WORK PREPARATION IN THE LOCAL REFORM CONTEXT: TWO SCHOOLS

Southgate High School and Prairie High School (pseudonyms), both moderately large comprehensive high schools in California (approximately 2,400 students), have undertaken a program of reform in which the characteristic assumptions, traditional structures, and persistent practices of secondary schooling have--in principle at least--all been opened to question. The schools differ in the reform strategies they have adopted, but have in common a schoolwide effort to establish new forms of social organization for teachers' and students' work.

Our field research design focused on alternative forms of social organization within the school--or as we began to call them, "niches"--and their implications for the integration of academic and vocational education. At Southgate, all students in grades 9-11 were assigned to one of five "houses," where they took all of their basic academic requirements; teachers in the houses were organized in grade-level interdisciplinary teams. An option in one of the houses was a career academy devoted to the graphic arts. The academy enrolled students beginning in the 10th grade, and was staffed by a team of teachers who taught full-time in the academy program.

At Prairie, traditional departments were merged in broader interdisciplinary "divisions," and teachers were encouraged to develop a variety of interdisciplinary arrangements for teaching and learning. We concentrated on three possibilities created by the Prairie structure. A career academy joined business technology teachers with teachers of English, social studies, and math to teach a cohort of 10th- and 11th-grade students. A small "house" program also enrolled a cohort of students, who were taught by teamed teachers in English and social studies. Finally, the traditional grade-and-subject arrangement of classes continued to account for the largest proportion of students.

In both sites, state-funded career academies constitute one visible manifestation of change; only the smallest vestige of traditional vocational programs remain evident.[1] The career academies in these schools have many of the features of academies elsewhere (see Stern et al., 1992). They form a "school within a school" in which students take some or all of their academic requirements together, in addition to pursuing a structured sequence of career-focused courses in a broadly defined occupational field; they purport to prepare students for postsecondary work and education; they join academic and vocational teachers in instructional teams, placing an emphasis on curriculum integration; and they seek opportunities for students to gain structured work experience through mentorships or internships. At the time of our study, career academies enrolled a relatively small percentage of each school's students (fewer than 10%).

Employing these structures or "niches" as a means of sampling teachers and students, we examined the degree of fit among various currents of reform in high schools. As described in official documents, three of those currents coincide in these schools:

1. Creating a rigorous curriculum in the core academic subjects for all students.
   This reform emphasis is evident in the state's Curriculum Frameworks and in its high school graduation requirements. At Southgate, the emphasis on "all students" was reflected in the press to eliminate "remedial" math and to employ a wider array of assessments. At Prairie, one finds widespread support for heterogeneous classes and efforts to develop agreed-upon standards for achievement in subject areas.
   
   
2. Developing greater coherence and "connectedness" across the curriculum through interdisciplinary curricula, projects, and assessments.
   The Curriculum Frameworks urge interdisciplinary connections where appropriate, as do the state's 1992 California High School Task Force report Second to None and the state-funded School Restructuring Demonstration Program (SB 1274). This stream of reform is evident in the organization of Southgate's affiliation with the Coalition of Essential Schools and in the shift from departments to interdisciplinary teams. It is manifest in Prairie's two main interdisciplinary curriculum divisions, in its effort to staff and schedule "partnership" arrangements among English and social studies teachers, and in its full-day interdisciplinary planning sessions.
   
   
3. Strengthening the transition from school to work.
   Both schools reflect recent developments in state and federal vocational reforms. In both schools, traditional vocational offerings have been replaced by career academies that combine academic and vocational pursuits. As described in school documents, the academies seek a stronger academic preparation, closer integration of academic and vocational content and instructional methods, and more meaningful ties between school-based learning and structured work experience.

[1] At Southgate, the faculty includes one business teacher and one photography teacher whose classes are more properly seen as personal interest electives than as vocational preparation. At Prairie, the faculty includes one teacher with a combined assignment in drafting and auto, and a social studies teacher who teaches an elective in child development; all other vocational teachers are attached to the business academy or to a sequenced program in urban agriculture. For a description of vocational staffing and course offerings in five traditional California high schools from 1987-1990, see Little and Threatt, 1994.

• Southgate High School
• Prairie High School