ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the claim that work-based experience will improve students’ academic performance. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), in a congressionally mandated study of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, suggested that one of the rationales for the act was as follows: “Academic work and occupational preparation in schools are to be upgraded and the two are to be integrated so that students can see how academics will be applicable in their work lives. Work-based learning experiences are to extend the academic and occupational instruction of schools….” (OTA, 1995, p. 3). Yet interestingly, the legislation did not explicitly make the academic reinforcement claim. The act was more vague, stating that “students in the United States can achieve high academic and occupational standards, and many learn better and retain more when the students learn in context, rather than in the abstract” (U.S. 103d Congress, 1994, Section 2). The legislation went on to say that work-based learning, combined with school-based learning, “can be very effective in engaging student interest, enhancing skill acquisition…,” and the list continues. Yet academic skills were not specifically named (Section 3).
