CEW Annual Reports:

1997-98 ANNUAL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

• The Center continues to be an active partner with the University of California at Berkeley in the National Center for Research in Vocational Education. In 1997-98 Center researchers have been actively involved in examining effective professional development strategies and programs. Advancing the quality of education-business-community collaborations (e.g., school to work programs) requires new ways of organizing and integrating in-service learning for teachers and other educators. Center researchers compiled a series of five case studies of innovative professional development programs in various regions of the U.S. The findings from these model programs have generated a series of four Research Briefs which provide guidelines for administrators, teachers and their collaborators as they develop industry and community internships for teachers and formulate new school-university partnerships.
   
• Since January, Center and UC Berkeley researchers have been examining the status and impact of performance based university admissions. Introduced in 11 states (including Wisconsin), these initiatives are designed to assist local schools in incorporating integrated curricula, work-based and community service learning, and other school reform efforts by providing alternatives to standard transcript based university admissions. The CEW-led research program focuses on the University of Wisconsin's Competency Based Admissions initiative, which was adopted as an alternative admission policy in February.
   
• In Spring 1998, the Center concluded a two-year project entitled MathNet: Integrating Mathematics and Education-For-Work: A National Network for Improving Teaching, Education, and Learning. Working with teams of teachers from seven high schools and a community college, the Network has produced several publications useful to educators--Integrating mathematics in occupational contexts: A guide for developing standards-based units, Integrating mathematics in occupational contexts: A sample of curriculum units. In addition, the early foundational work for the Network resulted in a NCRVE report entitled Linking the N.C.T.M. Standards to School-to-Work Reform, which was cited by several national newsletters in the mathematics and school-to-work fields.
   
• Center researcher have taken an active role in evaluating the implementation and impact of the School to Work initiatives in Wisconsin, including extensive reviews of the Youth Apprenticeship program. In the past year, the results of two employer surveys were released along with a statewide follow-up of the Youth Apprentices from the high school class of 1996. A detailed report was also released describing the implementation of the school-to-work partnerships in six Wisconsin communities. These Wisconsin studies were featured at three national conventions.
   
• The Center partnered with the WCER in winning the U.S. Department of Education funded Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform and Students with Disabilities--a 5-year, $3.5 million study of school restructuring efforts that have included students with disabilities. Launched in January 1998, the Institute will select and conduct action research in collaboration with local educators in five school sites.
   
• Center faculty and staff published several chapters and articles in prominent research and practice journals including the Review of Educational Research, The High School, Critical Incidents in School Counseling, and Classroom Leadership.
   
• During 1997-98 CEW staff received two national recognitions for their exemplary research contributions. Victor Hernandez Gantes and Dorothy Sanchez (research assistant) received the 1996 Outstanding Paper Presentation Award from the American Vocational Education Research Association. L. Allen Phelps, Victor Hernandez Gantes and three research associates (Sanchez, John Jones, and Alejandro Neiri) received Outstanding Article Award for Volume 20 from the Journal of Vocational Education Research.
   

• As schools and postsecondary institutions move aggressively toward designing and local implementation of various education-and-work reforms, a substantial need for professional development has emerged. Working closely with faculty from several departments in the School of Education (Educational Administration, Curriculum and Instruction, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education), Center faculty and staff have designed an 18-credit, graduate level program entitled Education and Work Leadership EWL). Following two years of focus groups and Design Team efforts, the program will be launched in Fall 1998 with teams from 8-12 communities. In addition to participating in monthly leadership seminars (Friday/Saturday) and structured field experiences, each of the teams will design and conduct an action research and development project improve and/or expand career-related learning opportunities for students. The EWL will serve as a prototype effort to integrate centers and departments by engaging professional learning and research and development endeavors in local schools and colleges.
   
• Over the past 25 years that Center has developed and marketed labor market and post-secondary education information through the Wisconsin Career Information System. Over the past decade 60-70% of Wisconsin schools, technical colleges, and state agencies (e.g., rehabilitation offices) have used this annually updated information in both counseling and instruction. With the enhanced availability of this information via the world wide web, the Center has undertaken a 10-month evaluation and strategic planning study to identify customer needs and future directions for the career information system.
   

• Collaboration with other departments and units on campus continues to strengthen the quality of Center research and outreach projects. During 1997-98, the Center has worked closely with the Federally-funded Comprehensive Regional Assistance Center (CC-VI) housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research to design and deliver technical assistance to schools in Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis on the implementation of school to work programs. In February faculty associated with the Center in collaboration with faculty members from Engineering, Business, Industrial Relations, and Letters and Sciences were invited by the Provost to submit a Strategic Cluster Hiring proposal. While the proposal, which sought to hire new faculty whose work was to focus on Learning, Economic Development and the Changing Workplace, was not funded, the process identified several key areas in which collaborative cross-disciplinary research and outreach projects could be undertaken.
   
• Several Center projects are designed to strengthen collaborations among and between state agencies, Wisconsin professional associations, and local schools and technical colleges. For example, over the past several years the Center has been a partner with the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) in the Federally-funded Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Progam. Through this project 4,366 employees at 20 worksites across the state been provided with basic skills training providing employers with a more competitive workforce. In collaboration with the DPI and the WTCS, the Center operates the Vocational Gender Equity Resource Center. The Center publishes a newsletter, develops new curricula and instructional guides, and loans videos and other resources to educators interested in promoting non-traditional enrollment by women, single parents, and displaced homemakers in high tech vocational-technical education programs.
   

• Numerous Center staff have been actively involved in providing targeted technical assistance to local schools, businesses, foundations, and 2-year colleges based on the research conducted at the Center over the past 3-5 years. Customized workshops and seminars have been designed and delivered on topics ranging from effective career development practices and technology based career information systems to techniques for evaluating employer participation in school to work programs. Workshops have been requested by a wide variety of organizations throughout the Midwest as well as nationally. In 1995, the Center was certified as an approved 'technical assistance provider organization' by the National School to Work Office, which creates opportunities for the Center staff to work closely with organizations interested in adapting our ideas, products, and staff expertise to address needs within their schools and communities. During the past year, staff from the Center were contracted for technical assistance and professional development work in fifteen different states. Over 50 workshops were conducted with attendance reaching more that 2,500 participants.
   
• In the past year we have conducted three national conferences addresses critical professional development needs. Attended by 1500 participants, the 12th Annual Careers Conference featured 166 concurrent and roundtable sessions, 45 pre-conference workshops, and several tours to local high-performance workplaces to observe the impact of technologies and changes in workplace organizations on career development. The National Seminar on Teacher Learning in the Workplace and Community, which was conducted collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Education under the National Center for Research in Vocational Education grant, was attended my more than 200 local staff development directors, School to Work Directors, and teacher educators. Five model professional development programs were featured, along with presentations describing several national initiatives sponsored by the National Staff Development Council, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and similar organizations. On April 19-21, the Center sponsored the third annual conference on Workplace Learning in Milwaukee. With nearly 1,000 participants from seven countries and 40 states, the conference provided workplace tours, concurrent and roundtable sessions enabling participants to examine best practices in workplace learning and learn about new and emerging information technology, multimedia training, learning center development, distance learning, and Internet applications. Other sessions focused on the latest developments and products in labor market data, job matching and career counseling, instructional design, and needs analysis.
   

• For the past two years the Center has coordinated a staff and leadership development international exchange program for the Wisconsin Technical College System and the Scotland Technical and Further Colleges. Administrators and staff from both systems are involved in studying various approaches to setting skill standards, using technology to deliver instruction, designing public and private partnerships, funding, and other topics of current interest. In the Fall of each year, a contingent of Wisconsin technical college leaders are placed in Scottish colleges for 1-2 weeks to observe selected programs. In the Spring, Scottish leaders visit targeted programs in Wisconsin.
   
• This past year the Center hosted visits from policymakers, practitioners, and researchers from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, and Scotland seeking information about the Center's research and products in career development and school-to-work initiatives.
   
• In June 1997, Center Director Allen Phelps, accompanied the Board of Directors for the National Center for Research on Vocational Education on a week-long study tour of the European Vocational Education and Training Programs in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
   

• The Wisconsin Career Information System created a new web site with frequently updated links to career development and occupationally-specific web sites worldwide. These links are launched from within software products purchased by Wisconsin K-12 schools and colleges.
   
• The interactive Center web site now supports on-line conference registration and purchasing of reports and other Center products. In addition, the web site is used by Center project work teams to gather and make accessible key information of interest to local teams and educators collaborating with us on individual projects.