Assisting Secondary Schools in Career Education School Improvement: Some Lessons.

Overview & Synopsis

Research for Better Schools, Inc., has been working with local education agencies (LEAs), intermediate service agencies (ISAs), and state education agencies (SEAs) to bring about career education impact in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Their strategy includes three essential elements: assist LEAs in planning and implementing career education programs, develop materials for LEAs using this experience and develop assistance strategies for ISAs to support career education program planning and implementation in LEAs, and improve ISA capabilities to provide career education technical assistance to LEAs. Six lessons were discovered that suggested a need for revision in the project approach: (1) SEAs have been ready to plan and implement statewide career education programs only recently, (2) ISAs have not received sufficient encouragement and incentives from the state to support schools in career program development, (3) without encouragement, LEAs will not plan and implement program changes, (4) LEAs lack staff capabilities to plan and implement effective career education programs, (5) SEAs tended to rely on research and development resources developed within the state but now are open to using other resources, and (6) SEAs place high value on support from regional laboratories in planning career education initiatives. (YLB)