In this chapter, the authors take a broad perspective on how to analyze issues of technology and equity for youth in the United States. They begin with "access" as a starting point, but consider not only whether diverse groups of youth have digital media available to them but also how that access is supported or constrained by…

Is the United States getting it wrong when it comes to educating tomorrow's innovators in critical fields? It has been known for years that the only way to compete globally in information technology, engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and other fields is to give students the best educational opportunities possible. But do individuals have a…

This article argues that California's reexamination of affirmative action policy represents a national trend that could result in fundamental changes in college admissions and employment policy, scholarship programs, and the diversity of college and university student bodies and faculty. The evolution of this situation and points in the debate are…

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students in California comprehensive high schools and Regional Occupational Centers/Programs spend about one million hours a day on vocational education. California students who took a concentrated sequence of high school vocational subjects during 1981 had a 26 percent unemployment rate in the spring of 1982, compared…

Data from the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) were used to assess the prospects of California's welfare population versus those of the U.S. welfare population. Welfare recipients were found to have substantially lower basic skills than other adults do. Although 58% of California adults with basic skills and demographic characteristics…

The outcomes and implementation of career academy programs in California were examined in a study of one school district's efforts to implement a uniform career academy model in 1990-1996. A cohort of approximately 10,000 students who were sophomores in the district's comprehensive high schools between 1990 and 1993 were followed through high…

Despite 6 years of economic growth, California's workforce investment system faces the following challenges: (1) meeting the needs of workers who do not earn enough to bring their families significantly above the poverty level; (2) meeting the needs of employers who face continuing shortages of workers with needed skills; and (3) meeting the needs…