Strengthening School Programs for Career-sound Students.

Secondary school students bound for the workplace deserve a better deal than what they get from the typical American high school.

These students often graduate from schools without the academic foundation for continued learning in post-secondary education and at work. This is evident in the number of high school graduates who cannot solve multistep mathematics problems, integrate multiple pieces of information on adult literacy surveys, comprehend the major ideas in written materials, write well, or express themselves orally.

Many of these students are products of a high school curriculum characterized by scaled-down academic courses and randomly chosen electives.

The Southern Regional Education Board and its 19 state partners have created a network of more than 400 high schools engaged in improving education for career-bound youth, making it the largest program of its kind in the nation. Our emphasis in the High Schools That Work program is on the large group of students who plan to work, attend two-year community or technical schools, or enter the military.

Program Goals

The first goal of the High Schools That Work program is to improve the reading, mathematics, science, technical, and problem-solving competencies of career-bound students. The modern workplace requires intellectual, analytical, and communication skills that in the past only managers and supervisors possessed. Today's employees have to work well with others and adapt quickly to changing conditions.

The second goal is to advance the academic and technical achievement of career-bound students by integrating the essential content of college preparatory mathematics, science, and English courses with modern vocational studies.

This involves getting school boards, superintendents, and principals to create conditions that support teachers in teaching the essential content of the college preparatory curriculum to most students.

Key Practices

By implementing 10 key practices, educators can change the focus of the high school from an ability model to an effort model. The concept is that students get smart by working hard.

By contrast, many educators believe students get smart because they were born with ability; therefore only students with perceived ability are asked to work hard. In underestimating the potential of career-bound students, high schools fail to provide a challenging curriculum that encourages students to work hard to achieve high standards.

No. 1: Raise expectations.

The first key practice focuses on raising expectations for all students--especially those enrolled in general and vocational studies. If expectations are clear, most students will work hard to achieve them. High expectations tell students they are worthy individuals.

The present system of multilevel courses--teaching different content to different students--is not working. These students hear the high school saying, "You don't need to try, because you really cannot do it."

Teachers and school leaders who raise expectations take specific actions. They replace low-level academic and vocational courses with tougher ones and increase graduation requirements. They replace the general track by requiring all students to complete an upgraded academic core and a career major. They support high standards in all courses and ask students to complete challenging assignments.

To raise expectations, schools must shift from low standards to an accelerated program of study in which every student works hard to reach the academic and technical standards that the modern workplace demands.

No. 2: Revise vocational studies.

The second key practice is to revise and redesign high school vocational studies. Revised and redesigned vocational courses are: a blend of high-level academic and technical studies.

Today, employees use mathematics and science concepts an communication skills in their jobs Vocational programs that keep pace with the new economy require students to use high-level mathematics, science, and communication concepts to solve problems in broad fields of occupational and technical studies. A school cannot achieve the goal of the High Schools That Work program if vocational instructors persist in teaching students how to follow procedures rather than teaching them to use academic and technical knowledge and skills to tackle workplace problems and projects.

* intellectually challenging.

Students work on projects that require them to think deeply and devise their own procedures for completing challenging assignments. The old, repetitive duties are disappearing from the workplace. Today each assignment is different. Employers need workers who can think and plan their own work--rather than perform simple, repetitive tasks.

* linked to career and educational pathways.

High school vocational studies must prepare students to enroll in a two-year community or technical college, a professional school at a four-year institution, or a youth apprenticeship program in business or industry.

No. 3: Replace low-level academic courses.

Southern Regional Education Board data confirm that low-level academic courses do little to advance student achievement and are totally inadequate in providing students with communication, mathematics, and problem-solving skills. Career-bound students do not need different content; they need different ways to learn higher-level academic content.

Successful schools replace low-level mathematics, science, and language arts courses with high-level courses taught through a more challenging process. Schools often adopt new course materials, particularly in mathematics and science, enabling teachers to use contextual and applied learning strategies to help students become proficient in the essential content of the college-preparatory curriculum.

Academic teachers are encouraged to work with vocational teachers to link high-level academic studies to their use in the real world. They make challenging assignments that require students to use mathematics, science, and language arts to solve problems that face employees in the workplace.

Teachers need staff development, new kinds of materials, and time to meet with their colleagues to develop instructional practices that work.

No. 4: Require an upgraded academic core and a career major.

An upgraded academic core and a career major consists of three years of mathematics and science, with at least two years in each subject from the college preparatory curriculum; four years of college preparatory English; and at least four Carnegie units in a career major or an academic major above the core.

SREB experience has proven that most students can succeed in this curriculum if schools change what and how they teach and what they expect.

Requiring students to complete a challenging program of study is a practice that works. Students who are going someplace and have a planned way to get there are more motivated than students who have no defined goals. An upgraded program of study communicates to career-bound students that high performance is essential for a variety of options beyond high school.

To ensure students complete an upgraded academic core and a major, schools offer challenging majors that are attractive to students and parents. Unfortunately, the vocational offerings at many schools fail to give students access to a modern vocational or career major.

Some schools are developing new and exciting majors. These include pre-engineering, health and medical science, international business studies, bio-technology, manufacturing sciences, communication studies, financial studies, and travel and tourism. In developing challenging programs of study, school leaders convene committees of parents, academic and vocational teachers, counselors, representatives of two- and four-year colleges, and employers.

No. 5: Develop a work-based learning system.

The fifth key practice is to combine quality school-based learning at the high school and post-secondary level with quality work-based learning. In America, the only clear pathway through high school leads to college and a baccalaureate degree. This is an excellent pathway, but it applies to only one child of every four who enter first grade.

High Schools That Work sites are committed to developing another high-quality pathway--one that gives young people access to good jobs and continued learning.

SREB and its state and local partners are developing a system of structured work-based learning linked to school based learning. The work-based component is being developed at more than 100 sites under the leadership of committees composed of high school educators, community college representatives, and employers.

These schools are developing a work-based learning plan that:

* defines what students will learn at the worksite and the school site and how schools and employers will coordinate their efforts;

* requires students to demonstrate high-level performance in academic and technical subjects;

* includes an ongoing assessment process to help teachers and mentors update the curriculum, based on the needs of students;

* uses a final exam as the basis of a credential that has credibility with employers. The purpose is not to eliminate students but to define the standards and help students complete a program that is respected in the workplace.

No. 6: Integrate academic and vocational studies.

The sixth key practice is to integrate academic and vocational studies by having teachers work together to help students acquire high-level skills.

Academic teachers need to learn how their subjects are used in an occupational field so they can give examples in their classes. Vocational teachers need to learn what academic teachers are teaching, so they can increase learning opportunities by requiring students to us academic skills to do real things.

To work together effectively, academic and vocational teachers need time to plan together an align their courses. They need time to develop interdisciplinary teaching units, short-term and long-term joint projects, team-teaching situations, reflective seminars in which students connect academic and vocational studies, and opportunities for students to demonstrate the use of major academic concepts in an occupational field. Teachers need time to develop a year-long theme to emphasize in academic and vocational classes.

Integration of high-level academic and technical studies gives teachers new ways to teach for understanding. Teaching for understanding produces students who can use academic and technical concepts in a variety of situations.

No. 7: Engage students actively in learning.

Too many students spend too much time filling out drill sheets in academic classes and following mindless procedures in vocational classes. Teachers can motivate career-bound students by giving them tangible things to do. In successful schools:

* students have a voice in setting their goals;

* they solve real-life problems requiring high-level academic knowledge;

* they exhibit, explain, or publish the results of their projects;

* they make decisions about their own learning;

* teachers believe in students and coach rather than lecture;

* teachers emphasize that effort rather than ability is the key to quality performance;

* student performance is judged according to clear standards rather than abstract, subjective ones.

No. 8: Expand guidance and advisement.

High schools need to expand their guidance and advisement programs to include teachers and parents in helping career-bound students make educational and career plans. The intent is to help students choose a challenging program of academic study and a major that equips them for study after high school graduation. A major that begins in the 11th grade gives students a focal point for in-depth study in an area of interest and adds meaning to the high school curriculum.

For too long, educators have said that high school students are better off not having to make choices. The result is high school graduates who are unprepared for continued learning in work or an educational setting.

Schools can improve student learning by developing a guidance and advisement system that helps every student pursue a focused and challenging program of study. An improved guidance and advisement system for career-bound students:

* educates middle an high school students and their parents regarding the rising requirements of the workplace;

* provides students with education and career information, beginning in the upper middle or early high school grades;

* creates a system for counselors and teacher advisers to meet with students and their parents annually, beginning at the end of the eighth grade, to plan a four- to six-year program of study. Students, parents, and advisers should meet in subsequent years to review and revise the plan as needed; and

* uses interest and aptitude tests to help students build on their strengths in planning their high school studies.

No. 9: Provide extra help and time.

In most high schools today, time is fixed and standards are flexible. The High Schools That Work program is based on flexible time and firm standards. Schools making the most progress provide ways for students to re-do and re-learn on their own time.

Many teachers and school leaders are beginning to use classroom assessment strategies that cause students to work harder to meet higher expectations. Career-bound students work harder when they know what is expected, understand the criteria used to judge their work, participate in evaluating their own work, and are allowed to repeat the work until it meets standards.

Schools use various strategies to provide extra help and time. Some schools conduct reading and mathematics academies in the summer to prepare entering ninth graders for high-level courses. Other schools extend the school day, week, or year. Some schools give an incomplete rather than a failing grade at the end of the year; students have the summer to remove the incomplete. Other schools give an I rather than an F at the end of a semester and allow students to remove the I by attending after-school sessions during the second semester.

No. 10: Assess and plan continuously.

High school leaders and teachers need to participate in a continuous assessment and planning process to improve student learning. When a school joins the program, it is expected to strive to become the best school in the network. To change, schools need information on organizational and instructional practices that work in high-achieving schools.

Schools in the High Schools That Work program collect information on student achievement, the courses students take, students' perceptions of their high school experiences, and teachers' perceptions of the school and their teaching methods. Each school is able to compare its practices with those of schools with higher achievement of career-bound students.

To achieve the goals, schools need to replace old routines with new practices. Each school in the program involves staff in examining existing conditions that hinder student achievement--conditions such as excluding some students from the opportunity to learn challenging content, communicating reduced expectations for some students, allowing some students to follow a program of study that does not connect to the future, falling to get all students to make the effort to master complex tasks, and failing to give some students a sense of belonging.

Basic Framework

The High Schools That Work goals and key practices are a framework for changing what is taught, how it is taught, what is expected of career-bound students, how teachers relate to each other and to students, and how parents and the community become an integral part of the learning process.

High schools that get high performance from career-bound students enroll them in challenging courses and get them to make the effort to meet high standards. They accomplish this by engaging students in rich and meaningful assignments and arranging for extra help and time.