School-to-Career is a strategy that brings educators, students, and the community together to help young people move smoothly from their classrooms to their careers. School-to-Career is designed to provide young people with a strong academic foundation, an opportunity to apply their knowledge in real-life situations, and help in fulfilling their career ambitions. It is a key part of the education reform initiative now taking place in Washington State.

School-to-Career (also called School-to-Work Transition) was born in the early 1990s, when concern about the performance of our education system reached a critical point. The Legislature adopted recommendations of a blue-ribbon citizen panel, which endorsed a plan for a more rigorous education for Washington’s young people. The plan called for:

• Clear learning goals for students.
• New, higher standards that ensure rigorous academic content is taught at every grade level.
• Specific benchmarks for skills and knowledge that students should have by fourth, seventh and tenth grades.
• Assessments that accurately measure what students know and can do in those grades.

Concern was expressed that raised standards might drive more students out of school at a time when dropout rates were already staggering (about 25 percent.) Raising standards and improving student motivation together seemed essential to the success of education reform. Demonstration projects in Washington and elsewhere showed that students of all abilities learned two things when given the opportunity to apply academic skills in real life situations: one, why academic skills matter and, two, how much more they could do than they thought. These projects showed that connecting students to the world outside the classroom clearly benefited students of all abilities and interests.

This connection was so powerful that the most important element School-to-Career brings to education reform is that all students should have work-based learning experiences in high school. "Work-based learning" includes a host of opportunities to learn in a non-academic setting. It includes experiences that range from simply "job shadowing" (following an adult through a working day), to having a "mentor" (matching a student with an adult employed in the field of the student's interest to provide guidance and advice), to internships and full-fledged working experiences. Work-based learning experiences are specially structured to ensure that they connect to the student's school work, and that the student is helped to make connections between classroom and work site lessons.

First, School-to-Career is about helping students achieve higher academic standards by showing them how they can apply their studies to a future occupation or career. Many students drop out of high school -- physically and mentally -- because they do not see a connection between doing well in school and the future they dream about. Initial research shows that when young people see and experience this connection, they are more engaged in their studies, less likely to drop out, more likely to want more school after graduation, and more focused about their post-high school education plans.

Second, School-to-Career is about making better connections between academic and career planning, better planning that will benefit all students. Students headed directly to universities need career guidance to help them use high school to identify their interests and abilities, obtain skills for their major, and take advantage of internships. This is especially true as competition for college majors increases. Students uninterested in four or more years of college need visible paths to other options, especially to highly skilled technical occupations that require a couple of years of education beyond high school that pay excellent wages.

Goal #1: Read with comprehension, write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsibly in a variety of ways and settings;

Goal #2: Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics, social, physical, and life sciences; civics and history; geography; arts, and health and fitness;

Goal #3: Think analytically, logically, and creatively, and integrate experience and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems;

Goal #4: Understand the importance of work and how performance, effort, and decisions directly affect career and educational opportunities.

The Commission on Student Learning is developing new academic standards, called essential academic learning requirements, based on these four goals. Students will be tested on what they know and how they apply that knowledge in fourth, seventh and tenth grades. Results of the first assessments, given to fourth grade students in Spring 1997, were released in September 1997. Tests for seventh graders will be available for voluntary use beginning in 1998, and the tenth grade test will be available beginning in 1999.

Each School-to-Career initiative typically has three elements. School-based learning is classroom instruction that integrates high academic standards with technical learning. Work-based learning is experience at job sites that allows students to observe or study subject matter with adults in a hands-on, work-based environment. Connecting activities provide program coordination and support for students, schools and employers in areas such as career counseling, post-secondary education, and job placements.

Most local School-to-Career initiatives have a system of well-marked, flexible pathways that students follow as they move through high school and on to college and to eventual employment. A pathway is a way to organize curriculum and courses within a broad subject area, such as arts and communications, health, or science and technology. This allows students to apply their academic skills within an area of interest, and to learn about careers that might interest them. Most high schools use five to seven pathways. Students choose a pathway based on their individual interest, and can change pathways should their interests change.

• Learn what your school is doing to respond to higher academic standards, and help your children meet them.

• Be a mentor to your children. Talk with them about your work, and invite friends and relatives to do the same. Help your children understand that performance counts, both in school and on the job. Help them explore various careers, and choose extracurricular activities that support their interests.

• If your teen has a part-time job, take a few minutes each day to ask how it went, what he or she learned, what other employees and the supervisors were doing, and what academic skills he or she observed.

Quattrociocchi, Susan (1997). A Call to Parents. This publication provides tips on how parents can make a difference in their children’s education and career choices. Available from the career counselor at your high school or the Tech Prep director at your local community or technical college.

Quattrociocchi, Susan, and Peterson, Barbara (1997). Giving Children Hope and Skills for the 21^st Century. A Parent’s Handbook on the Future World of Work. Available from WOIS/The Career Information System, (800) 700-9647.

School-to-Work Alliance of Puget Sound and the Puget Sound Education Service District (1997). 2001: A Career Odyssey. This presentation is available to parent-teacher associations by calling the Puget Sound ESD at (206) 439-3636, extension 2927.

Commission on Student Learning (1995). Let’s Talk About Our Children’s Future. Available by calling the commission at (206) 439-3700.

Partnership for Learning. A Parent’s Guide to Your Child’s Academic Success. Available by calling the Partnership for Learning at (800) 550-5437 or on the Internet at http://www.eskimo.com/~pfl/ParentsGuide/Default.htm.

Washington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (1997). Plan for Tomorrow Today - A Guide to Careers & Occupations in Washington State. The guide provides comprehensive information on career planning, including information on post-secondary education and training, and the employment outlook, wages, and location of training sites for more than 325 occupations in Washington State. Available from high school career counselors or by calling the Workforce Coordinating Board at (360) 753-5662.

National PTA - http://www.pta.org.   This site has information on parent involvement in schools, child related topics, and links to other child advocacy organizations.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction - http://www.ospi.wednet.edu.  This site contains information on K-12 education in Washington State.

Center for the Improvement of Student Learning - http://cisl.ospi.wednet.edu.  This site contains information on education improvement in Washington State.

National School-to-Work Office - http://www.stw.ed.gov.   This site includes information about School-to-Career and School-to-Work initiatives around the country, and a variety of resource guides

State School-to-Work Transition Internet site - http://www.wa.gov/wtb/stwindex.html.   This site contains information about School-to-Career and School-to-Work Transition in Washington State.

Partnership for Learning - http://www.eskimo.com/~pfl/index.html. This site contains information and resources for parents on education reform in Washington State.

Work-Based Learning Resource Center - http://www.wa-wbl.com. This site, a joint effort of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and Highline Community College, has information and resources for work-based learning.

Education Resources in Washington State - http://www.wa.gov/educat.htm. This area of Home Page Washington features links to a variety of education resources in Washington State, including K-12 schools, colleges and universities, state education boards and commissions, and other organizations involved in education.