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Educational partnerships that assist students in making the transition from school to the world of work are among the most common and most successful of all partnerships. The School-to-Work partnership (STW), located in an inner suburb of a large metropolitan area, exemplifies such partnerships. The STW was successfully implemented and had positive impacts on students and participating organizations. The interorganizational arrangements were multifaceted and complex, but they built on prior professional relationships so difficulties were readily handled. Further, the project director created a vision of a program that would serve students with a wide range of characteristics, including those who were close to dropping out of school, average students, and gifted students. She identified appropriate staff, supported their efforts, and worked with them to solve problems as they emerged. Her focus on success was contagious, affecting all participants in the program. Perhaps as important, she did not avoid problems or criticize individuals who brought problems to her. Rather, she created an organizational culture that rewarded problem identification and problem solution.
This case was selected not only because it is a successful example of a common type of partnership, but also because of the lessons that can be drawn from it. They are:
The STW provides vocational, academic, and support services to students in a metropolitan area. The partnership is managed by a county vocational/technical school (vo-tech) and includes seven school districts, businesses, community organizations, state agencies, local airports, four community and technical colleges (including an out-of-state postsecondary institution), five state universities, a local affiliate of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), and a rehabilitation training center. The partnership provides services to educationally and economically disadvantaged high school students. The targeted population includes students who are: gifted and talented, potential dropouts, pregnant and parenting teens, and receiving special education. The goal of the partnership is to increase high school completion rates and ensure successful transition to employment or further education.
The partnership is located in a deteriorating inner suburban sector of a large metropolitan area. As one respondent said, "Our students murder and are murdered," a result of gang influence in the area. During the first two years of the STW, the economic recession affected employment opportunities greatly. This created a problematic environment for a school-to-work project. For example, one participating business reported no new hires for several years. Another of the most active local business partners expressed regret at being unable to hire one of the partnership students who had participated in job shadows at the work site because the position was eliminated.
Project staff responded to the worsening recession by expanding business-partner recruiting efforts. Staff also began to emphasize other business-partnership activities as local employers scaled down job-site training and job experience activities. The third year of the project developed within the context of economic transition as the local economy improved. This economic transition also brought about new circumstances that STW staff were quick to recognize as opportunities, further broadening the project in unanticipated directions.
The project director quoted a metropolitan newspaper in describing the area as "the antithesis of the American dream." The community is experiencing gang and other social problems. According to some, one of these problems is a disintegrated home life for the students. Project staff members and partners disagreed about parent interest in education; one cited a meeting in which only three parents attended, but another mentioned a series of activities involving 25 parents. The STW does not include parent-oriented activities; however, to participate in the project, each student had to have a parent or guardian attend an orientation and then formally sign a statement of understanding including both student and partnership roles and responsibilities. As the project grew, staff met 3,000 parents or guardians in person to obtain their signatures.
All partners referred to the county board of education as an important and supportive group. The board consists of one school board member from each of the school districts in the county. The absence of turf conflicts and protectionism was mentioned.
Several key participants in the STW had extensive relationships prior to the formal organization of the partnership. One participating community college, one participating state university, and the vocational/technical school had implemented successfully a "model articulation 2+2 project," in which staff in each institution had identified competencies that students would gain as a result of completion of a class. Once the competencies were identified, the institutions agreed to accept credits from one another. Another participating university placed practicum students, some of whom are now project staff, in the vo-tech school and collaborated with the school in a program designed to increase minority enrollment in the university. One of the largest business participants provided internships to vo-tech students prior to receiving funding. The rehabilitation center and the vo-tech school developed a "workability" program, which the partnership extended. The county employment services department also had an established relationship with the vo-tech school. These prior relationships led to the first of the formalized partnership agreements within the STW, establishing a strong initial partnership.
The STW is a complex partnership, including numerous organizations and many activities. The vo-tech school, with its multischool-district consortium, originally partnered with the county employment services department, the Department of Rehabilitation, local businesses, and several community and state colleges and universities to form the STW. The partnership drew in the health department, public transportation agencies, an agency that serves the aging, and the county library during the second year. It added additional community-based organizations, including churches, in the third year.
The vo-tech school is governed by all school districts in the county. Students from the school districts, particularly those attending the continuation school, are eligible for project services. The vo-tech school also was the fiscal agent for the EPP grant. During the initial year of the project, projectwide decisionmaking was primarily administrative, and activity or project component coordinators had a great deal of autonomy but little direct understanding of the project as a whole, with all its activities and components. The governance and structure of the partnership changed as the partnership evolved and expanded.
All partners agreed on the need to find some means of addressing this educationally disadvantaged student population. Student focused, organizationally focused, and externally focused motives combine to energize this partnership project. Personal satisfaction also was mentioned as a motive of individual participants from different partner organizations.
The vo-tech school principal viewed the grant as "providing an opportunity to bring a lot of things we're doing together" and allowing additional development. Her focus is on students. That focus is shared by project staff and the college and university participants. In addition, the superintendent and the assistant superintendent share an externally focused political motivation. They see the partnership as a chance to gain community and national recognition. In their opinion, only such recognition will elevate vo-tech students from the position of "second-class citizens." The partnership is, thus, a political tool used in leveraging attention to the issues important to this student population.
There also are pragmatic motives for participation. For example, the employment services department is funded through an incentive formula based, in part, on the number of job placements it makes. When the STW places students in jobs in collaboration with the employment services department, the department receives additional funds. One pragmatic motivation for business participants is the tax credit they receive for employing rehabilitation clients. Business partners also expressed interest in expanding the qualified labor base. The principal of the opportunity school sees the partnership as a pragmatic means of "getting in on grant activities" and learning how to write grant applications. These reasons were given within longer responses that included the desire to serve students and provide them with needed programs.
Community colleges also have pragmatic as well as idealistic educational motivations. Within the last year, local community colleges have received funding for tech-prep program development, which gives them an incentive to become involved in the 2+2 articulations. As a result, the partnership articulation specialist has been able to expand the articulation agreements.
In addition, the community colleges see participation as a means of increasing their completion rates (traditionally 25 percent) because students who arrive having completed formalized preparation for specific paths of study are seen as more likely to finish the project.
Finally, some individual participants mentioned experiencing a strong sense of personal satisfaction. For example, this motivated an employee who had been a job-site tutor-mentor to request continued involvement following his own layoff.
The STW has developed over the past three years. At its start, there was little collaborative work among partners, and the project steering committee was simply an arena for information sharing. Over time, the steering committee took on a greater role. Further, the number and types of organizations involved in the STW has grown, as have the number of students. This section begins with a description of STW activities, followed by a description of how the partnership structure changed during the course of implementation. It concludes with a brief view of how the developments unfolded, in order to give a sense of the adaptive planning used by project staff.
The STW activities are designed to provide vocational, academic, and support services to educationally and economically disadvantaged high school students. Activities are formed around the goal of helping students to complete high school and to make a successful transition to employment or further education. The four major components to the partnership are: vocational education, job-site experience, tutoring and mentoring, and support services. Each component has generated several activities.
The county vo-tech school serves several high school districts. It provides vocational education and applied job skills in a variety of career areas. Articulation agreements were established based on the vocational courses offered at the vo-tech school to facilitate student progress along career paths that involve postsecondary vocational education.
The articulations are expressed in contracts with community colleges and four-year institutions that include formal credit-granting agreements. Thus, a student completing two years of vo-tech training that included articulated courses can attend two years at a community college (2+2), receiving some college credits for vocational work completed in high school. Where the career path is further articulated through the junior and senior college years, a four-year institution will accept the student transfer from the community college with articulation credits as well (2+2+2).
Currently, 300 articulation agreements are in operation. Seven institutions of higher education are involved in 2+2 agreements, and four in 2+2+2 agreements. Articulated career paths include those related to: aviation support services, automotive repair, business computer operations and applications, cabinetmaking, child care and guidance, computer-aided drafting and manufacturing, communications, construction, electronics, fashion merchandising and marketing, floral design, graphic arts and printing, job coaching, law enforcement, retail sales, transportation, and tutor training and guidance.
Vocational education often takes place in conjunction with job-site experiences for the students. Students are able to see that workplaces use the same equipment they learn to use in the classroom. They also are able to gain familiarity with the work setting, employer expectations, and what the jobs they may be interested in are actually like. One means of doing this is through job shadowing experiences provided through the partnership. Students visit the workplace and observe (shadow) employees throughout the day. Internships, in which the student actually works in an entry-level job, also are provided through the partnership. Finally, students who complete the vo-tech program also may be placed in jobs related to their vocational training. The unemployment services department, providing access to job listings, is a great resource in helping the STW place graduated participants.
Students who are economically and educationally disadvantaged often need more than educational opportunities and job openings; they need to be prepared to meet these opportunities. Because many of these students have had behavioral or academic difficulty in school, tutoring, mentoring, and job coaching are provided through the partnership. The STW recognizes the challenge of providing this population with effective tutoring and mentoring. Consequently, partnership staff decided to train all tutors and mentors, be they peers, job-site employees, or other community members. In addition, tutors and students are carefully matched. All tutor-mentors fulfill the same roles, including general encouragement, homework help, and morale building. Primarily, they take an active interest in the student and hold the student accountable for school attendance and progress. In addition, they act as a feedback loop enabling staff to make teachers or counselors, or both, aware of relevant information concerning reasons for changes or persistent problems in student performance.
Peer tutor-mentors take a credit-earning tutor-training class at the vo-tech school. Many students are attracted to this training, and it has proven successful to match students placed at risk with trained tutor-mentors who also are at risk. Job-site tutor-mentors are employees who meet with students whether or not the student currently is shadowing or interning at the job site. Community volunteers also act as tutor-mentors, though to a lesser degree.
Job coaches are provided for students who need an on-the-job mediator during their initial involvement at the work site. These are students in a rehabilitation process of some kind, including those who have been deinstitutionalized and are on medication, and special education students. The job coach training program has developed beyond the needs of the partnership students. Job coaches also are now being hired by other local agencies, including some community-based organizations.
Tutor-mentoring was implemented as a support service, as a mechanism to closely track student progress, and as a means of increasing student attachment to school. Through continual tracking, the staff ensure that the tutor-tutee matches are appropriate.
Students receive direct services addressing their particular needs. Students also receive indirect services in that vo-tech school and STW staff receive additional training to address the needs of this student population.
The students served by the project include teenage parents. For these students, day care is an issue. Day care is provided through the vo-tech vocational child care instruction program. This is locally recognized as a high quality program, and several established child care providers have contacted STW child care instructors with in-service requests. Transportation also is an obstacle to student job-site participation for low-income families. The local public transportation authority is a partner providing travel vouchers so students can get to and from the employment sites without paying fees.
Staff development also is provided to STW teachers and project personnel on various issues related to working with economically and educationally disadvantaged students, many of whom also are troubled or in trouble. The STW has a staff development committee that keeps abreast of in-service needs. In-services are provided on an ongoing basis for large and small groups and have included: "Effective Interventions for Working With At-Risk Students," "Working With Students Belonging to Gangs," "Interpreting Students' Assessment Results for Students and Parents," "Working With High School Personnel Interfacing With the Partnership," and others. Additional specialized training opportunities are provided by partners. For example, one business partner trained STW staff to be able to provide diversity training to other STW teachers and personnel. Also, the local branch of the county library trained several STW teachers to give literacy tutor training to volunteer tutors.
The STW always has drawn on resources other than federal funding. Naturally, as a vo-tech school serving several school districts, funding from the state flows according to student enrollment. Additional funds for the STW come from a Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) grant and a Perkins Tech-Prep grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Both these grants are for a defined period. However, STW staff integrate grant writing into their jobs and are continuing to locate and apply for funding from a variety of sources. Most recently, they won a grant to facilitate job training for at-risk students to prepare for jobs related to aviation. This resulted in a new set of internships and articulation agreements with a local community college already committed to transportation-related career development. STW staff have written and submitted a number of additional proposals. Although this means that many partnership activities are dependent largely on soft money support, the grant-earning record of STW staff, as well as the ongoing, systematic resource location efforts, may counter the instability of the resource base to some degree. In addition, the stable state money for vo-tech, the integration of many STW roles into vo-tech job descriptions, the relative permanence of articulation agreements (as well as the fact that the curriculum already is supported by participating institutions), and the extremely large in-kind support received make the soft money status less threatening than otherwise might be the case.
In-kind resources are varied. Staff members negotiated with the transit department and secured bus passes for students. They also use grants from other sources to pay students' salaries for a trial period, thus lessening business apprehension about hiring students who have had behavior problems. One of the universities provides practicum students who supplement paid staff. Local businesses and civic organizations provide space for meetings. The Department of Rehabilitation has allowed a partnership student-business liaison position to be shifted to its funding in order to continue to dovetail placement efforts for special needs students with partnership placement processes. The unemployment services department allows STW staff free access to the extensive job listings (all available positions in the state) as well as job information (qualifications of person being sought) provided in databases and by department personnel.
Many organizations and businesses donate materials and equipment. Some sponsor students to particular events, and others provide scholarships to universities. Partnership staff development also is provided partly through various partners, including the specialized training of some of the staff to become trainers.
Although at first, project steering committee meetings were held only occasionally and the agenda consisted of information sharing, the STW became more collaborative over time. Individuals responsible for coordinating the autonomous activities are more aware of one another as they have become more involved in meetings and decisionmaking processes. A project steering committee, which meets infrequently, includes representatives of all participating organizations. The project is managed by the vo-tech principal, her assistant, and a coordinator. Formal partnership meetings are held quarterly, with representation from the seven participating districts, partnership instructors and staff, college and university partners, and business partners. An agenda is covered, followed by a round robin in which partners update the group on what is occurring in their particular areas of responsibility. Further, personnel who have responsibilities for specific components of the project report at this time.
The primary purpose of the meetings is to keep all partners focused on the common goals and informed regarding the big picture aspects of the partnership. The attendees can contribute agenda items for upcoming meetings. Decisionmaking is primarily collaborative, although final approval rests with the principal. Attending partners are responsible for disseminating this information through their respective organizations. Partnership staff are responsible for disseminating information to participants involved in their respective project components. In addition, partnership staff (including both federally funded positions and nonfederally funded positions) attend weekly meetings. Subgroups which focused on specific activities also meet.
Although involving many partners and activities, the organizational focus is the vo-tech school. Partners take action either within the guidelines of the proposal or after consulting with one another in various meetings. Subgroups are organized around particular project components such as tutoring or articulations. Subgroups meet weekly to oversee the day-to-day operation of the activities and make minor decisions. Larger decisions requiring new resources or adding new activities are addressed in the quarterly partnership meetings. All partners are represented in the quarterly meetings. The principal, assistant principal, and the project coordinator ultimately make major projectwide decisions, such as officially incorporating new activities after group input. In terms of organization, this has moved from being a moderately complex partnership, with informal as-needed meetings with whichever partners had specific issues, to a truly complex partnership. Multiple institutions contribute to partnership leadership and maintain high levels of both formal and informal interaction at various levels within each institution.
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[School-to-Work Partnership Part B]
This page was last updated January 8, 2002 (jca)