Vocational Career Study of High School At Risk Students

A study was made of the effect of career infusion on proficiency test scores in eight areas for seniors in a high school English class in Texas. The experimental group had not passed the proficiency tests and were considered at risk for dropping out of school. Two control groups were used: other at-risk senior English students and an 11th-grade English honors class. For approximately 3 months, career awareness activities were infused into the English curriculum for the experimental group. The group also visited community workplaces and then participated in 2-hour daily work at these workplaces. In addition, graduates in counseling worked with the students. The study found that the experimental group with career awareness training outperformed the at-risk control group on the posttest in five of the eight subtests. The experimental group with career awareness training outperformed the honors group on the posttest in three subtests and tied in one of the eight subtests. The experimental group experienced test score declines for four tests, possibly because the training did not address these subtest scales. Additionally, the experimental group generally outperformed the at-risk and honors control groups in subtest score improvements between pre- and posttesting. Partially as a result of the study, the high school moved to make career awareness training part of the English curriculum and hired a school-business coordinator. Recommendations were made to avoid testing at the end of the school year and to standardize the testing procedures. (KC)