ERIC ED369940: Learning through Work: Designing and Implementing Quality Worksite Learning for High School Students. School-to-Work Transition Project.

145 Pages·4 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CE 066 378
ED 369 940
Goldberger, Susan; And Others
AUTHOR
Learning through Work: Designing and Implementing
TITLE
Quality Worksite Learning for High School Students.
School-to-Work.Transition Project.
Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., New York,
INSTITUTION
N.Y.
Commonwealth Fund, New York, N.Y.; DeWitt Wallace /
SPONS AGENCY
Reader's Digest Fund, Pleasantville, N.Y.; Pew
Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, PA.
PUB DATE
Jan 94
145p.; Additional support provided by Aetna
NOTE
Foundatim, Metropolitan Life Foundation,
Bristol-Myera Squibb Foundation, Ford Foundation,
Ambrose Xone.1 Foundation, Alcoa Foundation, and
Exxon Corpel'ation. For related documents, see ED 356
322 and CE 066 377.
Non-Classroom Use (055)
PUB TYPE
Guides
MF01/PC06 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Cooperative Programs; *Education Work Relationship;
DESCRIPTORS
Employer Attitudes; *Employers; High Schools; Job
Training; Partnerships in Education; *Program Design;
*Program Implementation; *Recruitment; School
Business Relationship; Student Experience; *Work
Experience Programs
ABSTRACT
This technical assistance guide is written to help
practitioners and policymakers involve large numbers of employers in
providing high quality learning experiences in the workplace. Section
I discusses the challenge of the school-to-work transition and
guiding principles for new efforts. Section II focuses on strategies
for recruiting and maintaining meaningful employer involvement.
-411 the field, it provides advice to help new
Through lessons i
programs do the following: clarify roles and responsibilities of
participating employers, target employers who are most likely to
participate, approach employers in ways they trust, and maintain and
deepen employer participation. Section III focuses on how to
organize, structure, deliver, and assess learning experiences at the
worksite. It is organized around 10 basic design elements that begin
with the nature of the partnership and its goals, move through the
structure and content of the workplace experiences and how they are
reinforced in the classroom, and conclude with discussions of the
academic, social, and administrative support systems for a successful
program. Section IV addresses common implementation challenges in a
question and answer format: student recruitment and selection,
student attendance and performance, transportation and scheduling,
insurance and liability, child labor laws, paying students for work,
building good relations with workers and organized labor, and scale
and cost issues. Appendixes include sample contracts, learning plans,
assessment tools, a student evaluation form, and program
descriptions. Contains 30 references. (YLB)
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U S OEPARTIMENT OF FOUCATION
Oft. ol Educational Research and Improvement
TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
ED
CENTER (ERIC)
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
RUDOLPH G. PENNER
RICHARD P. NATHAN, Chairman
Director of Economic Studies
Provost, Rockefeller College
Policy Economics Group
State University of New York
KPMG Peat Marwick
Director, Rockefeller Institute
of Government
FRANKLIN D. RAINES
Vice Chairman
PAUL H. O'NEILL, Treasurer
Fannie Mae
Chairman and CEO
Alcoa
ROBERT SOLOW
Institute Professor
ELI GINZBERG, Chairman Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director
The Eisenhower Center for the
GILBERT STEINER
Conservation of Human Resources
Senior Fellow
Columbia University
Brookings Institution
KITCHELL SVIRIDOFF
Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow
Community Development Research Center
REBECCA M. BLANK
New School for Social Research
Associate Professor of Economics
Northwestern University
WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON
Lucy Flower University Professor
ANTONIA HERNANDEZ
of Sociology and Public Policy
President and General Counsel
The University of Chicago
-
Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund
WILLIAM S. WOODSIDE
Chairman, Sky Chefs, Inc.
ALAN KISTLER
Former Chairman and CEO,
President
Primerica Corporation
Human Resources Development Institute
AFL-CIO
RICHARD J. MURNANE
JUDITH M. GUERON
Professor of Education
President
Graduate School of Education
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
Harvard University
DRC
School-to-Work Transition Project
Learning Through Work
Designing and Implementing
Quality Worksite Learning
for High School Students
By Jobs for the Future: Susan Goldberger
Richard Kazis
Mary Kathleen O'Flanagan
Manpower Demonsfration
Research Corporation
January 1994
This technical assistance guide was prepared for the School-to-Work
Transition Project, a study by the Manpower Demonstration Research
Corporation of innovative programs that help students make the transi-
tion from school to work. The project received core support from The
Commonwealth Fund, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and
The Pew Charitable Trusts. Additional support for publication and dis-
semination of the project's reports was provided by the Aetna Foundation,
Inc., the Metropolitan Lite Foundation, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation, Inc.
Dissemination of MDRC reports is also supported by our Public Policy
Outreach funders: the Ford Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation,
the Alcoa Foundation, and Exxon Corporation.
The findings and conclusions in this report do not necessarily represent
the official positions or policies of the funders.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldberger, Susan.
Learning through work: designing and implementing quality worksite learning
for high school stndents/by Jobs for the Future; Susan Goldberger, Richard Kazis, Mary
Kathleen O'Flanagan.
(School-to-work transition project)
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
United States. 2. School-to-work transition
Training of
1. Employees
United States.
United States. 4. Apprentices
United States. 3. Education, Cooperative
11. O'Flanagan, Mary Kathleen. III. Jobs for the Future, Inc.
I. Kazis, Richard, 1952 - .
IV. Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. V. Title. VI. Series.
HF5549.5.T7G6454 1994
93-50166
651.3' 1242 - dc20
CIP
Copyright © 1994 by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
5
Contents
Preface
vU
A Statement from Jobs for the Future
IX
Acknowledgments
Learning
1
SECTION I: Introduction
Through Work:
11
SECTION II: Recruiting Employers
Contents
11
Introduction
13
I. Clarify the Expected Roles and Responsibilities of
Participating Employers
17
II. Target Employers Who Are Most Likely to Participate
24
III. Approach Employers in Ways They Trust
30
IV. Maintain and Deepen Employer Participation
35
SECTION III: Ten Elements of Quality Worksite Learning
37
Partners formally agree on the goals of the
Element 1:
work-based program and how to achieve them.
40
2: Student learning at the workplace progresses
Element
according to a structured plan.
46
Work-based experiences promote the development
Element 3:
of broad, transferable skills.
49
School-based activities help students distill and
Element 4:
deepen lessons of work experience.
53
Student learning at the worksite is
Element 5:
documented and assessed.
57
The program prepares students to enter the workplace.
Element 6:
62
Students receive ongoing support and counseling.
Element 7:
67
The program provides orientation, training, and
Element 8:
ongoing support to worksite and school staff.
71
Element 9: Administrative structures are established to coordinate
and manage the worksite component.
75
Mechanisms exist to assure the quality of students'
Element 10:
work-based learning experiences.
77
SECTION IV: Common Implementation Challenges:
Questions and Answers for Practitioners
89
Bibliography
93
Appendices:
Sample Contracts
I,earning Plans
Assessment Tools
Student Evaluation of Work Placement
Program Descriptions
ft
Preface
Corporation
Two years ago, the Manpower Demonstration Research
goal of learn-
(MDRC) began the School-to-Work Transition Project, with the
in the Unit-
ing about some of the most promising school-to-work programs
MDRC,
ed States. The project was carried out by a team of researchers at
Workforce Pol-
joined by partners at Jobs for the Future, BW Associates, and
icy Associates.
Learning
Through Work:
Bailey and
The project's first major product was a monograph by Thomas
Donna Merritt of Teachers College and Conservation of Human Resources,
Preface
Apprentice-
of Columbia UniversityThe Schoo;-to-Work Transition and Youth
the
ship: Lessons from the U.S. Experience (MDRC, 1993)which reviewed
tech prep,
existing analyses of agricultural education, cooperative education,
prod-
and career academy programs. The project's second and third major
the
ucts are MDRC's report on 16 innovative school-to-work programs in
United StatesHome-Grown Lessons: Innovative Programs Linking Work and
High School (MDRC, 1994)and this companion volume by Jobs for the
Future, which responds head-on to the tough challenges of how to engage
employers in school-to-work programs and how to create effective work-
firms.
place learning activities that will benefit both students and
guide to
MDRC asked Jobs for the Future to prepare this technical assistance
leaders
provide the how-to-do-it advice that local education and business
work-based
need as they work together to define and establish the new
learning activities that are crucial elements of school-to-work programs.
Project,
Based in part on the field research for the School-to-Work Transition
designing
the guide offers concrete suggestions on recruiting employers,
chal-
high-quality program components, and responding to implementation
learning plans,
lenges. It also includes samples of actual student work tasks,
student-employer contracts, and assessment forms to give practitioners
pleased to publish
ideas they can apply in their own communities. MDRC is
the School-to-
this guide, and to have worked with Jobs for the Future on
Work Transition Project.
deal of atten-
While the educational reform movement has focused a great
there has been much less
tion on the challenges facing the public schools,
people.
public discussion of the role of employers in educating our young
demonstration that high-
Perhaps the greatest value of this guide is its clear
practical in today's
quality workplace learning experiences are feasible and
pioneering employers
highly competitive economic climate. The news from
for major changes in the ways
is very encouraging: they are leading the way
life, citizenship, and productive careers.
young people prepare for adult
possible by funders who
The School-to-Work Transition Project was made
transition in the lives of
recognize the importance of the school-to-work
for the project from The Com-
young people. MDRC received core support
Fund, and The Pew
monwealth Fund, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest
and dissemination of
Charitable Trusts. Additional support for publication
7
the project's reports was provided by the Aetna Foundation, Inc., the
Metropolitan Life Foundation, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation,
Inc. Jobs for the Future's work on the project and this guide was also sup-
ported by the funders of its National Youth Apprenticeship Initiative.
We hope this technical assistance guide and its companion report will be
useful resources for people in local communities as they work to improve
the prospects and opportunities for today's youth.
Judith M. Gueron
President
vi
A Statement from
Jobs for the Future
policy have
In recent years, some of the most exciting innovations in youth
focused on improving the way high schools prepare youth for careers. State
and federal policymakers have realized the need to forge more systemic
links between schools and employers, between /earning in school and career
Learning
choices. And around the country, local consortia of employers, schools, and
Through Work:
other key groups are creating and testing programs for improving the
"school-to-work transition."
A Statement from
Jobs for the Future
The best programs share some common design principles: an experiential
learning pedagogy emphasizing learning by doing; provision by employers
of intensive workplace experiences; mechanisms for integrating clacsroom
and work-based experiences; and a commitment to interventions that start
early in the high school years and last for several years.
This practitioners' guide was written for MDRC's School-to-Work Transition
Project, a two-year study of sixteen diverse school-to-work transition pro-
final report on the
grams around the United States. MDRC has prepared a
project: Home-Grawn Lessons: Innovative Programs Linking Work and High
School (MDRC, 1994). JFF has produced this companion piece: a guide for
challenges facing intensive
program practitioners on the employer-related
employer-school partnerships built around workplace experiences. It focuses
and maintain their active
on two issues: first, how to recruit employers
involvement; and, second, how to ensure that the worksite provides high-
quality learning experiences for young people that can help them advance
occupationally and academically.
addition to
The practical advice in these pages draws from another source in
Future's
the MDRC-led research effort. For the past three years, Jobs for the
National Youth Apprenticeship Initiative has worked at the local, state, and
and
national levels, studying and assisting new models for linking school
work for young people. This guide incorporates many of the lessons we
work
have learned, particularly through our ongoing technical assistance
with an expanding network of school-to-work transition programs.
working
This is an exciting time for practitioners and policymakers who are
There is broad-
to improve the school-to-work transition in this country.
national sys-
based support for federal legislation that will begin to create a
partnrships built
tem of state-coordinated and locally-run school-to-work
upon existing programs and models.
vii
The publication of this guide comes at an opportune time. By highlighting
the critical issues of employer participation and the provision of high-quali-
ty learning opportunities at the worksite, the guide hopes to help practition-
There
ers design, implement, and strengthen their worksite components.
'and
can be no more important focus, for what distinguishes these new
promising efforts is the commitment from employers to provide learning
experiences outside the classroomin the world of workthat can increase
adult world
young people's confidence, competence, and connections to the
and labor market.
Done well, these partnerships can be motivating, energizing, and powerful.
We look forward to a surge in experimentation and innovation. And we
believe that the advice and examples in Learning Through Work will con-
tribute to the quality of these new efforts.
Hilary C. Pennington
President
Jobs for the Future
0