There is a growing body of research that suggests the first year of high school is a critical transition point for students. It also finds course-taking and successful completion of those courses in 9th grade to be valuable predictors of students' success in high school. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states an opportunity to…

California's alternative education options for youth vulnerable to dropping out of school have been established at different historical points and for different student age and target populations. For purposes of this brief, "alternative school" is defined as belonging to one of six legislatively authorized types of public (non-charter)…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

This kit provides guidelines and materials to support a total statewide system for disseminating Promising Practices (PPs) through the Regional Coordinator network. As a resource, its intent is to provide ideas and processes for activities that support and enrich the program of work of the regional coordinator. Section 1 lists PPs currently in…

The purpose of the Promising Practices Diffusion Project, 1979-80, was to further develop, implement, and improve a statewide system for disseminating Promising Practices in vocational and career education. (Promising Practices are those exemplary projects which have met established criteria of quality.) During the first stage, a project base was…

The focus of a summative evaluation of the Promising Practices Diffusion Project was on soliciting descriptions and views of several different groups about project operation and merit and comparing the "ideal" model against what had taken place so far. Preliminary activities involved review of the project-developed Implementation Kit for…

This report of a survey of eight states which implemented the School to Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) provides information on provisions in the state plans, the extent to which special educators participate in planning and implementation efforts, and how the needs of students with disabilities have been addressed. An overview is provided of the…

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…

This paper is one in a series of research papers related to the state role in youth employment and training. It describes seven state-sponsored youth employment and training programs, representing a varied range of approaches that states have undertaken to address their youth employment problems. The first section of this paper provides capsule…

Designed for practitioners, this book provides ideas and strategies for designing, developing, and implementing the Youth Transition Program (YTP) for students with disabilities and special needs in Oregon. Chapter 1 describes the following: background and need for collaborative school-to-work (STW) programs; STW program purposes and components,…

This project was conducted to enable vocational teacher trainees and vocational practitioners and support personnel (e.g., special education teachers, developmental education specialists, counselors) to meet the special vocational needs of disadvantaged and handicapped learners in Oregon schools and colleges. To accomplish this objective, the…