The debriefing on Pennsylvania’s 1994 School-to-Work Implementation Grant proposal yielded three specific concerns. This page is intended to address each of those concerns and how we have resolved them. First, there was a concern about a statewide system versus local systems. Our belief is that there must be a statewide system which promotes industry-driven, community-based programs and systems….

Finally, a long-term strategy is evidenced by the integration of school-to-work components/activities in the required strategic plans of all school districts and AVTSs. This commitment demonstrates a long-term strategy which we believe exceeds a strategy of state legislation and unfunded mandates. This strategy clearly outlines our commitment to an industry-driven, community-based, grassroots systems development for a statewide system of school-to-work development and implementation….

(As the contract shows, the Ridge administration is continuing the same education plan as originally designed. This contract is a follow-up on the 1994 original. It is also interesting that that same Dept. of Education that told US that OBE strategic plans were optional, told the federal government that the plans were REQUIRED.)

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The basic principles upon which the STW system will be built are:

• The STW system must be driven by industry standards. Programs must be based on occupations and career fields where there is a reasonable expectation for future employment.
• The STW system must be performance-based. Academic and occupational standards must be established and all students must be expected to meet those standards. Standards must be as stringent as national standards.
• The STW system must be fully integrated and institutionalized as part of the public education system, through the strategic planning process. Existing resources must be used to establish and maintain the system. It also must be understood that STW is a component not only of education reform and a new way of educating our children but also workforce and economic development.

(It appears that these principles are saying that students will be limited to choosing occupations that match the government’s predictions of job vacancies. What happens to the child who wants to select a career that is NOT on the "reasonable expectations" list?)

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1.1  Goals

1. To strengthen the Pennsylvania economy by providing organizations with a predictable supply of highly skilled workers.
2. To enhance the career options and earning potential of youth by building an industry-driven, competency-based, school-to-work system that encourages and enables students to attain world-class academic and skill standards.
3. To develop a statewide school-to-work system that directly links school and work experiences and is built upon and integrates the strengths of the commonwealth’s existing education and training programs.

(Who predicts what kind of workers will be needed? What organizations will be provided with this supply? Does this mean that students will be forced into pre-determined careers so that a predictable supply can be delivered?)

1.2  Objectives

1. To provide statewide competency standards in selected occupational clusters developed jointly by industry, labor, and education.
2. To provide statewide assessment standards for entrance, continuation, and completion of the school-to-work system developed jointly by industry, labor, and education.
3. To develop a school-to-work system that integrates school and work experiences and sets an environment for teaching students in context, making learning relevant to real world experiences.
4. To establish a governance structure that assigns specific responsibilities to state, regional, and local levels with a minimum of program interference at the state and regional level.
5. To expand the range of skilled training career opportunities and the earning potential of youth.
6. To improve high school students’ access to jobs and postsecondary education and training programs through a structured work-based learning experience.
7. To increase the number of young people preparing for entry into high skill occupations, consistent with labor market needs.
8. To provide students with the academic and technical background necessary to qualify them for advanced standing in registered apprenticeship programs, other high skill training opportunities, or postsecondary education programs.
9. To facilitate the entry of minorities and women into registered apprenticeship programs, and other high skill training opportunities, or postsecondary education programs.
10. To build an educational delivery system sensitive to labor market needs.
11. To enable employers to assess students’ skills and potential prior employment.
12. To increase employer interest in and willingness to invest in training for their current and future workforce.

(What does it mean for an educational delivery system to be "sensitive to labor market needs"? Will available courses change? What happens to the student who wants the non-existent course? These objectives are geared to making students fit industry's wish list - not opening students' options to make their own decisions about their futures? What does #11 mean - will employers be given access to student records before their employment? How does that fit with non-discrimination laws?)

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4. a) All school-to-work programs must establish a local stakeholder’s council to govern the local program and to ensure the program meets State guidelines and needs of the community. At a minimum, the local stakeholder’s council must include representation from the following: service delivery area (SDA), private industry council, chamber of commerce, intermediate unit, school district, industrial resource center (IRC), vocational-technical school (in areas where there is one present), postsecondary institution, six businesses that are representative of the community, and two employee representatives.

(Notice that the program does NOT have to meet the needs of the students, and that NO parents are represented on the stakeholders council.)

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1.4  Program

1. All school-to-work programs shall require integration of the school and worksite experience, academic and vocational education, and secondary and postsecondary education.
2. Employers shall be responsible for providing student learners with training positions, a skilled mentor, a structured work experience that meets the state competency standards, and a stipend or wage for the worksite experience. The stipend shall be negotiated at the local level.
3. Programs shall be determined by the labor market needs of industry.

(In all there are 13 parts to the program section. Once again, the availability of student learning programs will be determined, not by the needs or desires of the students, but the identified labor market needs of industry - in other words, what kind of jobs does the planning council think there will be and how can students be pushed into the predicted careers? So instead of schools serving children, they will now serve industry and government.)

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2.0  Eligibility Criteria: Highest Levels of Cooperation

…High academic content standards are reflected by Governor Ridge’s commitment to state-level academic standards for all students. These standards are reflected in schools’ strategic plans under our Chapter 5 legislative requirements for curriculum.

The STWO committee of Pennsylvania is the definitive link to the Goals 2000’s State Improvement Plan which includes benchmarks and timelines. While not specifically referenced in this text, they are in alignment.

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3.0  Selection Criteria Overview: Comprehensive Statewide System

...Reform strategies were established in late 1993 with the revision of Chapter 5 curriculum. This legislative change provides that all school districts and AVTSs enjoin a strategic planning process. The integration of school-to-work opportunities component activities has become a focus of the Strategic Planning Guidelines, the development of a state plan for education, and job training.

Career options for all students are shown via the following: strategic planning requirements to address career education and work; the development of the Pennsylvania Power Source (to be disseminated to all districts/AVTSs in the 95/96 school year); and the adoption of ten career clusters.

(Chapter 5 is our OBE chapter. Goals 2000 is the federal engine driving OBE in states across the country. Notice that this contract SPECIFICALLY states that it is doing both. Ridge cannot simultaneously be doing OBE and not doing OBE - so he is either lying to us, or lying in this legally binding federal document. Where do you think he is lying?)

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• All school-to-work programs should appoint a contact person for their school-to-work contract who would have the responsibility of knowledge of OSHA requirements, the child-labor law, etc. as a means for ascertaining child safety. Each student’s family would be appraised for insurance or require that students be covered under school’s insurance policy, even if payment is required from school-to-work project funds.

(The family, which is NOT a member of the stakeholders group, will be "appraised" to pay the bill for insurance while their child is on a job site. Isn’t this families funding business?)

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3.4  Stimulating and Supporting Local School-to-Work Systems

...All programs being viewed as part of the school-to-work system will be justified on the basis of up-to-date labor market assessment and economic development information. We will not facilitate the development and funding of specific programs not warranted based on this information...

3.6  Management Plan

...Standards are outlined in the performance measures and targeted state outcomes. Individual student data will be part of the new Management Information Systems data collection....

(What data will be included? Who will have access?)

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1.0  Comprehensive Statewide System

The comprehensive statewide School-to-Work system is designed to produce systemic changes. The Commonwealth’s strategic planning process is the vehicle that drives the construction of the system…

Pennsylvania's educational reform efforts will also receive a substantial boost from the Goals 2000 legislation. The incentives for standards-setting and coordinated approaches to systemic reform contained in the act will assist us in our efforts to ensure that school-to-work programs are available to all of our students.

(Strategic planning is the force driving this system - bypassing the legislature completely.)

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3.0  System-Building Strategies

...Strategic planning ensures that all schools in the Commonwealth are involved in changing the way they do business. (Appendix I presents the state’s existing guidelines for school strategic planning.) Local partnerships ensure grassroots support. Regional networking brings together local partners and economic development needs. Marketing will help to shape and change perceptions and attitudes. Staff development is changed the way program providers think about their roles and responsibilities. Curriculum is framed on the basis of accepted standards with student performance being assessed utilizing non-traditional methods.

(Appendix I is the complete text of Chapter 5 - the OBE chapter. Ridge told the federal government that strategic planning is the basis for the entire school-to-work program, and that Chapter 5 contains the planning guidelines.)

3.1  Strategic Planning

Strategic planning in all school districts requires that school-to-work opportunities programs become a priority on their agenda. Each public school district and area vocational technical school (AVTS) in Pennsylvania is required to develop a strategic plan to describe in detail how it will ensure that all students in its attendance areas are to be given opportunities to achieve the state-established student learning outcomes, the manner in which outcomes are to be assessed, and how professional development opportunities will be provided to teachers and other professional staff to implement the student outcomes and revise curricula to help their students achieve the outcomes. Strategic plans will be of six-year duration, with the opportunity at year three for midpoint revisions as well as continuous improvement....In short, since the strategic planning process is mandatory, we intend to take maximum advantage of the opportunity to drive school-to-work transition efforts into the educational program in every public school district in this Commonwealth.

(Once again the student learning outcomes - the basis for PA’s OBE - are specifically named in the contract language.)

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6.0  Benchmarking Skills

Pennsylvania’s current education reform package provides for required student learning outcomes, and a state assessment system which measures reading and mathematics in grades five, eight, and eleven, and writing in grades six and nine….Clearly, we have made a significant first step in establishing a system based on expected outcomes and increasingly "authentic" assessments. However, it is clear that we need to move quickly to do much more.

First, we must establish specific statewide standards to accompany the student learning outcomes. These will include both content and performance standards. In addition, we must continue to refine our assessment system to ensure that we accurately, completely, and appropriately measure the standards…

While we are optimistic about our ability to rapidly implement the portfolio and other authentic assessments, we know that the establishment of statewide standards will be a significant challenge. However, based on our success in passing the student learning outcomes and informed by that experience, we believe that we are well prepared to begin a process of statewide standards-setting. The Governor’s office strongly supports the establishment of statewide standards, as does Pennsylvania 2000, a statewide coalition of business, state government, and education officials, dedicated to helping Pennsylvania achieve the national Education Goals.

(The emphasis is ours. The standards are not INSTEAD of the outcomes - they are BASED on the outcomes. It's just the next step of OBE implementation. Need we say more?)