[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5542-S5545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    SCHOOL-TO-WORK: A LARGER VISION

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, in November of last year, Mr. Sam Halperin 
of the American youth policy forum addressed a statewide conference in 
Rhode Island on implementation of the new School-to-Work Opportunities 
Act of 1994. His thoughts bear careful consideration not only as we 
move this act from legislative provision to program but also as we 
approach reauthorization of the Vocational Education Act.
  Mr. Halperin is a distinguished educator whose views merit careful 
consideration. He has served as Deputy Commissioner in the old Office 
of Education, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health, 
Education, and Welfare, and the director and first president of the 
Institute for Educational Leadership.
  I would ask that the full text of Mr. Halperin's remarks be placed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    School-to-Work: A Larger Vision

                        (By Dr. Samuel Halperin)

       Thank you for your invitation to help develop Rhode 
     Island's plans for implementation of the School-to-Work 
     Opportunities Act of 1994 (hereafter STWOA). I have no doubt 
     that you will soon win one of the federal implementation 
     grants, grants already awarded to eight other states.
       My only doubt is whether your vision will be as large-
     spirited and as bold as the federal Act itself. Will you 
     seize the opportunity to rethink the essential nature of 
     schooling at the dawn of the 21st Century? Will you construct 
     a total quality system in which each of the parts supports 
     and advances the welfare of all the other parts? That is the 
     challenge. That is the opportunity.


  School-to-Work Opportunities Act: ``Historic, Landmark'' Legislation

       Five features of the new Act qualify it for designation as 
     ``historic,'' even ``landmark,'' legislation:
       One, previous federal legislation focussed mostly on the 
     disadvantaged (Job Training Partnership Act, JOb Corps, ESEA 
     Title I). STWOA is the most universal, non-means-tested 
     effort to date. It is intended to help all students who have 
     not yet completed 
      [[Page S5543]] high school, regardless of their economic 
     status.
       Two, STWOA is the first federal education legislation to 
     declare that preparation for earning a living is one of the 
     legitimate and important roles of schooling for all students, 
     including the college-bound.
       Three, previous federal legislation implied that learning 
     is the near-exclusive province of the schools. STWOA affirms 
     that learning takes place in families, communities, schools 
     and workplaces. Employers and worksite learning are central 
     in the new legislation. So are parents and community-based 
     organizations. All of these agencies are specifically 
     recognized as major stakeholders and partners in every local 
     STW partnership.
       Four, previous federal legislation (with the exception of 
     Vocational Education) largely bypassed the high schools. 
     (Title I compensatory education funds, the largest program, 
     are concentrated largely in the early grades.) STWOA focusses 
     on high school and the transition to postsecondary education. 
     While it addresses the needs of all students, it 
     ``remembers'' the needs of ``The Forgotten Half'' who are not 
     going to four-year colleges immediately after high school 
     graduation.
       Five, previous federal legislation provided annual funding 
     over many years. STWOA, accommodating to harsh federal fiscal 
     realities, seeks to leverage change through limited financial 
     incentives. Federal ``venture capital'' over a seven-to-ten-
     year period is intended to help you form voluntary 
     partnerships and consortia of all the stakeholders. STWOA 
     also encourages you to re-assess how you are using other 
     federal, state and and local funding streams and, possibly, 
     combine them for greater impact.
       Overall, the hope is that the new ways of doing business 
     that you will develop will produce greater student 
     achievement and far greater satisfaction with the graduates 
     of your community's total educational enterprise.


                       What School-to-Work Is Not

       Now, having told you why I think the new Act presents such 
     a large historic challenge, I'd like to emphasize what the 
     Act is not.
       First, it's not another one of those small federal programs 
     that soon becomes overlaid with reams of federal and state 
     guidelines and regulations. The last thing in the world you 
     need is another categorical program, another ``flavor of the 
     month!''
       STWOA is not a fancy euphemism for existing programs like 
     vocational education or career exploration, although each of 
     these endeavors has a vital role to play in School to Work.
       It's not a way for America to beat the Japanese and Germans 
     in international economic competition.
       It's not another tracking device to separate winners and 
     losers in the education race or to offer second-class 
     schooling to students who may not see themselves as college-
     bound.


                      What School-to-Work Could Be

       Now let me tell you what I think STW could be here in Rhode 
     Island and around the country.
       Ideally, STW is a systematic, comprehensive, community-wide 
     effort to help all young people (1) prepare for high-skill 
     and high-wage careers, (2) receive top quality academic 
     instruction, and (3) gain the foundation skills to pursue 
     post-secondary education and lifelong learning. I stress all 
     young people, including those with disabilities and those who 
     are headed for a four-year degree at our finest colleges and 
     universities.
       When carried out effectively, STW offers a high school 
     experience that challenges and motivates our youth to develop 
     the skills, knowledge and behaviors they need to achieve 
     economic earning power and, in turn, achieve the American 
     dream.
       STW will also help to provide American employers with the 
     qualified workers they need. Through new or expanded local 
     partnerships, employers will work with teachers to develop 
     and implement curricula that span both the school and work 
     sites, setting high standards for student performance and 
     credentialing youth for good careers.
       To the architects of STWOA, the Act is a way to rethink 
     what we adults are doing to prepare our young people for 
     success in life. It offers us the opportunity to 
     fundamentally alter the high school experience--which 
     currently is not working well for many, if not most, 
     students. It brings high school into alignment with more 
     effective ways of teaching and learning and promises a 
     brighter future for far more young people. It also gives 
     adults far greater personal and professional satisfaction 
     from their work with young people.


                  a critique of American high schools

       STWOA was created out of a widespread belief that most high 
     schools are not working well, particularly for the 75 percent 
     of our young people who are unlikely to earn a baccalaureate 
     degree. Consider these contemporary comments on the American 
     high school:
       ``Most employers look at the high school diploma as 
     evidence of staying power, not academic achievement. They 
     realized long ago that it is possible to graduate from high 
     school in this country and still be functionally illiterate. 
     As a result, the non-college-bound youth know that their 
     performance in high school is likely to have little or no 
     bearing on the type of employment they manage to find.'' 
     (Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 
     America's Choice: high skills or low wages!, 1990)
       ``Most kids think [academic] education methods are torture 
     devices invented by teachers . . . they got that idea because 
     they can see that no one in the workplace is doing these 
     things.'' (Stephen Hamilton, Cornell University Youth and 
     Work Program.)
       ``It's evident that the vast majority of kids in high 
     school are not motivated. We don't seem to be approaching 
     them in ways that engage them in learning.'' (John f. 
     Jennings, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on 
     Education and Labor.)
       ``Students not bound for college need the most help, 
     receive the least assistance, are equipped with the most 
     limited information, and experience the greatest risks in the 
     job market.'' (Gary Orfield and Faith Paul, High Hopes, Long 
     Odds, 1994)
       Over the twenty-year period from 1967-1987, the percentage 
     of jobs held by workers with less than a high school diploma 
     declined from 40 percent to only 15 percent. Over the same 
     period, inflation-adjusted incomes of families headed by high 
     school graduates without any postsecondary education fell 
     fully 30 percent. Only half of the high school graduates 
     under age 20 and not in college are employed fulltime and 
     worse yet, about one-third of young people fail to find 
     stable employment by the time they reach age 30. (Bureau of 
     Labor Statistics and Paul Osterman of MIT.) (For a larger 
     discussion of these points, see Richard Mendel, The American 
     School-to-Career Movement: A Background Paper for 
     Policymakers and Foundation Officers, American Youth Policy 
     Forum, 1994.)
       Against this dire and worsening background we know that 
     many well-paying careers do not require a baccalaureate 
     degree. We also know from research (e.g., the SCANS reports, 
     1991 and 1992, and the National Assessment of Vocational 
     Education, 1994) that certain things do pay off in the labor 
     market: (1) cognitive skills, (2) broad technical skills 
     (especially computer literacy and its applications), (3) 
     postsecondary education and, (4) human relations and 
     workplace skills, like getting along with colleagues and 
     supervisors, working well in teams and demonstrating 
     reliability, responsibility and initiative.


                    Basic Premises of School-to-Work

       Building on this knowledge base, STWOA offers no precise 
     blueprint, no road map or rule book. Rather, the new Act is 
     one of the least prescriptive laws on the statue books. It 
     acts like a compass, pointing to a set of concepts or basic 
     premises. These premises are based on recent research about 
     how people learn best and what employers say young people 
     need in order to cope with a fast-changing world.
       First, STW is a new way of looking at the development of 
     young people and particularly at their needs in the critical 
     adolescent transition years from high school into further 
     education and the world of work. STW asserts that youth need 
     active, not passive learning--in schools, in worksites, in 
     voluntary service. Therefore, STW views the entire community 
     as one great learning laboratory where young people grow, 
     develop and find networks of support.
       Second, STW is a systematic effort to change the time-based 
     assumptions on which most high schools are currently based. 
     STW says that young people are expected to exhibit or 
     demonstrate mastery of rigorous academic and behavioral 
     skills, not be judged by how many years they have sat in 
     classrooms or how many written tests they have passed by rote 
     memorization. Actual demonstrations of competence will be the 
     touchstone of STW.
       Third, STW builds on extensive research that says that one 
     of the most critical ingredients in young people's success is 
     their close attachment to a caring and successful adult, a 
     mentor, a role model, a coach, a youth advocate who 
     supplements what teachers, neighbors and family members 
     provide, particularly when traditional supports are lacking.
       When a Congressional committee asked Cornell University's 
     Urie Bronfenbrenner to summarize everything he had learned in 
     a long and
      distinguished career in human development research, 
     Bronfenbrenner replied: ``Some adult has got to be crazy 
     about the kid, and truly be there for that kid, and let 
     that kid know that his life is important and has 
     meaning.''
       Fourth, STW also builds on powerful recent research finding 
     that most students learn best in context, when they see how 
     knowledge is actually used outside the school, especially in 
     a work setting. Therefore, STW views the employers' workplace 
     as a learning laboratory where young people can experience 
     the relevance of knowledge in the ``real world.'' Young 
     people like to work. They blossom in the workplace if they 
     are treated as respected members of a team that is expected 
     to perform responsibly and productively. Generations of 
     inquiry concerning European adolescents undergird these 
     truths. Young people in Europe report pride in their 
     workplace roles. They look forward to the company and the 
     counsel of their adult supervisors and coworkers. And, to a 
     considerable extent, they avoid the epidemic of pathologies 
     which beset so many American youth.
       Fifth, because STW is outcome- or performance-centered, 
     young people in their dual roles as learners and as workers 
     can demonstrate their proficiency at the highest standards. 
     That accomplishment is then certified by a credential that is 
     recognized and 
      [[Page S5544]] honored by schools, by employers, by parents 
     and by institutions of higher education.
       These, then, are five basic premises on which many of the 
     new STW initiatives around the United States are based. To be 
     sure, few existing STW efforts will articulate all of these 
     premises clearly. Nor will these initiatives give equal 
     weight to each of these premises. Let me assert my firm 
     belief, however, that the most successful and the most 
     enduring STW efforts will be those that incorporate all five 
     of these premises. There simply are no short cuts to 
     excellence.
       Now let us see if we can put these premises together in a 
     comprehensive vision of a high school learning community 
     based on them. I am indebted by my friend in the U.S. 
     Department of Education, Deputy Assistant Secretary Patricia 
     McNeil, for suggesting how a vision of STW in the context of 
     ``systemic school reform'' might be portrayed.


                   Anytown High: An Attainable Dream

       Close your eyes for a few moments. Imagine that you are an 
     entering freshman at Anytown High School. It is the first day 
     of school. You are seated in the school auditorium with your 
     new classmates. I am the principal, giving you a preview of 
     what kind of school this is, and the kinds of experiences and 
     opportunities available to you.
       ``Welcome to Anytown High School! All the adults on the 
     stage with me this morning and around the room--teachers, 
     office staff, counselors, food service and building staff, 
     coaches, community leaders, local employers, labor union 
     representatives, members of our town's workforce development 
     system, alternative schools, city government, parents and 
     volunteers--we all welcome you.
       Not long ago, I told similar freshmen classes that half of 
     you might not be here to complete your senior year. Today, I 
     want to give you quite a different message. All of us here 
     today pledge that we are here to help each of you get the 
     high level skills and knowledge you will need to become 
     successful citizens, productive workers and lifelong 
     learners. When
      you complete your experience here or when you finish your 
     secondary schooling at a job training program or community 
     college or alternative school, you will have all you need 
     to enter and complete a two- or four-year college degree 
     program, a registered apprenticeship program, the 
     military, or an entry-level career ladder job. All the 
     adults in this school an din this community are pledged to 
     work together to help you succeed. That is because we 
     accept the wisdom of that old African adage: `It takes a 
     entire village to raise a child.
       Everything we do here at Anytown High school is based on 
     three simple and important ideas:
       One, what we expect you to learn here is important in the 
     world outside these walls, important to your future as 
     citizens, neighbors, parents and workers.
       Two, we on the teaching staff and in school administration 
     know that you can learn. Every single one of you has the 
     ability to master the subject matter in our curriculum. This 
     school is constructed in such a way that it respects your 
     different learning styles. Some of you will need more time 
     and extra help and, here at Anytown High, you will get it. 
     Every one of you can graduate knowing, and being able to do, 
     the things that assure success in the world of work and in 
     life generally.
       Three, we won't let you fail. When I say `we', I mean the 
     entire community which is mobilized to ensure your success. 
     Together, we will support you and provide many kinds of 
     opportunities for learning, for earning and for fun.
       Because we in Rhode Island have restructured our entire K-
     12 school system, most of you have been hearing this message 
     in one way or another from pre-school, through primary and 
     middle school, but it bears repeating today:
       You are intelligent and capable individuals. No one is born 
     with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in this 
     world. You get smart through effort. Our job as adults is to 
     help you develop your skills and knowledge to a high level. 
     You'll be asked to work hard, and we'll be working equally 
     hard alongside you on your behalf.
       We have a wide range of opportunities for you at Anytown 
     High. In elementary and middle school you participated in a 
     variety of learning experiences; you learned about possible 
     careers; you planned projects and worked in teams to complete 
     them. You will do more of that active learning in new and 
     different ways. We have a broad range of learning options--
     all designed to give you the skills and knowledge you need to 
     go on to college and into the workplace. Some of you may 
     choose to do most of your learning in a classroom setting; 
     others may choose more interactive work-based learning 
     options. You will work in small academic and career clusters 
     with a team of teachers who, in some cases, will remain with 
     you during your entire time in our school, All of you will 
     engage in hands-on learning where academic and occupational 
     subjects are integrated. All of you will participate in 
     community and public service learning experiences where you 
     will practice the skills and behaviors which employers highly 
     value. We also have a wide range of courses and information 
     available for independent study via computer and satellite 
     hook-up, opening the entire world to your curiosity.
       As you begin to think about choosing a career major, you 
     will learn about many aspects of particular industries, and 
     you will see how knowledge and skills are actually used in 
     those industries and occupations. In these choices, you will 
     be supported by our guidance counselors and by job 
     specialists who will open doors to future employers and show 
     you what you need to be able to do in real workplaces.
       Of course, you can change your career clusters in this 
     school. Since you'll all be learning the same core of 
     essential skills and knowledge, you won't be locked into one 
     cluster or one narrow job, either here or after you graduate.
       An essential part of your experience in this school is the 
     worksite placements which we offer in your junior and senior 
     years and which in some cases, like Tech Prep, will continue 
     beyond high school. Some of you will choose co-op education 
     and internships with local employers for part of the school 
     year. Some of you, as part of your Tech Prep or youth 
     apprenticeship experience, will be working part-time in 
     industries based on the technologies you will be studying in 
     school. Some of you will be paid for your part-time work with 
     employers after school and in the summers. Some of you will 
     find your work opportunities in hospitals, libraries and 
     other non-profit community services.
       Others of you will choose to enroll in our Career 
     Academies, the small mini-schools on this campus which 
     specialize in careers with good prospects for future 
     professional employment. For example, we have a Financial 
     Services Academy where you can learn about banking, 
     insurance, real estate, investments and tourism. We have an 
     Environmental and Maritime Academy where you can learn about 
     everything connected with earning a living from the sea and 
     how to protect that fragile resource. We have a Health and 
     Bioscience Acadmeny based on modern health care, hospital and 
     laboratory management and exciting new careers in 
     biotechnology. And we have other academies as well. 
     Regardless of which one you choose, you will receive high 
     quality instruction and be able to form close associations 
     with your fellow students and with employers in your career 
     field.
       Regardless of the kind of worksite placement you have 
     chosen, you will graduate well prepared to continue your 
     studies in higher education or to win an entry-level position 
     with an employer. Above all, you will have experienced the 
     joy of learning and you will excel, no matter how radically 
     the world may change in the future.
       Even though your elementary and middle school experience 
     was set up so that you would not fall behind, every year 
     presents different challenges. If you are having trouble 
     keeping up or understanding something, we have extra help 
     available in many forms--after-school, on weekends and in the 
     summer. Team sports, clubs, community service and one-on-one 
     help are after-school options from which you can choose.
       You will wonder how your teachers are so sharp, how they 
     keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. Well, first of all, 
     your teachers see themselves as lifelong learners, constantly 
     striving to know more
      and to discover more effective ways to help you learn. This 
     school offers many opportunities for professional 
     development on and off this campus. Most important, we 
     build in ample time for your teachers to meet together, to 
     plan your studies, to learn from each other, from your 
     worksite mentors, and from experts around the country, in 
     person and through interactive television, video and 
     satellite sessions.
       During the summer and at various times in the school year, 
     some of your teachers and counselors will be working 
     alongside you in the plants and offices of our employer 
     partners. They will be learning about the latest changes in 
     technology and management so that your curricula can be kept 
     relevant and so that they understand what you are learning in 
     the worksite. (Incidentally, your teachers will 
     simultaneously be helping to upgrade the basic academic 
     skills of the adult workers you will be working with in your 
     worksite placements.)
       If you change schools, the skills and knowledge you have 
     demonstrated here will be transferable electronically to your 
     new school. You will also have your portfolio of work and 
     skills/knowledge inventory to take with you. If you want to 
     find another learning experience, we will help you. We work 
     closely with a wide range of alternative schools, with 
     community colleges, with the Job Corps, with youth service 
     and conservation corps, with the new National Civilian 
     Community Corps and others. We also work closely with the 
     local workforce development system which operates career 
     advancement centers where you can get referrals to further 
     training or qualify for a grant or loan package to help you 
     complete secondary school training on your own
       Whenever and wherever you complete your secondary 
     experience, you will receive a high school diploma signifying 
     mastery of a high level of skills and knowledge. That diploma 
     will be accepted by two- and four-year colleges, by 
     employers, by the military and the registered apprenticeship 
     system. Depending on your course of study, you may also 
     receive a certificate of mastery in some advanced level 
     academic or occupational skills. Some of you may take advance 
     placement or other studies in this school that will qualify 
     you to receive college credits. Some of you may graduate in 
     less than four years because you have demonstrated mastery of 
     our core curriculum.
       While we will do everything to support your learning, there 
     may be personal and family problems that come up in your life 
     so 
      [[Page S5545]] that you need some outside help. As a member 
     of the Anytown Partnership for Families, Anytown High's Human 
     Services Mall hosts a broad array of community agencies that 
     will assist you and your families with non-academic problems. 
     Many of these social services were available to you 
     throughout primary and middle school, so you are familiar 
     with them. You can get information about other services from 
     the computer files in your academic cluster, in the library 
     or the cafeteria. Each of you will also have opportunities to 
     have an adult mentor or coach. It may be an employee at your 
     worksite, a community service volunteer or a parent in the 
     community. Here at Anytown High, we have almost as many 
     community partners as students. Each brings their expertise 
     and their caring into the school and the worksite.
       Your teachers have worked hard to design the curriculum--in 
     school, at the worksite and in your community service 
     experiences--to support your learning in every way we know. 
     Your guidance counselors and job specialists are working with 
     your teachers and employers in the community to make sure you 
     have access to information about postsecondary schools and 
     careers and that you can use it effectively to plan your 
     further education and careers.
       The basic message I want to leave with you today is this: 
     you are capable and intelligent young people in transition to 
     adulthood and each adult here is on your side. We are 
     committed to helping you get the skills and knowledge you 
     need to be successful learners, workers and citizens. You can 
     do it; we are here to help; and you can count on us. Welcome 
     to Anytown High!''
       Our opening day assembly is now over. Those of you who 
     haven't been put to sleep by the principal's long oration may 
     open you eyes * * *
       It's true, of course, that most of the students in the 
     auditorium probably did not absorb the full promise of what 
     awaits them at Anytown High. Yet, I think few of them will 
     fail to grasp the central message: That they are important 
     and that they are going to be successful in life.
       All of the adults in the community, too, should now clearly 
     understand that this description of a radically different 
     kind of learning community requires their fullest 
     participation. Education at Anytown High is a serious full-
     time partnership of the entire community. Its objective is 
     simple and straightforward: success in work, success in life 
     for each and every young person who enters our schools.
       Undoubtedly, some of you are thinking: ``What a nice, 
     Utopian dream. Halperin is just a dreamer.'' Yes, I do have a 
     dream! However, there is not one element in my dream that is 
     not a living reality someplace in this country. Everything in 
     this dream is being practiced somewhere * * * now, today. All 
     that Patricia McNeil and I have done is put it all together 
     to meet our personal vision. I hope you will do the same with 
     your own ideas about education, youth development and the 
     world of work.
       So, I end where I began. The challenge before the people of 
     Rhode Island is to dream your own dream for the State and for 
     your own communities. Rethink the essential nature of 
     schooling at the dawn of the 21st Century. Construct a total 
     quality system in which all the parts of your dream come 
     together to produce success for all of Rhode Island's young 
     people.
     

                          ____________________