FAST BREAK: Career and College Readiness Through Accelerated Learning

by

Dr. Barry SternBsels@aol.com (540) 751-0601

www.hipie.org, www.habermanfoundation.org

Presentation to _____ School District

____, 2009

Overview Demographic, socio-economic and high school

performance trends in ______

Your District’s/School’s major challenges? Assumptions to guide new approaches to career

and college readiness Fast Break Program

History of Fast Break The what, why, who, and how of program Evaluation evidence + why it works Alternative target groups and costs

Discussion: Starting Fast Break at ____ District

Major world problem: Unemployed and under-skilled

youth

Result = poverty, crime, gangs, social unrest, illegal immigration, migrant labor, tensions with surrounding nations.

Poorly prepared population, particularly in technical areas, slows economic growth

Acute problem among young men. Female participation in higher education much greater in many countries, including U.S.

U.S. leaders concerned!

In so many meetings I have had in my district and elsewhere, employers say that our high school graduates are not ready for the workplace. Colleges say that our high school graduates are not ready for the college classroom. This is unacceptable. Congressman George Miller, Chair, House Education Committee, Speech on NCLB, 7/30/07

The American high school is obsolete. Bill Gates, Microsoft

The longer kids are in the American school system, the worse they do relative to their peers in other countries. Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Universal challenge: schools keeping up with economic + technological change

Instructors who haven’t kept up

Obsolete curricula, assumptions about schooling, equipment

Dumbing down of curricula or lowering standards due to unprepared students

Lack of accountability, incentives to promote competition and quality

Minimal industry involvement in education

Bureaucracy

Industry + College

Requirements

Capacities of Educational

System/Programs

When gap gets too big, major federal education initiatives follow

1957 – Sputnik

1983 – “Nation at Risk” study

1991 – America 2000 initiative

2001- No Child Left Behind

National Defense Education Act

Flurry of reforms and innovations:

Better teacher training, standards, selection methods

Higher pay, merit pay, school bonuses

Smaller schools, schools-within-schools, alternative

Magnet schools, career/theme academies

School report cards, accountability

Charter schools, competition, choice

Dual enrollment in community colleges

Computer-assisted instruction, online courses, etc.

More money invested in schools, yet …

Reading and math scores barely increase

High school and college drop out rates remain high,

High need for remediation among college entrants

Low employer satisfaction with graduates

Student population has changed:

More ethnically diverse

More from single parent households, more half-siblings

More speak English as 2nd language

More low-income qualifying for school lunch program

More experiencing/witnessing abuse (drug, physical, mental, etc.)

More transience – changing home location

More with disabilities (e.g. autism + related brain disorders)

Worse basic skills

Many with increased emotional “Load”

Youth arrive at school with heightened emotional affect

Home - Impact of divorced or single parent family or home with turmoil

Media - conflict images and language

• TV Programming with emotional and physical violence (solving conflict through physical means)

• Advertising to pressure youth to do/buy something

• Youth reacting on emotional impulse rather than clearly choosing life serving behavior or learning

PTSD in high violence environments

• Psychological symptoms in schools similar to that occurring in war torn environments

Effects of youth with high emotional load

Reduced attention span

Distracted focus and low productivity

Reduced and disrupted learning capacity

Bullying and displacing emotions

Tragic sexual expression

Excessive illness and/or lateness

Limited opportunities and no safe format for students to express/reduce internal and external conflicts from home or school

Yet high schools have changed little

in last 50-80 years Courses still called English, math, science, social

studies, physical education, art, etc.

School day = 6-7 periods/day – students change what they do in response to a bell every 45-50 minutes

50-minute foreign language classes despite evidence of minimal effectiveness

Dualisms - college vs career prep, knowledge vs skills

College counselor and career counselors are different people, etc.

Little awareness of changing world of work

And students have been signaling for a long time that

they…

Are bored/ not challenged – Astin’s (UCLA) studies of college freshmen over 30 years

Believe many teachers don’t care

Feel alienated and don’t fit in

Enjoy after-school activities far more than in-school activities (sports, clubs, robotics/debate/voc skills competitions, etc.)

U.S. urban high schools teach anti-work behaviors and

attitudes No screening process for getting the job beyond showing up.

There is a "boss" who will watch what you do and see that you do it.

You can come and go as much as you want and still keep the job.

You can be absent as long as you have a note from a doctor or a good excuse.

If you are late or absent, you can simply start working again without having to make up for or even know what you missed.

You get paid for the time you spend at work, not for what you accomplish.

No matter how long you work, the job never changes.

You can get a raise because of the length of time you have "worked."

You don't have to really respect anyone who can't hurt you.

It won't matter if the place is successful or the work gets screwed up; that's not your problem.

It won't matter how many mistakes you make; you'll get another chance

You don't have to remember or follow the work rules if no one tells them to you.

Prof. Martin Haberman, “Unemployment Training”, EdNews.org, 2007, Phi Delta Kappan, 1997.

“Assembly line” high school unlikely to significantly improve reading and math

scores, graduation rates, employer

satisfaction with graduates, etc. In its best days, never worked for half the students (most in authority benefited from current system)

Never really changed how h.s. classes are organized, or tapped into desire of adolescents to become part of a group with a higher purpose and winning mission.

Never asked teachers to work together and communicate about students they mutually teach.

Colleges more sophisticated but many still trapped in disconnected disciplinary silos that struggling entrants cannot relate to.

Fast Break approach:

Better, faster, cheaper with more joy leading to

result that is important to the student right now:

History of Fast Break Focus Hope’s Fast Track program began in

1989 – readiness for Machinist Training

Colin Powell’s visit to FH in 1993 led to federal interest to replicate FH programs in other cities

$1 million grant from NSF to replicate Fast Track in Los Angeles – 3 year demo

“Operation Fast Break” in Michigan, 2000-03 – 6 sites + Fast Break Futures (welfare to work)

Alabama uses as front-end of workforce development programs – Roger Penske + Gov.

What is “Fast Break”?

Computer-assisted, intensive, accelerated learning / work preparation model that emphasizes reading, math, basic computer applications, employability and interpersonal skills.

Fast Break provides immersion-type curriculum that is effective and popular

with young adults and teenagers

Cross-disciplinary, team taught courses with cross-trained instructors

Facilities, methods, and interpersonal relations that model high performance workplace

Workplace discipline and effective time management

Daily feedback on class and individual performance

Integration of “soft” skill training with “hard” academics

Heavy use of courseware (e.g. PLATO, NovaNet, Key Train, WIN) to manage instruction and reporting.

Fast Break provides ...

Strong career guidance and information to help select a career field (“menu’)

Fundamental learning and generic work skills to benefit from college or succeed in most entry-level career-track jobs (“meal’)

Certification of skills in math, reading, and basic computer applications (“dessert”)

Extended job/college placement and follow-up to ensure success (“social contract”)

Career Development Stages and Skill Levels

Fundamental SkillsBasic Skills

Reading, writing, speaking, listening, math

Thinking Skills How to learn, create, solve problems, make decisions, etc.

Personal Qualities Responsibility, integrity,

self-confidence, moralcharacter, loyalty, etc.

Generic Work Skills How to use resources, process information, use technology,

understand systems, relate to others, work on teams

Industry-specific Skills(Portable Credentials)

Company/employer- specific skills

Career Guidanceand Information (“menu”)

Education and Training for Careers(“meal”)

Skill Certification and Placement into Jobs or Further Education (“dessert’)

Source: Dr. Barry Stern, Career and Workforce Development Trends: Implications for Michigan Higher Education, FerrisState University, August 2003.

Who Are The Participants?Anyone needing better skills and/or work habits

to enter college or career-track work:

Out-of-school young adults (h.s. grads/dropouts)

High school students

College freshmen needing remedial education

Welfare recipients needing better skills + work habits

Ex-offenders

Displaced workers/homemakers re-entering job market

Incumbent workers desiring advance from basic level

Recent immigrants needing skills and orientation to U.S. system of work and education

Critical elements of Fast Break:

1. Team approach –

Staff complement each other’s abilities and background

Haberman Star Teacher Interview protocol to select staff

Team challenges + customer service incorporated into instruction

2. Disciplined learning environment, attendance stds.

3. Academic entry and exit standards

4. Application of high performance workplace principles – touches all aspects of “human capital”

5. All instructors accessible to students the entire day

6. High intensity to accelerate gains (e.g. 5-8 hours/day for 8-12 weeks = 320 hours

Critical elements (cont’d)

7. Reading and math as workplace fundamentals

8. Heavy use of courseware, software to save time

9. Effective methods to reach students with different information processing preferences and degrees of “emotional loading” – teach emotional intelligence as teamwork component

10. Immediate outcome that grads value – e.g. job, college, faster advancement thru school/college

11. Strong business advisory committee

12. Data collection/entry on student performance and follow up what graduates are doing

Eventually introduce into program …

Teacher visits to supervisors of grads in their workplace – one day per month; feedback from workplace that possibly can be incorporated into curriculum

Community service project

Opportunities for grads to give back to program

Catered “power lunch” with local business leader

Saturday morning special workshops, e.g.

Internet etiquette Workplace safety

How Does Fast Break Work?

Tightly scripted curriculum of high-level, highly

integrated academics that are taught along

with computer applications to solve work-

related problems, while building workplace

habits and personal character. Model uses a

“boot camp” or highly focused approach to

prepare students to succeed at the next level

- a job or additional schooling.

FAST BREAK Program Details

The What, Why, How, & Who

of the Program.

FAST BREAK …

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

WorkKeys Level 3• Reading for

Information

• Applied Math

Commits to attend 5-8-hours-a-day for 8-12 weeks

Commits to going to work or school after graduating

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

WorkKeys Level 4 and + 1 level (math, reading, locating info.)

Satisfactory career speech

Satisfactory progress in basic computer applications (IC3 cert?)

Proper attitude (can work as team member, accepts criticism)

Certified attendance (no more than three unexcused absencesor tardies)

Remains drug free

“Operation FAST BREAK” Program

Two Components:

Fast Break – job/college readiness

Step-Up – math/reading readiness for Fast Break through courseware-assisted tutoring, with mentors overseen by specialists

FAST BREAK …

CONTENT Math

(computer-assisted + small group) Reading Computer Applications

- Word Processing- Spreadsheets- Databases- WINDOWS- Graphics Programs

Career & Employability Skills- Speaking, listening, bus. writing- Time management/calendars- Career selection- Resumes- Interviewing- Work habits

PRINCIPLES/CULTURE

Hard work + high expectations

Earn way in and right to stay in

Integrated curriculum in applied work context

Continual feedback + improvement

Practice fundamentals daily, including learning on demand

Teamwork

Personal responsibility& discipline

Freedom from drugs

Reward for effort and excellence

Respect for others

Primacy of the customer

Employer driven

Set positive emotional tone through …

Total respect for “co-workers and supervisors” commensurate with high performance workplace

Language tools to deal with conflict and disagreement

Awareness of emotional functioning and how to manage emotional states

Use of “council” format to work through group challenges and acknowledge individual contributions

Parent support trainings to reduce emotional load at home (high school-based programs) and thus facilitate student accomplishment.

Features of FAST BREAK environment

Students buy in by 1st week – why they’re there

Little lecturing – instead, small group + computer-assisted to handle multiple ability levels in class

Class usually split in 2 – ½ computer lab; ½ classroom, and they switch periodically

No down time – everyone has daily plan + “plan B”

Math, reading, computer instructors assist one another + integrate curricula whenever possible

Career development and workplace applications throughout the curriculum

Staff meet daily after students leave to discuss day

Demonstrated successes of Fast Break-type programs

80% program completion rate

80% placement rate of graduates into jobs or college

2.5 grade-level gains in math and reading in 7 Weeks, i.e. 1-2 WorkKeys levels

Computer application skills (word processing, spreadsheets & data bases)

Higher college placement test scores

Self directed learners

High degree of employer satisfaction with graduates

Employment impact

Employers say graduates…

Are more trainable than most they have hired

Demonstrate ability to learn on their own as well as work on teams

Are punctual, responsible, eager to learn

Saves them money on recruiting, turnover, absenteeism & worker accidents.

Unusual outcomes

Males do as well as females

Large classes (30-40) do better than small ones (15-25)

Military recruiters in L.A. loved Fast Break

University students would enroll in the summer to hone their math and English skills (FB was “free” – only small processing fee)

Some parents enrolled, too, after their kids graduated and got jobs

Instructors benefit, also Learn to function in a team-oriented educational

environment

Improve own basic skills

Learn how to use educational technology and office equipment

Learn about different careers and the local economy

Improve instructional effectiveness by obtaining feedback from graduates and employers

Potential measures of high school success

Scores on Student Achievement Tests

High School Retention & Graduation

High School Attendance Rates

Enrollment in Advanced Placement Courses

College Enrollment & Retention

Not yet tested in high schools, but …

$ millions federal + state have supported model for out-of-school youth (“wish they had it in high school”)

Content is secondary education

Some L.A. high school students successfully completed program during their summer break

Focus:HOPE has had success in using it to improve the college and work readiness of a number of Detroit high school students.

Features of Educational Software

Organized by Skill Level Short Lessons Identify Skill Gaps

Management System attendance, time on task,

lesson completion rates

Reports & Complete Tracking

Ease of Use for both Students & Instructors Appealing Graphics

Courseware aligned to Work Keys + WIN or KeyTrain

curriculumCurriculum Content Applied Math Reading for Information Locating Information Writing

Workbooks Available

Other courseware (e.g. PLATO, NovaNet) can align to ACT test, G.E.D. and other assessments

Career Readiness Credential based on 3 WorkKeys

Assessments1. Reading 2.Math 3.Locating Information

Bronze = Achievement at Level 3

Silver = Achievement at Level 4

Gold = Achievement at Level 5

Increasingly recognized by employers. Higher levels indicate more jobs that you can learn.

41

Intensive, total immersion strategy

Emphasis on reading and math + integrated, contextually relevant curricula + learning on demand (e.g. career sp.)

Powerful incentives (e.g. job, college, grade promotion)

Continual data-based feedback (individual and team)

Nurturing staff continually communicates about students

Model high performance business environment with opportunities for informal learning

Teachers visit job sites to follow up with employers and graduates

Focus on specific competencies + disciplinary standards

Manage instruction with computers - repetition, diversity

Summary: Why Fast Break Works

Fast Break Sites in Michigan Flint - Mott Community College (with Workforce Board)

** Detroit - TWW Associates, Detroit - now Fast Break Futures that adds MOUS certification - TANF + other $$

* Detroit - Focus:Hope Fast Track (18 years experience)

Plainwell - Michigan Career Technical Institute (individuals with disabilities)

Lake County - Workforce Board/Baldwin Community Schools

** Macomb County - Lakeshore Adult School (with Workforce Board)

** Hamtramck Alternative High School

** Battle Creek - Strive/Urban League/Davenport College

* Developed original model. ** Program no longer active.

Positioning Fast Break in High School: Options

12th grade/adult transition-to-work-or-college program,

9th grade unit of instruction to upgrade basic skills, provide career direction, work/study habits, and orientation to high school

Front end of technical training programs

Module during any high school year

Alternative education program

Summer school program + other of above option(s)

For high schools, cost should not be issue to implement Fast

Break Have faculty who can be trained to operate Fast Break

Alternative way of delivering math and basic English

Have computers, printers, networks, office equipment and most facilities required for Fast Break

Few student recruitment costs. If incentive structure is right, students will line up to attend

Major new costs would be courseware, pre-program staff training, technical assistance during first 6 months, placement services, and data collection to follow up graduates

If school did not redirect current budget and If school did not redirect current budget and added Fast Break to current offerings, it could added Fast Break to current offerings, it could serve 300 Step Up and Fast Break serve 300 Step Up and Fast Break students/year with 20-30 computer students/year with 20-30 computer workstations with a budget of:workstations with a budget of:

$660,000 in operating costs if you don’t overstaff $660,000 in operating costs if you don’t overstaff (assumes nothing in place - staff, facilities or in-(assumes nothing in place - staff, facilities or in-kind) and kind) and

$780,000 if you overstaff by 1-2 FTE$780,000 if you overstaff by 1-2 FTE

$2,500 per student for 320-hour program, or $7.80 $2,500 per student for 320-hour program, or $7.80 per student hour.per student hour.

Another $150,000 for one-time start-up costs - Another $150,000 for one-time start-up costs - software, computers, furniture & office equipment, software, computers, furniture & office equipment, minor remodelingminor remodeling

Program Costs (if starting from scratch)

Annual Operating Costs = $780,000

Staffing + benefits for full-time Fast Break and part-time Step Up programs(incl. 2 FTE teaching assistants)

WorkKeys assessment and Key Train or WIN curriculum materials

Software renewals, books, supplies Rent, amortization of equipment Drug screens, insurance,

advertising Telephone, printing, duplication Overhead @ 20%

Capital Equipment & Expenses = $150,000 (Start-up – one time)

Courseware licenses/student IDs

PCs, file server, printers

Copy machine, fax, telephones

Office, classroom, computer furniture, equipment, bookshelves, storage cabinets, white boards

Camcorder, VCR, TV, projectors

Remodeling, computer installation

Student smocks, tests, assessments

Assume program serves 300 students per year with 20 computer workstations,Assume program serves 300 students per year with 20 computer workstations, 2/3 in Fast Break, 1/3 in Step Up 2/3 in Fast Break, 1/3 in Step Up

Steps for institutional implementation

Determine target group(s) and recruitment strategy

Develop incentives structure for institution, students, instructors – make sure it works for everybody

Select and train instructors (Fast Break full-time only)

Install computers in lab and student tracking software

Install educational software, purchase WIN or KeyTrain curriculum

Adjust school scheduling & staffing

Set benchmarks and outcomes

Hints for start-up success: staffing

For Fast Break, count on full-time staff (except perhaps director) whose only job is Fast Break. Step-up staff may be part-time or volunteers.

Make sure director is hands-on and can do almost everything instructors do.

Use Haberman Star Teacher Selection Interview to select staff

Overstaff initially since it is hard to replace instructors who are absent or Overstaff initially since it is hard to replace instructors who are absent or leave program; surplus staff also provides opportunity to expand program leave program; surplus staff also provides opportunity to expand program after first yearafter first year

Pay well to attract instructors who are cross-trained in 2-3 areas. Pay well to attract instructors who are cross-trained in 2-3 areas.

Diversity essential:Diversity essential:

Gender, age, experience in educationGender, age, experience in education

Each site with at least one instructor with recent work experience outside formal Each site with at least one instructor with recent work experience outside formal education.education.

Questions? Observations?

Supplemental to

presentation:

Learning and teaching

hypotheses that guide Fast

Break and ought to be tested

scientifically

Hypotheses(re. fundamentals of learning)

1. One cannot be too good at math, reading and writing. Test scores improve when these workplace fundamentals are practiced daily.

2. Reading and math skills (through Algebra I or II) improve faster when taught together rather than as separate subjects.

3. Students learn more when they practice their strengths as they address their weaknesses. Focusing only on weaknesses or achievement gaps will slow learning, impede integration of knowledge, demoralize students, and thus prove counterproductive.

4. The best way to remediate is to accelerate, and the best way to accelerate is to integrate and apply. – (Lessons from Adult Ed.)

Learning and teaching hypotheses(re. standards)

5. When it comes to standards, less is more. Standards should be competency-based, few in number, carefully selected, and tap thinking and application skills as well as memory skills.

How to narrow these to a number that can be effectively managed and enforced: Ask the customers: the employers, colleges and universities that will receive the graduates.

Learning and teaching hypotheses(re. Human Capital)

6. Helping students acquire elements of human capital while they are learning skills is more cost-effective than narrow skill building approaches.

Why “human capital” ?

According to David Brooks of the NY Times (11/13/05):

…skills and knowledge -- the stuff you can measure with tests -- is only the most superficial component of human capital. U.S. education reforms have generally failed because they try to improve the skills of students without addressing the underlying components of human capital.

More from David Brooks

“We now spend more per capita on education than just about any country on Earth, and the results are mediocre. No Child Left Behind treats students as skill-acquiring cogs in an economic wheel…We pour money into Title I and Head Start, but long-term gains are insignificant.”

And still more …

“These programs are not designed for the way people really are. The only things that work are local, human-to-human immersions that transform the students down to their very beings. Extraordinary schools, which create intense cultures of achievement, work.

Extraordinary teachers, who inspire students to transform their lives, work. The programs that work touch all aspects of human capital.

So what is human capital?

Cultural capital: the habits, assumptions, emotional dispositions and linguistic capacities we unconsciously pick up from families, neighbors and ethnic groups – early family factors.

Social capital: the knowledge of how to behave in groups and within institutions -- civility, dealing with bad news.

Moral capital: the ability to be trustworthy. Brains and skills don't matter if you don't show up on time.

Cognitive capital: along with inherited brainpower is the ability to evaluate one’s own abilities and sense what others are feeling.

Aspirational capital: the fire-in-the-belly ambition to achieve.

Learning and teaching hypotheses(re. applied, intensive formats)

7. Learning rates improve when students must apply skills to solve problems like those they will encounter at work and in life.

8. Infusing academics into career-technical courses will improve academic skills faster than infusing career concepts into academic courses. (“Learning on Demand” – Sticht research)

9. Intensive formats work better for many subjects. These include reading, math, foreign languages, and physical education. The intensive format provides sufficient time to practice skills, eliminate bad work habits and produce good ones, and create the conditions for curricular integration and the establishment of a high performance team.

Learning and teaching hypotheses (re. course integration)

10. Most people learn math (through Algebra II) better when it is integrated with something else, like science and career-technical subjects. This will require team teaching and longer class sessions (e.g. block/modular scheduling).

11. Students are more likely to learn about teamwork if their teachers model it. High school and community college teachers of the future must know not only their subject and how to teach, but how to integrate their subject with those taught by other teachers.

Learning and teaching hypotheses (re. marketable skills vs. college

prep)

12. When students experience academic success and have a career plan, they will likely choose college on their own; you won’t have to persuade them.

13. High school graduates with a marketable skill (i.e. have met standards for a career entry position) will more likely enter college than those without. Thus, by getting students ready for work, you will be getting them ready for college.

Learning and teaching hypotheses (re. counseling and guidance)

14. Counselor-student ratios unlikely to improve (not affordable). Regular academic program must provide career guidance through: career academies or Career Pathway departments, CTE programs, and career information that students can obtain from the Internet (e.g. state career info system, Bridges).

Counselors add value by leveraging school resources to involve employers, workers, colleges and universities in the provision of guidance activities.

College and career counselors should be the same people.

Learning and teaching hypotheses (re. courseware)

15. Courseware enables students to progress at own speed and makes competency-based certification more feasible/popular.

16. Courseware facilitates teaching of students of different ability levels in the same class.

17. Courseware does not produce much learning unless teachers incorporate it into their lessons on a daily basis. Why? Because teachers quickly forget how to use courseware if they only use it

occasionally.

Learning and teaching hypotheses (courseware – cont’d)

18. Integrating courseware into regular instruction is more cost-effective than placing it into remedial centers or programs that engage students for short periods of time.

19. Availability of “virtual” courseware from the Internet is only now becoming sufficiently diagnostic and interactive to engage struggling students. Even if it were, students (struggling or otherwise) tend to learn more when they are part of a group whose norm is to help one another achieve and exceed expectations. Some struggling students prefer “bowling alone,” but most like to be in a group.

If aforementioned hypotheses are true, how would you redesign learning for

teenagers and young adults? Frequent, intensive practice of fundamentals

Much more course integration

Little ability grouping – instead an “opportunity culture”

Multiple opportunities to apply skills in work and community settings

Students stay together and form work team rather than dash from class to class

No bells to distract learning (instead, morning + afternoon modules)

Assumptions about human nature consistent with such

hypotheses People want to be part of, help form, COMMUNITIES –

families, religions, groups, teams, …gangs

People like to be really good at, and admire institutions that are really good at, SOMETHING!

Adults/teachers like to work with peers not just kids

Both students and teachers like high performance environments – high expectations, continual feedback, teamwork, learn new things daily, incentives that make sense

Teenagers want to become adults. Thus, they like opportunities to learn in workplace-like settings.

Question: What would a school look like that made students want to

exceed minimum standards and not merely slide by?

Answer: an interscholastic team (sports, robotics, debate, etc.) that emphasized daily practice of fundamentals; daily feedback on individual and team performance by position coaches; continual communication among coaches (viz. teachers) on how to do better the next day; continual opportunity for students to practice skills in competitive ("real world" game like or workplace-like) situations; expectations of helping fellow teammates (classmates) to improve; integration of knowledge to help players (students) understand why they are learning something in a particular way; and the targeted use of technology to diagnose and improve abilities.

Program In Action(supplementary to presentation)

What’s Next

Details on why and how the Fast Break model works

(used normally to train Fast Break staff in how to operate the program).