• THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE PARTNER
• CURRICULUM CHANGES -- ARTICULATION AND MORE
• IDENTIFYING AND FOLLOWING STUDENTS
• OTHER LINKAGE ACTIVITIES -- BEYOND ARTICULATION
• WORKING WITH BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
• LESSONS LEARNED -- OVERCOMING BARRIERS

      One approach to improving the transition of youth from school to work involves steering them toward the pursuit of advanced training and education at the postsecondary level. As mandated in the Tech Prep Education Act, Title IIIE of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 (Perkins II), the articulation of secondary and postsecondary institutions' courses and programs was a primary component intended to ease the transfer of students to college, reduce or eliminate remediation, and prevent duplication of course work and credits.[2] Most Tech Prep consortia required students to develop educational plans that included potential postsecondary choices as a means of encouraging early planning. Over time many more consortia have also provided some form of workplace experience, to help students make the link between education requirements and their career choices. These approaches to implementing Tech Prep are likely to be building blocks for school-to-work systems in some local partnerships (Silverberg, 1996).

      In support of Perkins II, and given the purpose of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education's (NCRVE's) Tech Prep summer institutes (see Chapter One), NCRVE required the Urban Schools Network teams to include representatives from the community college, both academic and vocational teachers, an administrator, a placement officer, and any other appropriate staff member. Ideally, the written team implementation plans included a description of current and projected activities related to articulated curriculum, integrated courses, and the sequencing of courses in selected technical program areas.

THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE
COMMUNITY COLLEGE PARTNER

      Based on responses from Network members participating in the July 1997 focus group interviews, there is almost unanimous agreement that the summer institute teams were composed of the correct secondary and postsecondary representatives--the appropriate people for initiating and sustaining the postsecondary-secondary partnerships mandated in the Perkins legislation. Over time, many of the original team members moved on to other jobs and were replaced by new members. Fortunately, for some teams, the momentum of implementation was not adversely affected by the personnel changes. This continuity is often attributable to the belief that in the early years (1992-93) Tech Prep initiatives were overwhelmingly seen as needing strong, focused efforts from secondary school personnel. In short, the community college partners pursued curriculum articulation, and tried to be cautiously optimistic about the projected numbers of Tech Prep graduates who might attend their institutions as a result of completing articulated course sequences (among other experiences).

      To be fair, the degree of cooperation between secondary and postsecondary partners has not been the same for all teams. For some teams the process of bringing the two institutions together has started and stopped several times, in some cases stopping altogether. The common problems of "turf issues," staff turnover, and changing leadership commitments have typically been the barriers to preventing a sustained working partnership between the high school and community college. Strategies to overcome these ongoing challenges are discussed later in this chapter.

      In working with the secondary schools, the community college partners expanded beyond the goal of implementing articulated curriculum. In particular, many postsecondary representatives remarked during the focus group interviews that "we always had articulated courses and programs," but in the process of implementing Tech Prep initiatives they identified a variety of changes that took place on their respective campuses. For instance, they reevaluated student learning styles, developed applied courses, created teacher internships, improved concurrent enrollment efforts, designed and implemented team-taught courses with high school and college faculty, evaluated and changed entrance exams, and even changed a citywide transportation system to bring more students to a campus.

      Many of these activities are described in this chapter, but this simple list of changes indicates that the colleges implicitly supported a vision of Tech Prep that moved beyond the creation of articulated courses. Instead, Tech Prep serves a bigger purpose, one of showing students a pathway to college, and showing the community at large that a significant number of students need better preparation to enter either the world of work or the higher education system.

CURRICULUM CHANGES --
ARTICULATION AND MORE

      An examination of background documents from Urban Schools Network sites, such as team plans, progress reports, and site visit reports, indicates that most sites can provide lists of articulated courses or examples of articulation agreements. The process of developing these courses and agreements has typically been as simple as one high school teacher contacting a community college instructor (or vice versa) and getting together to share syllabi and align their courses. This type of one-on-one course alignment has generally taken place with career-technical courses, such as automotive technology, child care, or culinary arts, but academic courses have also been affected. In fact, some sites, like Oklahoma City's Consortium to Restructure Education through Academic and Technological Excellence (CREATE), are tackling the challenge of aligning curriculum from grades nine to fourteen in such career-technical areas as health.

      Turning to changes in academic curriculum at the community college, some examples include the teaching of English at Volunteer State College (Nashville, Tennessee) using a work-based approach to the curriculum, as opposed to a strictly writing- or literature-based approach. At Delgado Community College (New Orleans, Louisiana), English and speech faculty have incorporated the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) skills into their curriculum. As the result of high schools using applied curriculum, the Nashville team has implemented applied algebra at the college, and applied courses have been incorporated into the developmental studies offerings at several colleges (such as Milwaukee Area Technical College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, New Mexico).

      In several colleges the evaluation of entrance examinations has lead to changes in relevant academic courses. For instance, the Brooklyn, New York site, consisting of George Westinghouse Vocational and Technical High School and New York City Technical College, wanted to improve students' writing skills, and, in turn, increase the number of students passing the technical college entrance exams and their first year of college English. In a three-year, three-stage effort, the high school instructors first changed their courses to include skill areas tested on the entrance exams. Next, the high school and community college English instructors collaborated on developing a writing course taught on Saturdays to students who would be attending the college in the fall. Finally, using data from students who passed the writing exam, but failed to complete their first year of college English, the community college instructors are working with the high school teachers to develop a curriculum for students to achieve the skills necessary to pass the entrance exam and complete college-level English courses.

IDENTIFYING AND
FOLLOWING STUDENTS

      Given the mandate to develop articulated curriculum and help secondary students transition to a postsecondary institution, a logical goal was to try and measure this outcome. To accomplish the goal of tracking students from the high school into the community college, however, it was necessary to define and identify who a Tech Prep student was. For the Network sites that selected and pursued this goal, accomplishing the associated tasks continues to be a challenge.

      For instance, in the years immediately following the passage of the Tech Prep Act, the sites grappled with such fundamental issues as defining Tech Prep, deciding who was the "neglected majority" student, and deciding whether Tech Prep was a comprehensive education reform initiative that served the entire student population. As time wore on, some sites resolved these issues and were able to identify "Tech Prep students." However, for most sites the fundamental issues became more complex and numerous following the passage of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA). In particular, one of the greatest challenges tended to be determining if there was a distinction between a Tech Prep and a school-to-work student.

      In agreement with the implementation trends identified across the Network sites, Silverberg and Hershey (1994) reported similar results in the federally funded evaluation of Tech Prep conducted by Mathematica, Inc. Specifically, based upon their 50-state survey of Tech Prep consortia, the researchers noted that "in 1993 many Tech Prep consortia were in the process of creating a computerized student database, but only 2 percent were actually testing such a system" (p. 30). In short, very few consortia had completed the process of defining who a Tech Prep student was and using this definition to create a database.

      The role for the community college partner in identifying and following students has varied among Network sites. Initially, some sites, such as Oklahoma City's CREATE, used the enrollment in articulated courses as a means of identifying a Tech Prep student. Using this definition, the college targeted these students for recruitment, and modified its system of student records to "flag" students from local high schools who had enrolled in andcompleted articulated courses.

      In the majority of Urban Schools Network sites, however, increasing numbers of Tech Prep graduates are just beginning to enter the community college campuses. Without significant numbers of these students enrolled at the college (depending on the size, perhaps three hundred students per high school district enroll at the college), completing the identification and followup tasks continue to be major challenges for both secondary and postsecondary institutions. Part of the dilemma is deciding how to make changes in a systemwide student database when confronted with reduced personnel and financial resources and pressure to implement competing projects.

      While acknowledging these problems, it is important to recognize that since the passage of the STWOA in 1994, most Network schools do not distinguish between Tech Prep students and other students. Instead, most team members describe a common experience that all students are eligible to participate in, hence, it becomes more difficult to define a "target student population." For instance, all high school students can enroll in articulated courses, participate in work-based learning experiences, declare a "career major," and complete a four-year education plan that is on file in the guidance counseling office. For postsecondary partners, though, these students affect their institutions after capitalizing on articulated courses. These issues are discussed in greater detail in Chapter Nine.

SKILL LEVELS OF STUDENTS AND REMEDIATION

      Despite the ongoing problems with formally identifying students, several community college partners report that their faculty say they have better prepared students in their classes. These reports are typically anecdotal and in career-technical courses. For instance, at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, students are asking for the opportunity to do projects, and the faculty are reconsidering the types of teaching methods they use in the classroom. There's also an emphasis on team building and the use of student teams to complete course work.

OTHER LINKAGE ACTIVITIES --
BEYOND ARTICULATION

      Many of the community college partners nurture their relations with secondary school personnel and students through other activities besides curriculum development. In particular, several Network members remarked during focus group discussions that campus visitations and student shadowing experiences had increased at their site. These are often labor-intensive and time-consuming activities to plan and organize, but the outcome is well worth the effort. "These affective activities cannot be underestimated," remarked the Tech Prep coordinator at the college. For instance, George Westinghouse High School students are paired up to shadow a New York City Technical College student in his or her career area of interest. Just having a full day of conversation with someone who may have graduated from their high school is a great confidence booster and a source of information about the college.

      In North Carolina, West Charlotte High School and Central Piedmont Community College are using community college students to give presentations at the high school on the career-technical programs offered at the college. The college student typically attended the high school and can make links for students between courses and teachers at the high school and those at the college. Student-to-student recruitment is also being considered at other sites.

      The frequently missing link is having the high school guidance counselors come to the college campus. During July 1997 focus group interviews, several of the postsecondary partners commented that more students would know about what the college has to offer if the high school guidance counselors were given an intensive orientation to the campus, the career-technical offerings, and the career pathways provided to four-year universities.

WORKING WITH
BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

      Another way for the community college partner to nurture Tech Prep and school-to-work initiatives is by creating new roles for their business and industry partners. For example, in focus group discussions some postsecondary representatives from New Orleans, Charlotte, and Las Cruces described the impact of recent teacher internships on their faculties. In every case, the experience has reaped multiple benefits. For example, in New Orleans, during the summer, high school teachers and community college instructors volunteer to participate in a full day of training in the "human resources" department of a local business partner. They learn firsthand what the interview process is all about, what a resume must contain, and the types of skills the employer is looking for in entry-level employees. The coordinator of these internships reports that the teachers typically return to the classroom energized and with a wealth of knowledge in new technical skills, applied academic skills, and targeted employability skills. This knowledge is incorporated into the course curriculum, and the student's skills can ultimately meet the requirements of a potential employer.

      In addition to providing learning opportunities for faculty, business and industry partners are going to high schools and colleges to recruit students for internships. For instance, the New Orleans site has been approached by several local banking establishments to employ high schools students in the summer while they are concurrently enrolled in a college finance course. In Detroit, an automotive company recruits high school students for summer internships and works with the local community college automotive technology instructors to ensure that these students can participate in concurrent enrollment opportunities and additional workplace experiences.

      At some sites, business and industry representatives have gone outside the immediate community to recruit employees for what are considered "good jobs." In Nashville this action has resulted in high schools and community colleges working together to ensure that local graduates have the skills necessary to fill the available job opportunities. Furthermore, it has sensitized the public to the fact that the community college can provide the necessary training to secure those jobs and pursue a career pathway with many future opportunities.

LESSONS LEARNED --
OVERCOMING BARRIERS

      The all too familiar "turf" barriers between secondary and postsecondary institutions continue to be a challenge for some Network members. However, in focus group discussions at the July 1997 meeting there was widespread agreement from the postsecondary representatives that simply going and meeting people face-to-face was an important means for overcoming this obstacle. "In the beginning, one of the things we did at the college to bring our high schools on board was to conduct staff development training at the secondary level," remarked a representative from Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee. Another technique for confronting the turf barrier was implemented in Oklahoma City. "As the fiscal agent, we were in a position to see which teachers were really on board in terms of supporting the changes we wanted to implement, and we rewarded those teachers by sending them to workshops and conferences," commented the School-to-Work Coordinator.

      These strategies might also be helpful in overcoming additional problems team members mentioned during focus group discussions. For example, the competing missions of the community college creates a tension regarding target students. Often the postsecondary partners must choose between serving adults and providing job training programs versus serving recent high school graduates and implementing articulated course sequences. In general, there is no definitive solution to the problem of which population to serve, the college must "do it all," but some students are likely to benefit more than others. There was widespread agreement among the postsecondary representatives that curriculum alignment is the key to the college's sustained participation in implementing school-to-work initiatives. At colleges where secondary and postsecondary curriculum has been aligned, the colleges are now in a position to talk more confidently with the four-year institutions about creating a comprehensive career pathway (a goal for the two-year colleges).

      There is still a problem that needs to be resolved regarding articulated courses--getting students to take them. It is widely acknowledged by the college partners that high school students who complete dual enrollment and/or articulated courses are not necessarily headed for the community college. Instead, these students often realize they have the ability to compete at a four-year college. If fewer and fewer students take articulated courses, what is the motivation and incentive for college and high school instructors to work together on curriculum alignment? Although the Network members could not solve this enrollment dilemma, they commented that in their experience it was beneficial to continue to create the best alternative pathways to college. Articulated course sequences are a powerful means of keeping students directed, and there is a belief that, as more students experience the benefits of sequenced courses they will recognize the advantages--for example, an easy transition to a career position or to further education. In short, the postsecondary partners support the philosophy "if we build it they will come."

      The marketing of school-to-work and career pathways to guidance counselors and parents continues to be a barrier. Although there were no universal solutions, some teams described how they have tried to increase the participation of counselors and parents. For instance, in Nashville, Tennessee, a local newspaper reported that a major local employer was going outside the city and state to recruit employees. This story had a major impact on the community college because "suddenly" their technical degree programs were identified by parents as a viable means for their sons and daughters to receive the training needed for those jobs. In New Orleans there is a significant effort underway to increase participation of guidance counselors in the summer internships with business and industry partners. This technique which has provided so many insights to teachers and affected curriculum content and instruction so much, should also benefit counselors.

      Finally, the postsecondary representatives from Urban Schools Network sites mentioned that additional target technical assistance on postsecondary issues from NCRVE could help overcome some of the barriers related to information dissemination. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was complete agreement that the community college faculty need to understand the concepts of school-to-work and integrated curriculum as much as secondary teachers do.

REFERENCES

Bushnell, D. (1978) Cooperation in vocational education. Washington, DC: American Association of Community and Junior Colleges and the American Vocational Association. (ERIC Document ED 164 052).

Silverberg, M. (1996). Building school-to-work systems on a tech prep foundation. The status of school-to-work features in tech-prep initiatives. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning and Evaluation Service.

Silverberg, M., & Hershey, A. (1994). The emergence of tech-prep at the state and local levels. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning and Evaluation Service.

[2] Articulation is defined as the cooperative effort of educational personnel in the same or different administrative units to provide a continuous program of education from educational level to educational level without duplication or gaps in a program of studies which is directed toward specific goals (Bushnell, 1978).