SCHOOL-to-WORK TRANSITION

For so many high school students in this country, motivation is the biggest block to success. It is true that many young people have learning deficits that hold them back from economic and career success. But how can we hope to boost learning without a key that unlocks motivation -- through interaction with caring and competent adults, responsibilities that are real and are rewarded, mastery of different kinds of skills, opportunities for leadership, and demonstration of competencies not valued in traditional classrooms?

School-to-work is not the only way to help young people become motivated -- for some, a focused, demanding academic course can work; for others, community service might do it. But enough young people check in through these programs after years of checking out that there is no doubt that something important is going on.

The programs that will most embody the values and principles of school-to-work in the coming years will be small career academies that are multi-year efforts to personalize high school education and provide focus by "learning through careers," as John Dewey wrote long ago. There will be learning programs that recognize that, for many young people, "schools can't do it alone."

  1. Standards for Career Education
  2. What Does Research Say About School-to-Work Transition?
  3. Critical Issue: Improving School-to-Work Transition for All Students
  4. School-to-Work Links
  5. Benefits of Service Learning
  6. Service Learning -- All ages, all levels
  7. School-to-Work Outreach Project Exemplary Model/Practice/Strategy Profiles
  8. The School-to-Work Intermediary Project -- Organizations that connect schools, workplaces, and communities in an effort to improve pathways for youth into postsecondary learning and careers
  9. School-to-Work Outreach Project
  10. California's School-to-Career
  11. Los Angeles County Youth Development Partnership
  12. Career Designs -- Numerous resources for career development
  13. Small Schools By Choice
  14. I Could Be... -- Linking teens and mentors on-line
  15. Copia Group -- Promotes electronic publishing and entrepreneurship to teach life skills to students, helping them travel from school-to-work
  16. ReadiSkills -- Set of innovative discovery-learning based teaching materials related to the development of process skills such as critical thinking, communication, problem solving, teaming, etc.
  17. Vision Link -- Expertise in school to careers partnership building, service integration, and state agency integration and collaboration
  18. Education Week: School-to-Work
  19. Awesome Library School to Work Resources
  20. Community Service
  21. What’s Wrong with School-to-Work?

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