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The number of partners, the nature of interaction, and the number and types of activities have all developed throughout the life of the partnership. The STW serves all schools in the county. Further, quite a few churches, community groups, and membership associations were added to the partnership, as well as several additional agencies and businesses. Some participate in project activities. Others, such as the churches, disseminate information about particular partnership events or provide meeting space for tutors and students. Still others, such as the community groups, donate needed items such as outfits for student job interviews. More formal mechanisms for interaction among partners were established to aid in coordinating activities, maintaining focus on the partnership objectives, disseminating information, and making decisions about adding new activities. In addition, several new activities have been implemented.
In the second year, the STW added new job training activities for students, staff development, volunteer training and staff development, and new business mentor/tutor training. The new activities involved additional partners. The STW developed a mentor/tutor curriculum for training volunteers in varied settings, including the job coach training. The vo-tech school also offers a peer mentoring/tutoring course for credit, and matches students with peer tutors and mentors. These mentor/tutor and job coach activities were expanded greatly in the third year of the project. The tutor training handbook, including the course curriculum, is available to others. In addition, the success of the various tutor/mentor programs is recognized in the community and has resulted in requests for peer tutors and for job coaches from nonparticipants as well (e.g., middle schools and employers with employee rehabilitation programs).
The third year of development saw a major increase in the number of articulation agreements. Currently, 300 articulations are in operation. One new arena of articulation involves aviation-related careers and included the area airport as a new partner. In a different approach, the first public high school is involved in an articulation of apparel professions. The vo-tech school previously could not articulate a clothing design course because it offered no sewing classes. Now students at a participating county high school who take sewing, design, and color in the home economics department can take apparel marketing at the vo-tech, and can then articulate to a well-reputed design program at a local technical college.
The STW also added a long-distance articulation and internship in year three. Employees who had been involved with STW students were relocated to another city. The employees remained committed to the STW, and project staff responded by developing internships at the new site and developing articulations with the local community college.
In year three, several events were added to support ongoing activities. For example, to aid in the job placement process, the STW now has a "business interview day" during which business partners volunteer to spend a day on campus and help the students develop job interview skills. They do this by role-playing job interviews with students. In addition, a community organization donates business outfits for students to wear to job interviews.
Another example of a supportive event is the new "mentor day" now provided for students taking business computer courses. These courses are part of an articulated business computer career path. To better acquaint students with the value of following such a path, the partnership matches each student with a mentor from the industry who spends the entire day discussing career and opportunity issues.
Finally, a formal student outreach mechanism was added to the articulation component of the partnership. An STW staff member currently is dedicated to visiting each classroom that carries articulation credit. This staff person explains the whole articulation concept to the students. She also shows them which entry-level jobs the courses they are enrolled in will prepare them to pursue and what broader career paths they might pursue through articulated postsecondary education. Question and answer periods are included.
STW project staff consistently have demonstrated good adaptive planning. This has been true for all aspects of the partnership. Adaptive planning has been responsive to procedural needs, organizational needs, and programmatic opportunities. Examples of each follow.
Adaptive planning at the procedural level was first demonstrated early in the implementation of the project when it became clear that the student assessment process was becoming overwhelming. Originally, the plan was to test and place all participating students. The paperwork was too burdensome for available personnel and computer time. Project staff was increased, a new computer was purchased, and the time for testing increased. Staff further anticipated assessment problems when the participant pool was increased from 550 to 3,000. Realizing that increasing personnel and computer access sixfold would not be feasible, project staff radically altered assessment approaches. Willingness to face problems of scale early on and to let go of the previously established process enabled the STW to responsibly accommodate the burgeoning group of students served. Assessment procedures became part of the formal staff development for teachers, after which assessment responsibilities were distributed across the county for the project.
A period of recession narrowed job shadow and internship opportunities provided by business partners. STW staff responded by actively seeking to expand interorganizational relationships. When the economic downturn prompted the local Chamber of Commerce to survey local businesses in an attempt to assess the relative economic stability of the area, the STW project director got involved in order to add partnership-specific questions to the survey. This enabled partnership staff to determine potential sources for job shadow participation, business mentor-tutor recruitment, and student placement possibilities across 12,000 businesses with a small effort. Only a small percentage of the responding businesses had any previous contact with the partnership staff. The importance of broad-based recruitment is increased in times when established business partners find themselves unable to fully participate because of financial restrictions. Three hundred business partners are now in the project.
Adaptive planning at the programmatic level has been evident on several occasions. In many cases, such planning is built upon well-established relationships among partners and is sparked by unanticipated circumstances. For example, when the recession reduced the job shadows and internships offered by established partners, STW staff found a new role for those partners. This served to reinforce the relationship and to keep participation meaningful for employee volunteers. STW staff implemented and then emphasized the job-site tutoring and mentoring component of the project. Once the economy improved, job shadows, internships, and placements were built back up with these same partners. Thus, the adaptive change in participation roles served not only to add new activities but also to protect valued resources.
Good partner relationships also enabled the STW articulation specialist to take advantage of her contacts when a local department store closed. Although losing a valued partner, she recognized the potential opportunity and was able to obtain significant equipment donations to marketing, merchandising, and fashion programs.
Finally, a strong example of adaptive planning is evident in the STW response to the continued interest of former partnership participants relocated to an out-of-state site. When a large local employer, who had been a partner in the STW, relocated, the people who had been involved with the STW wished to continue more meaningful participation. By maintaining good relationships with these former participants, STW administrators discovered that the company had a staffing problem at the new site because the labor pool trained to fit entry-level positions was inadequate. The end result was an articulation with a community college in the city. Students who graduate from relevant articulated vo-tech classes, and are willing to relocate, now are able to intern with the employer and also pursue relevant career training at the college for future advancement.
Thus, the loss of a local business partner during the more difficult economic times did not extinguish the well-established relationships with individual participants but opened the possibility of innovative additions to the project activities. In addition, both longer term and newly recruited local partners provided increased internship, job shadowing, and job placement opportunities as the local economy improved.
The STW had a major impact on staff and students involved in the partnership. Staff members were involved in numerous staff development activities, including opportunities usually offered only to business people. The data on student impact are impressive. Both issues are addressed in the following section.
Staff involved in the STW indicate that they have grown through their participation. The teachers involved in developing articulation agreements report greater understanding of the competencies needed for success in the particular occupation. This, they say, has helped focus and improve their instruction. Their understanding of career paths available also has improved their ability to counsel students.
Staff also are involved in ongoing staff development. A partnership subcommittee is charged with determining staff development needs and arranging appropriate staff in-services. One of the in-services focuses on teaching teachers how to work with business. Another trains staff to conduct classroom-based student assessment. A large local business provided diversity training to the partnership staff and then trained particular staff members to be able to continue to offer diversity training to other STW teachers and staff members. The county library trained project participants to be volunteer literacy tutors. It also provided training to project staff to enable them to train later volunteer groups in this capacity.
The STW reaches a broad range of students placed at risk: 125 participated in year one; 550 participated in year two; and 3,000 currently are participating in the STW. The partnership has instituted several sources of client feedback. The students who are engaged in job shadowing or placement are monitored weekly. Employer and employee issues thus can be dealt with in a timely manner. At-risk students in the project also are tracked in terms of attendance and class performance through tutor-mentors. Outcome data also are formally gathered for a longitudinal assessment of project participants. A sample of 522 STW students has been matched by demographic and other characteristics to nonparticipating students and will be tracked following completion of the project.
Few of the first-year pool of 125 dropped out (5 percent) as compared to the high school dropout rate of their peers (26 percent). Of the 118 who graduated, 105 were placed in jobs. Nearly all (95 percent) of the students placed in jobs after completing the partnership project still are successfully retained by their employers beyond the 90-day trial period. Virtually all of the remaining students went on to pursue postsecondary education. On average, the participants earned 15 college credits through articulated vo-tech courses, and some entered as second semester freshmen. Six of the students are enrolling at a major state university, with full two-year scholarships. Although the year-two entrants have just completed the project, follow-up data are not yet available for them.
During year two, 550 students participated. Because this is a two-year project, this number includes the first-year participants who were still in the project. The peer tutor-mentor program also was established during year two of the STW. Of the 550 participating students, 125 were involved in the peer tutor-mentor program as tutors or as tutored students. Counselors judged the tutor-student matches to be successful in most cases (90 percent). The local evaluation reported that students participating as tutors or as tutored students stayed in school, were absent less frequently, and performed better in their classes. Similar impact was evident in the third year. For most participants (90 percent), absenteeism decreased (dropping below 10 percent). Performance also improved as participant GPAs increased an average of .5 over the course of a year. Three thousand students participated in the STW in the third year.
The STW is fully institutionalized. The organizational and programmatic levels of the project have been implemented successfully and are supported by long-standing institutional relationships and policy changes that facilitate institutionalization. The 2+2 / 2+2+2 articulations are formalized and the project participants are pursuing connections and actively advocating policy that will aid in project institutionalization and further development. Implementation also is aided through strategic connections to social service agencies and to university programs with community internship requirements. Other more specific in-kind resources include access to the unemployment office database and transportation voucher agreements with the city to enable students to get to their jobs.
The paid project staff are not dependent on EPP funds. As previously described, the vo-tech school receives state support, and alternative funding sources already have been integrated into the budget and will continue to be, as proposal writing is an ongoing activity within the partnership. Further, the vo-tech school has fully integrated the partnership goals into its ongoing activities and policies. Staff are assessed, in part, in terms of their duties and responsibilities to partnership activities. According to the project director, "The partnership is not just a project, it has become inextricable from everything that we do." Various two- and four-year colleges have changed policies regarding articulation. This has resulted in consortium membership with partnership articulation staff, as well as in the establishment, for example, of college-based articulation positions filled by partnership staff. In addition, partners have signed commitment agreements that detail the expectations and benefits of their partnership responsibilities. Finally, partners such as the county library and two large businesses provide ongoing training or technical assistance. One of the companies also has devoted several pages of the company manual to employee volunteer policies, and provides release time and training for partnership activity involvement.
There are several indications that the community has become aware of partnership activities and considers them to be worthwhile. Numerous community-based organizations, churches, and service clubs recently have become involved in the partnership and provide services and resources. For example, when several STW marketing students became finalists in a national vocational club competition, local businesses sponsored the travel so that finalists could attend the final phase of the competition. The previously mentioned participation of local professionals on job interview day and on computer business mentor day indicates strong support in the local business community. The partnership activities are seen as worthwhile because they are judged to be of good quality.
The quality of the vocational training is receiving community recognition. This is evident particularly for the job coaches trained to work with employee rehabilitation. Some high demand organizations do not post job coach openings but directly contact the STW job coach instructor for referrals. Overall job coach placement rates are very high. Child care training instruction also is well reputed. Several established child care providers have contacted the County/STW instructor with in-service requests. Such requests are honored, although providing in-service lies beyond the original scope of the activity. Similarly, the peer tutoring activity has moved beyond the original intent because of a growing positive reputation in the community. Originally conceived as a support for vo-tech students, peer tutors trained through the STW course are being requested by area high schools and middle schools. This is truly a success story as many of the peer tutors who train to work with students placed at risk also were considered to be at risk when they began tutor training.
The STW partnership exemplifies a successful effort to ease students' transition from school to work. The STW serves a diverse and difficult population and has created a variety of activities that ensure that students can finish school successfully and gain employment or continue with their education. In part, the success of the program can be credited to the vision and management ability of the principal of the vo-tech school. In addition, however, the partnership's willingness to identify and address problems, as well as its ability to take advantage of opportunities, are factors in its success.
The STW is extraordinarily complex. It involves school districts, 11 institutions of higher education, over 70 businesses, 6 public agencies, and numerous community-based organizations. Some partners are more active than others, but the steering committee, which represents the most active partners, has 25 people. How can the STW succeed with such complexity? The answers seem to lie in two areas.
First, the STW began slowly. Articulation agreements, which are difficult to develop and form the core of the program, were developed carefully and over time. The total increased every year. And, although staff members responsible for the vocational area involved had responsibility for developing the agreements, an STW staff member was assigned to coordinate the process. His growing knowledge of how to address content, turf, and personality issues enabled the partnership to develop increasing numbers of articulations.
Second, collaborative decisionmaking takes place at two levels. The steering committee identifies problems and recommends solutions to the project director, who also is the principal of the vo-tech school. The committee also identifies opportunities that the STW might take advantage of. The problems and opportunities so identified affect broad policy. The second level for collaboration is operational. That is, vo-tech teachers and their counterparts in the institutions of higher education develop articulation agreements; vocational counselors work with unemployment services department staff to find jobs for graduates; businesses and STW coordinators work together to place students in job shadowing and internship experiences; and STW staff and community-based organizations collaborate to provide support services to needy students. At this level, most decisionmaking is dyadic. Consequently, although the STW is complex, most participants do not have to deal with the complexity daily.
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[Curriculum-Focused Partnership Part A]
This page was last updated January 8, 2002 (jca)