The School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994 provides flexible funding and technical assistance to the education reform strategy known as the school-to-work movement, which offers a broad range of students work-based learning opportunities. In 1994, just before passage of the STWOA, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation…

The simplicity and "common-sense" quality of school-to-work's (STW) basic concepts are the greatest threats to the full implementation of STW. Implementation requires a fundamental restructuring of secondary education and far greater involvement of employers in the preparation of young people for work. A synthesis of findings from eight…

To promote and evaluate initiatives designed to address concerns over preparing American youths for employment, the U.S. Department of Labor sponsored the School-to Work/Youth Apprenticeship Demonstration, which began in 1990 with grants to six programs. In 1992, grants were extended for 5 of these programs and added for 10 other programs. This…

This document reports Huron Institute's three-year implementation study (1976-80) of Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE), a high school school-and-work program developed by four regional education laboratories. Two major questions addressed by the study are: How effectively has EBCE been implemented? and What explains the differences in the…

For 30 years, the following programming strategies have become the backbone of public policy regarding youth employment: work experience, labor market preparation, job placement, on-the-job training, and occupational training. Three sources were used to analyze the effects of these core employment strategies on youth: a 1985 comprehensive study of…

The chronic scarcity of career jobs and increased demands for mental ability in the workplace have necessitated school-to-work (STW) transition programs that prepare noncollege-bound youths not only for their first full-time job but also for continued learning and career transitions throughout their working lives. Among the main ideas advanced for…

As year 4 of a 7-year initiative to implement the School-to-Work (STW) Opportunities Act begins, 37 states have received implementation grants and 105 direct federally-funded and over 900 state-funded local partnerships exist. In 1997, technical assistance is available to any of the remaining 13 states ready for full-scale implementation. Notable…

These two booklets are products of the Bell South Foundation's teacher internship program, which awarded 2-year grants to 8 school districts to immerse teachers in workplace experiences, enhance their understanding of workplace demands, and thereby improve their teaching. The first booklet focuses on the importance of placing equal emphasis on the…

This document, the third of five volumes that comprise the final report of the National Assessment of Vocational Education focuses on program improvement. Chapter 1 describes the education reform movement and assesses its effects on vocational education. It discusses current reforms that states are undertaking to improve preparation of students…

The internship program at La Guardia Community College (New York) confirms the possibility of achieving the level of employer participation required for the success of an educational reform movement centered on work-based learning. The La Guardia program, which has existed for 25 years and has provided 1,800-2,000 internships annually, shares its…

The impact of career and technical education (CTE) reforms and comprehensive school reforms in high schools on education outcomes for at-risk youth was examined in a review of research on current reforms. The review identified a series of individual, family and home, school, and community factors that can place students at risk of failing to…

A 3-year national assessment of vocational education (VE) examined various issues related to improvement of VE programs, their academic and employment outcomes, participation of special population students in VE, and Perkins funding and administration. The assessment established that most secondary VE is still very traditional and that Perkins…

This document contains 24 papers examining strategies for reforming initial vocational education and training (VET) in Europe. The following papers are included: "Reassessing VET Reform Strategies in a New Context: Implementation of the SPES-NET (Sharpening Post-16 Education Strategies by Horizontal and Vertical Networking) Project"…