This qualitative study compiled input from employers (N = 7) participating in a program geared to prepare high school students with emotional disturbances for post-high-school employment situations. Data were collected through open-ended interviews related to 4 research questions and analyzed through thematic and comparative analysis. Results…

The ethnography reported here reports on the findings of a practitioner ethnography conducted in a feminised and casualised workforce over four years (1997-2001) in a New Zealand polytechnic. It examines the competing allegiances of teachers and students in a combined community and workplace English oriented programme, in contexts where…

The struggle to reach the Millennium Generation, known as the Millennials, is evident in the concentration of professional development courses focusing on methods of educating these high-tech students, many of whom have short attention spans and very little interest in their teachers' "antiquated" teaching practices. The ultimate goal of these…

In a competitive workforce it is not just having the right qualification or technical skills that will land an individual a job; it could very well be their interpersonal skills. How someone communicates is often the first impression an employer has of a possible worker. Yet, it is precisely communication skills that employers feel applicants are…

The United States has been underproducing college-going workers since 1980. Supply has failed to keep pace with growing demand, and as a result, income inequality has grown precipitously. From 1915 to 1980, supply grew in tandem with demand. But, starting in 1990, the share of college-educated young people in the workforce rose very slowly. If the…

This qualitative study identified key factors associated with exemplar service-learning programs at six community colleges across the United States. The purpose of this case study was to determine why these programs have sustained over time and to better understand how administrators and faculty meet shifting demands for service-learning. The…

In recent work, the author has estimated the rate of return for several workforce development programs in the State of Washington, including secondary and postsecondary career and technical education (CTE; Hollenbeck, 2008). The returns are based on estimates of the net impact of CTE on individuals' labor market experiences and government income…

For many years, the General Educational Development (GED) credential has been viewed as the high school dropout's safety net. Though not as well regarded as the high school diploma, the GED has opened up educational and economic opportunity for millions of young people and adults who did not finish high school. Nearly 680,000 people take the full…

Students of color in low-income schools are 3 to 10 times more likely to have unqualified teachers than students in predominantly White schools. These disparities in teacher distribution matter greatly: Research consistently shows that teacher quality is one of the most important variables for student success and that teachers with stronger…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Engineering Solutions to the National Crisis in Literacy": Alliance Brief Calls for Alignment Between…

Despite the fact that many students with disabilities graduate from postsecondary institutions, most of the research focuses on their academic experiences while completing their degrees, rather than on their transition to employment. To gain a greater understanding of students' transition experiences we included three groups in our study: current…

In too many schools, science and mathematics are taught separately with little or no attention to technology and engineering. Also, science and mathematics tend to function in isolation from other core subjects. In California, Linked Learning: Pathways to College and Career Success connects core academics to challenging professional and technical…

University graduates in the Middle East and the United States of America are disillusioned with their higher education degrees. Youth expect to be well employed upon graduation and to improve their social status. Employment has been guaranteed from the earliest university certificates granted in Middle Eastern yeshivas, Houses of Learning, and…

Since the wide-scale adoption of the ACRL "Information Literacy Standards" (2000), there have been numerous students who have graduated from universities that have formal library instruction programs. Currently there has been very little assessment of their post-graduate research skills or what role information literacy plays on workplace…

Towards the end of their secondary education, students face significant pressures in their decision about their career plan. These pressures are internal and external, personal and social, individual and from the reference group. This paper aims at understanding the reasons driving engineering students' choices, their perceived needs and…