A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
FY 1999 Annual Plan - Volume 1. Objective Performance Plans and Data Quality - February 27, 1998
Objective 1.2. Every state has a school-to-work system that increases student achievement, improves technical skills, and broadens career opportunities for all.
Context:School-to-Work (STW) aims to improve learning by connecting what goes on in the classroom to future careers and to real work situations and to increase student access to opportunities for postsecondary education and advanced training. Enacted in 1994, the School-to-Work legislation sunsets in 2002.
Key strategies for FY 1999
- STW systems. Support state and local development of school-to-work systems by including $125 million for the School-to-Work Opportunities program in the FY 1999 Education Department budget, with an identical amount provided in the Department of Labor request. Eight states will receive their final implementation grant in 1998, and 19 states will be in their final year in 1999, reflecting the institutionalization of school-to-work systems envisioned in the authorizing statute.
- Curriculum improvement. The Department is requesting $1.0 billion for a reauthorized Vocational Education State Grants program that supports state and local efforts to integrate vocational and academic education and to link secondary and postsecondary education.
- Transition to postsecondary education. The $106 million request for Tech-Prep Education helps give students the technical skills required by high-tech careers and complements state efforts to build statewide school-to-work systems.
- Technical assistance. Improve and expand school-to-work programs by providing technical assistance to help make states with planning grants eligible for implementation grants, and by supporting four national and 10 state conferences focused on specific issues of program practice and evaluation.
- Employer participation. Increase employer support through targeted outreach and collaboration with the STW National Employer Leadership Council and by grants to encourage participation by state and local industry groups and trade associations.
- Out-of-school youth. Increase participation of out-of-school youth by working with Job Corp Centers and adult high schools.
Coordination
- Department of Labor The Departments of Education and Labor jointly administer the National School-to-Work Office and will improve the management of this program by aligning grant-making, audit, technical assistance, and performance reporting functions.
- Job Corps. Job Corps Centers are being encouraged to emphasize adoption of school-to-work concepts.
Programs supporting this objective
State grant programs
- State-to-Work Opportunities program
- State Grants for Vocational Education
- Tech-Prep Education
- IDEA Grants to States
- Title I
- National Research Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning
- Statistics and Assessment
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Research, development and technical assistance
- IDEA Research and Innovation
- Vocational Education National Programs and National Center for Research on Vocational Education
- National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
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Selected performance indicators and charts
Performance indicators in the Strategic Plan for objective 1.2 focus on expected outcomes from vocational education and school-to-work, as well as indicators that track student and stakeholder participation in recent reform efforts in these areas.
Two million youth will be engaged actively in school-to-work systems by fall 2000. (Goal 1, indicator 14)
Indicator background and context. Baseline data for 1995 indicate that 500,000 students participated in one or more school-to-work activities with a goal of 2,000,000 participants projected by the year 2000. (See figure at right.)
Although participation in career development activities (job shadowing, employer site visits) is fairly common, baseline data for 1996 high school graduates show that very few students (2%) were actively engaged in a program of study that included all of the core components of STW (see figure below).
Data source.School-to-Work Progress Measures, 1996
Data source.Partners in Progress: Early Steps in Creating School-to-Work Systems, Mathematica Policy Research, 1997
By fall 1997, 400,000 employers nationally will engage in at least one recognized STW activity. By fall 2000, 600,000 employers will engage in at least one recognized STW activity.
(School-to-Work program performance plan, indicator 5.1).
Indicator background and context. Data from a national survey of employers shows that, in 1997, 26 percent of sampled establishments (work sites) reported participating in school-to-work partnerships.
Data source. Bringing School-to-Work to Scale: What Employers Report, National Employer Survey, 1997.
Verification/validation of performance measures: Grantee-reported data on student participation and outcomes will be validated by comparing results with independent evaluations involving student surveys, analysis of high school records, case studies, and annual surveys of all STW local partnerships.
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[Objective 1.1] 
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[Objective 1.3]
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Indicator background and context. Baseline data for 1995 indicate that 500,000 students participated in one or more school-to-work activities with a goal of 2,000,000 participants projected by the year 2000. (See figure at right.) )
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