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7. Education Through Theme-Based Learning Communities
Pages 168-186

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From page 168...
... In schools that have tried this approach, the theme often has a broad occupational focus for example, health occupations rather than nursing; industrial production rather than welding; agriculture rather than farming that is elastic enough to encompass a variety of types of learning, including standard academic subjects. This strategy is different from that of traditional vocational education, which has been designed to prepare individuals for specific entry-level jobs.
From page 169...
... The emphasis on "college anal careers" conveys a range of options that is broader than is typically found in traditional vocational education or "general education" tracks or an academic track, with its single-minded pursuit of "college for all."4 Sometimes the route to college is structured through "tech prep" or "2 + 2" programs that integrate a high school program with nearby community college classes. These efforts involve a view of high school as part of a longer K-16 continuum.
From page 170...
... Networks have been formed to strengthen and extend the academy model.6 The occupational focuses of existing academies include traditional vocational subjects electricity, automotive occupations, and health occupations as well as more modern occupations, including electronics, computers, communications or journalism, and engineering. As schools within schools, career academies have the advantage of requiring the cooperation of fewer numbers of teachers.
From page 171...
... A number of the New American High Schools have followed this model, and the Talent Development High School at Johns Hopkins University also includes majors or clusters, with a ninth-grade "Success Academy" to prepare students for the choice of majors.7 Some high schools adopt a theme or focus for all students. Examples include schools emphasizing the arts or the performing arts; health-related high schools; an agriculture high school in south Chicago; magnet schools emphasizing areas such as computers, business, and communications; High Tech High in San Diego, with an emphasis on technology and project-based learning in all classes; and Aviation High and the High School of the Performing Arts in New York.
From page 172...
... Thematic programs usually develop work teams and projects involving students collectively including the cooperative forms of learning that have always been part of vocational education (Achtenhagen and Grubb, 2001) , and sometimes mimicking the social nature of work (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 19981.
From page 173...
... Kemple and Snipes (2000) found that interpersonal supports are needed to maximize the positive effects of career academies.
From page 174...
... This approach improves on traditional vocational education's tendency to simplify content and to become largely avocational boys working on cars, girls styling hair, and students developing pictures in darkrooms. Work-based placements provide another setting that supports learning, especially if these work opportunities are integrated with school-based learn
From page 175...
... "Education through occupations" can provide multiple avenues for success, including artistic success, success in making and repairing devices, and success in developing competencies related to employment as well as formal schooling. Programs with occupational themes often include individualized workplace activities that allow students to master additional kinds of skills.
From page 176...
... As we proposed in Chapter 6, such active approaches are preferable to conventional guidance counselor practices, including passive activities sometimes derided as "test 'em and tell 'em" or advising "college for all." Programs with occupational themes can improve student motivation and engagement, but the advantages we have described are not automatic. Theme-based high schools need to be carefully structured to include wellintegrated opportunities to develop a wide range of competencies.
From page 177...
... Finally, the career magnets stimulated active planning for the future, often for multiple job and career options. Students also related drawbacks, including inadequate academic preparation for high 13Students who find positions through their school programs compared to those who find "youth jobs" on their own have access to more diverse workplaces, receive more training time, get more feedback about their performance, and see more links between school studies and their job requirements (Hershey et al., 1998)
From page 178...
... Kaganoff (1998) carried out one of the few studies of student i5See "Philadelphia's Talent Development High Schools: Second-Year Results," from the Philadelphia Education Fund, available online at http://www.philaedfund.org.
From page 179...
... A later evaluation of academy replications founci a 3-year cumulative dropout rate of 7.3 percent in acaci16High schools that have developed from traditional vocational programs tend to look more like vocational programs with more academic content, while those that have emerged from conventional academic high schools tend to look like academic schools with a little occupational content added. 17For another review of the effects of career academies, see Stern et al.
From page 180...
... The earliest California evaluations found higher rates of college attendance (62 percent versus 47 percent) for academy graduates, though subsequent evaluations found only that academy graduates were more likely to enroll in 4-year rather than community colleges.
From page 181...
... The high school completion rates for academy and nonacademy students were virtually the same (87.2 percent versus 86.7 percent, as were their enrolli8A somewhat negative finding is that academy students were more likely to complete high school by receiving a GED (7 percent versus 5 percent, though this difference was not statisti
From page 182...
... The broad occupational focus does not decrease students' rates of taking academic courses, applying to college, or going to college. There is no evidence of substituting employment for a college orientation, as has been true for traditional vocational education.
From page 183...
... The career magnet students were more likely to report that they had become "really good at something," and to have developed a career identity during their high school years, a result consistent with Heebner's (1995) findings that magnet 19For these results, see "The Talent Development High School: First-Year Results of the Ninth Grade Success Academy in Two Philadelphia High Schools 1999-2000" and "Philadelphia's Talent Development High Schools: Second-Year Results," both from the Philadelphia Education Fund, available online at http://www.philaedfund.org.
From page 184...
... CO NCLUSIO NS Compared to traditional high schools, the reforms associated with theme-based high schools are, in theory, more consistent with general conditions necessary for student motivation and engagement small size, environments where students can play a greater role in their own learning, clearly structured, coherent curricula, relevance to the outside world, and other criteria reviewed in Chapter 2. Of course, certain programs may not adhere to some of these precepts: The New York magnet schools, for example, are not always small learning communities, and some reforms may slight learning about careers and their connections to schooling.
From page 185...
... Even in the most rigorous random assignment study (the MDRC study) , students report more personalized attention, more teacher support with schoolwork, and more engaged peers.
From page 186...
... Academies vary in the extent to which instructors can construct integrated curricula and in their connections to employers and postsecondary institutions. The New York magnet schools seem to include relatively little occupational coursework, and have not developed small learning communities within these large high schools.


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