Manistique Area Schools STW System
(Manistique, Michigan)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
In the Manistique Area Schools, the school-to-work system is open to
all students at all grade levels. Curriculum and materials have been developed
along with accompanying activities for each of the grade levels. Due to
the fact that we have a comprehensive system, our model is not broken down
by school-based, work-based, or connecting activities. The Manistique Area
School-to-Work System is integrated and intertwined so that all activities
build upon one another for a more holistic experience for every learner.
The following is an overview of our system.
In grades kindergarten through fifth, students explore sixty-six occupations
in six different career clusters. The clusters are explored with the aid
of storybooks, accompanying activities, speakers who come to the classroom,
or a visit to a job site.
In the second grade students are introduced to METOO - a gender-neutral
extraterrestrial puppet, coloring book, and place mat that helps students
to understand about a wide variety of jobs that are available. METOO is
a tool that can be used to explain how certain jobs are not just for men
or for women, but can be accessed by everyone. METOO is incorporated into
other school-to-work activities and often becomes an integral part of the
class. METOO was taken on a field trip and students have even gone back
into the building during a fire drill to bring METOO outside to safety!
In the fifth grade, students begin to use a software program called Career-O-Rom-A.
This includes booklets (purchased by a local business) to help students
complete a career interest inventory. The inventory helps to determine in
which career cluster they might want to perform a job shadowing experience.
At the fifth grade and all other levels where job shadowing is done, manuals
were written by our school-to-work committee to provide guidance in implementation
for teachers, students, employers, and parents. The duties, responsibilities,
and activities of each party involved are fully explained in the manuals.
In the eighth grade students begin keeping a portfolio and also hear
a presentation which relates school activities, personal habits, and attitudes
to the work place. Seventh and eighth graders are also introduced to the
Michigan Occupational Information System (MOIS) to further enhance, clarify,
and build upon their skills and interests.
The activities and presentations, which tie school-based activities to
the work plan are delivered before students complete an Educational Development
Plan (EDP) and sign up for a career shadowing experience. Manuals for the
career shadowing experience are available to teachers, students, employers,
and parents at this level also.
Job shadowing, work experience, and mentoring continue throughout the
high school years, as do the necessary support materials for implementation
of these opportunities. A life skills curriculum has been utilized by several
teachers through out the district as well. Tech Prep classes and vocational
programs are also available to prepare students for careers in technology
fields or further technical education. Manistique Area schools was one of
the Tech Prep pilot programs in our area. At present, they are the only
district in the Intermediate School District to have continued the program.
Through the interest assessments beginning in late elementary and middle
school level, students are often surprised to discover interests and even
aptitudes and skills for a particular career. They gain a new sense of self
which the teachers help strengthen by further investigating that particular
career area. Eighth graders are given the opportunity to see that attitude
and personal habits are important in the work place. At this same level
they begin to learn what classes relate to their area of career interest.
The Need
Manistique is an isolated community of approximately 4,500 persons with
15% of the population being of Native American heritage. Often times high
school graduates would head for the door with diplomas in hand. Business
people were not all that unhappy to see some of the graduates leave the
area because they were poorly prepared. Yet businesses were complaining
that they wanted qualified people with good employability skills.
At the time our system was being developed, nationwide only about 25
percent of graduating seniors intending to go to college were actually receiving
their bachelor's degree. Manistique students were no exception to these
statistics. Only about 20 percent of today's jobs require a four year degree.
Yet college was being promoted as the answer for many of our students.
Looking at all of these factors, our initial focus group set a goal of
building a school-to-work system which would help employers find qualified
local employees, while giving graduates the opportunity to stay and work
in their community within quality jobs. Tech Prep classes were integrated
into the curriculum to help these students, as well as those students who
need a base for further technical education.
Meeting the Need
The Manistique school-to-work system started out with approximately 120
volunteers and has continued to grow as it has developed. Many volunteers
are parents that are trained through the districts VIPS (volunteers in public
schools) program, while others serve on a variety of committees integral
to our school-to-work system. Many of the volunteers, made up of parents,
employers, teachers, students, and community people, serve as chaperones
on field trips, job coaches on career shadows, and as mentors and guest
speakers, while others provide transportation. With funding from Michigan
Works! the Job Force, educators work closely with business leaders and parents
to continue to refine the STW system.
Before any one part of our system is fully implemented, it is piloted
to shake out the bugs. If alterations in the program are needed, they are
completed before full implementation.
Additional resources that are used by our school-to-work system, in addition
to the ones already listed, include the Diversity and Equity handbook developed
by the Delta-Schoolcraft Equity Personnel, the Curriculum Activities for
Special Needs Students from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the
article called Ensuring Quality School-to-Work Opportunities for Women.
School-to-work in Manistique was built from the ground up with full community
involvement and support. Business people, educators, and parents served
on committees to develop a system which will survive changes in key personnel
in both public and private sectors. The curriculum developed reaches all
students that attend the Manistique Area School District. This includes
the High School, Middle School, the Alternative High School, and the four
Elementary Schools.
The Results
Manistique's school-to-work system is successful for several reasons.
It is not just a separate program, but has become integrated into the curriculum
for all students. All students including the 10 percent of the district's
1,290 students who are identified as special education students, participate
fully in the school-to-work activities. In addition, all high school and
middle school special education students attend an all day transition career
fair in the spring of the year to supplement their career development.
Teachers in the district are actively involved on committees, developing
materials and activities, attending in services, evaluating the program
and participating in the educator career shadow program. In the past year,
50 teachers participated in our school-to-work activities. Several staff
members have been involved in integrating curriculum with other departments.
Teachers face a minimum of additional preparation time for involvement
in school-to-work activities because the committees made up of business,
industry, parents, teachers, and the community have prepared the materials
needed to carry out each part of the system. Because of this, staff are
more likely to participate and keep the activities going.
The results of the Manistique Area School-to-Work System have included
planning, organizing, developing, piloting, and implementation of a number
of comprehensive activities. This school year will include full implementation
of our system, as well as continued evaluation.
Students, parents, employers, and teacher materials provide guidelines
for evaluation of the system and individual student performance. Because
our school-to-work system includes all students, there is a wide range of
learners to address. We have included materials in our teacher and employer
in-services that give instruction on how to work with a wide variety of
learners.
With the involvement of business and industry in the planning and implementation
of our school-to-work system, community leaders no longer feel shut out
of the education system. They have raised their concerns, and with their
help, we have seen their concerns being addressed.
Because the mentorship with business was so successful, we have worked
with the Family Coordinating Council to utilize High School students to
be mentors for K-6th graders. They have agreed to fund the High Five Mentorship
program through Big Brothers/Big Sisters. We recently received a request
to do a mentorship program for the Teen Parent Program and have just completed
the manuals to be utilized for the program.
Designed as a K-14 school-to-work system, it has in some cases, lead
directly to employment because of job shadowing, mentorship opportunities,
or work experience activities.
The Manistique School-to-Work System has received two major awards, the
Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) 1998 Education Excellence Rising
Star Award and the 1996 Governors' Michigan Week Community Achievement Award.
Manistique school-to-work personnel have also been invited to deliver presentations
before the 1996 Governors' School to Work Conference and the 1998 State
Tech Prep Conference.
Reflections on Our Strategy
Prior to this year, schools counted on our School-to-Work Coordinator
to over see the planning and implementation of this system. Even though
schools bought into the system being developed, they associated the program
with the Coordinator. It is our feeling that it would have been better to
designate a part-time paid local school contact person earlier along in
the process. Through our Career Prep Grant it is now possible to assign
such a person. Now with a local person in place, the system will be more
likely to continue in the future. We would recommend that each district
do this to ensure the continuation of the system in their district, in the
event there is not an Intermediate School District School-to-Work Coordinator
to do this.
We followed our outlined plan and vision of a school-to-work system step-by-step
and recommend that others do the same. Several districts that we are familiar
with just did certain parts of the activities that were developed. Now when
they need to mesh it with the Career Prep Grant, they have to start with
square one because several steps of the system are missing.
It is also important for districts to have the support documents and
manuals for all parts of the system and it's activities so it will be easy
for businesses, education, parents, and students to stay committed. Parent
and community participation is a key to the success of our system.
Examples of Learners
Example 1
One of the elementary students did not feel he would be able to job shadow
at one of our businesses because he had asthma. The business involved the
crushing of limestone into various grades of rocks and sand thus creating
a lot of dust. But because we were able to help eliminate some of the barriers
he would encounter, he was able to complete his job shadow. After he visited,
he realized he did not want to do that for a career but at least he was
able to visit and make his own decision on interest not because he felt
he couldn't do it.
Example 2
Students are our best indicator of success of the program so we invited
three students at random from Mrs. Rosemary Sablack's Mentorship Class to
interview. We heard comments such as:
- I'm glad I signed up for the mentorship program because I can actually
see and do things in surgery. I'm suppose to go and mentor last hour of
the school day but most of the surgeries are already done. What I do is
go before school at 7:00 a.m. and I get to be right in the surgery. This
week I saw a gall bladder surgery and got to feel what the gall stones
felt like. It was really neat but some of my classmates were grossed out
when I told them about it. I guess I'm meant to be a doctor because it
didn't bother me a bit.
- Another mentorship student said she was able to go out on patrol with
the police department. Because of her mentorship, she said she definitely
wants to continue her career in Law Enforcement.
- The third student said she really didn't know if she wanted to be in
Physical Therapy. It wasn't exactly what she thought it would be. We consider
this a success because it is helping her to know what she does and doesn't
want. Her mentorship may have saved her several thousands of dollars and
time finding out that she didn't really want to go into Physical Therapy.
- When we contacted one of our local lawyers to shadow for a fifth grade
student, he was hesitant to do so. He felt that the student was to young
of an age and that it would be a waste of his time. He did, however, agree
to do it by the time the teacher was done speaking with him. After the
shadow experience, the teacher did follow-up with him and he couldn't stop
talking about how great it went. He loved doing it and said the student
had a lot of good questions. He asked if he could do it again sometime
in the future.
For more information on the Manistique Area Schools STW System, contact:
- Holly Harwood
- Michigan Works! the Job Force Board
- 2831 North Lincoln Road
- Escanaba, Michigan 49829
- (Phone) 906/789-0558
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