The idea of combining vocational and academic education is not new. When the creation of separate vocational and academic streams was first being considered in this country, John Dewey (1916) was among those who argued in favor of keeping them together. But Dewey lost the argument, and the 1917 Smith-Hughes Act created federal support for a separate kind of vocational education that became well-established in subsequent decades. While students in the academic track were prepared for further education, those in vocational classes were made ready for work.
The recent push to combine, or recombine, vocational and academic education in the United States began during the 1980s, when influential spokesmen for the nation's employers started to complain that graduates from high school vocational programs lacked the academic knowledge and thinking skills to participate in the newly emerging economy where incessant change requires continual learning and problem solving (Committee for Economic Development, 1985; Kearns & Doyle, 1988; National Academy of Sciences, 1984). Since employers had been the most politically important backers of vocational education for most of this century, these statements had a decisive effect on the debate in Congress when the federal law authorizing support for vocational education came up for its periodic renewal. The 1990 Amendments to the Perkins Act turned vocational education 90 degrees, requiring that the basic federal grant to the states for vocational education be spent only on programs that "integrate academic and vocational education." As described in Part II of this report, this idea was subsequently reinforced and elaborated by the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act.
Integrating vocational and academic education changes what students are given to learn in school, and how they go about learning it. Whether the change is superficial or fundamental depends on the meaning attached to the idea of integration. Hershey et al. (1997) illustrate the range of variation in practice when they explain that a certain degree of integration
could be achieved by occasionally asking students in their English classes to write an essay about whatever career interest they might have. A more focused and sustained integration could occur in the context of a career major program that groups students together for key academic classes. For example, students in a Manufacturing and Engineering Technology major might take English and science classes together. In their English classes they might be asked to write an essay about the physical and emotional stresses faced by employees in a particular manufacturing industry that interests them, or where they had gone for workplace experience. The assignment would then have value not only as a writing assignment but as a basis for class discussion that would be relevant to all of the students' emerging career interests. (p. 93)
As explained in Part II, the multiplicity of impulses propelling the STW movement, as well as the abiding American tradition of local control over education at the school site and district level, leave local schools free to adopt very different practices under the very same banner of "integrating academic and vocational." Indeed, descriptions of high schools at the forefront of the STW movement reveal that each one has its own reasons for reform (Business Week, 1996).
Drawing on recent literature and NCRVE field experience, this section describes the variety of approaches to combining vocational and academic curriculum in practice. In some localities, efforts have moved beyond changing curricular content to remaking entire schools. Problems arise at every stage, and especially in taking curricular integration schoolwide.
In order to understand what curricular integration is, it helps to understand why it is part of the STW reform movement. Most of the reasons given for implementing curricular integration can be put into one or more of the following categories: school reform, equity, student motivation, and economic demand.
Curricular integration, in its broadest sense, carries with it elements of other reforms that address many of the problems facing traditional high schools. Among these problems are the lack of meaning and coherence in the curriculum, teacher ineffectiveness, and student passivity bred by the traditional high school programs, which Powell, Farrar, and Cohen (1985) ignominiously dubbed "shopping mall high schools." Advocates for curricular integration hope to address these concerns through this reform (Nielsen Andrew & Grubb, 1995), taking the position that curriculum and pedagogy[7] are central to schools and therefore constitute the necessary basis for widespread change (Grubb, 1995a). Notably, other reform movements--including those which address the professionalization of teaching, curricular and teaching reforms, and reforms that expand student choice--complement the goals of curricular integration (see Goldberger & Kazis, 1995; Grubb, 1995a).
There is consensus that the curriculum in the traditional high school's general track fails to serve its students either academically or vocationally (e.g., see National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1996; Parnell, 1985; William T. Grant Foundation, 1988). The general track, having neither the career focus of the vocational track nor the academic focus of the college track, is targeted for elimination by proponents of curricular integration. However, whether or not to take this to the next level and rid schools of tracking altogether remains an open question.
The Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB), for one, distinguishes between different tracks and different content, drawing the line at the latter:
The SREB Consortium's concern is with the practice of teaching different academic content to different students within the same school. The Consortium believes all students should receive the essentials of the college prep curriculum; the difference should be in how a course is taught, not what is taught. (Bottoms, Presson, & Johnson, 1992, p. 37)
This version of equity allows separate tracks, distinguished by different pedagogy, not different content.[8] SREB has focused much of its effort on upgrading vocational programs to contain more rigorous academic content, in the spirit of the Perkins legislation.
Reform movements calling for the abolishment of tracking systems altogether do exist, inspired by the work of Jeannie Oakes (1985) and others who have described the ways in which such sorting systems perpetuate socioeconomic inequities. However, these reformers generally reside outside the center of the school-to-work movement (e.g., the Coalition of Essential Schools; see Meier, 1995).
While not explicitly addressing the tracking issue, STWOA requires that funded programs "provide all students with equal access to the full range of such program components" (section 101). The "all students" clause has proven to be a troublesome feature of the legislation in its implementation. Originally included to ensure equal access for students with special needs, the language has lent itself to a host of broad interpretations. Some critics have felt threatened by what they see as a compulsory federal STW program, causing advocates to clarify that STW programs merely need to be accessible to all students.
On the other hand, elective career education creates one of the central paradoxes in STW program implementation. More than 60% of high school graduates go directly to college, but many soon drop out, and only about half of those who enter college complete a degree in five years. If students opt out of a career-oriented program in high school because they see themselves as college-bound, they may leave high school unprepared for work and yet still not finish college. Furthermore, by creating optional STW programs, schools perpetuate the idea that career education exists only for the noncollege-bound, despite the fact that many students who succeed in graduating from college still find themselves unprepared for work (Daggett, 1995; Monaco, 1995).
Potentially, all students can become more motivated to study academic subjects if they understand some of the practical applications. Because curricular integration seeks to bring authentic work into abstract academic subjects, it can be conceived as a form of contextualization, and it is time-honored conventional wisdom that contextualized learning engenders motivation. For instance, Dewey (1916) saw education through occupations as a foe to passive receptivity. Bottoms and Sharpe (n.d.) at SREB claim that curricular integration creates a "yearning for learning" (p. 44). Curricular integration is often seen as one part of making a school "student-centered" and thus more directly relevant to young people's lives.
Advocates for curricular integration also make a broad economic argument. Statistics abound which reflect the decrease in the unskilled workers market in the United States, with the seemingly inevitable conclusion that unskilled labor will be structurally unemployable in the next century (Daggett, 1995; Murnane & Levy, 1996). In order to be employable in the current labor market, workers must have the capacity to keep learning continuously. Thus, the market will favor employees who know how to learn and think critically on the job (Daggett, 1995) and who know how to teach each other (Benson, 1995). Curricular integration is then a natural means of addressing this situation: It simultaneously prepares students for skilled jobs and, with the incorporation of reformed pedagogy, develops critical thinking and collaboration skills.
Emphasis on different aspects of the rationales for creating integrated curricula leads to different understandings of what it is. Federal legislators introduced broad notions of integrated curricula, thus leaving the term wide-open for a range of interpretations. While the 1990 Amendments to the Perkins Act specifically required federally funded programs to "integrate academic and vocational education," no particular definition was given of curricular integration. STWOA gave some specifics: namely, it called for the institution of career majors (see Section II.1 above) and a coherent sequence of high school courses. Additionally, high schools implementing STW programs not supported by federal funding institute their own versions of curricular integration. With the lack of a clear, uniform definition, it is no wonder that the National Governors' Association (1991) claimed that curricular integration was the most difficult aspect of educational restructuring.
The meanings of curricular integration vary throughout the school-to-work literature, running the gamut from pithy to prescriptive to poetic. Kemple and Rock (1996), for example, offer a characterization rather than a definition, saying simply that curricular integration involves real-world course content and curricular alignment. Bottoms and Sharpe (n.d.) explain integration in terms that extend beyond curriculum. In addition to calling for challenging content, their explanation requires a pedagogy that includes teaching for understanding, teacher collaboration, teaching in context, and the establishment of performance standards. Benson (1995) explains curricular integration by focusing on instruction:
[Integration] means revising processes of instruction so that academic programs display bountiful applications of theory [. . .], while at the same time the vocational programs incorporate theory that supports the practical skills that are being learned. In the ultimate case, the distinction between academic and vocational teachers vanishes. (p. 45)
Grubb (1995c) avoids defining curricular integration per se and instead offers a set of criteria to help determine its presence. A given program may have a subset of these criteria. The criteria are: the combining of content that is normally separate; collaboration of academic and vocational teaching; teaching methods that may change to a more student-centered, project-oriented approach; social integration of students; and greater coherence to the secondary program.
Notably, only the Kemple and Rock characterization centers solely on curriculum in the strictest sense of the word. The other definitions extend beyond content and suggest a particular kind of pedagogy--namely, one that promotes active learning in context. In fact, attempts at curricular integration that merely address course content have been viewed as insufficient (Benson, 1995; California School Boards Association, 1995), despite the proliferation of prepackaged curricular materials aiming to modify content. Thus, according to this view, successful implementation of curricular integration must extend beyond substituting applied courses for traditional ones; it must incorporate other kinds of reforms in order to be meaningful.
The pervasive inclusion of pedagogical reform in the definition of curricular integration has its roots in the previously described rationale: one does not, for example, learn the critical thinking skills that will be so imperative for employment in the next century by learning passively and taking multiple-choice tests. As will be elaborated in the subsequent discussion, by taking on pedagogical along with curricular reform, those seeking change through curricular integration face a more deep-seated set of issues by challenging the institutional assumptions about the goals and purposes of schooling (see Cuban, 1988).
Schools implementing curricular integration in practice have a range of goals that they seek to fulfill through the reform. Additionally, each school has its own culture and resources, serves a community with unique priorities and interests, and has a staff with differing expertise. It would obviously be unreasonable to assume that a single approach to curricular integration could be determined and simply plugged in to any existing school's program.
Nonetheless, certain common features of curricular integration programs have emerged across sites in their implementation. These can be described along two dimensions: (1) modifications to the curriculum, and (2) modifications to the school structure. These two dimensions are differentiated here more sharply than in Grubb's (1995c) continuum of curricular integration. It is useful to treat curricular modifications and structural modifications separately because, although they are not mutually exclusive, one does not always imply the other. Each brings with it a set of separate, albeit related, implementation issues.
In terms of curricular content, we may distinguish three main approaches to integration:
One-Way Integration
The 1990 Perkins Amendments called for integration as a means to improve the academic preparation of vocational students. The concern was that students in vocational courses were only mastering application processes without the abstract understanding which would lead to a high level of job proficiency (Monaco, 1995). By bringing in the higher-level thinking skills that presumably accompany academic subject matter, students can learn to be more analytical about their vocational work as well as gaining more exposure to academic subjects. Bottoms et al. (1992) give the following examples from early work in SREB schools:
To improve reading,
To develop oral and written communication skills,
As these examples illustrate, this is a relatively simple approach, depending only on the knowledge and resourcefulness of the vocational teacher. This approach is also limited, however, if the vocational teachers themselves do not possess advanced academic knowledge and skill.
The other common one-way approach to integration has been the development of
"applied" academic courses. Well-known examples are Principles of Technology, a
two-year course in applied physics developed by CORD and AIT; Applied
Mathematics and Applied Biology/Chemistry, both developed by CORD; and Applied
Communication, produced by AIT. Bottoms et al. (1992, p. 56) also mention other
curricula used in some SREB schools: Materials Science Technology, Chemistry in
the Community, and the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. All of
these to some degree are designed to convey academic concepts through practical
applications, and thereby make them more interesting and accessible to students
who otherwise might not grasp them.
Several problems are associated with these applied curricula, however. If they are taught by vocational teachers who do not possess sufficient background in the subject, then students may not learn correctly. On the other hand, if teachers from academic disciplines teach these applied curricula, their lack of experience with practical applications may defeat the purpose of the course. Whether the teacher's discipline is academic or vocational, the range of different applications in some of these courses means that some will always be unfamiliar to the teacher. These problems can be overcome to a large extent if the courses are taught jointly by academic and vocational teachers, or at least involve some collaboration between them. This is an example of the two-way integration that will be discussed shortly.
Even if taught collaboratively, the fact that some of these applied academic
courses have been created expressly for students who have not been academically
inclined has contributed to a perception in the field that they are "remedial"
(Hershey et al., 1997,
p. 87), and, therefore, not attractive to students
who consider themselves college-bound. By limiting integration to students in
conventional vocational tracks (e.g., office occupations), schools preclude the
possibility of enrolling a cross-section of students in more broadly defined
career clusters or majors (e.g., business careers; see discussion below).
Two-Way Integration
Two-way integration changes academic and vocational education. This usually involves some degree of teacher collaboration. At a minimum, a teacher may simply point out a connection between a lesson and another teacher's lesson ("This is like the problem you had in Mr. X's class . . .") based on a lunchroom conversation. A more committed version of two-way integration involves horizontal alignment of curriculum, in which two or more teachers prepare their classes collaboratively to teach related concepts at the same time, perhaps even creating and evaluating joint projects. Bottoms and Sharpe (n.d., pp. 12-19) give an extended example from a high school in North Carolina, where a course in health occupations and a course in applied biology-chemistry were aligned week by week for a whole year. Topics covered in parallel included the chemical basis for life; cellular structure; body tissues; the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems; the endocrine system and reactions to stress; the cardiovascular system; immune system; and others. While the applied biology-chemistry class dealt with chemical properties, for instance, the health occupations class would analyze the same system from the viewpoint of pathology and treatment, including related terminology and health careers.
Exact synchronization of teaching different classes would require teachers to spend the same amount of time on aligned topics (Little, 1995). To avoid this difficulty, groups of teachers sometimes take a flexible approach to integration instead, addressing a broad question across subjects (Little, 1995; Nielsen Andrew & Grubb, 1995; Grubb 1995c). This approach helps students see connections among their various classes. Bottoms and Sharpe (n.d.) give examples of thematic units from SREB schools, including the following:
Two-way integration in different courses presupposes that the coordinating teachers share a cohort of students or that they schedule their courses back-to-back, as would be the case in subschool systems and academies (see below). One way to ensure that different teachers have the same students is to create a multidisciplinary course that is taught by more than one instructor. Examples of some hybrid courses are business writing, technical writing, health occupations/biology, agriscience, drafting/geometry, and electronics/ algebra. Since the hybrid courses are furthest away from traditional offerings, they pose particular problems. For instance, one subject tends to take a subordinate role to the other (Grubb, 1995c). Additionally, schools find that these classes do not fit neatly into state graduation requirements or mandated course descriptions for college entrance (Katz, Jackson, Reeves, & Benson, 1995), and, therefore, frequently offer them as electives, thus downplaying the importance of the academic content.
Work-Related Integration
Another approach to integration is intended to replicate the kinds of activities that students will perform in the workplace, but under school auspices and with emphasis on academic analysis. Projects provide rich contexts for applying skills and knowledge, often being open-ended enough that students can find in them meanings that teachers may not have imagined. In contrast to the previous two forms of integration, project-based integration starts with a context or problem and then brings in academic and vocational content, rather than starting with the curricular goals. The scale of projects can vary greatly, from senior projects (Tsuzuki, 1995) to entire school-based enterprises (see Stern, Stone, Hopkins, McMillion, & Crain, 1994). For example, Hershey et al. (1997) included the following capsule description:
Two other examples, from Bottoms and Sharpe (n.d.), follow:
Finally, another form of integration that is more related to workplace demands than to conventional school curriculum aims to ensure that students will have the necessary qualities to make them employable. Variously referred to as generic skills (Stasz, Ramsey, & Eden, 1995), employability skills (Kemple & Rock, 1996), or expanded basics (Daggett, 1995), the importance of including work-skills in the curriculum was the focus of the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (1991), from which comes the commonly used term, SCANS skills. These various concepts embody the intellectual, managerial, and interpersonal skills thought to be important for success at the workplace such as teamwork, problem-solving, understanding complex systems, and proficiency with technology. In practice, these skills are most often addressed through work-based learning (see Section III.4 below). However, Stasz et al. (1992) describe classrooms that teach these generic work skills by creating a work-like environment in which students work in teams on projects similar to those in business settings (see also Stern & Huber, 1997).
Whereas curricular integration that modifies course content can be implemented by individual teachers or in small groups, modification of the school structure requires effort and commitment on a larger scale. Four main types of school-level modification prevail: (1) career majors, clusters, or pathways, (2) urban career magnet schools, (3) career academies, and (4) whole schools divided into subschools.[9] (For a similar discussion of school configurations, see Stern & Hallinan, 1996). Additionally, schools in any of these configurations may alter their structure by adopting block schedules, allowing more time for the hands-on learning experiences that are often included in curricular integration reform (California School Boards Association, 1995). It is important to note when reading the following discussion that these terms may have different meanings in different communities: one school's majors may be another school's academies. The definitions used here seem to be the most prevalent, however.
Career Majors, Clusters, or Pathways
Both the Perkins Act and STWOA require a coherent sequence of academic and vocational courses for students. Such a sequence is said to be vertically aligned and constitutes a career major, cluster, or pathway (Grubb, 1995c). Clusters are often broadly defined career fields. Typically, students enter their career cluster in the 10th grade, which shapes their course-taking for the remainder of high school (Grubb, 1995e). Ideally, all students participate in one of the school's broadly defined clusters according to personal interest. Well-developed cluster programs include extensive career exploration activities to help students identify their own proclivities (Grubb, 1995e). Students in the same cluster may have very different goals after high school. For example, a business cluster would include students wanting to become clerical workers as well as those wishing to pursue managerial positions or to become entrepreneurs.
In practice, schools do not always create such heterogeneous groupings. Sometimes, more academic groupings are distinguished from more vocational concentrations. For example, a school may distinguish between an automotive and an engineering major, where the automotive students are less likely to be college-bound. Additionally, schools sometimes maintain a separate college-prep track because they feel no need to eliminate it, or because some members of the community want to preserve it. In doing so, however, schools leave themselves vulnerable to the adverse effects of tracking.
Students who complete a career major, cluster, or pathway may receive additional recognition at graduation or, in some programs, professional certification. Students sometimes report that the clusters create an incentive to take more academic courses during high school in order to fulfill cluster requirements.
While clusters may require students to take more academic classes, this structure does not necessarily require any direct impositions on academic teachers. Academic departments may remain intact and continue to control course content. Students in any given academic class may come from various career majors, clusters, or pathways. There is no implicit or express requirement to modify the content of core academic classes. Of course, schools wishing to create truly unified programs do make some of these content modifications as well. It is conceivable, though, that a school would structure itself into perfunctory clusters to comply with state-driven reform without making any real changes to its curriculum. The bulk of the burden for this type of reform lies with the vocational teachers, who must create the vertically-aligned vocational curriculum that constitutes the backbone of a career cluster.
The state of Oregon has adopted the career cluster model statewide (see Section II.1). NCRVE researchers visited one of the state model high schools in 1996. The following excerpts from the researchers' description explain some features of the pathway model, including the school's extensive use of school-based enterprise as a method to integrate curriculum:
Located in east Portland, David Douglas High School (DDHS) serves 1,852 students. The student body consists of a largely Caucasian population (89%), as well as Asian/Pacific Islanders (6%), Hispanics (2%), African Americans (2%), and American Indian/Alaskan Natives (1%). Though relatively homogenous in terms of race or ethnicity, the school represents a diverse population in terms of special needs and interests. In response to this, DDHS offers a comprehensive program of study while at the same time preparing students for an increasingly competitive job market.In the fall of 1993, DDHS and the Oregon Business Council (OBC) joined in a partnership to design a comprehensive high school program that would meet the expectations of the Oregon Education Act for the 21st Century and successfully develop a model that could be used by other districts and communities. Their vision was an eight-point plan of action which included both the David Douglas Model District Partnership (a K-12 plan) and the site-based Project STARS (Students Taking Authentic Routes to Success), a high school effort to prepare students for the future and the world of work. What resulted from this partnership was a multifaceted, long-term strategy for whole-school restructuring that involved community and business leaders, parents, students, school administrators, and teachers.
All DDHS students participate in one of seven broad career areas, called "constellations," which reflect the six career areas embodied in the state legislation and an additional Hospitality cluster created at the school. In a document prepared for NCRVE, DDHS defines career constellations as "a personalized educational program. Broad areas with both academic and technical orientations, flexible and overlapping in nature." Constellations also represent the following specializations for the state's Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM):
The state clusters were developed in conjunction with the OBC, which has adopted DDHS as a pilot site for its school-to-work involvement.
- Social & Human Services
- Health Sciences
- Business & Management
- Industrial & Engineering Systems
- Natural Resources
- Arts & Communications
- Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation
Much like a college curriculum, the 9th and 10th grades are devoted primarily to general study, reflected in courses for the Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM), and the 11th and 12th to working within major areas of study, or CAMs. These demonstration-based certificates are designed to eventually replace the traditional high school diploma, though currently they are geared to enhance it. Work on completing the details of the CAM is still in progress at the state level, but DDHS is piloting the CAM through its career areas. According to the school's Curriculum Guide, "the state has mandated that students receive instruction in the Essential Learning Skills (ELS) and Common Curriculum Goals (CCG). The skills and goals are included in the course curriculum. Progress in meeting the requirements involved in the ELS and CCG will be reported as a part of course grades. Satisfactory grades indicate satisfactory progress on the ELS and CCG."[10] Specific learner objectives for each constellation are contained in a binder entitled "Certificate of Advanced Mastery Development--CAM Design Team Reports."
All students must complete 25 credits to graduate. Required courses that fulfill state requirements for graduation fulfill 16 credits:[11]
English 4 credits Math 2 credits Science 2 credits Social Studies 3 credits Health 1 credit Freshman PE .5 credit PE Elective 1 credit Applied/Fine Arts/Foreign Language 1 credit PACE I & II 1 credit Keyboarding/Computer .5 credit Students must also complete 9 credits of elective courses, which are designed to "build skills in areas of study that meet the student's needs for vocational training and college admission as well as the pursuit of individual interests."[12] (emphasis added) Meeting minimum graduation requirements does not by itself qualify students to directly enter a four-year college or university, however.
Beginning with the class of 1999, all students must complete their 25 units, earn a CIM, achieve a 2.0 GPA or better and meet attendance requirements.[13] All DDHS students are held to high academic standards. In order to receive the CIM, students must earn a "C" or better in all CIM courses (which include required academic courses in 9th and 10th grades such as English, social studies, math, science, wellness, and PACE [Personal Finance and Careers] as well as most electives), present three work samples for each of the CIM skills, and score in the average to proficient range on standardized tests. CIM and CAM skills to be demonstrated are drawn extensively from the DOL SCANS report.
Individual academic courses are not geared toward different constellations, and the CIM sequence does not differ between constellations. However, the CAM sequence depends upon elective courses, which do differ between constellations, and can be personalized. Each individual student works directly with a counselor to determine the best sequence of courses for that student's learning and postsecondary educational objectives. Due to the individualized nature of the constellation program, DDHS has been able to accommodate all students' first-choices with regard to constellation area. Students can also change from one constellation to another by meeting with their counselor.
Individualization is also evident in grading practices. Many teachers have adopted an "A, B or do it again" grading scheme wherein students must re-attempt all work for which they received grades below a B in order to master expected skills. Teachers are also implementing portfolios and performance assessment to grade students.
Students begin preparing to choose career majors through initial career exploration in middle school, followed by an intense career exploration class and selection of career cluster in grade 9. At this time, an individual education plan is developed for the remainder of the high school career, as well as the steps beyond--to college or university, community college, military service, apprenticeship, or entry into the workforce. All individual student career pathways developed during career exploration classes and counseling examine postsecondary training requirements and attempt to leave students prepared for postsecondary education. Every student has a faculty mentor, a teacher in the student's area of career interest, who works closely with both the individual student and guidance counselors to ensure the student's path of success. Additionally, DDHS staffs a Career Resource Center, available to students before, during, and after school hours for students who wish to do independent career exploration. This planning process also allows students to work with teachers and counselors to tailor enhancement courses to career choices.
A number of articulated pathways exist between DDHS and local community colleges. Formal articulation agreements are currently in place with Mt. Hood Community College. Specified courses between the high school and college are taught at DDHS by DDHS faculty. These include Advanced Placement Math, Math Analysis and Trigonometry, Advanced Placement U.S. History, Advanced Writing IV, French, Spanish, Keyboarding II and III, and Electronic Calculator.[14] In order to participate, students must complete a Mt. Hood Community College application and pay half tuition.
In addition, students may participate in a 2+2 Tech Prep course of study which "helps students develop work-based skills without duplicating classes from high school to college."[15] This program combines elective courses in the junior and senior years of high school with a planned two-year program of study at a community college. Opportunities for 2+2 Tech Prep are offered in Keyboarding, Accounting, Marketing, Office Tech, Electronic Calculator, Hospitality, Early Childhood Education, Small Engines, Metals, Industrial Mechanics, Electronics, Journalism, and Video Technology. The DDHS Curriculum Guide for students states that "the 2+2 Tech Prep Program may result in employment directly out of high school, a certification program, an associate degree, or an additional two years at a four-year college."[16]
Individual student choice is enhanced by voluntary collaborations among teachers. Many teachers at DDHS currently work together on coordinated projects or team-taught courses. A good example is the Health Sciences course for juniors and seniors taught by two teachers, in which students are expected to learn all aspects of the industry, including ethics, communication, finance, as well as health skills. Students are expected to actively participate in group discussions, and assist one another in the learning process. New courses have been developed specifically to integrate academic and high-level vocational studies. Examples include the Industrial & Engineering Systems class, a yearlong project-based course as part of the Industrial & Engineering Systems constellation. Students design and build a race car from the ground up to compete in the Portland General Electric "Electron Run." The class combines basics with specific knowledge, teamwork, and experience, and is representative of the career-based focus of DDHS.
In that class, students were observed to be self-directed. They voted as a group to build a race car because the class as a whole was interested in cars. Students divided tasks among themselves according to their specific interests and aptitudes. For example, students with an interest in engineering chose to develop the three-dimension drawings of the vehicle with the latest CAD (Computer-Aided Design) systems, while others with a marketing focus developed fundraising plans and solicited business sponsorships. One student with a flair for graphic design electronically produced the car's logo, while others chose to manufacture machine parts at Boeing under the supervision of the plant's machinists. Every morning, students met with their teacher for a "board meeting" in which they all gave reports and updates to the status of their individual responsibilities.
Because of the large student population, limited number of job sites and difficulty of transporting students during school hours, Principal John Harrington has placed emphasis in other areas. "The thing we struggle with that virtually every high school does--and will--as this [work-based learning] gets bigger is . . . where are the sites that are going to receive all these kids? . . . One of the things that we had tried to do here, not the total answer, but I think that there's some validity to that, and that's to talk about the development of on-site work-based experiences for all kids--in-school enterprises we call them--where one of the things we're trying to do is for every CAM class, or career strand that they would have identified or will develop for the future: in-school enterprises where kids can get actively engaged. "[17]
For instance, in the Business and Management Constellation, students run the Douglas Depot store; the Grub Club (a sandwich shop); and the Bank of David Douglas, which is a satellite branch of a commercial bank (First Interstate Bank), and open to the entire community. Much like a real business or conglomeration, there is a President, Vice Presidents, and Employees. "They've broken themselves out into officers . . . those who would be in charge and those who'd be the worker bees."[18] As already mentioned, the Industrial & Engineering Systems CAM is building a race car. Students in the Arts and Communications clusters have developed a graphic arts business and are writing and producing their own plays. In Health Sciences, students learn to be trainers in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills. As part of a class project, all students in the Health Sciences class coordinated a temporary community clinic which provided basic health screenings and checked blood pressure. In order to participate, all students had to become certified. The Kilt Restaurant, a full-service bistro located on the DDHS campus, serves students, administrators, teachers, and community members sumptuous meals daily, and offers catering services as well. "All the kids who are in the Culinary Arts class would be . . . running the restaurant, either on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and they've got them all broken up into preparation for house and blackouts and all of that."[19] One class in the Natural Resources constellation is transforming Midland Park into an environmental education park and designing and building ecosystems displays and nature parks. They also received a grant to do the landscaping on a new library.
Students in Social and Human Services must spend 40 hours in community service work, which may include shadowing sheriff's deputies and district attorneys; studying forensics; or operating a community preschool and childcare center, located across the street from the high school, which is geared for both needy families and teen mothers called Double D: "We teach classes to kids and we have our own team of parents there, too, and then our own kids in our classes will run it, under the supervision, of course, of adults . . . . So the kids are involved over there in a revenue-producing venture."[20]
All school-based enterprises and projects are wholly supervised by an elected student board. As with many DDHS classes, teachers play the role of the mentor or advisor, allowing students individual and group ownership. Students participate in school-based enterprises by enrolling in classes which relate to their CAM/constellation choice. Therefore, students receive class credit and are assessed for their participation in school-based enterprises. For revenue-producing businesses, such as the student-run store, students may decide on how to use the income as a group (such as reinvesting profits, etc.), but they do not receive wages.
Urban Career Magnet Schools
Another school structure that supports integrated curriculum is the single-theme high school. In particular, some big cities have created specialized magnet high schools with career themes. Katz et al. (1995) found that the single-theme configuration resulted in increased student investment in school, reflected in part by high attendance and low dropout rates in successful career magnets in New York City. Teachers often had extensive experience in their schools' fields, lending an authentic insider's view into the industry. The schools' individual themes create a natural focal point for integrated curricula, and many teachers had the expertise and the desire to pursue this. With the skills and industry connections of the teachers and the common interests of the students, some of the most elaborate project-based integration occurs at such schools (Katz et al., 1995). Early results from an evaluation of career magnet schools in New York City were summarized in Stern et al. (1995), and more recent results are given below in Part IV of this report:
In 1996, NCRVE researchers visited the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, which weaves a college-prep curriculum around the agriculture industry. The following excerpts from the site description illustrate some of the curricular integration that occurs in career magnet schools.Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) is a surprising place. Although its enrollment is the smallest of Chicago's public high schools, its grounds are the largest. CHAS sits on a spread of 77 acres of farmland in the outlying Mount Greenwood section of the city. Students study in close proximity to the school greenhouse, where the horticulture students conduct lab experiments and plants and flowers are grown for numerous public sales and special events. The equipment garage also houses rabbits, chickens, and turkeys. Yet in spite of the school's numerous opportunities for hands-on agricultural study, no one attends CHAS to prepare for a farming career.
Instead, students and parents are attracted by the school's rigorous college preparatory curriculum which is supplemented with seven to eight full-year courses of agriculture-related science courses, ranging from horticulture to ag mechanics to food science. Principal Barbara Valerious is quick to clarify the school's mission to visitors: "We do not train kids to be farmers. We're basically a math and science high school with an agricultural emphasis."
The concept for an agricultural sciences high school was the brainchild of the Chicago Board of Education. Back in the early 1980s, it was faced with financial difficulties and pressure from the state to increase its desegregation efforts. When the tenant of the city-owned Mount Greenwood property decided to leave farming, the city considered selling it. However, activists convinced officials to save this last open space area located within the city's limits. The city decided instead to use the site for an agricultural magnet school where students could practice what they learned in an open-air lab. Such a facility, they reasoned, might help attract and keep both black and white students from leaving the public schools. In 1996, the school's student body was as follows:
Total Number of Students: 469 Free/Reduced-Lunch Eligible: 47.3% Limited-English Proficient: 1.1% African-American: 62.5% Caucasian: 19.2% Hispanic: 17.3% Asian/Pacific Islander: 0.9% Native American: 0.2% CHAS opened its doors in 1985, and for the past 12 years has been preparing students for college and a vast range of agriculture-related careers. As Principal Valerious often explains to prospective students and their parents, "Only two percent of the country is involved in agricultural production, but about 20 percent of Illinois is involved in the nonproduction side of agriculture." This nonproduction sector includes horticulturists, veterinarians, futures traders, agricultural engineers, and everything in between.
The school has acquired a reputation for its strong program in academics and career preparation, and each year more and more students have applied. Now prospective students must apply through a lottery system. Each year the demand for spots at CHAS greatly exceeds the number of openings. Last year, for example, nearly 1,200 students from all over the city applied for the 150 openings in the freshman class. Some students travel up to two hours each way by train, bus, or car to get there.
Once at the school, students stay longer than their peers at any of the city's other public high schools. The longer school day is required so that students can meet CHAS' graduation requirements of 32 credits. (In contrast, Chicago only requires that its high school students complete a minimum of 20 credits in order to graduate.) Required courses include four years of English, two years of foreign language, and three years of mathematics (algebra through trigonometry). In addition, students must complete an ambitious agricultural science curriculum, as well as the traditional biology-chemistry-physics (and often AP biology) sequence.
All senior science classes require a research project, and the best of these are entered in the state science fair competition. Many of the students' award plaques decorate the walls of the school. Science teacher Dan Martin described several award-winning projects: "The majority of our projects are agriculturally based. For example, one student's project was involved with Armor Foods where he looked at the fat content and taste of different meat samples. A second student worked on a four-year project on poinsettia development. Another student studied surface water management as it relates to irrigation, erosion, and drainage."
In many ways, the school's agricultural focus helps students bring relevance to what might otherwise--in a more traditional high school--seem a disconnected, difficult curriculum. Students frequently point out how teachers make connections to agriculture, not only in science and agricultural science classes, but also in other classes. For example, the French teacher asks students to report on the farming industry in France; Math students analyze production charts; and English teachers ask students to research and write about careers in agribusiness. The food science class combines chemistry with a challenging lab assignment to try to make Reese's candy without looking at the ingredients on the candy wrapper. Then, students use geometry skills to design packaging that would meet certain capacity and shelf space requirements.
In a considerably more ambitious undertaking that involved math, science, social studies, English, horticulture, and food science classes, about 20 students worked together on a Thanksgiving Dinner project. Students prepared a traditional turkey dinner as well as low-fat, vegetarian, and ethnic meals; wrote newspaper articles; analyzed the fat and nutritional content of each dish; and developed recipes.
Following the Thanksgiving project's success, faculty and students developed another integrated project. This one was based on nutrition education and was sponsored by the student vocational organization, Future Farmers of America (FFA). After three weeks of lessons and activities centered around nutrition, and involving English, science, math, and agriculture classes, students took their show on the road. Armed with visual displays, hands-on activities, and lecture material, teams of three or four students visited elementary schools to bring lessons of better nutrition to younger students. Although some students were nervous about assuming the role of teacher--even for a day--they returned from the schools beaming, having gained first-hand experience in public speaking and having honed their leadership skills.
With Tech Prep programs in food science and agricultural finance, CHAS has formalized articulation agreements with two postsecondary institutions, as well as with a group of business partners that provides paid internships for students. Business partners provide support by making available to students guided tours of their facilities, paid summer internships, tutoring, and college scholarships. On one summer internship, a student at Brach's Candy worked as a laboratory assistant. She had various assignments such as testing the fat content in milk samples, the particle size of chocolate samples, and the moisture content in hard candy. As a result of the Tech Prep program, participating students have shown greater increases in GPAs than their non-Tech Prep peers. Other measures of the program's success include improved attendance, a 100% graduation rate, and responses from a survey to which students expressed satisfaction with the school and work components of the program.
Business partners have also supported professional development efforts at the school. American Cyanamid and Monsanto have both sponsored 30 faculty each for extended inservice at their facilities in New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri. Other business partners such as Kraft General Foods have sponsored individual "teacher externships" in which teachers learn how their subject is actually used at successful workplaces.
In addition, the faculty's small size helps to remove any barriers between agriculture and non-agriculture teachers. Food science teacher Hunter explains: "From the beginning of the school, agriculture was considered as important as English. My class is just as academic as the chemistry class that goes on next door. I don't think we, as a faculty, see the school as being either vocational or academic. We just try to integrate subjects across the board." Agricultural finance teacher Lucille Shaw agrees: "It was never like `here's the agriculture staff and here's the academic staff and never the two shall meet.' We've always been encouraged to mingle, and one of the advantages is the small faculty size. It's very easy to get to know someone here. When someone new comes in, within a week or two they're feeling at home because they're included in meetings and activities where you get to share ideas."
There is a feeling among faculty, students, and parents that CHAS is in many ways unique. Valerious explains the guiding philosophy of the school this way: "CHAS has always been different from most vocational schools or schools that have a vocational program. It was always designed to be both academic and vocational, and one was never considered to be better than the other. This is a community partnership that still believes in developing a youngster who can think and a youngster who can do: the true Renaissance person."
Some statistics indicating what CHAS has accomplished are:
- 80% of graduating seniors go on to two- or four-year colleges
- Graduating seniors earn more than $1 million in college scholarships each year
- 90.5% attendance rate
- 85.1% graduation rate vs. 61.7% district average
- 6.6% dropout rate vs. 15.5% district average
- 8.4% student mobility rate vs. 29% district average. (p. 91)
Career Academies
Career academies are self-contained subschools within larger high schools, usually enrolling 100 to 200 students from grade 9 or 10 through grade 12. Like career magnet high schools, these schools-within-schools use an occupational or industry theme to organize a whole course of study, including academic subjects. Frequently occurring academy themes are health careers, business and finance, natural resources, graphic arts, communications media, and manufacturing or engineering technology. Keeping students together with the same group of teachers for three or four years allows teachers and students to build strong personal relationships. Normally, teachers and students choose the program voluntarily. In the best case, teachers have chosen to work with colleagues with whom they share educational philosophies, creating a unique environment for collegiality. Some academy programs, such as the California Partnership Academies and the Philadelphia Academies, offer inducements to allow for smaller class sizes or paid teacher-collaboration time. Students are selected by the teachers to participate in academy programs via an application process (Raby, 1995; Stern, Raby, & Dayton, 1992).
Section II.2 described several different networks of career academies. Although no one has an exact count, the number of academies around the country that exhibit the characteristics outlined above is probably close to 1,000 and growing.
Career academies now stand at the intersection of the school reform and STW movements. They embody key ideas--including more personal contact between students and adults, focused curriculum, the use of projects or exhibitions, and participation by teachers in effective learning communities--espoused by school reform groups such as the Coalition of Essential Schools and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. At the same time, the 1994 STWOA endorsed career academies as one of the promising practices on which to build new STW systems.
The appeal of career academies is based in part on positive evidence from relatively rigorous evaluations (see Stern et al., 1995). From 1985 through 1988, a comparison group evaluation of the ten initial state-funded academies in California showed substantial and statistically significant advantages for academy students in attendance, credits earned toward graduation, grade point averages, and retention through high school. Data collected during the past four school years in California continue to show improvement after students enter an academy and while they are in it. High school dropout rates in academies average about 7 or 8% over three years--about half the rate in the general population of California students, in spite of the fact that state-funded academies are required to recruit a majority of students who are economically or educationally disadvantaged.
The career academy model is now the subject of an evaluation by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), employing a randomized experimental design. MDRC selected the academy model because it exhibited the most promise of any school-based career preparation program they could find. Findings on results for students have not yet been published, but early results on implementation and the positive experience of teachers are encouraging (Kemple, 1997; Kemple & Rock, 1996). All ten academies participating in the evaluation were found to have successfully instituted a school-within-a-school organization, a combined academic/occupational curriculum, and employer partnerships (Kemple & Rock, 1996, p. ES-3). As defined in the MDRC study, the school-within-a-school organization consists of
The combined academic/occupational curriculum features
Employer partnerships consist of
Because of their autonomous structure, academies can provide rich opportunities for integrated curricula (Stern et al., 1992). Of special importance for curricular integration is the fact that academic courses can be modified to reflect the academy's career theme because each academy normally has its own classes in core academic subjects. Most academy programs also can draw on business partnerships, which provide job shadowing sites, mentors, and/or internship sites for students, and expert advice for teachers. Sometimes teachers share a common preparation period and receive paid release time to create new curricula. These inducements were found to be critical in creating integrated curricula (Nielsen Andrew & Grubb, 1995; Ramsey, Eden, Stasz, & Bodilly, 1995).
Whole Schools Divided Into Subschools
In a highly significant recent development, some high schools and districts have announced their intention to remake themselves entirely as career academies. The idea of dividing a high school into "wall-to-wall" academies, where every student and teacher is affiliated with one, has been put into practice at Encina High School in Sacramento, California, and at Patterson High School in Baltimore, among others. Now Baltimore, Oakland, and other districts are beginning to implement this strategy districtwide. These efforts are beginning to transform career academies from a special program for a few students into a strategy that can be used for organizing entire high schools.
The experience at Patterson High School has been described by LaPoint, Jordan, McPartland, and Towns (1996) and McPartland, Legters, Jordan, and McDill (1996). In 1994, the school was deemed eligible for reconstitution by the Maryland State Department of Education because of poor attendance, high dropout rates, and low scores on achievement tests. A new leadership team, with help from the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR), reorganized the school into self-contained academies. One is for freshmen. The other four are career academies for students in grades 10 through 12. The themes are Arts and Humanities, Business and Finance, Sports Studies and Health/Wellness, and Transportation and Engineering Technology. Comparison of measures for 1994-1995 with 1995-1996 shows a complete turnaround in teachers' perceptions of school climate. For example, the number of teachers in grades 10-12 who said the learning environment was not conducive to school achievement for most students fell from 86.7% to 4.5%! Student attendance rose to 77.7% in 1995-1996, compared to a 71.6% average in the three previous years. Promotion rates also increased. The schoolwide career academy structure and curriculum, along with other supports for student achievement, appear to be making substantial improvements at Patterson.
This strategy draws on school-reform initiatives that were not career-oriented, in particular the "house" system developed by the Coalition of Essential Schools. Little (1995) examined the impact of house systems on teachers' work. She found that subschool systems force teachers to give more attention to students' cognitive and social development while multiplying teachers' responsibility. But teachers' work can become more demanding because, when subject teachers must instruct students across grade levels within a subschool, their number of class preparations increases. Additionally, a subject-matter teacher's individual passions and interests in the subject may be given less scope. For example, a science teacher with extensive experience in chemistry may reluctantly end up teaching biology and physics. Worse yet, if teachers are not allowed to select their houses, resistance and conflict may ensue (Little, 1995; Siskin, 1994). Some sites have addressed these dangers by adopting a hybridized structure that groups some subject-matter teachers, while others "float" among the subschools. Little emphasizes the importance for teachers to maintain contact with their disciplinary colleagues and of being assured some stability in their groupings.
Potentially, dividing entire schools into subunits can multiply the opportunities for students to experience horizontally and vertically integrated curriculum. This configuration may also be more stable than an individual academy within an otherwise conventionally organized high school because the special arrangements for scheduling an individual academy tend to be problematic (Stern et al., 1992). In addition, the small-school format in itself reduces the impersonality of large high schools (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1996). Care must be taken, however, to ensure that teachers and students are not coerced and that students can transfer from one subschool to another if they so decide.
The following excerpts from a 1996 field report by an NCRVE researcher provide a glimpse inside one school that is organized as a set of subschools for the purpose of promoting curricular integration:
Fenway Middle College High School is a Pilot School within the Boston Public Schools. The school serves approximately 250 students who have chosen Fenway as an alternative to their neighborhood schools. Fenway's program was initially designed as a "last chance" for students at-risk of dropping out, either because they were disaffected or because they were not being served by the traditional system. Recently, it has attracted a range of students, from those who attend under a court order to those who have transferred from Boston's prestigious exam schools. As a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Center for Collaborative Education, Boston Educators for School Reform, and the Middle College High School consortium, Fenway draws ideas from a variety of sources.All Fenway students belong to one of three houses. There, they work with the same set of teachers for the duration of their high school career. The Houses are The Children's Hospital Collaborative (partnered with Boston Children's Hospital), the CVS Pharmacy House (partnered with CVS Pharmacies), and Crossroads (partnered with Boston Museum of Science).
Every teacher is a member of two teams: academic and house team. Because Fenway is a pilot school in the Boston system, teachers sign a special contract which differs from the other public schools. Among the conditions they agree to are a weekend faculty retreat, a longer working year, a curriculum week or workshop that is organized during the summer, and three required weekly meetings, which are full staff, within-house, and within-curriculum. Thus, the school fosters intensive collaboration among the teachers.
The House meetings provide time for teachers to discuss curriculum, projects, as well as specific concerns about students. The teacher who serves as the Cross-Roads House coordinator described these meetings as "the glue" that holds the faculty together. The subject-matter meetings allow for exchange on subject-specific issues, which one teacher reported, "makes a huge difference on your teaching, yourself as a teacher, and yourself as a learner." In addition, there are mandatory faculty retreats in which curriculum is designed and issues of assessment are addressed.
One of the outcomes of this collaboration among teachers is the development of a thematic question to be addressed by all students in all classes every year. For example, the question that the teachers posed for this year is "What does it mean to be human?" Students seek an answer to this question across the grade levels and across academic subjects. A schoolwide assembly was held to introduce the question.
Some new curricula have been developed specifically to integrate academic and vocational education. As the most established house at Fenway, the Children's Hospital Collaborative has the most extensive curriculum. In eleventh grade, during advisory class period, students take an innovative health curriculum that was developed in the summer of 1991. One of Fenway's teachers interviewed hospital staff to find out what students needed to know before working in the hospital. The curriculum is constantly revised and updated, and currently is divided into six units: What Is a Hospital?, Introduction to Medical Ethics, Adolescent Health, Technology, Child Development, and The Environment. The curriculum seeks to increase students' competency in five major areas: Work-Related Skills, Communication Skills, Reading/Vocabulary/Writing, Problem-Solving Skills, and Math/Science Related Skills. The program has received two major awards: The National Alliance for Business awarded its Outstanding Partnership Award to the program, and the U.S. Department of Labor chose the collaborative program as one of the fifteen most outstanding job training programs in the nation.[21] For their Junior Project, this year's Children's Hospital Juniors did a research project on homelessness, going to different shelters and agencies.
The Museum of Science Collaborative (or "Crossroads House") requires students to work as assistants in the Eye-Opener Project, designed to introduce all of Boston's second graders to the museum. Students work with adult volunteers and help take groups of second-graders around the museum. On the vocational side, this experience helps teach students some of the people skills needed in the workplace. Additionally, it helps teenagers make the transition from child to adult. Lynn Baum, school program manager at the museum, says, "High school kids really benefit from thinking of themselves as role models." On the academic side, the Crossroads science teacher finds that the museum provides a "giant research lab" for students and professional development for her. She seeks ways to bring their experiences in the museum back to the classroom. For example, when the students created a bog environment in a plastic dish and grew plants in it at the museum, the teacher took the simulated swamp back to school where the students performed tests for acidity and lighting.[22] In 1995-96, the Crossroads Junior Project was on the subject of culture.
The CVS Collaborative curriculum starts in the ninth grade and requires students to take intensive science classes. Additionally, the school did a "gap analysis" of what students were lacking in mathematics, science, interpersonal, and organizational skills. The ninth grade writing teacher created her curriculum specifically to build up the targeted skills so that students would perform better on the worksite. Students also have an opportunity to work with all aspects of the organization. This year's Junior class researched demographic and regulatory information in order to open a store in Dorchester for their class project. The company will be opening the new "CVS/Fenway Store" soon.
In addition to these specific examples of curricular integration, the worksite is brought into the classroom by having work supervisors and mentors participate in the evaluation of student exhibitions and projects. Thus, they can bring their work-world perspective to the critique of students' schoolwork.
Much learning is organized around projects and internships. All students participate in Project Week. Students are asked to wrestle with a large topic such as "What makes Boston a good place in which to live?" or "What makes a good museum?" Information is gathered by exploring the city with the guidance of Advisors so that Boston becomes a giant classroom. Students must write a concise report on their perspective and understanding of the topic.[23] In addition, every senior must do a six-week internship in which they work thirty hours a week. Juniors do intensive shadowing to observe different types of jobs within their partnered organization.
An essential part of Fenway's program is promotion by exhibition. In other words, students must demonstrate that they have achieved the necessary level of competency in order to be promoted. In the individual classes, this means that all teachers use portfolios as one instrument of assessment. This means that credit is not awarded merely on the basis of seat time. Students must demonstrate competency in their classes and then prove a wide-range of competencies to graduate. Major milestones are the "Junior Review" exhibition and the presentation of a Senior portfolio to a graduation committee.
Junior Review is an assessment vehicle used to determine the structure of the student's remaining time at Fenway High School at the end of the Junior year. The outcome of the Review differs from student to student, but the general process is the same. Students meet with a Junior Review Committee to examine their academic record and their Junior Review Portfolio. As a result of the review, a student may be asked to take extra courses during the summer or may be encouraged to spend senior year taking college courses. It is also possible that the committee will determine that the student needs a two-year Senior Institute to meet the graduation requirements. This serves to normalize the reality that some students need five years of high school to meet graduation standards.[24]
The goal of [the] Senior Institute is to prepare students for life after high school and to assure that each student has the necessary skills for success. The different parts of [the] Senior Institute are coursework and portfolios, planning for after high school, a Senior Graduation Project, standardized tests, a senior internship, and an advisory portfolio. Students who succeed in completing all these areas and who persuade their Graduation Committee of their competency will receive a Fenway diploma. Students who do not complete all of these requirements re-enter Fenway in the Fall.[25]
One student commented on the value of portfolio assessment as preparation for college: "When I came here, they showed us how to do portfolios which are all your best papers. . . . You have to do your best research on them, you have to type them up and make them your best pieces, which is what's required in college. . . . [Fenway] prepares you for college so when you go there, that you'll be able to know how to manage your time, to be able to do your papers on time, . . . I went to visit [a local college], and there's lots of freedom just like this school, but you also have to know how to manage your time in order to be able to pass."
Fenway staff are constantly assessing their program, their students, and themselves. They monitor both quantifiable and qualitative progress of their students. The following statistics for 1995-96 were provided by the school:[26]
Average Daily Attendance:
Fenway: 95.2% Boston Public Schools: 84%Advance to Next Grade:
Fenway: 96% Boston Public High Schools: 85%College Enrollment:
Fenway: 81% Boston Public Schools: 60%Faculty Average Daily Attendance:
Fenway: 99% Boston Public Schools: 95%
Although the absence of comprehensive data makes it impossible to draw precise empirical conclusions about prevailing trends, there does appear to have been some progression in the development of approaches to integrating vocational and academic curriculum in high schools. The concerns about underprepared vocational graduates that prompted the 1990 Perkins Amendments led first to efforts aimed at upgrading the academic content of vocational curricula, by enriching vocational courses and offering vocational students access to more rigorous academic classes. The initial focus on upgrading vocational instruction was logical, given that the Perkins Act applied specifically to federal funds for vocational education. The High Schools that Work initiative, which began in the late 1980s, was also targeted on improving academic preparation for "vocational completers," though it later evolved to include all students who were not being served by the college-prep curriculum (see Section II.2).
The passage of STWOA in 1994 challenged localities and states to broaden their view beyond vocational or work-bound students, by creating career majors that would be available to "all students," including the "academically talented." This meant thinking schoolwide about changing not only curricular content but also the structure of the school. This added impetus to developments that had already been occurring For example, some high schools had been trying to generalize career academies as a schoolwide model. Others were blending integrated academic-vocational education with the principles and practices promoted by the Coalition of Essential Schools (Business Week, 1996). By the mid-1990s, numerous high schools were exploring how STW reform might fit with broader conceptions of school restructuring (Goldberger & Kazis, 1995).
Efforts to incorporate the ideas of STW reform into schoolwide restructuring have met with major problems, including active resistance by some parents and teachers who see STW as a threat to the college-prep curriculum. We noted in Part I that early results from a survey of local STW partnerships directly funded by the federal government showed that implementation of career majors was slow and limited. This has been confirmed by the first report from Mathematica on STW partnerships funded through the states. The authors of that report suggest that some of the resistance stems from stigmatization of "applied" academic courses as "remedial," and the concern over whether colleges will accept them (Hershey et al., 1997, pp. 86-88; see also Sections III.3 and III.4 below). As we have suggested throughout this report, convincing parents and teachers of college-bound students that the STW approach has something to offer them is probably the most critical challenge the STW movement now faces. Once that challenge is met, many difficult problems still remain to be worked out. But these ensuing questions about how to integrate curriculum, and in particular who has the time to work on it, cannot be addressed productively at the schoolwide level until the question about whether to move in this direction has been resolved.
[8] Note that SREB uses the curriculum/pedagogy distinction to argue for a peculiar form of equity--that is, equalize the former but not the latter. Their argument stems from the controversial assumption that the career-bound students are in greater need of reformed pedagogy than are college-bound students.
[9] Here, these structures are listed according to the increasing opportunities they afford for teacher-coordination when implemented in their ideal form; elsewhere, they have been ranked according to the numbers of students they reach within a school (Grubb, 1995e).
[10] Curriculum Guide, p. 2
[11] Requirements listed apply to the Class of 2000 and beyond. Please see the Curriculum Guide, p. 3, for requirements for pre-2000 graduates.
[12] Curriculum Guide, p. 2
[13] Curriculum Guide, p. 3
[14] Curriculum Guide, p. 34
[15] Curriculum Guide, p. 35
[16] Curriculum Guide, p. 35
[17] Principal John Harrington, Interview, Transcription p. 34
[18] Principal John Harrington, Interview, Transcription pp. 43-44
[19] Principal John Harrington, Interview, Transcription p. 36
[20] Principal John Harrington, Interview, Transcription p. 35
[21] From the documents, "The Children's Hospital Fenway Collaborative Curriculum" by Scott W. Eddelman and Jobs for the Future article entitled "New Models of Work-and-Learning in Health Care."
[22] From the Boston Globe, July 17, 1994, "Science Museum Weaves Dreams," by Marie C. Franklin.
[23] Student Handbook
[24] Junior Review Handout, January 1996
[25] Student Handbook
[26] From Fenway Middle College High School Statistics 1995-96.