After Admission: From College Access to College Success

CHAPTER NINE. EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF LABOR-MARKET LINKING

182 CHAPTER NINE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OF LABOR-MARKET LINKING Although labor-market linking has obvious benefits on outcomes after graduation, here we examine whether such linking can improve outcomes during college. First, using student survey data from the fourteen colleges discussed earlier, we determine how student effort and confidence in college are influenced by their perceptions of the usefulness of college and teacher contacts in securing employment. Next, using national data, we determine whether job placement services are similarly associated with timely completion of the associate’s degree. As noted, systematic information about school-employer contacts can be difficult to obtain because these linkages often rely on informal arrangements between individual teachers and employers (Brewer and Gray 1999). Moreover, many of the best national longitudinal studies of students (NELS and NLSY, for example) and the best studies of employers (Neckerman and Kirschenman 1991; Holzer 1996; Moss and Tilly 2001) offer poor information about the use of such contacts for placing students in appropriate jobs. Although the value of school-employer linkages has most often been considered in terms of employment and wages after graduation (labor market outcomes), if employer contacts can help students get good jobs, they might also have benefits for student motivation in school. Previous research has danced around the issue of student motivation without directly addressing the ways that institutional structures—specifically Educational Outcomes of Labor-Market Linking 183 those that foster employer contacts—may affect students and encourage them to excel academically and graduate on time. Laurence Steinberg (1996) emphasizes that motivation may be enhanced by students’ perceptions of curriculum relevance, but does not consider what institutional actions might stimulate those perceptions and he has nothing to say about employer contacts . Vincent Tinto’s (1993) model of student integration—which is arguably the dominant theoretical model in research on postsecondary attainment—suggests that students’ persistence through college is influenced by factors that integrate the student into the college community, for example, extracurricular activities and living on campus (neither of which are common in non-residential two-year colleges). He does not, however, examine labor market contacts or other incentives that might encourage the student to complete the degree to gain potential rewards after graduation. Even some reforms that consider the motivating influence of careers focus only on adding career content to instruction, not on employer contacts that could provide concrete incentives (Kemple and Scott-Clayton 2004; Stern et al. 1995). In contrast, other nations operate differently. Stephen Hamilton and Klaus Hurrelman (1994) describe the ways that apprenticeship connections provide incentives that motivate German students and suggest that motivation could be increased in American colleges with more transparent connections between school and the labor market. Relatively few scholars have considered the effects of school-employer linkages on students who are still in school. Furthermore, all of this work has been in high schools rather than in colleges. Studies of high-school academies combining academic and vocational curricula have focused on achievement, attendance, and drop-out (Kemple and Scott-Clayton, 2004; Stern et al. 1995). They have not examined school or instructor labormarket linkages as a potential factor influencing positive outcomes for students, even though some academies may have such relationships. Other studies of secondary schools find that many students believe that high school is irrelevant (Steinberg 1996; Stinchcombe 1965; Rosenbaum 2001), and reformers call for practices that enhance the relevance of education to employment. However, few of these analyses look outside the school’s walls (Hamilton 1990; Rosenbaum 2001). It is difficult to expect students to exert effort in school if there is no ostensible material payoff on graduation. Most observers assume that students have some reason to be motivated in school, and implicitly assume that subsequent societal institutions will reward students’ school efforts. This is probably true for highschool students aspiring to selective colleges, but may not be so for students aspiring to jobs, given that employers’ hiring criteria and earnings are often unrelated to student effort or achievement, at least at the high school level (Bishop 1989; Rosenbaum 2001). High school reformers may ignore employer contacts because they want all high school graduates to attend college. Nonetheless, it is hard to explain why college reforms also fail to consider employer contacts. Like the high school career academies, college level reforms also tend to emphasize instructional practices that integrate occupational content into the curriculum (Grubb 1996; Perin 2001), but little is said about forging...