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Tiffin City Schools
(Tiffin, Ohio)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
School-based Strategies
All classes at Tiffin City Schools, including separate special education
programs, are provided materials and opportunities to include school-based
strategies within the curriculum. Classes designed to provide career exploration,
decision making, and job seeking/keeping skills include Career Options for
all tenth grade students, Technology Awareness for all ninth grade students,
and Occupational Work programs for 9th through 12th grade at-risk students.
Special units are integrated into all the special education classes, which
has resulted in the development of a Work Connection Class for 12th grade
special needs students. Special projects are also provided for all students,
such as sponsoring high school and middle school Career Days.
Elementary schools do a variety of different activities in conjunction
with business partners. This includes hosting a "Math on the Job Day"
to experience hands-on-math in a variety of careers, such as a simulation
of demand flow manufacturing produced by a local company, and vehicle days
to reach all students grades 1 through 3, plus students from our local School
of Opportunity. We also provide Junior Achievement curriculum K-12 and KAPOW
(KIDS AND THE POWER OF WORK) in grades 3 and 5.
Work-based strategies
All tenth grade students go on arranged job shadowing experiences in
a career field of their choice and participate in mock interviews to better
prepare them for the world of work. All eleventh and twelfth grade students
have an opportunity to apply for a job mentorship, where students spend
18 hours working with a career mentor.
In addition to these opportunities, students grades 9-12 that are considered
at-risk, have an additional, supplemental option of being involved in actual
work experiences with private sector businesses. This allows students who
are at high risk of being lost or of dropping out to have additional opportunities
for career exploration and other career development activities that will
reconnect them and peak their interest.
All KAPOW classes go on site visits to their business partner's establishment,
where they are allowed to practice different careers when possible and view
others. This experience is then connected back to the school-based learning
by the business volunteers within our classrooms.
Connecting Activities
Tiffin City uses a variety of connecting activities for school-to-work
opportunities, including having a Tiffin Area Career Team and Individual
School Career Teams that are comprised of business leaders, teachers, community
leaders, organized labor, and parents. These teams discuss possible work-based
and school-based projects that could be developed and implemented. Participation
on these teams also provides time to exchange ideas and to open the lines
of communication between business and education.
Other connecting activities include sponsoring teacher tours and teacher
externships in the summer. This affords teachers opportunities to learn
about the work place and take their experiences back for integration into
the classroom. We also provide Business in Education tours, which provides
business leaders with an opportunity to come into our schools for a tour,
as well as time in classes at all grade and ability levels.
A Career Center in the Tiffin Area Career Coordinator's office allows
students and their parents a place to research careers using computers and
other current resources.
The Need
To assess the needs of our community, a business/community leader/educator
survey was completed and an open school-to-work meeting was held at the
public library. At the close of the meeting, the following list of identified
needs had been developed:
- There is a need for educators to recognize the changing face of business
and industry and the skills students need to enter careers successfully.
- There is a need for a seamless plan that will connect all learners,
youth, and adults to the world of work (careers).
- There is a need for business and industry to become involved in K-12
educational system to insure all students will become lifelong achievers.
- The need for all students, K-12, to receive more career guidance, and
to become knowledgeable about educational, occupational, and social opportunities
- There is a need to learn decision-making and planning skills and to
combine these insights into usable plans of action.
Using these needs as a guide, the following goal was established: Realizing
that career opportunities will be on-going and changing for the 21st century,
all students must be prepared to meet those every-changing needs and be
able to develop a realistic plan for their future. To this end, we must
educate all students to use intellectual and technological tools in order
to become gatherers and assessors of knowledge, entrepreneurs, communicators,
problem-solvers, and team players, that all are prepared as lifelong high
performance learners and workers.
All students in grades K-12 or 3,528 students are involved in this school-to-work
initiative. It does not make any difference whether the student is college-prep,
gifted, vocational, special education, at-risk, or in general education,
this system is designed to work with all and provide opportunities for all.
Meeting the Need
Currently we have approximately 100 business partners working in one
or more ways with the Tiffin City Schools. The process was begun with a
small core of business leaders, now the Tiffin Area Career Team. As career
activities are carried out, new businesses, new employees within existing
partners, and parents are invited to participate. Our circle of employers
has grown and more activities and career exploration opportunities have
become available to all of our students.
The school-to-work initiative started with a job-shadowing requirement.
As time passed more ideas were presented to the coordinator, who in turn
presented them to the career teams. The number of activities and projects
continues to grow. Since the Individual School Career Teams want to help
their students, they are always looking for projects based on their students'
needs and better ways to prepare their students as future workers.
The original initiative began with a school-to-work grant and has been
funded through other grants, except the salary of a coordinator, which the
school district pays. The coordinator serves as a liaison between businesses
and the schools and has a leadership role in most of the career activities.
The majority of the program funds now will be subsided by local donations
from major local companies and other grants. We have already received $25,000
in local donations for next year's programs.
The Results
All students, grades K-12 have more opportunities for career awareness
and exploration activities. More students and parents are recognizing the
need to plan early for the future. Businesses and schools are beginning
to work and communicate together.
All six of our elementary schools have KAPOW (KIDS AND THE POWER OF WORK)
in at least grade 3. Junior Achievement is also taught in all elementary
schools, plus in the 6th, 8th, and 12th grade. The 8th grade students take
a Life Skills Course that contains a unit on careers and provides time to
develop a 4-year plan, start their Individual Career Plan, and begin career
assessments. The high school follows this with a Tech Awareness Course for
nine weeks in the 9th grade to make all students aware of the different
careers that use different forms of technology. A Career Options course
required for all 10th grade students to complete more career exploration
using a wide variety of methods, especially company web pages and Internet
links, completion of a job shadowing experience, and completion of a mock
interview. All eleventh grade English classes have students develop the
final Career Passport to prepare them for the twelfth grade--job applications,
apprenticeship applications, college applications, and grant/scholarship
applications.
The National School-to-Work Template has been used by the Tiffin Area
Career Committee as a self-assessment tool to evaluate our progress. Since
the eight National Education Goals have been adopted within our district,
they are also used as an evaluation tool. Both of these tools help determine
if the school system is changing to use the school-to-work process effectively.
The school district is required to develop a Continuous Improvement Plan
based on statewide criteria. Business partnership and school-to-work for
all students was written in as part our systems plan. These three major
items help keep the overall initiative on track, plus as each activity is
completed, everyone involved is provided with an evaluation and the results
are tallied and presented to the Area Career Committee for review.
Reflections on Our Strategy
Overall the school-to-work initiative in Tiffin City Schools has accomplished
much of what it started out to accomplish. We have all students involved
within our schools. The 50 teachers who have completed the summer experience
have begun integrating into their curriculum. We would like to see more
integration of curriculum, but this may come as more teachers go on tours
and begin recognizing the need. This has also been a downfall, teacher acceptance
and a willingness to change curriculum. They will become involved in special
one or two day projects, but it takes longer to change an entire curriculum.
A critical strategy is providing opportunities for all grade levels with
a coordinator that can help make them happen. Even having someone part-time
to pull things together is almost a must. The business owners and employers
like having one contact they know well, instead of everyone calling them.
The coordinator can also act as a clearinghouse, so that no one business
is over used. They also act as a resource person for teachers, parents,
and students for general career information, assessments, and current materials.
This position has been extremely instrumental in making our school-to-work
initiative available to all students, parents, business, and educators.
Examples of Learners
We have only been involved in this school-to-work initiative for three
years, so there are no long term examples, but we will give you examples
of how specific strategies within the entire initiative have been helpful
to our students.
Example 1
Student A, graduated last June from high school, was an average student
with unclear career goals. After taking Career Options, her sophomore year.
Through the class, Student A had heard a variety of speakers, completed
a job shadow, and had time to complete several career exploration activities.
After completing all these experiences, Student A decided on a career in
the health field. She enrolled her junior and senior year at our Vocational
Career Center and upon graduation was employed as a dental assistant. Currently,
she is looking at dental hygienist schools to attend in about a year. She
relates that her activities and experiences in the Career Options class,
part of our school-to-career initiative, were what helped her narrow her
career choice.
Example 2
Student B is currently a sophomore at the high school. She completed
Career Options last semester and completed a job shadow at our local Human
Services Department as a social worker. From these school-to-career initiative
activities, Student B has selected social work as her career field. Student
B is planning to complete a mentorship in her junior year with a hospital
or nursing home social worker to compare the two social work fields
Example 3
Student C is a senior this year, as a freshman she was considered an
at-risk student and enrolled in the OWA (Occupational Work Adjustment) Program.
Through a multitude of career awareness activities, self-assessments, and
teacher guidance she developed a goal of becoming a nurse and wrote a 3-year
plan to prepare for the future. She used other career exploration classes
as a time to gain more knowledge in this field. Student C has been accepted
into an area nursing program, which she will start in the fall.
Example 4
Student D is a senior in the Work Connections program. Through the program
of studying academics half a day and working at this local sheltered area,
he has improved his work ethics--shows up for school and work on time and
everyday, completes quality work, follows simple instructions easily, can
use a time clock properly, and is preparing to apply for work at a several
local factories. Within the academics, he has updated his resume, practiced
filling out applications, and became better prepared for interviews. Student
D is better prepared to apply for a job and will be able to learn simple
skills more easily because of his experiences.
All of these students would not be where they are today without the school-to-work
initiative being accepted and used within out school system, but even more
importantly they are succeeding because all meant all grade levels, all
ability levels, and all students.
Recruiting
Since our strategy is to have all students participating in a variety
of school-to-work opportunities, very little recruiting is completed. Our
school system feels it is more important to provide every student with a
variety of opportunities throughout their education, then to limit it to
one or two experiences. Education is a building process, so what one learns
in the elementary, example work habits, job awareness, work expectations,
etc. is a foundation for career exploration in the middle grades and early
high school years. Then a strong decision based on knowledge and experience
can be made before graduation.
For more information on the Tiffin City Schools, contact:
Dr. Denise Callihan
244 South Monroe Street
Tiffin, OH 44883
(Phone) 419/447-2515
(Fax) 419/448-5202
(E-mail) denise_callihan@tiffin.k12.oh.us or
or
Patricia Smith
244 South Monroe Street
Tiffin, OH 44883
(Phone) 419/448-4754
(Fax) 419/448-5207
(E-mail) patricia_smith@tiffin.k12.oh.us
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