Nearly every high-priority item in national, federal, state, and local discussions about education--and policy proposals across the political spectrum--requires high-quality longitudinal data to inform its design, implementation, and evaluation. This factsheet shares Data Quality Campaign's (DQC's) analysis of what "Data for Action 2011:…

To address key policy and programmatic questions and help improve student and system performance, states must work to link data across the early childhood, postsecondary and workforce (P-20/workforce) spectrum and share this information with appropriate stakeholders. This issue brief highlights current efforts in California, Florida, Indiana, and…

Palm Beach Community College realigned its curriculum to allow students to seamlessly process through career pathways. Students can start in clock-hour-based instruction and transfer that learning into credit-based associate in science degrees. Along this pathway, students can use exit points to employment with recognized certificates.

This booklet provides an overview of the youth apprenticeship program in Florida. The 12 sections cover the following topics: (1) "why" youth apprenticeship; (2) goals and objectives of youth apprenticeship in Florida; (3) characteristics of youth apprenticeship; (4) how youth apprenticeship differs from other work-based learning…

A core component of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, work-based learning refers to programs that provide students with exposure to or actual experiences in workplaces. Typical work-based learning programs include youth apprenticeship, internship, job shadowing, cooperative education, and mentoring. This document contains reprints of seven…

This booklet describes programs designed to offer a comprehensive system to improve Florida's work force. Through these programs, students and workers in Florida are prepared to enter the labor force, attend technical training programs, enroll in other postsecondary programs, or upgrade their skills on the job. The following are discussed: the…

This report presents a concise and useful overview of the issue of business/education partnerships to develop and implement workplace literacy programs. The first chapter focuses on the challenges of developing a literate work force for Florida. It considers the changing workplace and work force, Florida trends in illiteracy, the impact of…

A study aimed to provide education and welfare officials with information on the experiences of welfare/education programs as they had been implemented in five states. The states (California, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) represented a range of noteworthy approaches to providing education to welfare recipients, including some dramatic…

To arrive at the key components of a comprehensive school-to-work transition strategy, researchers for the study reported here reviewed the literature in the field of school-to-work transition and also consulted with numerous experts in the field. To determine how many states have adopted the components of comprehensive strategies, the researchers…

A study assessed the characteristics and practices of employers participating in Florida school-to-work (STW) initiatives, the factors influencing their participation, and the quality and value of their partnerships with schools. Data were gathered through a statewide mail survey of a random sample of employers drawn from more than 15,000 Florida…

A study examined employers' views regarding factors facilitating and obstructing the success of school-to-work transition programs (SWT) programs and ways of facilitating public and private sector participation in SWT programs for Florida's noncollege-bound youth. A literature review and multiple case studies of established youth apprenticeship…

This manual is designed for persons who are responsible for implementing career-mentoring programs, especially for middle and junior high school girls, emphasizing nontraditional, high-wage occupations. Such a program is recommended by the School-to-Work Opportunities Act as a connecting activity. The manual is organized in two sections plus…

This manual has been developed to assist mentors in working with mentees in a career mentoring program. The manual is divided into four sections. The first section provides information on how to be an effective career mentor. It suggests strategies to make the time mentors spend with mentees meaningful. The second section provides information on…

Early state and local progress toward implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) was reviewed. Data were collected through visits to selected sites in Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Vermont and a 90-item Workforce System Information and Evaluation (WSIE) data collection form. The following aspects of WIA…