McKinney job center attempts to change behavior with new system

by Tessa Howington of of North Dallas Gazette

“You can get so much more done when you operate from a position of respect.” That’s how Lyle Burmeister, the North Texas Job Corp Center Director, describes why respect is such a large focus of Normative Culture at the North Texas Job Corp Center (NTJCC) in McKinney.

Normative Culture is a behavioral medium taught and implemented at the NTJCC since January. Overall, this behavior system uses “positive peer pressure” from other students and staff to help teach students how they are expected to act, what is and is not acceptable on campus, or in the work force. Since its inception, Mr. Burmeister says that “the tone of campus has changed in a year.”

Peter Calvo, the VP of Operations for Horizons Youth Services, the organization that oversees the operation of the NTJCC for the Department of Labor, says that the program has “been pretty interesting to watch.” He also says that the program not only educates students, but “empowers” the students.

The Normative Culture program is actually a pilot program for the NTJCC. If it succeeds it will be implemented or modified so it can be used in all Job Corp Centers in the U.S. The program itself is an adapted version of the system that has actually been perfected in Glen Mills School in PA, a type of court appointed reform school, where the program is very successful.

The Normative Culture system itself is based on a belief that there are certain “norms” that are constant and benefit everyone. The 4 “norms” that are used at the NTJCC are respect, responsibility, safety, and achievement of goals. As Calvo says, these “4 goals are good because they are the best basis for any missions statement” whether that’s a personal mission statement or one for a business.

The idea behind the program is that if students behave in a way that respects their selves and others, takes responsibility for their actions, and behave in a safe manner, or make their learning and work environment safe, that they will easier define and achieve their goals. Additionally, following these norms will make the campus a better place and be more beneficial to everyone involved with the campus.

Along with the 4 norms, the Normative Culture program also focuses on 8 behavior expectations, which they call “Career Success Standards.” These 8 expectations are also skills that students should learn to better succeed in life or in the work place. These standards are: Workplace Relationships and Ethics, Personal Growth and Development, Communication, Interpersonal Skills, Multicultural Awareness, Information Management, Career and Personal Planning, Independent, Living, Continuous Learning, and Problem Solving and Critical Thinking.

For a student to meet these expectations, they must be willing to accept and practice the original 4 norms of respect, responsibility, safety, and goals. Adhering to these goals means that students will have to change their lives, not just their everyday behavior. Mr. Calvo says that with the implementation of this program, it’s “no longer staff vs. students. They all have a common goal of safety and conduct.”

The program works by teaching and adapting to a behavior where people confront everything and associate themselves with their surroundings. The confrontations are pointed out in a positive way and including the person who should be corrected. For example, instead of rules, where you would discipline a student by saying “do this” or “do that” in an authoritative dictating tone, both students and staff now confront issues by saying things like, “Around here, we like to do this, instead of that” in a positive tone. These small confrontations allow students to build self esteem, and teach students how to not be defensive when confronted with any type of issue.

For some, the communications skills learned alone are invaluable as some students have never had actual conversations with an adult before. Students learn how to positively and respectfully deal with their peers and how to communicate with other people, and eventually effectively communicate with their future employers.

The Normative Culture is also taught using peer to peer groups, teams of staff and students, and daily individual or small group sessions. Students are not graded, but are aware of their progress as they are grouped, again, by their peers and other staff members, as either “positive, neutral, or negative.” Depending on which grouping a student’s attitude falls in will depend on how much other peers and staff work with that person to bring their attitude up to a positive level. Ideally, every student will achieve this positive level of behavior thus creating an excellent work and learning environment.

So does the Normative Culture work?

According to Burmeister, change could be seen on campus in the first week it was implemented. The goal of the first group of staff was to have a more quite and calm dinning hall. Within a week of about 40 staff members using the Normative Culture program with their students a “noticeable” change was made.

Now, since most of the campus has adopted the program, changes can be seen in students’ attitudes with one another and with staff, in the dorms, and in the campus facilities. Now, instead of walking through campus and being met with “cold, hard, stares” you are greeted with smiles and verbal “Hi”s and “Hello”s.

The NTJCC also has a “Longhorn Club” made up of all positive students and student leaders. Currently, there are about 600 students at the NTJCC and about 100 of them are in the Longhorn Club. The students who are not part of this club are being influenced by positive peer pressure and are working hard to become members. As Mr. Burmeister says, “They want to be the best.”

Since the inception of the program, there have also been some statistical improvements at the NTJCC. Completion rates are up, drop out rates are down; job placement and vocation training has also seen a rise. Overall, the center has gone from a rank of 107 to the lower 90’s, almost 80s in just over 8 months.

Coval says that he has even seen improvements in staff moral and that the “overall outcomes are significant.” At the time Horizons Youth Services took over operation of the Job Corp Center, 2 years ago, it was consistently designated by the Department of Labor as “a historically poor performance center.” Now, the Department of Labor is looking at the NTJCC’s progress and noting its methods to hopefully implement some of the success into other centers.

Ideally, Calov would like to see the NTJCC be ranked in the top 50, while Burmeister thinks that they could easily reach the top 30 in the nation.

The goal of the Job Corp program has always been to produce productive citizens and well educated members of the workforce. Calvo says their mission is to produce “skilled students and turn them into good employees and make an economic impact.”

Unfortunately, in the past, their have been some negatives in the NTJCC’s program and has not been well received by the community. Hopefully, with the implementation of the Normative Culture and the successes they are having that will soon change.

Horizon’s Youth Services, as well as the Center’s Director, are both working very hard to change the community outlook and trying to get the word out about the improved performance and programs at the center. Calvo describes the Job Corp program as “America’s Best Kept Secret.”

However, if the improvements continue, the North Texas Job Corp Center will be one of the best Job Corp Centers in the nation. And that will be something to talk about.