The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 made funds available so states could establish their own school-to-work programs. As a result, hundreds of programs were developed nationwide. Read about one state's response and learn how a fully implemented school-to-work program might progress from elementary through high school.
In 1995, Florida was awarded a five-year, $54.6 million grant, funded
by The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, to implement its school-to-work
initiative. That grant, managed jointly by the Florida Department of Education
and the Florida Department of Labor and Employment Security, resulted
in the development of a number of programs designed to provide students
with the means to achieve economic independence and to provide employers
with a competent and competitive workforce.
"These school-to-work programs motivated kids by allowing them to relate
and apply what they're learning and by helping them to make intelligent
choices about what they want to be," John Casbarro, regional coordinator
in Florida of the KAPOW (Kids and the Power of Work) program, told Education
World.
The programs varied from district to district, and even from school
to school, but all focused on meeting four key goals:
raising academic standards by providing demanding course work that
is relevant to student's lives
reducing the dropout rate by demonstrating a relationship between
schoolwork and career aspirations
improving career opportunities by providing hands-on training in employable
skills
producing a more skilled workforce by providing a work-based curriculum
and on-site training
To see how those goals might be implemented throughout a student's academic
career, let's explore a Florida program at each level of public education.
KAPOW: STARTING OFF WITH A BANG
At the elementary level, the goal of the Florida school-to-work program
was awareness. Lessons and activities were geared toward providing
students with a better understanding of how their schoolwork relates to
the workplace and answering the age-old question "Why do I need to know
this anyway?" To achieve that goal, more than 40 Florida elementary schools
relied on the KAPOW
program. Developed in 1991 by the National Child Labor Committee and Grand
Metropolitan, Inc. (the owner of such businesses as Burger King, Hagen
Daz, and Vision Corner), KAPOW creates partnerships in which schools and
area businesses work together to educate elementary-aged students about
the world of work.
In the KAPOW program, an area business forms an alliance with a local
elementary school and agrees to provide incentives to the company's employees
who volunteer to work with students at that school. Each volunteer commits
to visit his or her assigned classroom seven times during the year and
to conduct professionally-designed lessons focusing on self-awareness,
decision-making, positive work habits and attitudes, teamwork and interdependence,
communication, job and career awareness, and overcoming biases and stereotypes.
Lessons might include writing a resume, creating an advertising storyboard,
designing a product, role-playing a job-related situation, or planning
a group event. The lessons culminate with a class visit to the area business,
during which students actually participate in work-related activities.
Students might, for example, assemble phones at Lucent Technologies, wait
on tables aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, or create computerized
medical records at Miami Children's Hospital.
The KAPOW curriculum, therefore, designed to be completed in a single
year (typically third, fourth, or fifth grade), introduces students to
the workplace both conceptually and physically through a combination of
classroom work and on-site experiences.
MAKING CONNECTIONS: THE MIDDLE SCHOOL YEARS
The focus of Florida's school-to-work program in middle school was exploration.
The curriculum and organization at Tallahassee's Belle Vue Middle School
provides one example of how that was achieved. At Belle Vue, students
worked in teams and study core subjects using a thematic, project-based
method, rather than the traditional subject-based approach. Each theme
incorporated academic skills as well as personal development, work-related
behaviors, and vocational training.
For example, a project based on a courthouse theme might have
included an exploration of specific legal issues, the development of conflict
resolution skills, discussions of citizen rights and responsibilities,
and the opportunity to conduct a mock trial in an actual courtroom.
At Belle Vue, business partners provided speakers, mentoring, and internship
opportunities, as well as specialized curriculum input. In addition, students
at Belle Vue participated in a school-wide economic system, in which they
earned "salaries" for positive attitudes and behaviors and for running
enterprises such as a school store, post office, and bank. Belle Vue's
Satellite Program allowed students to choose from electives, including
technology and career awareness. And an internship program allowed qualified
students to spend substantial amounts of time at local business or professional
sites, including restaurants, hospitals, and law and architectural offices.
The Belle Vue program, supported by grants from the federal Goals 2000
program, was designed to allow students to explore the personal and educational
requirements of a variety of jobs and to help them determine whether those
requirements match their own interests and abilities.
CREATING A FUTURE: CAREER TRAINING
At the high school level, Florida's school-to-work program stressed
involvement. And at some Florida's high schools, involvement means
vocational training. Experts say that soon only 20 percent of all jobs
will be held by professional workers and only 15 percent will be held
by unskilled workers. The remaining 65 percent of jobs will require more
than a high school education, but less than a college degree. The curriculum
at Miami's William H. Turner Technical Arts High School recognized that
trend. Here, students earned a high school diploma while they explored,
selected, and trained for, specific careers.
Turner Tech is an open enrollment school in which students are organized
into academies based on their chosen areas of interest. The academies
-- Agriscience, Applied Business Technology, Health, Industrial Technology,
and Public Service/Television Production -- are made up of interdisciplinary
instructional teams that stress the ability to integrate academic knowledge
with technical skills.
The emphasis at Turner Tech is on applied, rather than theoretical,
learning. In addition to their academic studies, therefore, Turner Tech
freshman learn about the academy programs available at the school, explore
the career options within each academy, and complete personal inventories
to determine where their interests and abilities lie. In their second
and third years, students choose an area of specialization and begin to
acquire hands-on experience in that area. Seniors undertake a more in-depth
study of their chosen field and receive on-the-job work experience as
they participate in business apprenticeships and community projects.
When they graduate, Turner Tech students are certified to hold jobs
in specific careers and they possess the skills, knowledge, and experience
necessary to obtain and keep those jobs.
A SEAMLESS APPROACH
Florida's school-to-work system, as envisioned by The School-to-Work
Opportunities Act of 1994, was intended to be implemented locally by educators
and industry partners who were aware of the needs and limitations of their
own areas. The programs, therefore, were as diverse as the state and,
though the three programs discussed here are only a sample of those that
operated statewide, they had many characteristics in common. All were
geared toward a system in which "elementary students were provided with
career awareness integrated into the regular curriculum; middle-school
students explored technology anchored in career applications; and high-school
students were provided with early career counseling and assessment, and
with structured programs of study, including appropriate work experience
and seamless postsecondary articulation."
