THE IMPACT OF STUDENT EMPLOYMENT ON TEACHERS ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS TOWARD WORKING STUDENTS

Part-time and full-time work is increasingly common among many America n high school students. There is a substantial body of research on the relationship of youth work with individual academic and socioeconomic outcomes, but we know little about how schools and teachers themselve s have responded to the shift among their students toward intensified work involvement Our research analyzes teachers' views of working stud ents and the impact of student work upon classroom organization and pe rformance. We find considerable concern on the part of teachers reward student employment but little evidence that they adjust their classro om behavior to accommodate working students. Years of teaching experie nce and experience as a parent of a working teenager have contradictor y effects of teachers' perceptions of working students. We discuss the implications of these findings for the classroom performance of teach ers and the social organization of schools.