School and work in adolescence: education and employment

School and Work

1. Understand how policy debates have shaped secondary education

   • comprehensive vs. progressive education
     • comprehensive - a high school that tries to educate the whole pool of adolescents by placing them in different tracks according to their presumed abilities and future economic roles
     • progressive - an approach that saw equality and democratic citizenships as central goals of the educational system
   • large schools vs. small schools
     • large (James Bryant Conant)
       • larger high schools with more highly trained teachers would produce more of the scientists the country needed
       • use resources better
       • offer a wide variety of courses
     • small
       • personalized attention
       • safer
       • higher grades and achievement scores
       • more participation in extracurricular activities
   • large vs. small class size
     • small
       • more individual attention
       • less noise and disruptive behaviour
     • large
       • Project STAR
   • school transitions
     • 8-4 system
     • junior high school - typically, a school that includes Grades 7, 8, and 9, intended to meet the special needs of young adolescents and be a bridge between elementary and high schools
     • middle school - a school that typically includes Grades 6, 7, and 8, and that has become more common than junior high school in recent years

2. Know what the effects are of school climate and school membership

   • educational practices
     • performance orientation - a focus on competitive success and a tendency to interpret outcomes as a sign on ability or lack of ability. Also called ability-goal orientation
       • predict high grades
     • mastery orientation - a focus on learning and mastering tasks and on personal improvement. Also called task-goal orientation
       • high levels of interest
       • more long-term learning
       • use of deep cognitive strategies
     • performance-avoid
       • overriding need is to keep from looking and feeling dumb
       • self-handicapping - placing obstacles in the way of one's performance in order to avoid having to attribute a possible failure to low ability
   • tracking - the practice, now less common, of assigning students to a particular curriculum or set of courses on the basis of their presumed abilities
   • school climate - the general learning atmosphere in a school, including attitudes of students and staff, order and discipline, and student participation
     • demanding - students understand that they are expected to perform up to their potential and to show self-reliance and self-control
     • responsive - teachers and staff should respect the student's opinions and feelings, take them seriously, and want to involve them in the life of the school
     • stage-environment fit
   • school membership - the sense that students have of being connected and committed to their school and its positive functioning
     • empathetic, supportive, and consistent teachers
     • school size and participation rates in extracurricular activites
     • age and grade level
     • classmates and friends
     • safety in school

3. Analyze how teacher expectations affect students

4. Know the issues around school choice, exceptional students, and the dropout problem

5. Know the benefits of extracurricular activites

6. Analyze how after-school programs help teens

7. Know what proportion of adolescents go to college or university and how many stay in

8. Know what problems face teens who finish high school but do not go on to college or university

9. Know what mentors are and how they can be more effective

10. Understand how many teens work, for how much of their time, and for how much money

11. Understand what teens gain or lose by working while in school

12. Analyze how social programs can ease the transition between school and work

13. Understand the influences of career choice