This report documents the impacts three years after random assignment for the Pathways to Healthcare program, operated by Pima Community College and Pima County One Stop in Tucson, Arizona. The program aimed to help low-income, low-skilled adults access and complete occupational training that could lead to increased employment and higher earnings.…

As the need for educated workers in the workforce grows at the national and state level, educating low-skilled adults is one way of addressing the skills gap. Adult education programs offer low-skilled adults an opportunity to increase basic academic skills and prepare for college and career. Today, transitioning students from adult education…

Until the late 1990s, "vocational education" in traditional trades such as carpentry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics was often the presumptive high school placement for low-performing students considered ill-suited for college. However, in the past two decades, policymakers and educators have reconsidered what is now referred to as…

In an American economy where the advancement of technology and globalization means that a high school diploma alone is no longer able to provide family-sustaining earnings to many, certificates represent one piece of a multi-pronged solution on the road to a workforce with 60 percent postsecondary attainment. Though certificates currently aren't…

I analyze the longer-run effects of a college-preparatory program implemented in inner-city schools that included payments to eleventh- and twelfth- grade students and their teachers for passing scores on Advanced Placement exams. Affected students attended college in greater numbers, were more likely to remain in college beyond their first year,…

Early work experiences have been advocated as an important avenue for equipping youth with disabilities with the skills, attitudes, opportunities, and aspirations needed to transition successfully to meaningful careers after high school. We examined the efficacy and social validity of a multicomponent intervention package--composed of…

This paper explores the outcomes associated with participation in the Transportation Career Academy Program (TCAP), a school-to-career (STC) program in Los Angeles, California. To determine the extent to which participation in TCAP enhances students' engagement with school while avoiding potential negative effects, this study examines four…

This book examines the capacity of the career academy--one of the initiatives spawned by the school-to-work movement--to address academic reform in terms of increased education and workplace skills. Qualitative data collected as part of a 7-year local evaluation of career academies and a data set that contains transcript data on a population of…

During the 1987-88 school year, 12 academy programs were operating in California under state sponsorship, including the two original Peninsula Academies in operation since 1981, and 10 replications of these, called Partnership Academies. The academies are designed to reduce the number of dropouts among at-risk high school youth. They combine a…

A study assessed the first two years of a three-year initiative to test the potential of extending sectoral employment strategies among 10 organizations, most of which were new to the sectoral employment field. Five organizations increasing low-income workers' access to good jobs were ARCH; PhAME; Training, Inc.; WIRE-Net; and Project QUEST. Five…

A longitudinal study examined the college and career transitions of graduates of the Lansing Area Manufacturing Partnership (LAMP) program, which is a school-to-career (STC) program sponsored by the United Auto Workers, General Motors Corporation, and Michigan's Ingham County Intermediate School District. The progress of three cohorts of LAMP…