school-to-work programs

Write an essay to the school planning team in which you argue the benefits of school-to-work programs and the what is needed to make such school to work programs successful.

Tell your audience what they need to know about the benefits of school-to-work programs and the what is needed to make such programs successful
Use specific, accurate, and relevant information from the text and graph to support your discussion
Include a  claim, 2 reasons and evidence to support your reasons as well as a counterclaim
Organize your ideas in a logical and coherent manner
Cite your evidence

Use this passage for the evidences:

School-to-Work Programs Several years ago, faculty at Roosevelt High in Portland, Oregon, recognized that many of their students went directly from high school to low-paying, dead-end jobs. No wonder the school’s dropout rate was 13 percent. Kids didn’t see a reason to stay in school. Determined to make school more relevant to the workplace, the faculty developed Roosevelt Renaissance 2000.” In their freshman year, students explore six career pathways: natural resources, manufacturing and engineering, human services, health occupations, business and management, and arts and communications. The following year, each student chooses one of the pathways and examines it in depth. The ninth and tenth graders also participate in job shadow experiences, spending three hours a semester watching someone on the job. 5 10 During their junior and senior years, Roosevelt students participate in internships that put them in the workplace for longer periods of time. Internships are available at a newspaper, a hospital, an automotive shop, and many other work sites. “One student did an internship with the local electrical union,” says business partnership coordinator Amy Henry, and some kids interested in law have been sent to the public defender or the district attorney’s offices.” 15 Win-Win Partnerships 20 For many schools, the school-to-work initiative is built around a series of partnerships. For example, Eastman Kodak, a major employer in Colorado, introduces elementary students to business by helping them construct a model city using small cardboard structures. “The children use the models to decide on the best place to locate lemonade stands,” says Lucille Mantelli, community relations director for Eastman Kodak’s Colorado Division. Kodak representatives introduce math concepts by teaching fifth graders to balance a checkbook. They also provide one-on-one job shadowing experiences and offer internships for high school juniors and seniors. “Students come to the plant site two or three hours a day,” explains Eastman Kodak’s Mantelli. “They do accounting, clerical, or secretarial work for us. We pay them, and they get school credit. We also give them feedback on their performance and developmental opportunities.” 25 30 In these partnerships, everybody wins. The participating students tend to stay in school and to take more difficult courses than students in schools 35 that don’t offer such programs. Business benefits by having a better prepared workforce. “It’s a way for us to work with the school systems to develop the type of workforce we’ll need in future years,” continues Mantelli. “We need employees who understand the basics of reading and writing. We need them to be proficient in math and to be comfortable working 40 on a team.” The Middle Years While some schools start as early as elementary school, and others wait until high school, it’s in the middle grades where schools really need to catch students. Middle school is the time when many students lose interest in school, explains Jondel Hoye, director of the National School-to-Work Office. “Middle schools need to reinforce exploration activities within the community at the same time they 45 reinforcing math and reading skills in the classrooms.” In Texas, weeklong internships in the business community are currently offered to seventh graders in the Fort Worth Independent School District. The Vital Link program involves nearly 300 companies which offer students 50 experiences in banking, accounting, hotel management, engineering, medicine, government, the arts, communications, education, nonprofit agencies, retailing, legal services, and printing. “We target middle school students because research shows that at age 12 kids start making choices that will affect them for the rest of their 55 lives,” explains coordinator Nancy Ricker. Students are placed in internships that match their skills and interests. Business people come the school to talk with the kids before the internships begin. “They tell them about the business and what the people who work there do and what their salaries are,” Ricker explains. They ask the students to fill out job 60 applications and explain why that’s required.” When the students get to the job site, they are given the same introduction any new hire receives. After a morning of “work,” they return to their classrooms to talk about their experiences. Their teachers reinforce the link between skills they have used in the workplace and those learned in the classroom. Vital Link students take harder courses, perform better on state-mandated tests, and have better attendance and discipline records than students who are not part of the project. 65 In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a school-to-work project introduced middle school students to the intricacies of city planning. “Representatives from the 70 city came into the classroom and showed our students how math, science, writing, and communication skills relate to building new structures,” reports Eve Maria Hall, who oversees the school-to-work initiative for the Milwaukee Public Schools.