October 27, 1999
School-to-work brings real-world relevance
to high school students

Becki White
digital•iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Morgan Bell, 17, wishes she didn't have to take history. It got boring, she said, but she knows it's necessary. However, a class that combines history and her main interest -- radio and TV production -- is definitely something in which she would be interested.

"We can have all the academic standards we want," Laurie Phelan from the Iowa Department of Education said. "But if students don't know why they're learning what they're learningÉthey're just going to memorize it, take the test and forget it."

Phelan, chairperson of the Iowa school-to-work program, said she is trying to make classes with more real-world relevance available for students. This program started in Iowa four years ago to make academic standards more applicable to future careers.

It is a partnership of the Iowa Departments of Economic Development, Education, and Iowa Workforce Development. Funding from the state that supports the program now reaches 75 percent of its school districts.

"Our schools should look different than they have in the past," Phelan said. "We're connecting students to employers so they can find out why they need to know algebra."

Phelan said the program gives grants to schools across the state. Most of the funding goes to teach teachers how to connect students to the real world. "What the teachers become, instead of a person with all the answers, they become a facilitator," she said. "Their job is not to teach them every single thingÉthey need to help the students see why they're learning this, why it's so important."

Right now, Bell has to have 18 and one-half credits to graduate. in the past four years, she had to take physical education, three social science classes, three English classes, two math classes, one science class and one fine or applied arts class.

The remaining seven and one-half credits were left for her to decide. She chose to focus on foreign languages and the radio and TV production classes offered at Central Campus in Des Moines. Still, Bell wishes she could have taken more classes in her field of interest.

"For my (radio and TV production) classes, we have lots of writing to do. It would have been a good idea to combine that with English or something," she said. This way, Bell explained, she could learn the basic academic requirements and more about her future career.

Steve Carnahan, Central Campus counselor for the vocational and technical programs, said Bell's wish isn't too far out of reach. "I think the academic institution is best when it's fitted to a student's career interests," he said. "One of our goals is to develop students' reading and math abilityÉas it relates to their area of interest."

Central Campus is a vocational and technical school that offers students the opportunity to receive college credit in a wide range of courses. "We just consider ourselves a location for students to take classes that wouldn't be offered at their school campus," Carnahan said. Most students go to Central Campus for two to three periods a day.

Carnahan explained many students do better in a more applied academic situation, but they can't ignore the necessary basics. "They'll come down and think they get to do hands-on things, yet they don't know how to use a ruler at a high school level," he said.

As a result, Carnahan hopes to teach students the basics by applying it to their interests. Although relationships with vocational schools are important in the school-to-work program, Phelan is trying to make lessons more applicable in all high school classrooms across the state.

Phelan said through the program, teachers bring in people from a variety of businesses and careers to talk to the students or assign problems. Sometimes that means bringing in teachers from area vocational schools to help assign projects that relate directly to students' interests.

"The teacher doesn't need to learn the total occupation, but they do need to know how to direct the student to different options," she said.

In addition, Phelan explained, teachers can help students in the future by focusing now on responsibility, deadlines, time management and other important workplace skills. "Teachers don't need to know multiple content areas," she said. "All we're asking the teachers do is look at the basic things employers are asking of employees -- the basic employability skills."

Although the program has only been in place for four years, Phelan said she is already seeing some changes. "You don't change a system in three to five years. It's happening slowly, but it's making a difference.

"We have students that might not have graduated, but now they are," she said. "Now they understand why they're learning thingsÉthey're more directed."