EDUCATION LEADERS DISCUSS SCHOOL-TO-WORK

Southeast Missouri State University students training to become counselors and school administrators learned about a statewide plan to encourage job training called School-to-Work.

Steve Alexander, assistant director for school to work opportunities at Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, spoke about the concept during a panel discussion, along with Jackson superintendent Howard Jones, Cape Girardeau Board of Education member Dr. Ferrell Ervin, Area Vocational-Technical School director Harold Tilley, Private Industry Council director Ron Swift, and Troy Bollinger, principal of Richland High School.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, one in a list of national educational reform movements. School-to-Work was designed to set up partnerships between employers and schools to make sure students learn skills they need in the workplace.

The federal legislation provides Missouri with federal money to plan School-to-Work projects in the state. The state departments of elementary and secondary education, economic development, social services, labor and industrial relations, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education and the governor's office are charged with developing a plan.

Alexander explained that School-to-Work is a system that brings together many similar projects all trying to better prepare students for work.

For example, in Cape Girardeau, the A+ Schools project is redesigning curriculum to help youngsters pick a career pathway by the time they are high school freshmen. Tilley said A+ Schools are funded through Missouri's Excellence in Education Act, also known as Senate Bill 380. At the same time, Tech Prep, is helping youngsters who think they are interested in a vocational career merge two years of high school with two years of community college or technical school training. Tech Prep is funded through federal vocational education funds.

Alexander said School-to-Work would bring these programs and any others with similar goals together. A common board of employers and educators could be assembled to guide all the programs in a community. The result, he said, would be a locally designed and directed program that eliminates duplicated efforts.

Panel members agreed that helping youngsters learn about career possibilities is a good idea and most schools have encouraged teachers to discuss career opportunities.

Tilley said the concept of School-to-Work has gotten bad press because people fear students will be plugged into a career pathway with no way out. In Cape Girardeau, he said, that isn't the case.

"Students are encouraged to choose a pathway, but they can change at any time," he said.

Alexander said planning money was spent to catalog school-to-work activities already taking place in the state and to survey students, parents, employers and educators. Pilot sites were set up in Farmington, Columbia and Sedalia and then demonstration sites were set up Rolla and Camdenton.

The statewide project didn't get federal money for implementation, but Alexander said some communities are moving ahead on their own.