IT Foreword T IS BELIEVED that superintendents and principals, school board members, teachers, and employers and other lay citizens—in fact, all those persons who help to decide on public-school curriculums have need for a bulletin in which information is made available concerning work experience education programs. They should be informed about selected publications which describe this program. Enough background material should be made available for them to review the recent development of work as a part of secondary education in American schools. School authorities need to develop an awareness of the educative values in the normal work activities of children and youth, and learn about methods of integrating these experiences in the school program. Teachers and officials need to recognize that there are several types of work experience programs, and that one or all may be put into operation in a single school. Busy school officials need descriptions of several types of work experience programs in order to consider their use locally. Finally, a brief summary of methods of initiating and conducting a work experience education program is needed to serve as a guide on the operational level. This bulletin is designed to serve the local school official who wants to initiate a work experience education program or to assist in evaluation of a program already in operation. Since this bulletin is intended to be a guidebook for those who are interested in initiating a work experience program in a local school system, all types of schoolwork programs are considered, including those designed specifically as vocational preparation for chosen occupations. Included also are those types of work experience, sponsored, planned, and supervised by the school for their general developmental values. The study is limited to work performed during released schooltime. It includes descriptions of some unpaid work experience programs and some work experience programs without high school credit. Because of the special nature of the program, work done by students in vocational agriculture is not included in this study. WAYNE O. REED, Assistant Commissioner for Educational Services. Director, Instruction, Organization, and Services Branch. VII IT I. Introduction to the Study of Work Experience Education T IS a common belief in the United States that American youth should prepare for full and successful lives by continuing their formal education at least through the high school. It is also generally believed that every able adult citizen should contribute to the well-being and prosperity of the Nation through productive work. If the ability to work must be learned-and is not a natural talent-then the inclusion of work experience in the education of young people is essential. Work experience has always been important in the growing-up process. Many forms of schoolwork experiences have been developed in American public schools. Full realization of the place of work education programs will be achieved only when secondary school leaders understand that there are many kinds of schoolwork programs, when they recognize the purposes and values of each kind, and when they seek to adopt locally those programs of work experience education best suited to community and youth needs. It is hoped that this bulletin on work experience education in the secondary schools of the United States will be helpful to educators interested in developing school-supervised work experience programs which are suited to local needs. Terminology Many terms and combinations of terms are used to describe the attempts made through the public schools to provide part-time occupational experiences for students as a part of the school curriculum. The term "cooperative education" was used to describe the earliest American experiments at the University of Cincinnati in 1906. High school cooperative courses were introduced a few years later. "Cooperative diversified occupations" as a term was first used in Southern States to refer to work experience programs in high schools, generally subsidized by State boards for vocational education through the use of State and Federal vocational education funds. The work programs organized for youth in the depression period of the thirties, helped to mold an opinion among school administrators favorable to the educational values of these activities for young people. Projects were designed to give the young worker an opportunity to try several types of jobs and to acquire desirable work habits and attitudes. The importance of school-sponsored work experience programs increased rapidly soon after the beginning of World War II. Three influences served to accelerate the number of secondary school students working in productive enterprises during regular school hours. First, manpower shortages made it necessary to utilize all available human resources. Second, the attractiveness of high wages resulted in many secondary school pupils either leaving school completely or working an excessive number of hours after school. Third, by cooperating with business and industry, the schools assisted in the war effort by making it possible for many students to remain in school one-half of each schoolday and to produce essential goods and services during the other half-day period. Following World War II, the educative values of part-time school and work programs became the topic of numerous conferences, research studies, magazine articles, and books. Many educators seemed to favor some form of work experience education as a regular part of the secondary school program. Selection of the Terms Used During the last 50 years the following terms have been used to identify schoolwork programs: Cooperative education, occupational experience, diversified occupations, schoolwork, work-study, workeducation, job-experience, education for work, work experience, and many others. Four of these terms have had sufficient usage to justify special discussion, namely, cooperative education, diversified occupations, work experience, and work experience education. All definitions considered here refer exclusively to secondary school programs. Cooperative Education or Courses The cooperative part time in school and part time at work program is a work experience program planned by school officials, students, and business and industrial leaders. The usual purpose of this program is the study of a specific occupation. In secondary schools, cooperative courses furnish early practical application of vocational skills learned in school or provide for the initial development of skills and abilities necessary for success in a particular occupation. Cooperative Education or "cooperative courses at the secondary school level" refers to a program in which students attend school part time and work part time during school hours. It is planned on-the-job preparation for a remunerative occupation, supervised by school officials, with the program details developed by school officials and employers. The term "cooperative education" usually refers to programs designed for specific vocational and occupational training. Diversified Occupations When cooperative part-time diversified occupations courses were first organized in 1933,1 their chief purpose was to make it possible for secondary school pupils who can be legally and remuneratively employed and who reside in small communities to secure preparation for a career in the business and industrial establishments of the community and ultimate entrance into full-time employment. Nearly 2,500 cities in the United States having a population under 10,000 operate their own school systems. It is almost impossible for the high school in these cities to provide formal trade education programs. The diversified occupations program has been found to be a feasible method of providing vocational education for the trades in most of these communities. Rakestraw 2 described the diversified occupations program as follows: High school students of employable age are enrolled in the program and spend one-half of each day in bona fide employment in their chosen occupation or trade for the purpose of securing organized instruction on the job as student learners. Two periods of the remaining half day are devoted to direct and supervised study of technical and related subjects pertinent to the trade or occupation in which the students are engaged. Since 1946, many States have extended the cooperative part-time diversified occupations program in the 11th and 12th school years. In such programs supervised related subjects study is provided for one school period daily during both years. The balance of the school day is devoted to secondary school courses required to meet requisites for graduation. Work Experience "Work experience" is the term most commonly used to describe work during school hours as a part of the regular school program. Work experience was included 110 times in the titles of the 230 nongovernmental publications in the working bibliography for this bulletin. What this phrase "work experience" means to several writers is shown in these quoted definitions. Work experience is that experience which students gain through participating in the production of needed goods or services in a normal situation in industry, business, in the community at large, or in school, under the direction of the school. 1 Milton J. Gold. Working To Learn: General Education Through Occupational Experiences. Doctoral Dissertation, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1951. P. 116. 2 Clarence E. Rakestraw. Cooperative Part-Time Diversified Occupations Programs. Occupations, 18: 403-406, March 1940. • National Society for the Study of Education. Secondary School Program to the Needs of Youth. Press, 1953. P. 183. 42d Yearbook, Part I. Adapting the Chicago: The University of Chicago |