Across the nation school reform has been the issue stressing the need to bring student achievement scores higher and to prepare students for movement into the labor force. The nature of our society makes it imperative that graduating high schoolers be prepared to become members of the labor force. In particular, minority students who will not go to college to obtain higher degrees must be able to perform jobs which are technical although not particularly skilled. Vocational education in high schools has seen a growing change (Burke, 1986). More and more schools have moved toward providing computer classes in the form of work skills rather than the traditional programming skills of 10 years ago (Roblyer, 1988). However, little research has been done to evaluate the extent to which such programs actually do allow students to move into jobs after high school graduation. Most of the research has been aimed at improving achievement scores.
In addition, specific skill programs for low performing students versus generalized reading and writing skills programs have not been evaluated for their relative ease of moving students into the job market.
This study is aimed at comparing the extent to which students in two kinds of alternative job preparation programs are able to move into the job market and perform well in their employment when compared to a control group.
This research will investigate the extent to which telecommunications, a writing for reading program, and a control traditional program help students obtain employment after graduation.
The educational setting for this study will be a public school system in which students tend to score well below the national average in basic skills. The inner city neighborhood in which the high school systems are located have a jobless rate of 54 percent for the adult male population. The percentile average of students in 9th to 12th grades is as follows: for reading 9=...