the curriculum content and allowed students to see how what they were learning now would be helpful in the future:
Well, I think it [the school-to-work curriculum] lends itself to letting the student know that they're going to school for a purpose. You know, you're not just going to school to put in your time. You're going to school to learn, and what you learn in school can be applied to a job. And not just that, what you're learning now can carry on to the job and it can carry on to whatever school you want to go to . . . I'm going to school for an education, but I'm also going to school for something else. I'm planning for something that's going to happen to me. I think that's why we did it. They've got to feel a connection, if they feel a connection then they're going to do it, but if they don't feel any connection at all, then they're not going to feel like they should put anything into it.
Since the STW curriculum was viewed as being relevant, realistic and meaningful, many interviewees concluded that this approach would be motivating to the students. Motivation, or perhaps, lack of motivation, was frequently mentioned as a reason for implementing a STW curriculum. This curriculum approach was considered motivating because it was "hands-on," innovative, active, interactive, and allowed students to visualize the end results. As one magnet school principal pointed out, "The traditional approach is too one-dimensional and we are losing students. We want to bring the world of work alive to students." A guidance counselor explained how STW education "motivates the kids by giving them a goal to work toward educationally, so that they can really focus on their academics and to know there's a lot of choices for them." A seventh-grade academic teacher emphasized the "hands-on" and interactive component:
Our goal is also to keep students wanting to learn. There's just no better place to do it than to actually put them in a situation where they're using skills, that they can actually learn while they're using them and use them while they're learning them.
Several respondents had particular groups of students in mind when discussing the need for a motivating curriculum. One eighth-grade teacher explained how STW education motivated some students:
And then we also have a group for students who tend to be less motivated. We have internships that are designed for them where they actually go out in the community and work with the business partner at the business worksite and actually receive a salary. It's kind of innovative because it allows students to be paid in the real job site and actually leave school to do it. At the middle school level that doesn't happen too often.
Serving At-Risk Populations More Effectively
Many interviewees stated that their STW middle school programs were implemented, at least in part, as an alternative education program or a drop-out prevention strategy for at-risk students. According to one city school principal,
This [school-to-work program] is an alternative for dysfunctional kids. They don't need to come to school and fail. We need to break the cycle of failure by putting them in an environment to succeed.
A STW coordinator commented,
Our school had the highest school suspension rate and lowest test scores in the district. An assessment survey was sent to parents and the community. 96% of the respondents wanted career counseling, goal setting for the future, and job skill preparation for the students. The main goal was to stay in school.
The STW program was also viewed as a way to individually address learning styles and interests, ability levels, self-esteem issues, motivation issues, and remediation needs. A guidance counselor stated,
It kind of grew out of a need of a way to communicate with some of the special needs students that we had here. We started to find that working with at-risk students using "learn and earn" and school-to-work job experiences, job shadowing and so forth, had a lot of meaning for these students. This was an area that they were probably deficient in because positive working relationships weren't always modeled at home for some of these students.
It should be noted that several sites considered special populations to include not only the traditionally defined "at-risk" students, but gifted and talented and nontraditional students too. STW curriculum was viewed at several sites as a way to address gender equity issues and eliminate tracking in certain career paths.
Enhancing Student Development
Interview responses revealed that there were two concerns within this category: (1) developing personal awareness and (2) developing work-related skills. Interviewees commonly identified student personal awareness as a reason for implementing a middle school STW curriculum. They referred to planning a purposeful and developmental STW program that addressed the areas of personal responsibility and dignity, self expression, self-knowledge, and self-discipline. STW education was viewed as a way to "provide a source of knowledge, so that students can see where they fit into career pathways." One junior high school principal felt STW education allowed students to determine "where they see themselves in relation to others and as an individual."
Others focused on using STW education to enhance work-related skills such as, future goal clarification, informed decision-making, team building and problem-solving, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership. One junior/senior high school principal believed STW education "allows kids to explore as many options as possible and helps them in making well-based decisions about what they want to be when they grow up." Another rural site principal stated, "School is not an isolated event. Students must tie everything together and decide what they need to focus on now and what needs to be done to meet future goals."
One middle school had even developed a report card, called a rsum, that evaluated both personal qualities (responsibility, self-management, sociability, and integrity) and workplace competencies, based on the SCANS competencies. As one career counselor reported, "school-to work can be viewed as a comprehensive approach to both personal awareness and career awareness."
Developing Career Awareness/Exposure
Both career awareness and career exposure were frequently cited as key reasons for implementing a STW curriculum. Interviewees felt it was important for middle school students to "see what's out there beyond the school walls." One rural site principal felt "students need to have a good understanding of the careers available and must be sensitized to all the occupations in the outside world." Several interviewees commented on the need to expose students to a variety of occupations, not just the more common ones. An eighth-grade teacher expressed this point,
I think every school should be emphasizing work with the work ethic and what skills are needed and what particular jobs are out there for people. Not everybody is going to grow up to be an actor and an actress and a professional ball player, and they have those dreams when they are young.
In addition, interviewees were concerned that schools were not able to keep up with changes in the business world and that work-based opportunities could help by exposing students to "real world applications and experiences."
Interviewees at several sites also addressed developing the teacher's career awareness as part of their STW agenda. Teachers were exposed to a variety of occupations through summer externships, worksite visits, on-the-job experiences, and shadowing activities. Teachers were also exposed to the career curriculum through conferences, resource library materials, weekly meetings, and specific training sessions. These experiences were expected to impact the teacher's instruction, curriculum implementation, and assessment practices. Out-of-school opportunities were intended to "train teachers how to weave STW ideas into their daily curriculum" and "change the teacher's way of thinking about relating instruction to the workplace." One district administrator commented,
I think teachers, generally, can be so isolated. I think it's very good for them as professional development to be linked with people in the business community who are actually--who have jobs that are connected to the content areas that they're teaching. They can see how it's done and transfer that.
Based on his personal experience, a sixth-grade social studies teacher commented about the effect career exposure has on teachers:
Letting teachers get out there and work in these different jobs and see what skills and stuff are involved is an education in itself. You're just automatically going to throw this back on the kids. That's good. That's an improvement.
A program evaluator also commented on the positive effects of the STW curriculum:
It's having effects on how they teach in the classroom in terms of their adopting new strategies, trying new strategies, and keeping them. They're using more technology, doing more performance type assessment events, and so on.
Supporting Systemic Change and School Reform
Interviewees cited the STW program as a vehicle to long-lasting and systemic change. It was not viewed as a short-lived funded program but as a way to build a foundation for establishing a seamless, streamlined, comprehensive system. Some sites described their schools as "in crisis" or "in trouble" and mentioned using the STW approach as one of many strategies for initiating and sustaining school reform. As one county administrator reflected, often teachers were the catalyst for change:
There were some changes that needed to be made at the school. The school, as it was functioning, was not a place that kids were learning. It was not a place where teachers felt safe, and it was not a place where people enjoyed being. The teachers got together and decided some changes needed to be made. They did some research to find out what type of changes would be most effective and would effect the learning environment, effect the test scores, things of that nature.
A dynamic principal was frequently cited as the promoter of innovative change. An independent evaluator offered her view:
The principal has been there about three years, and when she came in, she looked at the population, looked at the school, and the status of things there and thought that school-to-work might be right on target for this population. She's using this project, as well as a number of others, as a vehicle for school reform.
Several respondents also discussed the need for a new guidance delivery system, a comprehensive, developmental guidance model that included both career guidance and work-based learning activities for all students. People at several sites commented on attempts to revise, renovate, and refocus their career exploration programs to emphasize STW issues. This would, they felt, give the school a common focus rather than every teacher having their own agenda. The intention of this emphasis was on linking career experiences with both guidance and academics.
Building Community Linkages
The concept of community emerged as a dominant reason for implementing a middle school STW curriculum. In fact, several subcategories noted in this category included (1) building community/business linkages, (2) addressing business/industry/ community concerns, (3) supporting local economic development, and (4) encouraging student participation in the community.
Interviewee responses suggested that linking with the community was a two-way process. Schools attempted to address community, business, and parent concerns by surveying and assessing their needs and forming task force committees and partnerships to help determine avenues to successful improvement. Some sites tried to "align curriculum based on research from employers." However, in return, schools expected the community and business members to become actively involved in the education of their young people. It was deemed important to "bring kids out into the world and bring the community people in." Many interviewees viewed the business community as willing but apprehensive participants in this process. As one eighth-grade teacher explained,
I think the business world was kind of interested in . . . "we're not getting what we want out of schools and the only way to get what we want is to maybe relate a little better to the school system, do some type of partnership with them, and start putting out better workers."
A STW coordinator expanded on this view:
We are finding businesses are quite interested in involving themselves in schools, they just don't know how, they don't know who to approach. Also, they need to see what they can get for their money, and if we can get them students that fulfill the needs they are looking at, then they'll gladly pay for it, but they're business and they're not going to throw money in without a product.
Strong business and industry linkages were viewed as a vital part of the STW curriculum since worksite experiences and workplace understanding are essential ingredients for future success. One city school principal discussed how his site encouraged business participation:
We worked hard to make sure businesses were well-served by the school. We don't want businesses to have liabilities. We tried to reduce risk and provide validation and support. The participating businesses are referring us to other businesses. Businesses feel a sense of mission that goes way beyond just work experiences.
Several interviewees indicated that these linkages were developed primarily in response to concerns voiced by employers and community members in neighboring areas. A STW curriculum was seen as addressing the needs of very economically depressed areas. In some cases, STW activities were implemented as part of a larger workforce preparation initiative to prepare students for more skilled jobs since the local area had lost its unskilled employment base. In other instances, entrepreneurship was encouraged as one way to provide local work experiences for the students, bring new businesses into the community, and encourage graduates to stay in the area or return to the area to live. One rural county administrator commented,
Entrepreneurship is the heart of the future of the community. The hidden message has been "you have to move somewhere else to be considered successful." We're trying to turn that around.
A STW program coordinator explained further:
In our area . . . because we're so remote and rural, we can't rely on businesses to give us jobs. We have to create our own jobs. So, what we're doing is work mainly with high school students and middle school students on having them develop a product, market a product, and try to get that to a customer-based business in our area. That's the guiding light behind school-to-work: it's basically an entrepreneurial initiative. The other aspect of that is that we again are . . . trying to be the catalyst to involve businesses in school. We're trying, you know, to help ourselves.
Entrepreneurship was also seen as a viable way to encourage students to expand their career options and aspirations or, as one STW program coordinator stated, "to think beyond `I want to be a farmer.'"
In addition, local employers were becoming more and more concerned about the quality of graduates entering the workforce. Students were seen as being unprepared or underprepared for the high-tech workforce and lacking in basic skills such as written communication, problem solving, social, math, and reading skills. In response, schools asked the community to take partial responsibility for educating their youth. The business community needed to "help prepare students for the workplace, address the skills not being addressed in school, and make educators aware of workplace needs." One guidance counselor highlighted this situation:
A big part of it came from employers in the county. The employers were complaining about students not being able to fill out applications and so on, and we thought maybe they should share in the educating of these students and maybe understand a little bit about these students. Not all students come to school with the same attitude and the same skills and a lot of these employers are screaming and hollering that the people that come to their business aren't prepared. We found out that the reason why was because the students that had all the skills they were looking for were going on to college or vocational schools and they weren't willing to work for minimum wage. So it kind of grew out of a little bit of the frustration from the businesses and the community.
Community involvement and service were frequently cited as reasons for implementing a STW curriculum at the middle school level. School personnel at several sites felt it was important to "help kids understand who they are in a community and to develop a sense of place in that environment." Interviewees commented that middle school students often feel people don't care about them and that they needed to consistently see that those in the community cared about their futures. The STW curriculum was viewed by a rural site community education director as "an opportunity to learn in the community and contribute to the community through community development projects." These projects, explained one inner-city site principal, would "allow the students to see the living relationship between school, work, and how they live." Many of the respondents commented that STW efforts helped to create well-rounded, productive citizens. On the other hand, STW can "give the community a more real perception of what goes on in schools." One school-to-careers coordinator elaborated,
They [community members and employers] need to have an understanding of what the student of today is, what kind of student they are dealing with, and how to work with that student.
Improving the Transition to High School and Beyond
Several interviewees indicated that middle-level educators must help to ease the transition into high school by providing a "continuum of services that link and build on previous experiences" and assisting students in "speaking the language of the high school." Middle school personnel discussed becoming partners with the high schools in a long-term process. They indicated a need to examine how middle school activities and learning can influence high school decisions. A guidance counselor commented,
I think the middle school curriculum really allows students, while they're in middle school, . . . to get a good sampling of everything that's offered while they're in high school so they can base their decisions on firsthand knowledge and experiences rather than hearsay or reading it in a booklet. I think that's real helpful for them."
Middle school was seen by many interviewees as a time when serious decisions about the immediate future needed to be made. In some instances, eighth graders were required to choose a high school based on its occupational focus or college preparation program and apply for admittance. Others needed to enter high school having identified a career cluster of interest and a four-year plan of study. One eighth-grade teacher explained,
They need to choose a particular high school that will lend itself to college, the area of interest that they might be interested in when they go to college. It also let's them see that there's something beyond eighth grade and "I'm serious." There are a lot of them that think that once I get out of eighth grade, that basically "I'm going to high school but I may not stay very long." So I'm trying to let them see beyond eighth grade; there's high school and there are lots of high schools to select from, but after high school, you've got to plan for your future: "What am I going to do when I get there, and what am I going to do when I finish?"
It is important to note that a majority of respondents indicated their STW curriculum was seen as a way to "combat tracking." STW programming was viewed as an effective alternative to traditional tracking because it increased the students' achievement and had a more positive impact on the personal development of students with learning difficulties or delays. STW programs were seen as more readily adaptable to the pace and level of instruction needed for certain individuals. The STW curriculum was viewed by an inner-city principal as a means to "provide students with a different way for students typically in low tracks to demonstrate competence and be rewarded for their effort." A STW coordinator at a different middle school commented on the ability of this curriculum to "target the actual needs of students and, therefore, motivate them more effectively." Several interviewees commented on the STW curriculum encouraging students to work with and meet students who were different from themselves.
Although middle-level educators interviewed saw the importance of preparing students for high school, most indicated a wider reaching influence. STW programs were intended to "help students with both short-term and long-term planning." Interviewees indicated that STW programs at the middle school level would develop students who were better prepared for post-high school education and careers in the future. An executive director of professional technical education stated that his district focused on providing a "smooth transition for students from school to school, school to postsecondary opportunities, and school to work," and that they intended to assure their students "learn more about the requirements, skills, and benefits of a full range of career options and opportunities to help prepare them for the future." Preparation for future work was frequently cited as a reason for implementing the STW curriculum. For example, one interviewee reported that "it is never too early to address future needs, to make sure students are ready for the workplace." One rural school principal insisted, "We have been too academically inclined. We must look at each student as a future worker." Some respondents specifically addressed the need to prepare students to live in a technical world and to "provide training for the high-tech workplace." STW education was seen as an avenue to expose students to a wide range of technological careers and encourage interest in technology opportunities.