PROMOTING AUTHENTIC TEACHING AND LEARNING

• Use Standards as a Supporting Infrastructure for Authentic Teaching and Learning
• Allow School-to-Work To Evolve into the Mainstream

               School-to-work embraces authentic teaching and learning strategies to ensure that students gain a better understanding of their world, a better and more in-depth use of skills, and a better grasp and appreciation of the connections between learning and working. Although school-to-work uses authentic teaching and learning pedagogy in the context of careers, the authentic pedagogic approach is not limited to a work or career focus. Indeed, the authentic teaching and learning pedagogy has its roots in the contructivist and developmental theories developed by John Dewey (1966) and most recently made popular by Theodore Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools (edweb.gsn.org/edref.ces.mems.html).

                Many of the schools, school districts, and states that have been successful in attracting college bound students into school-to-work activities have done so by emphasizing the use of authentic teaching and learning beyond a career orientation. These programs or systems appear less concerned about the venue for teaching and learning than the outcome of the process. Their focus is to ensure that students capture the importance of abstract concepts and principles by developing the ability to apply those principles to real, often unique, situations and problems. Although there are many ways to promote authentic teaching and learning, the school-to-work programs discussed here have done so in two primary ways: (1) by using academic standards (many of which are requiring more application) as a supporting infrastructure for school-to-work and (2) by emphasizing the universal, big-picture aspects of school-to-work.

Use Standards as a Supporting Infrastructure
for Authentic Teaching and Learning

                During the last decade, many academic and workplace reformers have come to realize the importance of standards in preparing individuals and organizations for the demands of the 21 ^st century. Although there is still debate over the implementation and evaluation of standards, most individuals agree that standards effectively communicate what individuals need to know and be able to do to succeed in new, highly competitive, global environments. Moreover, most academic and business leaders support the growing belief that standards should emphasize application of knowledge and skills to the same extent that they emphasize their attainment.[3] Having become aware of the growing support for application-oriented standards in both business and academic sectors, many local and state school-to-work efforts are structuring the authentic pedagogy they are developing around these standards.

                Although educators and employers have worked largely in isolation to develop standards, the messages they and their new standards communicate are surprisingly similar. Instead of promoting the attainment and regurgitation of disjointed pieces of knowledge and information (as lists of isolated tasks and skills often do), both constituencies are emphasizing the use and creation of knowledge.[4] In their attempts to build high-performance workplaces in which employees work autonomously, employers are emphasizing the use of general employability or SCANS skills and workplace scenarios that combine academic and technical knowledge and focus on broad-based activities such as problem solving, decisionmaking, and resource management. Academic standards in many states now focus on broad skills and the instruction and assessment techniques that will assure that students can learn and demonstrate how knowledge is integrated or applied to various "real-world" situations.

                Given the increasingly similar message being communicated through the standards developed by business and education, many states around the country are taking advantage of this newfound cohesion to promote school-to-work and integrated standards simultaneously. The primary vehicle used to drive standards-based, integrated education is authentic teaching and learning--one of the strategies that supports the proliferation of school-to-work. Many believe that applied standards that mirror changes in the real world and have the support of both academic educators and the business community will strengthen the need for and validity of authentic teaching and learning. At the same time, adhering to applied standards will bring something tangible to the school-to-work effort and, thus, minimize the lack of accountability that exists in many systems. In addition, many feel that a strong association with a mainstream effort such as standards-based education will minimize opposition from postsecondary institutions and parents.

                Over the past several years, the Department of Children, Families, and Learning in Minnesota has emphasized two areas in its reform agenda: (1) new graduation standards and (2) school-to-work. The department's Director of Postsecondary Relations explained that "standards provide the rigor (and) school-to-work provides the context . . . by accomplishing one, you accomplish the other." Another state officer involved with school-to-work noted that the state "could not do what we are attempting to do without standards . . . standards have become the base, the `what' of what we expect an educated person to be." Indeed, many of the program-level educators interviewed in Minnesota feel that legislatively approved standards will guarantee longevity for school-to-work.

                Minnesota standards and performance assessments "expand academic content and emphasize application" and focus on "results, not simply on attending class for four years" (children.state.mn.us/grad/WebGSMar.html). Indeed, Minnesota has not had Carnegie Units as a requirement for high school graduation for several years and is the first state to validate learning that takes place outside the classroom. Parents, teachers, college educators, and business leaders participated in the development of primary, intermediate, middle school, and high school level standards. In addition, the standards have gained support from both the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.[5] The Minnesota Graduation Standards have two components:

Minnesota: Ten Learning Areas of the High Standards

                The application orientation of the Minnesota Graduation Standards offers a natural fit with school-to-work. Although some of the performance packages contain traditional assessments such as paper and pencil tests, every package must include at least one "robust performance task" or structured situation that requires a student to demonstrate his or her knowledge. Students must accomplish a task that allows for multiple responses to challenging questions or problems in a simulated or real-life situation. Districts can modify the sample performance packages that the state has developed or establish their own packages to fit local needs. Districts also have latitude to develop their own tests to measure their students' proficiency on basic skills with validation from the state to ensure consistency.

                In addition to the state's basic and high standards, Minnesota is developing "standards of distinction" that extend learning beyond the high standards and build greater specialization and complexity into academic, career-based, talent-based, and interdisciplinary areas. Students can choose to pursue one or more standards of distinction. Each standard will include a description of the declarative and procedural knowledge (content standard) to be pursued, an assessment package that validates learning beyond the High Standards in the Profile of Learning, and a description of the preK-12 learning experiences that should occur inside and outside of school to facilitate standard attainment.

                In an interview, one staff member at the Department of Children, Families, and Learning noted that standards of distinction along with the more application-oriented high standards have implications for a "new kind of kid." Exposed to this new way of learning and demonstrating knowledge, students will become more demanding consumers of education. When implemented, these changes will also have major ramifications for postsecondary faculty members. Working to build a new, standards-based environment that supports interactive and application-oriented learning for all students, many program and state level personnel in Minnesota believe that the traditional college lecture style will no longer meet the needs of a new generation of college students. Universities, many feel, will be forced to change to take account of new learning and testing styles.

                To be sure, Minnesota's efforts have critics. Faculties in some of Minnesota's schools hope that the application-oriented standards and the school-to-work reform will eventually fade away. These individuals search for ways to adhere to the standards without changing their traditional curriculum. Many programs in Minnesota, however, are using standards and school-to-work to help all of their students attain a rigorous education through contexts that are appropriate for them. They say that they will work towards standards-based, application-oriented reform because it works, not simply because the state requires it. Indeed, many school-to-work coordinators in these programs say that linking school-to-work to graduation standards has proven a successful way to approach more traditional educators--both secondary and postsecondary--about school-to-work and authentic teaching and learning strategies. School-to-work is so closely linked with graduation standards in Minnesota's Red Wing School District that the Graduation Standards Coordinator also acts as the coordinator of school-to-work activities for the entire student body. Considering himself an "older teacher" who once spoke against school-to-work and the new standards, he has become one of the biggest supporters of the school's standards-based "career and academic plan."

                The school-to-work effort in Maryland has used academic skills and content standards to create a single, seamless K-16 system that supports authentic learning pedagogy and minimizes many of the obstacles that students face as they make the transition from high school to college. Like Minnesota, those involved with education reform in Maryland feel that school-to-work, when supported by standards, can ease the concerns of many parents, academic teachers, superintendents, and postsecondary institutions by ensuring the academic rigor necessary for a wide variety of student options. In the mid-1990s, educators from the Maryland State Department of Education and the University of Maryland Higher Education System (a cross section of all higher education institutions in the state) began working with mathematics supervisors, career and technology educators, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, local education agencies, Maryland Community Colleges, and business and industry. Initially they set out to solve the "big question" of how school-to-work credits could be accepted by the state's university system. In 1996, educators performed a gap analysis that compared skill outcomes from the Applied Mathematics I and II curriculum with exit skills required in Algebra II and Geometry. The applied mathematics curriculum was then made compatible with traditional academic courses in Algebra II and Geometry. The group and additional science specialists continued their efforts by performing similar gap analyses on physics and chemistry courses. Thus, specific content standards were used to remove the barriers that technical courses once presented to college admission.

                The overall product of this partnership has been a "standardization" in general education that makes it easy for students to move throughout the system and attain additional levels of education. Once a public institution labels any course "gen ed" based on a thorough analysis of its content and comparison to applicable state standards, the course is transferable across all institutions in the system. The Maryland system has been so successful that New Jersey has adopted it. The Maryland Higher Education System is now in the process of refining standards and working with high schools to find bridges that will further connect institutions and their curricula.

                Maryland has also developed "blended instruction," a standards-driven education reform that "fosters the integration of academic and occupational education." Blended instruction falls under a state school-to-work effort referred to as "career connections" that works to integrate Maryland's "skills for success"[7] and "core learning goals" (the state's academic standards) with state and national industry skill standards developed by employers, educators, and union representatives in various industries and economic sectors. Over 1,000 career, academic, and technical teachers have completed the first "strand" of the blended instruction training process. Below is a description of one integrated project in English and health-bioscience:

Title: The Health of a Nation--Controlling a Virus
Activities: As a part of this project each student will . . .

1.	ReadThe Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.
2.	Be assigned a virus to research--Ebola, HIV, chicken pox, malaria.
3.	Research how viruses are identified, isolated, contracted, spread, and prevented.
4.	Interview public health officials and health care providers about the virus under study.
5.	Compare and contrast various accounts of infectious disease outbreaks--fictional, nonfictional, tabloid, newspaper, interviews, TV scripts, and medical newsletters.
6.	Investigate specific protocols for preventing the spread of disease.
7.	Develop a public health awareness campaign--newsletters, brochures, and speeches.

The project description lists the academic and industry skill standards that the project addresses; resources and materials to be used (including human resources); expectations of students (including final product); roles for participating teachers (in this case health, bioscience, and English teachers); linkages to industry; timeline; and assessment strategies to determine student mastery of specified standards.

                The blended instruction effort is being strengthened by the state's efforts to establish competency- or performance-based education, an effort that has been underway since 1977. The Maryland School Performance Program (MSPP), established in 1990, "challenges schools to boost the ability of all students, first, to learn the basic skills of reading, writing, language usage, mathematics, science, and social studies, and, second, to apply these skills to real-life situations" by using "accountability as the cornerstone" (www.mdk12.org/mspp/reform/). By the year 2004, Maryland's 3 ^rd, 5 ^th, 8 ^th, and 11 ^th graders will be required to pass a series of end-of-course tests that cover core academic areas (math, science, language arts, reading, writing, and social studies) "as well as general skills for success, which will be incorporated into the other tests" (www.msde.state.md.us/pressreleases/19970827.html). The assessments will be criteria-referenced tests that measure responses by process and answer. For graduation, students "will be required to demonstrate that they can comprehend, analyze, and integrate information in broad subject areas, as well as reason, calculate, and solve problems" (Langenberg, 1997).

                Those involved at the state level in Maryland indicate that their primary goal is to integrate standards and real-world applications but not lose academic rigor. Applied skills will no longer be limited to shop classes or career-oriented curricula, and the attainment of academic skills will no longer be the sole responsibility of students going to college. Instead, a wide range of skills will be taught by regular academic content teachers and integrated into regular classes.

                As the experience in Maryland indicates, reforms that are driven, even partially, by standards must dedicate equal effort to developing assessment tools that provide valid measures of competency to a variety of often-skeptical constituency groups. New York has developed application-oriented "learning standards" that cover seven content areas: (1) math/science/technology, (2) health/physical education/home economics, (3) social studies, (4) career development and occupational studies, (5) English/language arts, (6) arts, and (7) languages other than English. Comprised of phrases such as "acquires the knowledge and ability necessary to . . ."; "access, generate, process, and transfer . . ."; and "design, construct, use and evaluate . . .," these standards, like SCANS skills, invite a career context to make them more meaningful to students and teachers. (See Appendix 5 for a detail listing of New York State Learning Standards.) Unfortunately, lacking a state Regents Exam to measure the application-oriented skills that are found within these standards, many school-to-work proponents in the state fear that these new standards will be easily disregarded in favor of more traditional academic standards. Recently, however, the Commissioner of Education and the Board of Regents have established a clear strategy[8] that places increasing emphasis on student attainment of standards. In addition, the state is placing greater importance on the Regents Exam as the primary measures of student achievement and determinants of high school graduation. By the year 2000, students will be taking new tests designed to measure how they apply knowledge and skills and include writing essays, performing experiments, and making presentations. This type of Regents Exam promises to be quite different from current exams and difficult to develop and implement. It also has the potential to drive curriculum and ensure the proper place for school-to-work in mainstream reform.

                North Carolina standards, now being revised on a discipline-by-discipline basis to incorporate applications and more integrated pedagogical approaches, have been given immense weight by the state's strong assessment and accountability system. Indeed, the state's Director of Instructional Services pointed out the "high stakes accountability in the state" when she mentioned the state's yearly publication of high and low performing schools.[9] In addition to traditional graduation requirements in the form of Carnegie units, the state legislature requires the development of statewide K-12 goals and objectives for curriculum and assessment on a grade by grade and course by course basis.[10] Curriculum committees, comprised of academic and vocational educators, postsecondary faculty, parents, and industry leaders, revise the statewide curriculum and assessment in five-year cycles. College professors determine whether the state is on the right track with competency goals and objectives.

                In 1997, the State Board of Education began requiring schools to incorporate programs that better prepare high school graduates for higher education and the world of work, strengthen instruction and assessment practices to ensure they meet world class standards, integrate a system for workforce preparedness, and establish career pathways. The Board established six competency areas--(1) communication, (2) using numbers and data, (3) problem solving, (4) processing information, (5) teamwork, and (6) using technology--in which high school graduates must demonstrate a high level of proficiency. Work is now underway to incorporate North Carolina's proficiency requirements into the state's "ABCs of Public Education" that went into effect in high schools during the 1997-1998 school year.[11] The plan requires schools to be held accountable for the educational growth of their students and gives them control over educational and financial decisions. The Director of Workforce Development Education in Nash-Rocky Mount School District stated that standards would definitely impact school-to-work. Indeed, much of the state's accountability system takes note of comments from employers and postsecondary institutions regarding the need for student improvement in areas such as reading, writing, and math.[12] The standards also establish a strong forum for school-to-work through their application orientation. In effect, the strong infrastructure that supports student performance standards and the ABCs of Public Education work together to promote the same type of authentic learning that school-to-work promotes.

                Most of the New Hampshire school-to-work directors and regional coordinators who were interviewed during this project considered school-to-work to be part of the state's curriculum framework. One regional director stated that school-to-work is structured so that it can easily be infused into the existing curriculum, not simply added on. The New Hampshire K-12 Curriculum Frameworks are part of a comprehensive state effort of "aligning curriculum, assessment, and instruction . . . (to) increase academic achievement through focused curriculum and improved teaching methods." The effort is being directed under the New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program (NHEIAP) which began in 1989.[13] Although the framework exists in four traditional subject areas--(1) English/language arts, (2) mathematics, (3) science, and (4) social studies--the assessments (NHEIAP tests) that are structured around them are designed to evaluate both students' knowledge and their ability to apply that knowledge.

                The standards themselves represent many of the principles of authentic teaching and learning. (See excerpts from New Hampshire's Curriculum Framework in Appendix 6.) For example, the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Framework is organized around eight strands: (1) problem solving and reasoning; (2) communication and connections; (3) numbers, numeration, operations, and number theory; (4) geometry, measurement, and trigonometry; (5) data analysis, statistics, and probability; (6) functions, relations, and algebra; (7) mathematics for change; and (8) discrete mathematics. Within each strand, one or more broad goals are further broken down into a "purpose statement which places the goal in context and elaborates on its role in the mathematics program," as well as a curriculum standard and a proficiency standard (www.plymouth.edu/psc/math/curricula/k12organ.html). Science standards include strands such as Science as Inquiry; Science, Technology, and Society; and Unifying Themes and Concepts and the traditional sub-disciplines of Life Science, Earth/Space Science, and Physical Science. The following excerpt from the Problem Solving and Reasoning Strand in Mathematics illustrates the state's new application-orientation in its standards:

Standard 1a. K-12 Broad Goal: Students will use problem-solving strategies to investigate and understand increasingly complex mathematical content.

PURPOSE: Problem solving should serve as the organizing feature of the mathematics curriculum as well as other areas of study and should be applied to everyday activities. Problem solving must not be seen as a separate topic, but rather the centerpiece of the mathematics curriculum. Students should have many experiences in posing and solving problems from their world, from data that are meaningful to them, and from mathematical investigations.

Curriculum Standards(7-12, building upon the K- 6 experiences in grades 7-12):

• Determine, collect, and organize the relevant data needed to solve real-world problems.
  
  
• Determine the reasonableness of solutions to real-world problems.
  
  
• Use technology whenever appropriate to solve real-world problems which require strategies previously learned.
  
  
• Use technology whenever appropriate to solve problems related to basic living skills including, but not limited to, personal finance, wages, banking and credit, home improvement problems, measurement, taxes, business situations, purchasing, and transportation.
  
  
• Apply problem-solving strategies to solve problems in the natural and social sciences and in pure mathematics.

Proficiency Standards (End of Grade 10):

• Determine, collect, and organize the relevant data needed to solve real-world problems.
  
  
• Choose the appropriate technology needed to solve a real-world problem.
  
  
• Translate results of a computation into solutions that fit the real-world problem (for example, when a computation shows that one needs 3.2 gallons of paint to paint a room, how much paint do you buy?).
  
  
• Determine if the solution of a real-world problem is reasonable.
  
  
• Use technology to solve a problem from science, social science, or mathematics.

Applications are also prevalent in science as illustrated below in the "Unifying Themes and Concepts" strand:

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

Proficiency Standards (End of Grade Ten [Secondary]):
Students will be able to . . .

• Demonstrate and describe how parts of a system influence each other, including feedback.
  
  
• Demonstrate how systems include processes as well as parts (e.g., human body, telephone system, solar system).
  
  
• Show how one system can be part of another system, and how systems influence each other.
  
  
• Predict how certain changes in the system will or will not affect the operation of the system.

                New Hampshire intends to weave standards into all components of the state's educational infrastructure. The plan includes continued and expanded dialogue between K-12 faculty, postsecondary faculty, administrators, admissions officers, and guidance counselors. In addition, the state will . . .

1.	identify entry-level competencies for all two- and four-year higher education institutions, allowing individual institutions to determine necessary levels of mastery for admissions consideration.
2.	extend curriculum frameworks to include 12 th grade proficiencies aligned with postsecondary entry competencies, and assess students on achievement.
3.	establish a competency-based admissions system that provides additional basis for two- and four-year admission decisions (initially the system will run simultaneously with the current one).

Strategies for the restructuring of teaching and learning practices include . . .

1.	the development of standards that recognize work-based learning experiences as a vehicle through which competencies may be attained.
2.	the application of career development framework proficiencies across multiple disciplines and the incorporation of applied skills and work-based learning experiences into existing frameworks and proficiencies.
3.	the provision of a framework to translate nontraditional (e.g., interdisciplinary) courses into disciplinary requirement "language."
4.	the development of frameworks for competency-based articulation agreements within five career clusters.
5.	the use of more competency-based assessment methods at the postsecondary level to determine advanced standing (New Hampshire State School-to-Work Team, August 7, 1997).

                Two problem areas could impact the state's efforts to implement these new standards. First, existing policies such as Carnegie Units that are firmly rooted at the local level may impede rather than advance the state's reform. Second, preservice and inservice professional development standards are needed but currently not available to support the use of authentic learning and teaching strategies by teachers, guidance counselors, and postsecondary faculty.

                Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities has aided educators across the state in developing more application-oriented programs for all students. Academic counselors at Champlain Valley Union High School used the standards in their campaign to revitalize the school with school-to-work principles. Like many other states, the thrust of Vermont's standards, adopted by the State Board of Education in 1996, is to improve student learning and provide a stronger assessment system. The Framework is organized around four components: (1) vital-result standards, (2) field of knowledge standards, (3) learning opportunities and examples of recommended practices, and (4) an appendix. Vital-result standards have been developed to cover communication, reasoning and problem solving, personal development, and civic/social responsibility. They cut across and are supported by all field-of-knowledge standards, which include Arts; Language and Literature; History and Social Studies; and Science, Mathematics, and Technology. (See Appendix 7 for a more detailed list of Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities.) The state's comprehensive assessment system emphasizes standardized testing as well as the development of student portfolios in mathematics and writing.

Allow School-to-Work To Evolve into the Mainstream

. . . the most provocative and powerful impact of K-16 partnerships on higher education is to be found in the implications of two principles underlying most reforms. The first is that our educational system ought to have no barriers between its segments, combining education from cradle to grave into one seamless whole. The second principle is that what counts outside academe is what one knows and can do--and that is precisely what should determine a student's progress through the educational system, including college. (Langenberg, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, 1997)

                Although not fully embraced around the country, authentic learning and teaching methods have fewer obstacles to overcome than a reform such as school-to-work, which promotes the idea of incorporating employer needs and workplace scenarios into classroom activities and academic curriculum. Recognizing the traditional isolation of educators and their hesitation to change, many school-to-work administrators have used the more broad-based pedagogy of authentic teaching to slowly expose teachers, parents, students, and institutions of higher education to the benefits of school-to-work. Indeed, many of the school-to-work programs studied during the course of this project often consider themselves to be "works in progress." They shy away from school-to-work titles and terminology that often promote misperceptions and threaten the reform's acceptance by those who are comfortable with traditional approaches and terms.

                Despite the fact that the school-to-work movement was often the impetus for many of these thriving "works in progress" and has supplied needed funding, school administrators and teachers envision their efforts as being driven by broader goals. These broader, authentic teaching and learning goals promote the same strong interdisciplinary and applied learning systems as school-to-work. Unlike quick-fix programs or isolated activities, these more lofty goals consist of reforms to the entire school and, thus, take longer to achieve. The difference between these strategies and others that have been less successful in involving college-bound students in school-to-work is their maintaining, at least initially, some aspects of a traditional framework--one that college admissions officers, students, and parents accept, trust, and understand. These reformers are developing a school-to-work culture slowly, without losing sight of the big picture--a more academically rigorous and applicable education for all students.

                Although many of these systems do not meet the exacting standards established under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act for placing students in work-based learning experiences, two unique features suggest this "school-to-work continuum" offers great hope for expansion. The first is a commitment to developing a strong foundation for authentic learning. Although the authentic learning concepts may be school-to-work ideals, reformers do not necessarily classify their efforts in a narrow school-to-work context. In developing their philosophy, educators try to better position their systems and programs by understanding and anticipating the ramifications for the reforms they promote--for example, the potential resistance from outside and inside the school, and how applied and contextual learning will affect students and teachers. The second feature of this more holistic strategy for reform is its emphasis on changes in learning, not changes in the venue for learning. This allows teachers to spend their time, at least initially, developing their own understandings of context-based learning strategies and minimizes many of the logistical and financial struggles of placing students in extended work-based learning experiences outside the classroom. Although most educators are working toward requiring all students to complete at least one job shadow before graduation, the shadowing experience is often used to ease school staff, parents, and even postsecondary personnel into the concept of using the workplace as a teaching tool.

Develop a Vision, Foundation, or Philosophy That Supports Systemic, Long-Term Change
            A staff member at the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning stated that, despite the notoriety the state has received for its school-to-work efforts, they are "nowhere near" actually "having stuff done." He continued to note, however, that "conceptually, we see what makes sense." What makes sense in Minnesota, based upon their standards and their state restructuring efforts, is the development of a new educational environment promoted by authentic teaching and learning strategies and (as discussed previously) strengthened by state-approved applied learning standards. The depth of difficulties the state must endure to achieve gradual change became evident as interviews with local and state administrators highlighted the tendencies for educators to put curriculum and assessment back into their traditional, disciplinary "boxes" if momentum is not sustained.

                To avoid the tendencies to "backslide," support and vision for the change process must be both top-down and bottom-up--accepted by at least some members at all levels of the organization. Minnesota has used the efforts of creative individuals and visionaries to support school-to-work reform and promote authentic learning and assessment strategies guided by applied state standards. These individuals have required latitude and time to develop a system that falls outside the traditional disciplinary boxes as well as the training to develop curriculum that can be accountable for meeting accepted and desired standards. The school-to-work coordinator in New Hampshire's Moultonborough School District, a rural town that sends approximately 70% of its students to four-year colleges, stated that her superintendent, a school-to-work supporter, does not "make anyone do anything" but rather gives the staff the opportunities to make their own changes. Likewise, the Winnacunnet School District in New Hampshire gives teachers broad parameters and allows them to make specific curriculum changes as they see fit. In this way, even skeptical teachers are more apt to accept reforms since they have some sense of ownership in the change/reform process.

                The change process must also be understood and supported by those outside the school such as postsecondary staff, parents, community members, and employers. In North Carolina, polls and focus groups were conducted so that the ideas and needs of concerned citizens and parents could be incorporated into the state's reform. Educators and industry representatives were consulted and special committees were created. Like the majority of individuals interviewed during this project, reformers in North Carolina took great efforts to educate parents, teachers, and postsecondary institutions about what school-to-work really means. This was primarily because the reformers understood their state's reform to be more than just a program with parts that must be put in place. They have been fighting to change the state educational philosophy toward more authentic learning and teaching, a pedagogy that must have a solid foundation.

                A gradual process must be dynamic enough to survive the time required for the school's culture and its personnel to adapt to new, uncomfortable conditions. The school-to-work coordinator for New Hampshire's Eastern Region stated that "if you are looking for sustained change, you must go through the entire process to get there." She often makes the analogy to steering a ship--it takes a lot of components and they all must work together. This type of coordination does not come overnight. It is an activity that appears to lack tangible results initially but is, nevertheless, vital if reform is to succeed.

                Two years ago, faculty and the school board at the Red Wing School District in Minnesota, a school district that sends 60% of its students to four-year college, began debating the benefits of a system structured around traditional Carnegie Unit requirements for graduation. After much discussion, the school board directed the high school to revamp the basis for graduation to include three components:

1.

Minnesota's Graduation Standards. The state's ten learning outcomes are to become the basis for graduation. Students will eventually have to demonstrate these standards.

2.

A career component. Each student must evaluate their career interests and choose a career area.

3.

Individualized learning plans.

A faculty committee developed and implemented a framework entitled "Career and Academic Plan" or CAP. Under CAP, students begin developing their academic and career course of study in the 9 ^th grade. Each year students review their plan with an advisor, a plan that must center on the Minnesota standards.[14] The advisor system requires students to review their CAP every other week with a faculty member that they selected at the end of the 8 ^th grade. Staff feel that the advisor system is "infusing the counseling role into the classroom" by promoting the idea that the "best counselor is a teacher."[15] Teachers are practicing the same type of student-centered pedagogy supported by authentic learning while bringing in the career focus most commonly associated with school-to-work.

                Career standards are incorporated into 9 ^th grade civics, a requirement for all students. In civics, students complete an interest survey and perform computer searches for colleges and careers. The results of the activities in civics class become part of the student's career and academic plan, a plan that is reviewed and revised as needed. In the 10 ^th grade, students formally review the plans they devised in the 9 ^th grade.

                Red Wing offers courses in four career areas or "pathways": (1) business, (2) natural science, (3) humanities, and (4) technology and industry. The CAP model has four major priorities:

1.	Getting workplaces into the school
2.	Getting students into the community through internships and job shadows
3.	Getting the community involved with new standards
4.	Getting teachers into the workplace so they will understand the needs of today's workers

These are clearly priorities of a classic school-to-work model. Unlike other programs, however, Red Wing has developed a supporting infrastructure that is based upon broader, more multidimensional authentic learning goals. These goals, with the support of state standards, have strengthened the school-to-work efforts throughout the district.

                Representatives at the Department of Education in Marylandadmit that their state has been criticized for "not sticking with any one thing long enough to have it take hold." Those involved with the state's blended instruction and "career connections" efforts, however, appear to be "in this (reform) for the long haul." The state has incorporated school-to-work into its overall education reform agenda, which advances performance-based education and real-world contexts--authentic teaching and learning strategies. State education leaders note that Maryland is not adding a career component but rather using the career component already in the system to enhance instruction. In this case, school-to-work creates the venue to anchor instruction and improve authentic pedagogy. The state has a strong K-16 leadership council comprised of state superintendents of schools, Maryland Higher Education Commission (coordinating body), Chancellor of University of Maryland system, and Maryland partnership in teaching and learning. Private colleges are not yet as involved as the public institutions.

                The Winnacunnet School District in New Hampshire, a district that sends approximately 60% of its students to four-year college, is shifting away from the "learning for learning sake" philosophy and toward a career-based curriculum. Although the district's high school is proud of its high standards, the focus is not on sending students to college but giving them the ability to make informed choices regarding college and career. The program centers around the idea that students need to know the available options yet often have very limited information. In addition, many of the school's staff members follow the philosophy of the school-to-work consultant: "It isn't what you know, it is what you can do with it." Only after being given adequate information are students asked to identify a possible pursuit after high school. The school now promotes learning in terms that will allow students to gain more focus and make better connections. They have been so successful at phasing in their approach to reform that when students are asked what they think of the changes, they often answer "there are no changes."[16]

                Given the school's career focus, it might seem ironic to hear the school-to-work consultant refer to the school's reform as a "Baccalaureate College Prep Experience" for all of its students. Indeed, the school's consultant states, the school "developed school-to-work before they even knew what school-to-work was."[17] The Winnacunnet model attempts to duplicate the characteristics of educational programs that have been developed for the "top 20 to 25%" of students across the country. These students know that they will go to college and know that they will graduate. There are three core components of the Winnacunnet program:

1.	The high school curriculum is structured so that elective courses are minimized. All students in the 9 th and 10 th grades take core classes. Only music, art, and foreign language are allowed as electives. The curriculum is, therefore, comprised of structured, required courses packed into the high school years to "get students ready."
1.	The high school does not focus on students going to college but, rather, on students preparing for occupations. In so doing, all students are required to take "Introduction to Computers and Careers," a class that offers students the opportunity to develop their keyboarding skills, gain computer literacy, and use computers to explore careers.
1.	All students are required to choose a career cluster at the end of the 10 th grade. Career choices are made only after considerable exposure to the four possible career clusters: (1) arts and communication, (2) business and marketing, (3) health and human services, and (4) technology and engineering.[18] Upon choosing, students will have authentic experiences based on that career cluster and will take two career-related classes each year in 11 th and 12 th grades. In choosing a career cluster, each student will get the same diploma but will develop a strand to meet their needs.

                The school's school-to-work coordinator states that reform cannot be replicated; it is a battle that has to be fought by each individual school. Those in the school are coming to realize that school-to-work is about "changing the system of education in the community." He stated that you don't change the system by adding a program or an activity, the only way to create sustainability in the long term is to decide to change the whole school.

                The Director of Instructional Services in North Carolina referred to the state's vision of school-to-work as "cream of mushroom soup"--you "can't pick out the pieces because it is all blended together." North Carolina has been able to create a unified system with strategies such as (1) bringing the dozens of school improvement initiatives into one coherent plan and gathering all of the state's resources behind it, (2) incorporating programs that better prepare high school graduates for higher education and the world of work, and (3) building public awareness and support for the changes this plan will bring to schools across North Carolina. This educational reform has been an incremental process; speed is not the most important priority for the state. Rather, North Carolina wants to ensure that its students can use and apply knowledge at high-performance levels.

                North Carolina is integrating school-to-work into the mainstream in two ways. First, statewide curriculum is being designed to incorporate theory and application so that authentic learning and teaching strategies will be promoted statewide. Many state leaders feel that application and theory are not achieved by setting up new courses but, rather, by revising existing ones. Second, the state is working towards a requirement that all students participate in a work-based learning experience. Unlike other states that have a narrow definition of work-based learning, North Carolina offers schools a "menu" of choices regarding the type of work-based learning experience they can offer--shadows, internships, school-based enterprises, and apprenticeships. Schools will not be forced to offer services that they are not ready to provide but can, instead, gain exposure to an application-oriented curriculum and the work-based learning concept at their own speed.

                The Commission on Workforce Preparedness created Job Ready, one of North Carolina's school-to-work initiatives, as a systematic process that starts in kindergarten and continues through postsecondary education. This is consistent with the state's gradual movement of school-to-work ideas into the mainstream. Challenging the concept that career education should wait until high school, North Carolina advocates the idea that middle school students should have the opportunity to begin exploring careers and the world of work. Exploratory programs of this type are now in place in all middle schools in the state. Students choose to take up to two of the following five courses per year in 7 ^th and 8 ^th grades: (1) Exploring Career Decisions, (2) Exploring Business and Marketing, (3) Exploring Life Skills, (4) Exploring Biotechnology (agriculture, heath, sciences), and (5) Exploring Technology Systems. The state's Director of Instructional Services found little resistance to the program that now serves about 80% of the students in the state. She says that she uses "student demand as a proxy for acceptance."

Emphasize What Happens, Not Where It Happens
            Much has been written about the need for school-to-work programs to "go to scale" if they are to infiltrate into the mainstream. Phrases such as "systemic change" often emphasize the number of students involved in reform more than the quality or components of the reform. Ironically, one of the primary obstacles confronting any attempt to move school-to-work out of its traditional "vocational" stereotype and into the college-bound population is program capacity. Programs that attempt to "go to scale" too quickly--before the school, its culture, its staff, and its resources are ready to handle the extra burdens and obligations of a school-to-work initiative--run the risk of sending students into low-quality work placements where little, if any, learning takes place. And, programs that require "full blown" workplace experiences can discourage the involvement of students and parents who are "on the fence" about school-to-work and prefer to maintain some sort of balance between traditional and nontraditional learning opportunities.

                Many reformers appear to have achieved a balance between in-school and out-of-school activities by working to create a flexible school-to-work system that is capable of meeting the needs of all students. Coordinators, teachers, and administrators consider all students as having "college-bound" potential and are more concerned that students receive the benefits of high-quality applied or authentic learning experience than obtain a job and some workplace exposure. They understand that the process involves more than simply offering students a job but working to change the fundamental characteristics of the educational experience.

                Highly selective programs like the New Visions program in New York offer an intensive workplace experience for only a small number of students. Instead of the capacity of individual programs increasing, administrators hope that the success of existing programs will spur the creation of new programs with a similar philosophy and structure. The positive learning experiences that students and employers share epitomizes the authentic learning philosophy and ensures program continuance. Students are given ample attention and instruction opportunities; employers are not overburdened by a demanding system; and teachers have adequate time to create quality authentic learning plans for students.

                New Hampshire's Moultonborough School District is situated in a community that has been criticized for "over-encouraging college." The school-to-work coordinator noted that "we do things that someone else might call school-to-work, but it is just what we do." School-to-work and authentic, applied learning activities are infused into the classroom but do not necessarily end up on student transcripts. The district has used school-to-work money to develop applied learning activities, but as the school-to-work coordinator pointed out, "when school-to-work money is gone, these programs will still continue." School-to-work funds are being used by a 9 ^th grade social studies teacher who is integrating tourism (one of the primary industries supporting the local economy) into the regular course curriculum and allowing students to visit hotels and design travel itineraries. In addition, a physics teacher offers his students the opportunity to spend three days in a local engineering firm. A language teacher finds translation jobs for her students through connections with the Spanish and French Consulate. These workplace programs were all developed for the primary purpose of strengthening academic achievement.

                On the surface, Kingswood Regional High School in New Hampshire is structured in a traditional fashion. Students have four paths: (1) college (based on a 4.0 scale), (2) standard (3.5 scale--goal is high school graduation), (3) Tech Prep (3.5 scale--goal is trade preparation),and (4) honors--(4.5 scale--goal is college, advanced standing). To avoid changing the school's curriculum immediately, the school's goal is to have 100% of its students go through an internship or job shadow experience during their high school years. So far over 200 students of the school's 800 have participated in some sort of out-of-school (or school-to-work) experience, even though only 41 students are formally enrolled in the school-to-work program.

                Champlain Valley Union (CVU) High School in Hinesburg, Vermont, has managed to involve all seniors in an authentic learning or school-to-work experience called "Graduation Challenge" in which students spend 30 hours in an outside (often work-based) learning activity of their choosing. Although the out-of-school experience has now become a high school graduation requirement, its guiding principles are academic in nature. By participating, all graduates attain the skills necessary to investigate/research a subject, apply their findings and the knowledge they gathered, and speak and write about their experiences in a formal setting. The students' out-of-school learning experiences are integrated into academic classrooms through senior research projects/papers written with the assistance of faculty advisors. Each student is required to make a formal presentation of his or her work experience to a panel of judges at the end of the year.

                Graduation Challenge began in 1993 as a small pilot program. The program has grown to include all high school seniors, who now receive half credit towards graduation for their participation. The primary reason for initiating Graduation Challenge was to make a fundamental educational change throughout the school. The push for reform came from school leaders, particularly the principal and guidance counselors, who felt that necessary changes were not taking place in the classroom. School leaders chose to focus on three specific areas of reform:

1.	Creating a senior exit requirement that would allow students to demonstrate what they are capable of doing
2.	Supporting a better transition for 9 th graders to upper grade levels
3.	Ensuring that at least one adult in the school is familiar with each student (this led to a new schoolwide advisory system in which each student meets with a faculty member of their choosing for 15 minutes per day to discuss their courses and school experiences)

                Three members of the IEE research team visited CVU and participated in the panels that judged the Graduation Challenge student presentations. No student is exempt from any of the three components of this exercise--(1) work-based experience, (2) paper, or (3) presentation. Students are required to find their own mentor or "community consultant" as well as their own faculty advisor, who ensures that they have completed their hours outside the school and guides them through their research paper. Faculty members who are not personally involved with the students grade the ten-page research papers. The panels that evaluate student presentations are comprised of faculty members, community consultants, parents, and various community members. Student presentations are evaluated on their content, organization, and delivery. (See Appendix 8 for a listing of the assessment criteria for student presentations.) The program appears to be a tremendous success as evidenced by the energy and enthusiasm that faculty, community representatives, and even low academically achieving students displayed. Academic faculty members are starting to support the program. Students are gaining exposure to the workplace, and representatives from the workplace are developing new relationships with the school.

                Topics for the 1998 Graduation Challenge projects covered a wide range of industries and concerns. One student designed and conducted a survey about the local community's understanding of and attitudes towards solar energy. The project also included a job shadow with a company that designs and builds solar-powered cars. During the student's Graduation Challenge presentation, he demonstrated his knowledge of statistics by discussing the results of his survey as well as his understanding of science by discussing the solar car's system. During her presentation, one student explained how she had decided against pursuing a degree in broadcast journalism. The student, after witnessing the capture of a fugitive during her internship at a local television station, realized the job of uncovering breaking stories had too much pressure. A third student spent thirty hours working in a car stereo store. During his presentation, he confirmed his plans to attend trade school in this area as well as discussing the opportunity to participate in a statewide competition of car sound systems. The important thing to note about Graduation Challenge is that only a small number of the students involved are formally considered to be school-to-work students, yet all were given the opportunity to participate in a quality school-to-work experience.

                Although attempting to do something similar, Indiana County in Pennsylvania is not experiencing the same success implementing its career exploration requirement, "Graduation Project." In 1999, all graduating seniors in Indiana County must complete this project, which is intended to provide students with an in-depth look into a specific career. Ideally, all students will have an opportunity to job shadow as part of the process. The county's school-to-work coordinators, however, have stated that, lacking uniformity between schools, the project has turned into a research paper on a career, rather than an
in-depth career exploration.

               [3] Over the past decade, industry leaders have spent time and money creating industry-based skill standards that support high-performance workplace principles. Similarly, educators at state and national levels have focused many of their efforts on developing or updating academic standards to prepare students better for the new demands of work and life. In 1997, the IEE hosted workshops that brought together representatives from several of these national academic and industry groups. The workshop was structured so that participants could discuss the difficulties of developing integrated standards and determine the next steps to promote integration. A 1998 conference focused on the integration of mathematics standards in three industries. See Bailey (1997) and Forman and Steen (1999).

               [4] See Bailey and Merritt (1995) for a discussion of the changes in skill standards and an evaluation of the 22 industry-based skill standards projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor. This report indicates that, although a long way from producing standards that fully integrate academic and technical skills, industry groups are working toward standards that reflect workplace dynamics and an increased importance on academic and technical skills. See also Bailey (1997) for a discussion of the similarities and differences between academic and industry skill standards.

               [5] The following organizations have also endorsed the use of basic and high standards in schools throughout the state: Minnesota Business Partnership, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, Greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul AreaChamber of Commerce, Minnesota Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Minnesota Employers' Association, Minnesota High Technology Council, Printing Industry of Minnesota, Inc., Minnesota Association of Private Postsecondary Schools, Minnesota Retail Merchants Association, SciMath Minnesota, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Minnesota Technology Education Association (children.state.mn.us/grad/Gssupp.html).

               [6] Performance packages are a series of rigorous assignments that, taken together, indicate whether a student has learned the skills and knowledge specified in an entire content standard.

               [7] See Appendix 4 for a condensed list of Maryland's "skills for success"--the state's crossdisciplinary standards. Maryland's "skills for success" are similar to SCANS skills published by the U.S. Department of Labor in the early 1990s.

               [8] The state's new road map for schools includes three components: (1) setting clear, high expectations for all students, and developing an effective means of assessing students' progress in meeting the standards; (2) building the local capacity of schools to enable all students to meet standards; and (3) making public the results of the assessment of student progress through school reports.

               [9] North Carolina schools are graded based upon test scores and the percentage of students enrolled in college Tech Prep and college prep programs--no points are awarded to schools with students in a general education course of study.

               [10] An eighth-grade "end of grade" assessment is used as a competency measure that must be passed for students to enter high school. A high school accountability model was implemented during the 1997-1998 school year; a core mastery exam will be created for the 1998-1999 school year; and an exit exam will be ready for the year 2001. Student promotion benchmarks, including a performance assessment, may be implemented by the year 2000.

               [11] The ABCs are a comprehensive plan to reorganize the public schools in North Carolina that (1) stress strong accountability, (2) emphasize the basics and high educational standards, and (3) allow for maximum local control. The State Board of Education established the ABCs of Public Education plan based on the beliefs "that schools should be held accountable to high standards; that all children graduating from NC's schools should have a solid grasp of reading, mathematics, writing and technology skills; and that local communities and educators should be empowered to make vital decisions about schools" (www.dpi.state.nc.us/edreform/edreformplan.html, p. 4).

               [12] The comprehensive strategy for reorganizing North Carolina's public schools was based on input provided by individuals at all levels in the community and state, including the State Board of Education, the Governor, the General Assembly, the North Carolina Education Standards and Accountability Commission, the Commission on Workforce Preparedness, the School-Based Management Task Force, parents, educators, and concerned citizens. Parents and employers voiced the need for a tangible connection between schooling and the real world. Employers and colleges wanted graduates of North Carolina's public schools to be able to apply lessons they have learned, and to be prepared to continue to learn as adults" (www.dpi.state.nc.us/edreform/edreformplan.html, p. 3).

               [13] Under the NHEIAP, New Hampshire has developed a five step program for educational improvement: (1) define what students should know and be able to do at the completion of different levels of their education; (2) communicate these new standard to educators statewide; (3) assist schools in developing a local improvement and assessment plan; (4) develop assessment tools which accurately evaluate a student's ability to meet these new standards; and (5) assist schools in using assessment results to modify their local plan to improve student academic performance and achievement (webster.state.nh.us/doe/nheiap.htm).

               [14] This year's 9 ^th graders will be the first held accountable for achieving the state's new standards.

               [15] The school has named this the "dean system for counseling" since teachers get assistance from the principal, administrators, and other counselors to enable them to more effectively become the student's "resource and crisis person." Counselors take up the slack and individually counsel students when they are in difficulty.

               [16] The school, initially operating under a top-down policy, went through a solid change process that included a full strategic plan. The school board and key administrators began exploring school-to-work and structured the changes so that school-to-work reforms were systematically phased in--each school year a new cohort curriculum was designed and introduced. The school's reform started four years ago with the 9 ^th grade class, the next year the school reform moved to the 10 ^th grade, and so on.

               [17] As the school-to-work consultant pointed out, "What we are going to do for one child, we will do for everyone." The school's special education students have the same graduation requirements as college-bound students; however, the staff will add support services for special education students.

               [18] The original model for the school was the Tech Prep model that offered technical specialties for every student. The program expanded to offer 87 specialties but found this number unmanageable.