Research

The following links provide more background on work-based programs.

1. This synthesis places youth employment programs within the context of youth development. It focuses on ten programs that serve youth under age 18, but it also considers some programs that include older youths. The programs share the broad goal of improving the employability of young people, but some take an academic approach, while others focus on job skills training. Read More…
   http://12.109.133.224/what_works/clarkwww/employ/employrpt.pdf
2. A comprehensive comparison study of work-based schools: a longitudinal analysis of Career Academies. Concluded that students had significant gains in all aspects of earnings, with no negative corollaries for academic achievement, in either secondary or post-secondary education. Read more… http://www.mdrc.org/publications/366/overview.html
3. Study is the best-known, most comprehensive synthesis with generally positive things to say about work-based secondary programs. Read more…
   http://www.childtrends.org/what_works/clarkwww/employ/employrpt.pdf
4. The Important Role of Career and Technical Education: Implications for Federal Policy by Marie Cohen and Douglas J. Besharov. In recent years, "get a college education" seems to the advice given to all young people, and for good reason. Over the past twenty years, the earnings of young adults with bachelor's degree increase greatly relative to those with only a high school diploma or its equivalent. Yet, many young people do not go to college, and others enroll but later drop out. Many of these young people may be unsuited for college: by ability, temperament, or interest. And most jobs - including some very good ones- do not require a college degree. For some young people, career and technical education (CTE) might provide a better route to a good job. CTE might even give them a reason to stay in high school and thereby increase the chances that they will eventually get to college... The "college for all" myth is shortchanging those young people who are either uninterested in or unsuited for college. Read more...
   http://www.welfareacademy.org/pubs/education/roleofcte.pdf
5. Work-Based Learning and Academic Skills by Katherine L. Hughes, David Thornton Moore, and Thomas R. Bailey. IEE Working Paper No. 15. September 1999. Educators who support work-based learning as a program for secondary school students make a number of different claims for its utility. One such claim is that work-based experience will improve students' academic performance. To investigate this argument, we review existing studies of how work affects youths’ academic performance, and studies of the academic achievement of students in programs that include work-based learning. We then present empirical data from our research on five such programs, as well as draw on the observations of others who have studied student interns. We conclude that the evidence does not provide strong support for this popular assertion about work-based learning, but there are other, non-academic but equally important forms of learning that can come from work experience and that these forms give us good grounds for supporting work-based learning. Read More...
   http://www.tc.columbia.edu/iee/PAPERS/workpap15.pdf
6. New Designs for Career and Technical Education at the Secondary and Postsecondary Levels: Compendium of Design Reviews of Related Research, Policies, and Exemplary Practices by Susan J. Wolff and George H. Copa. Oregon State University. The purpose of this project was to develop new designs for career and technical education at the secondary and postsecondary levels in the context of the process and recommendations used in the projects, New Designs for the Comprehensive High School (Copa and Pease, 1992; Copa, 1999) and New Designs for the Two-Year Institution of Higher Education (Copa and Ammentorp, 1998). With this foundation of former work in place, the aim of the new project was to draw out specific implications for the design of career and technical education in terms of learning expectations, learning process, organization, staffing, partnerships, and learning environment. Read more...
   http://newdesigns.oregonstate.edu/compendium/Final Compendium (3-14)all.pdf
7. Impact of New Designs for the Comprehensive High School: Evidence From Two Early Adapters by George H. Copa. School of Education, Oregon State University. This research and development project involved an extensive two year review of related research and best practices in high schools in the United States and several other countries; site visits and focus group interviews with high school students, staff, and administrators in several schools across the country; and deliberations by a national design group representing teachers, administrators, state education agencies, teacher educators, researchers, and business and industry members. Resulting from this effort were recommendations regarding a design process, design specifications for new and restructured high schools, and benchmark sites illustrating the design specifications in practice. A question frequently asked in these presentations and workshops concerns the impact of the design recommendations on student learning (i.e., Does student learning improve if the recommendations are followed?). Read more…
   http://newdesigns.oregonstate.edu/powerpoint2/NCRVE_impact-comp2000.pdf
8. New Designs for Staffing and Staff Development for Secondary and Postsecondary Education. George H. Copa, Oregon State University and Jane Plihal, University of Minnesota with the assistance of Ginny Birky, Oregon State University and Kevin Upton, University of Minnesota. MDS-1312 • December 1999. Many secondary and postsecondary schools in the United States are undergoing major changes as they seek improvements in access, responsiveness, performance, and efficiency. The changes include increased integration of subject-matter areas, closer coordination of school- and community-based learning, and improved articulation among educational levels and systems. These changes, in turn, call for new roles and responsibilities for those who staff secondary and postsecondary schools. The purposes of this project were to develop (1) a conceptual framework for the new roles and responsibilities of staff who will lead and support educational change, (2) a list of the competencies needed by staff in their new roles, and (3) recommendations on how the competencies might best be developed in preservice and inservice staff development programs. Read more…
   http://newdesigns.oregonstate.edu/powerpoint2/NCRVE_staffing1999.pdf