Supporting
Youth in the Workplace through High Quality Work-Based
Learning
One-Third
of a Nation: Rising Dropout Rates and Declining Opportunities
(PDF 1.7 mb) By Paul Barton, Policy Evaluation and Research Center,
Policy Information Center Educational Testing Service: February 2005
Recent efforts by the President, the nation's governors, and the business world's
top CEOs have put high school reform front and center in the education reform
movement. A higher level of student achievement is the prime objective, and rightly
so. But another major objective should be dealing with the fact that one-third
of those who enter our high schools do not graduate. This report is about this
one-third of our nation who does not complete high school, about the fact that
this situation has gotten worse in most states during the last decade, and about
the factors in students' lives that are closely associated with dropping out
of school. The report identifies several approaches to increasing student retention
that evaluations have shown to have positive results.
Big
Buildings, Small Schools: Using a Small Schools Strategy for High School Reform (PDF
500 kb)
By Lili Allen and Adria Steinberg, Jobs for the Future: December 2004
Big Buildings, Small Schools examines a range of strategies being undertaken
by districts across the country to plan and launch multiple small schools within
the walls of large high schools. It also explores implementation issues that
arise concerning school-level autonomies, governance, and leadership of high
school reform at the district level, and it delves into the challenges for "central
office" leaders of managing a system of learning options that offers a broader
range of choices for students and parents.
Massachusetts
Work-Based Learning Plan (PDF 72 kb)
Boston Private Industry Council: September 2001
The Work-Based Learning Plan is a skills assessment document designed to help
students master work place tasks. Students that are placed in jobs by Boston
Private Industry Council (PIC) staff will benefit from participating in the Work-Based
Learning Plan process. During this process, the student, the work place supervisor,
and the PIC staff member meet to discuss the student's progress, and to set goals
for further achievement.
Quality
Work-Based Learning: "Taking it to the Next Level" (PDF 40
kb)
New Ways to Work, Worksheet Excerpted from the Kansas City, Kansas WBL Toolkit:
2003
This one-page worksheet is designed to assist organizations in increasing the
quality of any work-based learning experience.
