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DOCUMENT RESUME TM 027 301 ED 411 293 Barton, Paul E. AUTHOR Employers and Student Achievement. TITLE Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. Policy INSTITUTION Information Center. 1996-00-00 PUB DATE NOTE 9p. Policy Information Center (04-R), Rosedale Road, Princeton, AVAILABLE FROM NJ 08541. Serials (022) Collected Works PUB TYPE ETS Policy Notes; v7 n2 Win 1996 JOURNAL CIT MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Academic Achievement; Career Education; *Education Work DESCRIPTORS Relationship; Educational Change; Experiential Learning; *High School Graduates; High School Students; High Schools; Partnerships in Education; *School Business Relationship; Teacher Education; Vocational Education; *Work Experience Programs *Employer Role IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT Employers have played an important role in the education reform movements of the 1980s and 1990s; they have been vocal about the education deficiencies of the people they interview. They have focused on what the schools can do to improve education, but there are things that employers can do. The first thing is to make achievement matter by taking the applicant's high school record into account. Employers can also work with the schools to enhance the achievement of young people they employ on a part-time basis as they go through school. Employers can promote experience-based education and strengthen the relationship between work and education. Teachers need to understand the needs of business and the skills their students need, and employers can educate teachers in these areas. Teachers need to see and experience the workings of business first hand. Businesses can also support programs that help students choose and plan for careers. Employers are in a position to take a lead role in promoting educational reform that will bring them employees with the skills they need. (Contains four figures.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** News from the ETS Policy Information Center Winter 1996 Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey Volume 7, Number 2 EmpBoyerrs and Sfiudent AcCrdevemerd in partnerships of all shapes and Making Achievement Matter Employers have played an important role in the education sizes. Employers have been sup- naturally an- portive of the national goals set Adolescents reform movements of the 1980s ticipating the freedom and by President Bush and the and 1990s. They have been are well income of adulthood vocal about the education nation's governors at the aware of the two main gates to deficiencies of the people they Charlottesville Summit in 1989. adult economic society: the At the Education Summit in interview for employment; they gate of employment, and the March of 1996, each governor have participated in state-level was accompanied by a chief gate of postsecondary educa- efforts to raise teaching stan- tion, a route to better employ- executive officer who took an dards, require more-rigorous active role in formulating the ment opportunities. Paradoxi- courses, and install account- actions and policies that were cally, in hiring high school ability systems. To improve graduates, employers are not announced. Business organiza- American education, busi- tions have followed up, creating asking these prospective em- nesses have joined with schools ployees anything about the the Business Coalition for Educa- tion Reform that coordinates the kinds of courses they took in This Issue: Employers and high school or the grades they work of 12 national business Student Achievement received. On the one hand, organizations, including the A viewpoint on how employers American employers have been National Alliance of Business, can work with schools to raise vocal in saying that American the Business Round-table, the student achievement, by Chamber of Commerce, and students are educationally defi- cient, that they are not pre- the National Association of Paul E. Barton pared in the new basics re- Manufacturers. quired in the high performance Business has focused on Making Achievement Matter workplace, that the young improving what the schools do. people who come to them for While this focus is certainly Starting Young jobs do not meet their require- important, there are some critical ments. On the other hand, em- things that employers can do, Experience-Based Learning ployers show no apparent re- beyond influencing what hap- gard for the applicant's high Teachers Who Understand pens behind classroom doors. o school record. One of the significant advances Business Needs Employers at the Education at the 1996 Education Summit Helping Students Choose was the recognition that employ- Summit promised to turn this o 0 i and Plan around. They said: ers could take actions very important to raising student Leading in the Community o achievement U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION EDU CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to 2 improve reproduction quality. BEST COPY AVAIL4 Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. will clearly commu- . we the entire year, including the while they are still in high school. nicate to students, parents, At any point during the school summer, most students will schools, and the commu- year, a half to two-thirds of stu- work at some time. These are nity the types and levels of students both at work and at dents are working part-time. skills necessary to meet the The rate of part-time work varies school, but it is rare for the work-force needs of the employer and the school by gender, race/ethnicity, and next century and imple- to have any contact with socioeconomic status (see ment hiring practices within each other regarding the Figure 1). Over the course of one year that will require applicantS to demOnstrate- Figure 1 academic achievement Percentage of Students Employed During the School through school-based Year, 1992 records, such as academic transcripts, diplomas, port- Working is widespread among high school seniors. The rate folios, certificates of initial is highest for females, for White students, and for middle- mastery, or others as class students. appropriate (emphasis supplied). Gender When students learn that Female 52 academic achievement mat- ters to employers, they will Male take it much more seriously. 48 An example: Race/Ethnicity A'serious effort in keeping White 54 with this summit policy statement is The HIRE ED Asian 42 program in Delaware. HIRE ED was created through the Business Indus- Hispanic 39 try Education Alliance. Employers look at high Black 32 - school records and also visit schools and talk to Socioeconomic Status students. The Alliance has provided every public high Middle 53 school with a fax machine to,help schools respond to High 49 requests from employers.g Low -0 44 St rting Young I // 70 40 30 0 50 60 100 Some segments of industry, Percentage of Seniors particularly food service and retail trade, have become Source. National Center for Education Statistics, A Profile of the American High heavily involved with students School Senior in 1992. 2 educational progress of student tively small percentage of stu- objectives are to raise aca- workers, rare for the employer to demic achievement, improve dents have opportunities for take an interest in how the problem-solving and critical- internships, youth apprentice- worker is doing with his or ships, or cooperative education thinking skills, and improve the her studies, and rare for the Nations competing with the transition from school to work. school to know where and how However, this approach to United States have recognized much any individual student is learning cannot expand on the value of using the work- working. place in education. In Germany, substantial scale without the active participation of employ- for example, about 80 percent If employers of students took a real interest in the school side of all occupations are prepared ers. They must work in partner- of their lives, pointed out where for through "dual enrollment" ship with the schools. In listing education can make a differ- "immediate next steps," the programs, with students dividing ence in employment success, their time between the work- 1996 Education Summit and recognized effort in school, called for place and the school room. the message would get across In such employer-involved earlythe message that em- reaching out to other education, employers help . . ployers care about school shape learning, impart the kind governors and other busi- achievement, and that it mat- of learning most appropriate to ness leaders to identify and adopt effective prac- the workplace, and develop ters in employment success. tices to improve achieve- future employees they have ment and look for opportu- Employers can add "stu- first-hand experience with. Sur- dent of the month" awards veys show that employers who nities where states and to those for "worker of the have been involved with youth businesses can work together.. apprenticeship and coopera- month awards," limit work hours for students with low tive education programs are grades, and inform schools satisfied with their experience Most governors have initiated of the kinds of education and see the benefits of such school-to-work programs since deficiencies students must the new law was enacted, and programs. remedy.G Students also gain much (see all of these new efforts require the active participation of Figure 2). They have an oppor- tunity to apply what they learn employers. An example of an "effective practice" to improve in school, and to learn in con- Experience-Based Learning text, rather than just through achievement is the school-to- work program at Dauphin textbooks and lectures. They learn to cooperate and accept In a recent national survey of County Technical School in employer hiring practices, expe- supervision; just as important, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where rience ranked highest in what they learn the culture of the workplace and become accus- employers are looking for. They about 800 students alter- nate a week of full-time know there is no substitute for tomed to its requirements. learning at the workplace work and a week of school New efforts have been under that it is by being in the work- during the 12th grade. way for three years, under the Academic and vocational place that the culture of work is School to Work Opportunities absorbed, and that appropriate instruction is integrated. Act, to use the worksite as part knowledge can be developed of secondary education. That Such students can also and applied. Yet in the United earn credits at the commu- act requires combining worksite States, the use of the workplace nity college while still and school site instruction with < is not a standard part of a sec- activities that connect the work in high school.o ondary education; only a rela- and school experience. The 3 Teachers Who Understand Figure 2 Business Needs Attitudes of Students Working in School-Employer Work Experience Programs Teachers go to elementary and secondary school for 12 Students working in joint employer-school programs say they years, then go to college for learn problem solving, the importance of a good education, four or more years, and then and how to take responsibility. go into the classroom to teach for some period of years. -Percentage who- say the- job.. . People in business spend their professional lives in workplaces, helps in problem solving 85 and their contact with schools may amount to no more than the typical conferences with their children's teachers. How teaches how to take would we expect that schools 80 responsibility would be tuned into the needs of business? It is not surprising that miscommunication teaches the importance of abounds. 75 a good education American students do well in international comparisons when tested for reading comprehen- sion of school texts and litera- helps me learn to do ture. However, both the 1986 70 things well and the 1992 nationwide assessments of literacy skills con- firmed that students do poorly when they use print materials teaches how to 63 that direct them to carry out follow directions the kinds of real-world tasks employers require. An obvious lack of connection appears helps me recognize also in mathematics, specifi- subjects I like cally in the areas of problem solving and critical thinking. Teachers need the opportu- nity to see and experience the teaches how to 41 46 workings of business first hand. set priorities They need to see what kinds of written materials employees must work with and produce. I I I I I 1 1 They need to see the kinds of 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 quantitative problems they Percentage of Students must deal with on the job. They Source: James Stone Ill, et al. Adolescents' Perceptions of their Work: School need to see the differences Supervised and Non School Supervised, National Center for Research in Voca- between reading to do, and tional Education, 1990 (data included in the study are drawn from two cities). reading to learn in schools. 4 Such differences in the way Figure 3 schools and employers per- Document Literacy of Young Adult "Adept" Readers* ceive achievement are illus- trated in a national study that Students who read well in school may not do well in measured the reading skills of workplace literacy tasks. young adults on both school and real-world documents. Readers judged to be "adept" Document Literacy Proficiency at school reading varied Over 375 - 3 greatly in dealing with knowledge and skills required to lo- cate and use information con- tained in job applications or 350 -375. 9 payroll forms, bus schedules, maps, tables, indexes, and so forth (see Figure 3). 325-349 17 Chief Executive Officers at the 1996 Education Summit recognized this 300-324 24 need when they and the governors declared that businesses and schools 275-299 24 should arrange for teaching professionals to visit businesses throughout the states to help them 250-274 13 develop'a better under- standing of the needs of 225-249 -- 7 employers. An example: Under 225 3 In the Osceola School Dis- trict in Arkansas, there is a program of summer internships for both second- 0 10 20 25 5 15 ary and postsecondary Percentage of "Adept" Readers teachers to prepare them to help students connect learning in the classroom *Adept readers can understand complicated literary and informational to their career goals. There passages, including material about topics they study, in school They can also analyze and integrate less familiar material and provide are job-shadowing and reactions to and explanations of the text as a whole Performance at this level internship plans operating suggests the ability to find, understand, summarize, and explain in Boston, Massachusetts; relatively complex information Jefferson County, Ken- Source: Unpublished data, Young Adult Literacy Study, Educational Testing tucky; and Philadelphia, Service. Pennsylvania.G 5 Helping Students Choose Figure 4 and Plan Percentage of High School Seniors Receiving Various Guidance Services It is when students choose their curriculum and develop 1992 seniors received little help finding jobs and expectations about careers a lot of help going on to college. that they make implicit deci- Help Finding Jobs sions about how high they will aim in academic achievement. Did vocational counselor help selet job? If they know little about the job 6% Yes market they will face, and little about the educational require- 78% No ments these jobs will have, they are more likely to choose the -- 15% School does easy courses, watch TV at night not have instead of doing homework, or succumb to peer pressure not Did guidance counselor help select job9 to do anything that will make 12% Yes them look like "nerds." If students are to make intelli- 84% No gent choices, they must be well-informed about the conse- School does .4 40/0 quences of those choices, and not have must have access to compe- tent advisors. Yet counseling and guidance in these areas Help Going on to School are sorely neglected in second- Did you get help with filling out ary education. Where resources school applications at high school? exist, they go lopsidedly to help- 45% Yes ing college-bound students negotiate the college applica- 53% No tion process, as opposed to helping students find work after School does 2% high school. Those unable to not offer chart a clear path are most likely to be overlooked. Figure 4 Did you talk to a high school teacher or guidance documents this discrepancy. counselor about financial aid? Nothing has been said about 54% Yes the deficiencies in counseling and guidance in this 1990s edu- 46% No cation reform movement. In fact, nothing was said about it in the 1980s reform movement. ' ' ' i 1- I I I I 1 100 80 The thick annual Condition of 40 60 20 0 Percentage of Students Education report issued by the National Center for Education Source: National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Second Follow-Up, Statistics of the U.S. Department National Center for Education Statistics, 1994. of Education does not even list 7 6 counseling or guidance in its Leding in the Community index. In fact, little is known about how much time is avail- Employers played a lead role able for counseling in high in the 1996 Education Summit. school, and how that time is And they urged employers to spent (the last national study take the lead in their states. was in 1980). In 1988, Oliver Leadership "activities may Moles, of the Office of Educa- include organizing town meet- tional Research and Improve- ings to build public support and engage parents and ment; reported that helping students plan and prepare for communities in improving student performance..." and their work roles after high school ranked lowest both in "organizing a state-level what guidance staff empha- Education Summit to design a sized and what guidance staff state-specific plan for develop- desired. Guidance staff gave ing and implementing stan- the highest priority to helping dards and assessments." students with personal growth and development. Employers need to look at their high schools' commitment to help students prepare for employment, their ability to inject courses of study with the real requirements of the job market, and their willingness to maintain connections with employers. For example, A more detailed discussion of the role employers can play, the business community with examples of good prac- can help by stationing tices, is available from the advisors in the schools. Southern Regional Education The Boston Compact (in Board's "High Schools that place since 1982) and the Work" initiative. Its title is Jobs Collaborative support Employers and Schools Working career specialists in 14 high Together to Improve Student. schools. They help in devel- Achievement. To order, call oping work readiness, in 404-875-9211, extension 236. It resume preparation, in role is 16 pages and costs $1.50 playing for interviews, and (or $1.00 each for 10 or more in placing graduates in copies). jobs.G 7 Recent PublkoMorns from the ETS Pofity hformallon Center Setting Performance Standards: that education is currently playing in All orders must be prepaid by check, Content, Goals, and Individual our nation's prisons, and provides a money order, or credit card. Checks Differences, 1996, $1.50. discussion of the results are to be made payable to ETS The second William H. Angoff Policy Information Center. Write to Memorial Lecture was delivered by ETS Policy Information Center (04-R), WORKBOOKS AND OTHER RESOURCES Bert F Green. Dr. Green turns our Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541. --attention to-the key issues Please call (609),734-5694 oryrite - Cooperative - Education in High ated with the challenging task of -for more information School: Promise and Neglect, 1996, setting performance standards $2.50. The report reviews the history and Email [email protected]. Visit us on the A Perspective on Student purposes of cooperative education, Web at http://www.ets.org Employment, 1996, $2.50. enrollment trends, evaluations of This perspective suggests that the effectiveness, steps that can be ETS POLICY NOTES NEWSLETTERS time has come to start to improve taken to improve it, and its relation- students' job experiences and to ship to the school to work transition Vol. 7, No 1, Summer 1996 better relate the work and school International Adult Literacy experiences It starts with some Writing Skill Assessment: Problems background on student employ- and Prospects, 1996, $4.00. Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring 1995 ment, suggests some goals we This perspective provides a compre- Teaching for Diversity could strive for, and describes hensive review of writing assessment some emerging activities that are practices, new and old. The author POLICY INFORMATION REPORTS related describes the arguments for more authentic writing assessment, as well Captive Students: Education and as the important issues of validity, Training in America's Prisons, 1996, reliability, comparability, and $9.50 fairness that must be considered This report examines the literacy levels of prisoners, looks at the role NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID ETS Policy Notes is published by EDUCATIONAL the ETS Policy Information Center, TESTING SERVICE Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ 08541-0001, (609) 734 -5694. Internet: [email protected] http //www.ets.org Director, ETS Policy Information Center: Paul E. Barton Editor. Richard J. Coley Copyright © 1996 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Educational Testing Service is an Affirmative Action/Equal Oppor- tunity Employer Educational Testing Service, ETS, s and are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service. 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