School-to-Work Outreach Project 1996 Exemplary Model/Practice/Strategy

Pathways to Satisfaction: Transitioning Self-Determined Youth Madison Metropolitan School District Wisconsin

Mission

To promote responsible learning in a global society.

Organization/Program Context

The Madison Metropolitan School District includes four attendance areas which are geographically situated. Each attendance area has eight or nine elementary schools and two or three middle schools which feed into one comprehensive high school. The school district promotes ongoing learning and a contextual learning environment. The district also encourages partnerships with parents and the community. The Madison Metropolitan School District sponsors Tech Prep programs in coordination with Pathways to Satisfaction to assure access to both of these school-to-work programs. The Pathways to Satisfaction program takes place in Madison West High School, however, students from throughout the district can attend the program.

Community Setting

Large City. Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin. It is home to many governmental agencies and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Edgewood College and two technical training centers.

Population Served

Program/Organization
Madison West has the most diverse student population of the four high schools. It serves students from diverse socioeconomic communities, students of high academics and a large number of special education students in its inclusive courses. The high school averages 2,000 students.

Model/Practice/Strategy
In the first semester of 1995, 67 students were served by this process. The majority of students are from 14 - 18 years old; the remaining students are 13 and under or 19 - 22 years of age. The majority of participants (90%) are students with specific learning disabilities, while 10% are students with severe emotional disturbance.

Model/Practice/Strategy Description

Pathways to Satisfaction is a school program at Madison West High School that includes students in grades 9-12. The program consists of five phases of age appropriate activities and the Becoming Self-Determined curriculum. The first two phases take place in the classroom, while phases three, four and five encourage self-reflecting and developing connections to the community and workplace.

In phase one, Focus, 9th and 10th grade students work in small groups or individually on contextual learning lessons. These lessons help students focus on self awareness, individual support networks, and future plans. Students also engage in teacher directed classroom activities that center on work issues.

In phase two, Information Synthesis, the student pulls together his/her findings from the first phase to understand how they fit together.

In phase three, Exploration, the student includes his/her mentor and parents in community activities that are of the student's interest and that contribute to achieving future goals. For example, if a student identified an interest in outdoor activities in the 9th grade, in this phase, which occurs in the 11th or 12th grade, he/she might focus specifically on careers in the outdoors. In addition, the student and his/her mentor would engage in community-based activities, such as shadowing an employee at a local fish hatchery, visit various jobs in fish management and discuss careers in natural resource management.

In phase four, Connection, students connect the information and experiences they have gained from previous phases and participate in activities which lead to their transition goals. Some examples of these activities are admissions to post-secondary institutions, apprenticeship interviews, or analysis of local labor market data. Students can access information on careers, work, labor, and other related information at the material centers located in three neighborhood centers of the school district.

In phase five, Evaluation, students and their parents discuss the career and life decisions made by the student, weighing the positive and negative aspects of each decision. In most cases the transition staff and/or the mentor will facilitate this discussion. Further, the student will consider all the information s/he gathered in the initial process and will use the Transitional Baseline as a tool in finalizing decisions. S/he will also use the Living Simulations model to look at budgets and life-styles appropriate to her/his career of choice. Students are reminded, at all times, that their decisions will affect them throughout their lives. Critical to this stage are the mentors who bring a sense of reality, and aspire students to succeed.

In all phases of the process, the high school students are matched with mentors who provide academic support and participate in the community-based activities chosen in the Becoming Self-Determined curriculum. The mentors include members of the community, such as college and university students, retired senior citizens, or business people. Parents are also integral to the program, learning through the curriculum about all phases that the students encounter and to which they are exposed. In addition, parents who are interested receive self-determination skill training in local evening sessions, offered monthly. After graduation students commit to the program's follow-up process. They agree to contact the program staff to share any life changes. The students periodically come together for a reunion.

Exemplary School-to-Work Components

Self-Determined Skill Training - School-based Learning
The Becoming Self-Determined curriculum involves students in activities which help them learn to make choices for themselves. Students are encouraged to reflect upon themselves and apply their experiences to set work and adult life goals.

Community Mentorships - Connecting Activity
Mentor relationships are formed between students and adult volunteers from Institutes of higher education and the community.

What Makes it Work?

Higher Education Connections
This program has made a commitment to Institutes of higher education by offering extensive training to volunteers to ensure their success as mentors. Mentors are given autonomy in the activities they engage in and are recognized for their participation.

Self-determination Emphasis
The curriculum focuses upon skills and knowledge for self determination. The activities engage students in self awareness, aspirations development, social integration, community-based contextual learning environments and settings which build their autonomy.

Relations with Employers
Employers from the private sector are solicited through mailings by the school district to encourage their involvement in various school programs, including Pathways to Satisfaction. Employers who participate benefit from recognition by the program through events such as banquets and publicity in local newspaper write-ups.

Staff

• Classroom Teacher
  1 full-time
  * Leads the group process
  * Instructs
  * Monitors activities of mentor and student
  * Meets frequently with mentors and studnets in large groups, small groups and/or individually

• Transition Facilitator
  1 full-time
  * Works with students one on one
  * Conducts mentor and staff trainings
  * Provides parent education
  * Monitors activities of mentor and student
  * Meets frequently with mentors and students in large groups, small groups and/or individually

• Mentor (Volunteer)
  30-40 mentors per semester
  * Facilitates recreation and school to work transition activities with paired student
  * Records time spent with student
  * Logs activities with student
  * Provides academic support to student

Mark, a young man with a learning disability, was dependent upon his parents. They were in the habit of making choices for Mark without his input. Like many parents, they provided him access to fine public schools, a private tutor and technology to support his disability. Making choices for Mark gave him little ownership of decisions in his life. His parents had good intentions, but the outcome for Mark was his dependency on others. This changed, however, once Mark and his parents participated in the Pathways to Satisfaction Program. Mark enrolled in the Life and Work Choices class. As a result of this class, as well as with the activities his case manager facilitated, Mark started to see the need to plan for a future that he directed. He still wanted his parents' input, but saw a need to become a key player in decisions affecting his life. His parents' attitude also evolved as they saw a need to allow Mark to make some of his own decisions. Although this transformation was difficult for them, by the end of the semester both Mark and his parents were grateful that they engaged themselves in this process of self determination. Both Mark and his parents participated in Pathways to Satisfaction, learning about themselves as they moved through the process. Mark's mentor became a liaison, facilitating communication between student and parents. When Mark's parents completed the parent training they saw a need for Mark's independence and encouraged him to pursue his education and/or training after high school. They worked with him in the Exploration Phase and helped his mentor to facilitate activities and visitations. They helped him focus upon outcomes and grounded those outcomes in reality. Mark has enrolled at a technical college and will transfer to the world of work in two years. His interests and aptitudes were validated in the self determination curriculum and he is headed toward a future within which he is the primary causal agent.

At this point in his life, Mark was ready to gain some ownership over his life... and he did it well.

This profile was generated by the School-to-Work Outreach Project at the Institute on Community Integration (UAP), University of Minnesota. The development and dissemination of these profiles was supported in part by grant #H029B30142 from the U.S. Department of Education.

For further information, contact the School-to-Work Outreach Project, Institute on Community Integration (UAP), University of Minnesota, 101D Pattee Hall, 150 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

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