The results of this study may be evidence that participating in awork-based mentoring
program that targets improved academic performance is related positively
to student grades and school attendance. If this relationship is found in further
studies, these types of programs could help to minimize some of the school-side
obstacles faced by many Black students in their transition from school to work.
These results are noteworthy in light of the belief that improving academic skills
and enhancing academic outcomes are both very challenging objectives for workbased
learning programs (Hughes & Moore, 1999; Hughes, Moore, & Bailey,
1999; Stern, 1997). The positive relation between longer term participation and the grades of the African American students in this study may be evidence that
programs like these also can be a step in achieving a longer term objective of
academic equality across racial populations. Equally important, the program may
be related positively to the students’ motivation to learn, as evidenced by their
improved school attendance. Thus, participation in these programs may help to
dispel further the inaccurate stereotype that African American students have lower
motivation to learn than do White students (Graham, 1994).Although encouraging, the positive relation of work-based mentoring to academic
performance and behavior may not be solely attributable to the mentor–
student interaction, since directly assessing the mentor’s impact on the student
was outside the scope of this study. It is plausible that these results are due to
some other facet of the program. For example, mentors had to prepare a detailed
plan to integrate the work experience of the student with the student’s academic
curriculum. This process alone may have contributed to the enhancement of the
students’ grades, an outcome consistent with the contextual learning perspective
of school-to-work programs (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Raizen, 1989).
Another alternative explanation for the findings is that the selection process used
by the employers acted as a mechanism to choose the most qualified students.If
true, the results may be due more to the quality of the students chosen in the
first half of the year than to the duration of the students’ interaction with their
mentors. To test this, a subsample of only those students placed with mentors was
created and two regression models were run. In the first, 1997 GPA was regressed
on the longer program duration variable, along with the school variables, gender,
lambda, and 1996 GPA; in the second model, 1997 attendance was regressed on
the same control variables and the previous year’s attendance instead of GPA. In
both models, the duration variable was not significant thus indicating that the employer selection process
did not initially weed out the poorer performing and less motivated students.
The present results also may be due to a selection effect alone, attributable not
to mentoring, but to simply being selected to participate in the program. Although
this explanation is feasible, both the nonsignificant program participation variable
and the significant, longer term program duration variable for both grades and
attendance may indicate that the results are not merely due to being selected for
the program. The positive relation between longer term participation and academic
outcomes may suggest that a mentor’s influence may take time to develop or the
other features of these programs need sufficient time to show results. The length
of time needed to produce these results also may differ across individuals, which
raises important issues concerning the common practice of tying school-to-work
programs to an academic calendar.Other limitations of the study include its nonexperimental design. Although
Heckman’s sample selection term was used to mitigate the effect of the quasiexperimental
design on the internal validity of the study, it does not completely offset
the limitations of a field study design of this type (LaLonde, 1986). Additionally,
the fact that participating in the program for less than half a year was not related significantly to the outcomes may be attributable to measuring student grades and
behavior over an entire year. A relationship between these outcomes and shorter
term contact with a mentor may be found if the outcomes are measured over shorter
durations.
Despite these limitations and alternative explanations, the positive results of this
study are in contrast to the literature that paints a rather bleak picture of the present
and future academic achievements of many African American students. This literature
not only highlights the academic underachievement of African American
students as a group (Bankston & Calas, 1997; Keith & Benson, 1992; Mickelson,
1990; Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992), but also has indicated that working
while in high school may be more detrimental to the academic outcomes of African
American and Latino students than it is for White or Asian students (Oettinger,
1998). Oettinger (1998) suggested that these differences may be due to the types
of jobs held by racial minorities. Typically, these jobs do not complement the academic
curriculum as well as do jobs held by White or Asian students. As such,
they crowd out the time students otherwise could use for studying. The findings
of the present study suggest that school-to-work programs that integrate work and
the school curriculum and offer quality work experiences with adult mentors could
resolve some of these issues for Black students.Testing the influence of the mentor on the student should be a critical component
in any future research that assesses program effectiveness. For example, racial and
gender similarity/dissimilarity between the adult and student may be antecedents
of academic outcomes, just as they have been in prot´eg´e attitudes toward their
mentors (Ensher & Murphy, 1997). Such similarities and differences between
mentors and prot´eg´es have been an area of study in the organizational literature
(Ragins, 1997a, 1997b; Thomas, 1993); if these effects also were found in adult–
youth relationships, one implication may be that it takes longer to produce and
detect benefits of mentoring in dissimilar, adult–youth dyads than in similar pairs.
This would suggest program administrators should consider using longer terms
for their programs (more than an academic year) to allow mentoring relationships
to develop fully before measuring outcomes of dissimilar mentor–prot´eg´e pairs.
This study also can help guide future research related to the career development
of African Americans and, in particular, the applicability of social cognitive
theory to African American students.Work-based, adult mentoring programs provide
opportunities for vicarious learning and social persuasion, both of which are
believed to be significant determinants of self-efficacy (Lent, Brown, & Hackett,1994). Although some previous research has shown evidence that mentoring does
not have a direct influence on self-efficacy (Seibert, 1997), the present results
suggest at least this particular type of mentoring may be related to specific academic
outcomes. These outcomes, in turn, may enhance prot´eg´e self-efficacy beliefs.
Future research perhaps should focus on the feedback effects of enhancing
academic performance and behavior for students’ self-efficacy beliefs and subsequently
their career interests, goals, and behavior (Lent, Hackett, & Brown,
1999).Social cognitive theory also posits that both distal and proximal contextual barriers
affect early learning experiences and later choice behavior throughout an
individual’s career (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000). These barriers are construed
as obstacles to the development of positive outcome expectations and are based
on the individual’s perception of the environment. Future research with African
American and other racial minority students should examine how improved academic
outcomes may affect an individual’s outcome expectations and perceptions
of the barriers imposed by racial discrimination (Brown, 1995; Lent, Brown, &
Hackett, 2000; Leong & Brown, 1995).
In sum, this study has provided initial evidence that work-based programs, at
least those with a longer duration, with clear academic goals are related positively to
academic outcomes for African American students. This not only has implications
for the career development of African Americans, but may also encourage more
businesses to participate in school-to-work initiatives. These, and other early work
experiences, are part of students’ anticipatory socialization to work (Greenhaus,
Callanan, & Godshalk, 2000) and, if properly managed, may help reduce turnover
at the entry level. As businesses demand greater skills for their entry-level positions,
not only must programs that demonstrate a clear relationship to student learning
continue to operate and be studied, but additional research testing their longer term
effects should be done as well
