The Effectiveness of the School-To-Work Program on Class Attendance and Course
Achievement of At-Risk High School Students
Salvatore F. Sarcone
December 2002
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a school-to-work program has a
relationship to class attendance and course achievement among at-risk high school
students. The history of school-to-work programs in Germany, Japan, and the United
States suggests there are many successful school-to-work programs in primary schools
and high schools. Studies indicate the involvement by American corporations is essential
to the success of school-to-work programs. German and Japanese governments mandate
that businesses be involved with schools as early as primary school. The hypothesis was
that at-risk high school students enrolled in school-to-work programs would increase
daily attendance and grade point averages compared to the school year prior to the
subjects’ involvement in the school-to-work program. The subjects were eighteen
sophomore and junior at-risk students who were considered by the school to be the most
likely to drop out or be expelled. The school-to-work at-risk students consisted of
primarily fifteen- and sixteen-year-old Caucasian students. An analysis of the results of
the study does not support the hypothesis or major findings cited in the literature review
regarding school-to-work programs. In this study, the hypothesis that school-to-work
programs would increase attendance and grade point average (GPA) was not supported
by the data. The results may be explained by differences in admission criteria.