The (Unrealized) Promise of School-to-Work Education: Assessing the Impact of the School-to-Work Opportunites Act of 1994 on Low-Income and Minority Students

Abstract

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA) encouraged schools across the country to implement educational curricula that explicitly linked the worlds of school and work. Legislators hoped that integrating work-based learning with traditional classroom instruction would make education more relevant to all students. This Note examines whether STWOA succeeded in encouraging schools to integrate school-to-work programs into traditional classroom instruction. In particular, it explores school-to-work programs in Massachusetts to determine their effect on minority and low-income students. Although STWOA has largely failed to integrate work-based programs into the mainstream of educational curricula nationwide, this Note contends that STWOA helped to catalyze the implementation of school-to-work programs in key school districts such as Boston. After evaluating the benefits of work-based curricula to students in general and minority and low-income students in particular, this Note concludes that the federal government should reauthorize funding to school districts that have shown a commitment to school-to-work education.