WorkNotes

West Virginia's Answer to the $64,000 School-to-Work Question

As states with school-to-work programs prepare for federal money to end, the question of long-term support is on the minds of many. In anticipation of the sunset of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, states are trying to find ways to align existing funding to strengthen this school reform effort.

States that have gone the farthest in strengthening school-to-work have:

• Made the connection between a successful education system and a prepared work force.
• Infused education reform with school-to-work principles like applied learning, integrated curricula, work-based learning, higher standards for all, regular assessments, career exploration and connecting activities with important partners like business.
• Built strong partnerships at the state and local levels that help communication, support, involvement and commitment for the education reform so that existing resources are reallocated for recurring costs while federal grant funds are used for one-time expenses like curriculum and staff development.
• Embedded this vision of reform and accountability in state statute. Legislative action changes the perception that these reforms are just fads that will lose steam when the next governor or state superintendent comes into office. Instead, these reforms remain in statute as a testament to the state's commitment to making these changes last.

West Virginia is one state that won't need to worry about maintaining school-to-work principles in its education system. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the state's commitment to improve education included many of the building blocks for improving the teaching and learning process that later served as the basis of the school-to-work implementation plan. Although not an exhaustive list, some of the chief building blocks included involvement in the Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools that Work program, a commitment to high standards for all students, the use of computers and distance learning technology, an extensive network of business partnerships, registered youth apprenticeships and cooperative education, a commitment to extensive staff development and a system for site-based management, local school improvement councils and curriculum teams, unified school improvement plans, and performance-based accreditation. From the outset under an Investing in People project jointly sponsored by the West Virginia Legislature, NCSL and Jobs for the Future, planning for school-to-work has been a collaborative effort focused on advancing the state's education reform movement and building a system to better serve the needs of all students using federal school-to-work seed money. In this 10-year reform process involving many legislators and two governors, the state took a most definitive step in 1996 to connect learning and work with the enactment of SB 300, the Jobs Through Education Act. The act provides a clear framework for West Virginia's continued efforts to improve education for all students through a series of goals and guidelines that integrate many of the key principles of school-to-work within the educational system.

West Virginia enacted Goals for Education in statute in 1990 as part of its education reform strategy. These goals are:

All children entering first grade will be ready for first grade.

All students will have equal education opportunity.

Student performance on national measures will equal or exceed national averages, and students in the lowest quartile will improve by 50 percent.

There will be a 90 percent graduation rate.

High school graduates will be fully prepared for college, other post-secondary education or gainful employment, and the number of graduates entering post-secondary will increase by 50 percent.

All working age adults will be functionally literate.

In a series of 1990 town meetings, the state validated its Goals for Education and developed strategies that focused on:

Encouraging early childhood development.

Building technology and learning.

Helping at-risk students.

Improving the quality of teaching.

Strengthening work force preparation.

Restructuring and adding accountability in the education system.

Aligned with these pre-existing goals and strategies, the major thrusts of SB 300 are:

Improving the academic performance of all students by setting high standards, conducting regular assessments, assuring students are at grade level in the basic skills by the end of grade four, using multiple strategies to address different learning styles and re-enforcing academic learning through experiences outside the classroom.

Helping prepare students for the post-high school transition by providing career awareness and opportunities for exploration, involving parents in the preparation of a transition plan, aligning curriculum in a career cluster and major format, engaging post-secondary education, business and labor to improve curricular content, and providing increased opportunities for accelerated instruction and work-based learning.

As a result of the legislation's inclusion of higher education in state and local partnerships, three higher education partnerships now require internships for a bachelor's degree. All associate degree curriculums have also been aligned with the secondary career clusters to provide a seamless curriculum from secondary to post-secondary. In addition, the state has been active in aligning its teacher education programs in four-year universities with emphasis on applied learning and integrated curricula.

There are other areas where the alignment of programs and funding has been encouraged by the legislation. For example, all adult basic education programs now emphasize the importance of a work-based learning component. The State School for the Deaf and Blind incorporates a work-based component and is developing other materials around this reform. All juvenile correction centers have built in the same reforms in their education classes. The Legislature also appropriated $1.4 million so that every senior in high school could take Work Keys, a skill assessment tool.

In its latest step toward improving education in West Virginia, HB 4306 was enacted earlier this year. It outlines a "process for improving education" that focuses on four primary elements: standards, assessment, accountability and capacity building. The major new concept introduced in the legislation is targeted capacity building. A new Office of Education Performance Audits was created to evaluate the performance of students, schools and school systems relative to the state standards. These evaluations will serve as the basis for school and school system accreditation and will help local systems and the state target resources to improve teaching and learning to meet the standards. The bill also includes a strong emphasis on staff development.

The importance of staff development has been a common theme throughout West Virginia's education reform. As a part of the 1990 legislation, a center for professional development was created to provide state level programs for routinely updating the skills of professional educators. SB 300 again emphasized the importance of staff development with a focus on connecting educators and the workplace so they could help students understand the relationship between learning in school and career success. A training center for principals was also created in SB 300.

More effective use and coordination of staff development resources were major goals of HB 4306. The bill provides for eight regional staff development councils, one for each regional education service agency (RESA) area, to share information, identify common needs and coordinate programs. Information from each region is submitted to a state staff development advisory council to identify and prioritize statewide needs. The state board proposes a master plan for staff development based on the council's recommendations. HB 4306 also establishes a Strategic Staff Development Fund. The State Board of Education directs these funds to schools and school districts it determines need additional resources for staff development.

In addition, both of West Virginia's statewide programs for educational technology require a staff development component with the equipment installation. Approximately 70 percent of the local partnership funding for school-to-work has been used to engage teachers in curriculum development and for staff development.

As for accountability, HB 4306 requires all schools and school systems to establish unified improvement plans that show how all funds will be used to improve teaching and learning and to meet or exceed the state standards. The audit process results in four possible levels of accreditation. Fully accredited schools and school systems will be acknowledged and considered for awards in excellence and best practice. Temporary accreditation means a school system will need to revise its unified improvement plan for approval by the state board. Schools and school systems whose revised plans are approved and are making satisfactory progress toward meeting the standards are given conditional accreditation. A seriously impaired school system will have a consulting team make recommendations for improvement. Failure of a school system to improve may result in a state takeover. By establishing a planning, implementation, evaluation, plan revision and re-evaluation process, the audit system focuses on continuous improvement that holds schools and school systems accountable for efficiently targeting resources to meet the state's goals.

SB 300 and HB 4306 combined with the strong local partnerships that have been developed under the school-to-work program are the main reasons why Ron Grimes, state school-to-work director, can say, "There is no doubt school-to-work will continue after federal dollars are gone." After more than a year since SB 300's passage, 49 of 55 school districts have established partnerships with local businesses and are instituting these changes. Under both the legislation and the school-to-work plan, local school districts have flexibility in choosing how to implement the reform.

Although West Virginia has come a long way, some state educators still have concerns. For example, they believe maintaining local partnerships will be difficult because there is no dedicated staff time to nurture them. They also are apprehensive about meeting the transportation needs of rural districts, since travel expenses associated with busing students to internships may be a special hardship. The issue of rural transportation was at least partly addressed in HB 4306 by increasing the reimbursement rate for student transportation paid through the school aid formula. The bill also called for a comprehensive study of school transportation.

But even with these hurdles, West Virginia is proof that if school-to-work principles are integrated with and support general education reform and strong local partnerships are committed to the reform, you have the power of all general education dollars going toward building capacity, going to scale, and the $64,000 dollar question of sustainability.

Federal Work Force Bill in Conference

Almost a year after the House passed its work force consolidation legislation, the Senate passed its version, The Workforce Investment Partnership Act of 1998, S1186 on May 5. Despite months of endless delays and holds, the act passed the Senate on an overwhelming 91-7 vote. It consolidates numerous federal job training and employment programs. The legislation contains numerous NCSL-sought provisions, such as the Brown Amendment, which affirms state legislative appropriations authority over new work force funding streams, the appointment of state work force advisory board members by state legislative leaders, the grandfathering of state statutes that modernize work force systems and an expansion of "Work Flex" waiver authority. Senator John Ashcroft from Missouri added two controversial amendments to the bill before the vote. The first amendment mandates random drug testing of job training participants (with no funds identified for implementation). The second prohibits states from using work force funds to support state school-to-work activities.

Now the bill goes to conference, where similar legislation failed in the 104^th Congress. The House conferees are Reps. Bill Clay, William Goodling, Lindsey Graham, Dale Kildee, Matthew Martinez, Howard McKeon, Frank Riggs and Bob Schaffer. The Senate conferees are the entire Labor and Human Resources Committee, led on the Republican side by Sens. Jim Jeffords and Mike DeWine, and on the Democratic side by Sens. Edward Kennedy and Paul Wellstone. The conferees will most likely use the Senate bill's structure for consolidation, which replaces current law (Job Training Partnership Act, Carl Perkins Act and the Adult Education Act) with new funding categories. The titles for these new funding silos are for adult education, vocational education, and job training for adults, youth and dislocated workers. Separate funding streams for each title would still be maintained. Both bills also cap the authorization period, meaning that the unlimited authorization that JTPA enjoyed will be a thing of the past. The most obvious difference between the two bills, the Senate’s inclusion of a reauthorization of voc-ed as a separate title of the legislation, will probably be stripped from the Senate version and conferenced separately with the House voc-ed legislation, HR 1853.

One-Stop Conference Around the Corner