High-quality career and technical education (CTE) and work-based learning opportunities can support students along a pathway to credential attainment, employment and upward economic mobility through intentional skill development and experiential learning. CTE concentration in high school can increase graduation rates while helping students build…

This study sought to understand how aspiring administrators and supervising mentors contribute to the intern's opportunity to lead authentic administrative tasks during the administrative internship. Using case study methodology, we gathered data from six intern/mentor pairs through in-depth interviews, observations, journals, and logs. Several…

Work-experience programs, which are commonplace in most Canadian high schools, are designed to enhance learning for students while providing them with the opportunity to explore their career options. Current research on the effectiveness of such programs suggests that they have a number of important benefits, from improved self-esteem to increased…

The Training Opportunities Program (TOP), a work experience and training program for New York City high school students, is designed to place students, as trainees, in agencies and businesses with equipment, facilities, and human resources not available in the public schools. In 1983-84, the third year of the program's operation, TOP was funded to…

Assesses the effectiveness of youth work experience programs currently being carried out in the United States. Emphasizes the importance of Dewey's principles of continuity and interaction in assuring that such programs provide youth with meaningful and lasting skills and knowledge. (GC)

Summarizes recent studies on Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) and discusses their implications for program developers and EBCE personnel. Stresses the positive results of EBCE and outlines the success of this approach for special populations (gifted, migrant, and disadvantaged youth). (Author/GC)

A study of high school work experience programs was designed to explore the work environment in regard to employer policies, practices, processes and program ingredients to gauge their impact on high school student workers during the school-to-work transition. Two work experience programs were analyzed (North Terrytown, New York, and in Newark,…

The Training Opportunities Program (TOP) is an occupational project for New York City high school students. TOP trainees are placed in businesses and agencies with facilities, equipment, and human resources not available in the public schools. In 1983-84, the third year of the program's operation, TOP was funded to serve 2,000 students. An…

A career exploration program provided a group of twenty-five academically and/or socioeconomically handicapped New Haven, Connecticut, high school students with career guidance, classroom instruction, and exploratory work experience in area businesses and agencies. In their junior year participants were placed in an eight-week careers course…

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…

The effectiveness of work-based learning (WBL) was examined in an exploratory study of WBL in three different programs in Los Angeles: a transportation career academy (TCAP), medical magnet high school (MMHS), and school-based enterprise (SBE). Data were collected from the following sources: surveys examining students' WBL experience; interviews…

Although student enrollments in cooperative education constitute only about 8 percent of all high school students, about half of all high schools provide such opportunities. In practically all co-op programs, the employer ensures supervision, on-the-job learning, and evaluations that will influence students' grades; coordinators have released time…

The effect of four Occupational Work Adjustment (OWA) programs on risk factors leading to students dropping out of high school was assessed. Data were gathered from four OWA teachers in high schools in Northwest Ohio; information was provided for 27 individual students and 2 groups of 28 students each for the 1992-93 school year. The following…

The New Horizons Program of the Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools provides supportive services such as counseling, attendance monitoring, career-related instruction, work experience, and coordination with community agencies to dropout-prone students and their families to improve academic achievement and increase the graduation rate. Work…