A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Study of School-To-Work Initiatives
Cross-Site Analysis June 1995

CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL-TO-WORK REFORM

ELEMENT ONE: LEADERSHIP FROM EXECUTIVES OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

Where school-to-work finds an advocate at the executive level, the reform is more likely to take root throughout the educational system. Where that advocacy is absent, school-to-work is likely to remain a tenuous and fragmented activity, however strong the support from other sectors. All of the communities visited by AED described the presence of leadership by educational system executives: principals of schools, superintendents of districts, and administrators of regional entities. Typically, the most effective school-to-work reforms enjoyed active leadership from the high school executive as well as the support of the school board and district administration.

Successful transition systems require executives who are able to develop a shared vision, clear goals, and a comprehensive strategy, enlisting the support and involvement of all stakeholders, including teachers, students, employers, parents, and the larger community. They publicly articulate a vision of school- to-work reform, a sense of its importance, and a commitment to its realization, engaging significant elements in the community to take on the vision as their own. Change of major scope in any organization requires that its executive assume responsibility for carrying the vision to the staff and the community. These executives continually and consistently communicate the message throughout the educational system they lead and to community members whose partnership and cooperation are important. Theirs is a public information role, explaining school-to-work to public audiences, what it is and what it may mean to them, but also backing up information with advocacy and persuasion, seeking to secure the engagement of all needed parties.

Beyond vision and advocacy, these executives typically operate with a keen sense of politics, both in understanding the process and knowing the players. They pursue and sustain connections with organizations and constituencies that must be engaged in the school-to-work reform. Moreover, they know how to work systems to obtain the support that the reform needs. Some have an entrepreneurial and creative approach to raising funds, combining funds from different sources, brokering one resource to secure another, leveraging a new source by building upon an old one. Given that seed money is usually needed to start these reforms, it is hard to overstate the importance of this role.

These executives are entrepreneurial in another sense: they are willing to take risks, to try things that have not been tried before and to encourage others to act in a similar manner. Faced with obstacles to change, they respond with flexibility and creativity. They are willing "to step outside of the box" to seek resources, ideas, and advice likely to take them and their systems beyond traditional approaches. Embracing the new is always a risk for a leader, to whom will fall the responsibility of justifying the change and sustaining the effort through the failures and mistakes inevitable in reform.

Another quality of these executives is in fact a recognition that change demands time, mistakes, and a tolerance of failure. While they set and expect high standards for their staff members, they also create an atmosphere that encourages learning from mistakes, allowing the reform to evolve and recognizing that mistake-free environments are those in which little is attempted and less ever changes for the better.

Recognizing the complexity of change and the skills it requires, leaders also support staff development for those of whom change is asked. Indeed, these executives are often notable for, not simply a willingness, but a commitment to empowering others throughout the system to assume leadership. They share authority rather than hoard it. They recognize that any reform dependent upon one or two leaders, however effective, is fragile and unlikely to survive beyond the tenure of that individual. Change supported by leaders throughout the system may move beyond the initial vision, and it is more likely to endure.

Patterson Career Center, Dayton, Ohio

The current restructuring of Patterson Career Center and its movement toward a participatory management style would not have occurred without the vision, commitment, and persistence of its principal. Referred to by superiors and staff as "Mr. Reform, Team Builder, and Risk Taker," he is widely credited with developing a unified identity, mission, philosophy, and strategic direction for the school, with a willingness to share leadership roles and decision making with his staff, and with the patience to bring others along as they adapt to the new vision. His goal is to develop leadership throughout the school and institute a participatory management model in a decentralized structure. He has energized the staff and inspired them with optimism, enthusiasm, and confidence.

He has also worked with them to create a school environment characterized by caring, trust, and respect. Teachers report that their ideas are not only encouraged but accepted and adapted as the basis for reform.

Roy High School, Roy, Utah

Roy's educational reform initiative features student-centered counseling and flexible scheduling, allows students to graduate early, provides an innovative use of credits, and has special relationships with a number of postsecondary institutions and employers. The high school's assistant principal is credited with the initial success of the entire reform initiative. He has not only supported the restructuring process but empowered all the players, including teachers, to be active participants in the process. His flexible approach to leadership has enabled teachers to work without the administration in their way. He has brought together all the important parties and sold the reform ideas to them in a way that has led them to take on the initiative as their own. He takes part in many scheduling and credit granting decisions and Student Education and Occupational Plan (SEOP) conferences. In addition, he has developed important relationships with employers, community agencies, and postsecondary institutions, relationships that are essential to maintaining the vision and moving the reform forward.

Metro Tech Vocational Institute of Phoenix, Arizona

Metro Tech's leadership has instituted a set of innovations-- including work-based learning, infusion of academics into vocational skills training, and technology-based instruction--held together by a fundamental vision for accomplishing school reform. The staff report that since the early 1980s the school has operated under the leadership of knowledgeable, visionary, and effective administrators who have pursued the goals of quality vocational education, partnerships with business and industry, and physical and technological improvements to the school's facilities plant. These leaders are credited with setting the overall vision for the school, with the financial savvy to pursue funding, and with knowledge of educational reform strategies. The principal and two assistant principals perform the typical duties of top administrators, but also communicate and promote the school's reform priorities, particularly academic infusion of vocational curricula and technology-based instruction. The staffing structure, however, balances strong central direction with decentralized responsibility for individual vocational programs, granting the latter considerable independence in developing curriculum and working with business partners.

Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Sitka, Alaska

Mt. Edgecumbe High School is engaged in reforms with a dual purpose: to engage the stakeholders who make up the school in a continuous cycle of evaluation and improvement of systems, and to equip students with the skills and habits necessary to engage in lifelong learning and to thrive in a productive career. The framework for the reforms is total quality management (TQM), a systems-change concept that focuses on the involvement of stakeholders, continuous analysis and improvement, maximizing the value and potential of each worker, and the development of a positive organizational culture. Among its other tenets, TQM calls for a clearly articulated vision, the involvement of stakeholders in the decision making process, and constant evaluation and improvement of the process. Coping with difficult politics while fostering the involvement of community and teachers, the administrative leadership at the high school built a strong foundation for TQM, attempting to serve as "a pace car to set the pace and then get out of the way." The result has been staff and students who are engaged in the process and willing to change.

East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program, East San Gabriel, California

The Regional Occupational Program (ROP) system in California provides occupational training on a regional basis to high schools and to adults, and usually represents the joining together of two or more school districts for this purpose. The East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program (ESGVROP) was established in 1972 to serve constituents sixteen years and older from six unified school districts that operate a total of seventeen high schools and three adult continuation schools in the central and eastern areas of Los Angeles County.

Credited with an empowering leadership style, the superintendent of the ESGVROP delegates administrative authority throughout a small team of coordinators. She and her staff foster an atmosphere conducive to collaboration by encouraging trust, flexibility, and acceptance of change among the ROP's many partners and at all levels of the staff. Within that atmosphere, they combine vision with competence and determination to succeed. They approach their school partners as customers who face individual situations and needs. Their painstaking attention to the details of management has produced systems of communication and transportation capable of tracking and serving individual students in individual placements across greater Los Angeles.

Education for Employment, Kalamazoo County, Michigan

School-to-work in Kalamazoo Valley is a system developed over time to sustain Education for Employment's (EFE) basic purposes: to provide career-technical education for all students, to involve business and industry as well as educators, and to engage postsecondary as well as secondary educational institutions. A consistent theme in Kalamazoo is the quality of the system's leaders: their competence, commitment, vision, strategic thinking, collaborative style, knowledge, and political savvy. EFE personnel are well-connected to the world of education beyond the county through active leadership in professional organizations, networking in state political circles, and relationships with national organizations. The top administrators, specifically the assistant superintendent and the area vocational directors, are often singled out by those involved for their leadership. Their commitment to nurturing leadership throughout the system is notable, however, including the deliberate hiring and appointment of individuals with leadership qualities, and the organizing of a system whose structures and processes empower and support leaders throughout the EFE. The result is that many people, at various levels of the system, are regarded as leaders: instructors, counselors, advisory committee members, secretaries, and indeed, students.

Aviation Magnet, Louisville, Kentucky

Visionary school leadership brought the aviation magnet to Shawnee High School, and administrative leadership at the district, school, and program level has helped it grow. At the district level, support has come from the senior deputy superintendent, who belongs to an informal flying club with the magnet's coordinator and an aviation instructor, having obtained his pilot's license in the past few years. He understands how this magnet can meet the needs of business and industry and students. His advocacy has been extremely important as the program tries to educate educators about the industry and develop a program responsive to industry and the rigorous requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission. Within the high school, the principal advocates for the program and its expansion, wanting to see other students develop the sense of direction evident in aviation magnet students. His stance has helped overcome the misunderstanding and jealousy of some teachers in the high school who question why the magnet should receive special attention and resources.

Youth Transition Program, State of Oregon

The basic goal of the Youth Transition Program (YTP) is to place youth with disabilities in meaningful competitive employment or career-related postsecondary training, providing services to these youth beginning in their completion year of high school and continuing for up to two years. A consistent factor in YTP's effectiveness is the quality of its leaders at both state and local levels: their competence, commitment to students with disabilities, vision, strategic thinking, knowledge of communities, ability to collaborate and network, and political instincts. They value training, technical assistance, and program design and modification based on evaluation. Through their delivery and solid grounding in research and programs, they have won the support of state policy makers, including the legislature, the governor, and agency leaders, support that has paved the way for connections with statewide education and workforce reform and restructuring.


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counselors, etc ]