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Salem County School-to-Careers Initiative
(Pennsville, New Jersey)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
The Salem County School-to-Careers Initiative offers the opportunity
for any students between the ages of 16 to 25, without a high school diploma,
to participate in the opportunities we offer. Our objective is to help young
people realize that in order to obtain highly skilled, high paying jobs,
they must have the proper education. Once students are accepted into our
Initiative, they attend their home school or adult school in the morning,
and three afternoons per week they attend our local community college taking
courses related to their career interests. The other two afternoons per
week, and in the summer, they are able to apply their academic learning
in the workplace.
Realizing that our students vary in academic ability, they are provided
with workplace, school-based, and college mentors to help them, not only
with their academics, but with any other problems they may be encountering.
Our students, businesses, and educational partners work together to decide
what courses the students want to take at the community college to reach
their career and future goals. Students may choose courses in math, communication,
sciences, business, or whatever career area they plan to pursue. While a
large number of students enter the Initiative with an idea in what career
direction they wish to proceed, there are a number of students who have
no idea in what direction they what to go. Those who have chosen a career
pathway are able to select a paid workplace assignment that will give them
experience in their chosen field.
For students who are undecided, this is where the connection between
our large number of business partners plays a vital role. Students are able
to select a workplace assignment in which they believe they may have an
interest. Often, once in the workplace, students are able to discover very
quickly what career area they like and want to pursue. While in the workplace,
the workplace mentors counsel the students on the educational requirements
needed to reach their career goal. Although a few of our employers have
hired graduating students, the majority of our employers do not guarantee
students a job after they have completed the Initiative. Instead, the employers
strongly encourage the students to continue their education at a post-secondary
institution or at a trade school. The direction the Initiative takes is
discussed at regularly scheduled monthly School-To-Work meetings in which
business, education, community-based, and parent/student representatives
are brought together.
The Need
The overall strategy agreed upon at the onset of the Initiative was to
assure that students realize the importance of possessing the proper skills
in order to be qualified for highly skilled, high paying positions. The
partners believe that advanced education, either at a post-secondary institution
or trade school, will help students in their endeavors. At no time since
we have begun with our efforts have any members of the partnership questioned
or demanded that only the brightest, the slowest, the poorest, or richest
be given priority. The mission of the Initiative is to admit those students
who can best be served.
To keep bias out of the selection process, a number of groups are involved
in deciding what students will be able to participate. This includes representatives
from labor, industry worker, vocation rehabilitation, the commission on
women, guidance counselors, the probation department, education, and minority
organizations. Basically, anyone who would like to participate is welcomed.
The only group that has decided not to participate in the selection process
are the business partners.
Since our inception on September 1, 1995, there have been 80 students
who have completed our Initiative, seventy-nine of whom now have high diplomas
as well as a number of college credits. Sixty-five percent of the 80 have
gone on to post-secondary institutions. What makes this commendable is that
of the 80 students, 14 were students with special needs, five were on court
probation, 10 were former high school dropouts, and six were single parents.
The 52 students that we currently have mirror these demographics almost
perfectly.
Meeting the Need
Before the Salem County School-to-Careers Initiative was officially launched,
the Superintendents of the five, K-12 school districts in our County met
to decide whether or not to make application for a STW grant. Before moving
forward, it was agreed that (1) all meant all, and (2) school districts
had to be willing to institutionalize STW once the federal funding ceased.
The first decision was easy. A couple of our superintendents swallowed
hard on the second issue, since they represent very poor school districts.
However, agreement was eventually reached. Then a meeting was held with
a number of business leaders to service their commitment. This was not an
issue. As the grant application was being prepared, the process started
by establishing a steering committee. Today there are over 75 active members
of the steering committee. These partners include representatives from the
five, K- 12 school districts, the special services school district, Salem
County Vocational School, Salem Community College, Rowan University, labor
unions, the County sheriff, elected officials, employment training, social
services, the inter-agency council, the commission on women, people with
disabilities, the court system, parent and student representatives, and
vocational rehabilitation.
Each partner has an equal voice in deciding the direction of the Initiative.
The money used to fund our strategy comes from in-kind contributions by
the school systems and business community. All funds received from the Federal
STW grant goes directly to aid the students. Business and labor has consistently
risen to the occasion to develop special events. Three years ago they provided
the money to bring Miss America 1996, Shawntel Smith, to address business/labor,
community representatives, parents, and students on STW.
The Results
We have experienced very few problems since the inception of the project
but one of the largest barriers we have did have to overcome was transportation
of students. Since public transportation is not available, we had to design
our Initiative to conquer that adversity. We knew we had to provide transportation
since we encourage students from ages 16 to 25 to participate. Realizing
that New Jersey does not permit 16 year old youth to drive, we also were
aware that some young people might not have the financial means to provide
their own transportation regardless of their age. Therefore, what we do
each year is go out to bid with a bus company to provide transportation.
This eats up a large chunk of the money we receive from STW, but it is definitely
worth it.
One major improvement was to make it plain to students and parents that
poor attendance would not be accepted. Attendance has drastically improved,
but we are still working to achieve our goal of perfect attendance for the
entire year from all participants. We have seen students drop from 25 days
absent to 1-2 days.
As with any well-oiled machine, we are constantly looking for ways to
make improvements. This is the advantage of having monthly meetings and
constant communications with the partners through the project director.
The range of learners vary from students with 4.0 GPA's to those with special
needs who function at a second to third grade level. Our county is made
up of approximately 22% minorities and we state in our goals that we will
have at least that percentage in our Initiative as well as an equal number
of females. This has never been a problem. We are very pleased that we have
the court system looking to us to provide assistance to students who have
gotten themselves in trouble through crime or with drugs/alcohol. We are
equally pleased when a special needs parent calls to thank us for working
with their child.
The New Jersey Division of Vocational Rehabilitation two years ago conducted
a film-shoot of two of our special needs students to show throughout the
State. One of the questions asked of the two students "what is your
learning difficulty?" As our Project Director predicted, the students
replied "I don't have a learning problem."
Reflections on Our Strategy
As Project Director, if I could do things differently, I would include
every young person throughout our county in our STW Initiative. Since we
already consider all those that make application, we would have to mandate
this for the traditional high school student.
Another thing I would do, and am still working on, is to encourage every
person who has dropped out of school to return to school to earn his/her
high school diploma, particularly young females. According to statistics,
a large number of females in our county drop out of school after completing
the eleventh grade. The students' social economic backgrounds seemingly
have nothing to do with this. It is hard to pinpoint any real negatives
in how we are constructed.
Since we know that every student will not participate, we have reached
down to all students starting in the fourth grade to provide them with material
on career awareness, career exploration, and preparation. To do this effectively,
class room teachers and guidance counselors have had to receive professional
development training. Our best leaders have been outstanding in providing
not only paid internships for students, but job shadowing opportunities,
guest speakers, participation in career fairs and in-state and out-of-state
meetings to give presentations to encourage others (not just business) to
get behind the effort of school reform.
The advice that any one in our Initiative would give to others is to
walk your talk. If you say STW means all students, then make certain that
you give all students the same access to everything your program offers
including the same support system. Above all, be honest with everyone, don't
be too proud to ask for help, and let all know they are valuable to the
success of the program. It also helps greatly to have the top administrators
in each school district in tune with your program.
Examples of Learners
Example 1
One of our current court involved youngsters was given a choice by a
superior court judge a year and a half ago. He was told to find a way to
get involved in the Salem County School-to-Careers Initiative, or to be
incarcerated. He found a way to get involved with our Initiative. This young
lad had spent time in confinement for drugs and alcohol. After his release
he returned to his traditional high school - they really did not want him
and he knew this. When it came time to select student participants, his
high school guidance counselor made it clear that he was not being nominated
by his school district since he was a troubled person. The Project Director
and Probation Supervisor quickly stated he was being placed in nomination
by the Probation Department. For the last year he has attended high school,
college, and worked. Last September when we were again reviewing students
for participation, the same guidance counselor nominated him from her school
district. Since this young person is over 19 years of age and is starting
to get embarrassed over being one of the oldest in his class, the superior
court judge at the recommendation of the Initiative's Project Director,
just recently agreed to let him transfer to the adult school. Currently
he is less than five credits from receiving his high school diploma in June
1999. The supervisor of the adult school is confident he will accomplish
this with no problem at all. This is quite remarkable since he began the
school year 76 credits short of fulfilling his graduation requirements.
His school district principal and guidance counselors are going to be quite
surprised when he walks down the aisle with the rest of the students! The
judge has promised to throw a party. The young gentleman has signed to enter
the Army for six years in September to be trained as a dental technician.
He is on his way to fulfilling a goal that some of us knew he could attain.
This young man has volunteered to speak to whoever will listen about how
he has managed to turn his life around. He is particularly interested in
talking to other young people.
Example 2
We have a young female student, age 18, who already has a two and a half-year-old
son and is expecting another child in July. She is a single parent who was
asked to go on her own by her parents when she turned 18. She had to find
an apartment and work to pay for it - no easy task. She is a junior in high
school and a C-range student. This is one student who's attendance was not
monitored closely by her high school guidance counselor. When they discovered
she had missed too many days to be passed this year, they suggested that
she quit school. She couldn't do this and stay in our Initiative so she
is attending the adult school in the morning, college three days a week,
and working at a chemical manufacturing site two afternoons each week where
she is being mentored to continue to receive her education. Believe it or
not, she has picked up the challenge and, although a junior, she is on her
way to having earned enough credits to receive her high school diploma in
June 1999. Despite being a mother and pregnant, she found time to work on
a robot which was entered into competition in early March. We have another
single parent of a son who just recently made the Deans list at college.
Example 3
To pick one example of a student with a disability is difficult. Let
me pick one of the current students with learning disabilities. Chris has
been with us for both his junior and senior years. His biggest difficulty
was in doing the college work. Since he was having trouble with the college
courses, the college suggested that we probably should not let him attend.
The young gentleman was approached by the Project Director who gave him
this option, since we did not want to frustrate him. He choose to continue
taking college classes and has made a commitment that he will pass the courses.
To date he has earned four college credits and has made believers out of
the college administrators. He has been smart enough to go for tutoring
to help support his learning needs. This young lad's mother is extremely
proud of her son as everyone else is.
Recruiting
We are enclosing a copy of a newspaper article of one of her special
need students of a couple of years ago and a copy of a news ad on how we
attempt to reach out to everyone. We are also finding that word of mouth
is extremely important in our recruitment process.
For more information on the Salem County School-to-Careers Initiative,
contact:
H. Glen Donelson, Project Director
Salem County STC Initiative
Pennsville School District
30 Church Street
Pennsville, NJ 08070
Phone: 609/540-6203
Fax: 609/678-7565
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