This guide, which is one of a series of three guides designed to provide state and local leaders, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders with information about the work-based learning component of the School to Work Opportunities Act, deals with career exposure. The introduction traces the history of school-to-work initiatives, lists…

This volume features the reform journeys of six American high schools. The six high schools portrayed here include four large comprehensive high schools (Oakland Technical High in Oakland, California, and Brighton High in Boston, Massachusetts, are urban; Sir Francis Drake in Marin County, California, and Rex Putnam in North Clackamas, Oregon, are…

This document, which is based on the findings of case studies of how four high schools from across the country have successfully implemented the schoolwide career academy model, presents recent developments and best practices in schoolwide career academies. The document consists of a brief introduction describing the case studies and one chapter…

Facts on career academies are provided for local school board members, superintendents, other district administrators, and building administrators. The facts are divided into three categories. The category title or the fact is followed by the numbers of the references on which that category or fact is based. The section called Components of Career…

The outcomes and implementation of career academy programs in California were examined in a study of one school district's efforts to implement a uniform career academy model in 1990-1996. A cohort of approximately 10,000 students who were sophomores in the district's comprehensive high schools between 1990 and 1993 were followed through high…

This publication describes the following six programs designed to improve education and employment preparation for adolescents and funded by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds: (1) High Schools that Work, a national initiative that assists more than 1,000 high schools in 22 states as they upgrade their rigor and improve their quality of…

This document profiles the diverse approaches to tech-prep taken by 10 local districts across the United States. The tech-prep programs in the following cities are profiled: Dayton, Ohio; Dothan, Alabama; East Peoria, Illinois; Fresno, California; Gainesville, Florida; Hartford, Connecticut; Logan, West Virginia; Salem, Oregon; Springdale,…

In 1992, the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Education jointly developed the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) Career Academy model, which provides a framework for implementation of an innovative vocational education program designed to keep dropout-prone students in school. The program, which combines military…

This manual contains a series of 10 detailed guides for school practitioners who are beginning to create work-based learning programs at their schools. Work-Based Learning Overview defines the different elements of work-based learning and describes the roles of program participants. Program Planning Guide offers suggestions about how to plan…

This document examines issues in schoolwide application of career academies. Part 1 reviews the three defining features of career academies: (1) a career academy is a small learning community in which a cluster of students share several classes each year that are taught by the same team of teachers over a period of 2-4 years; (3) each academy…

A process study was conducted between 2000-2001 in order to gauge the progress of 98 Connecticut institutions that received state school-to-career (STC) grants. Progress was measured against national averages. The following were among the findings: (1) grantees made significant progress in implementing fundamental STC components, such as career…

Work-based education (WBE), including traditional vocational education and other career-focused programs, was an important curricular component in American schools for most of the 20th century. The 1990s was a period of substantial change for work-based education (WBE). Spurred on by a concern about the international competitiveness of the…