On-the-job training is responsible for more increases in productivity than technological change or formal education; yet employer investment in training remains small. Although three-fourths of all jobs will not require a college degree, schools continue to focus on preparing students for college. (SK)

The crisis in preparing people for work stems from many factors: generalization versus specialization, student employment with little guidance or relevance to future work, changing skill requirements, and labor shortages in specific occupations. The focus of reform should be a greater match between skills training and employment opportunities. (SK)

Employers often use education and other ability measures as indicators of unmeasured ability dimensions. This paper presents tests of signaling, relying on differences in earnings functions for salaried individuals in screened occupations versus self-employed individuals in unscreened positions. Vocational associate degrees and high school grades…

Presents a comprehensive statement of the personal and social values that characterize work, along with a proposal that schools should encourage students to appreciate the many ways their work will benefit from, yet depend on, its connection with a shared human community. Briefly suggests how to implement the reorientation. (JB)

Although Alfie Kohn is a first-rate thinker, his article in the same "Educational Leadership" issue confuses adopting Total Quality Management methods with intelligently adapting them. Kohn wrestles too hard with the "worker/student" metaphor and wrongly disparages Deming's emphasis on data and performance. Schools can definitely benefit from…

This article presents a comprehensive model for assessment of secondary students with disabilities. The model is intended to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires identifying transition needs of students in their individualized education programs. The model assists in structuring an outcome-oriented transition…

Traditional administrator training programs are irrelevant to and grossly inadequate for the work responsibilities found in the school principalship. Preparation programs for the rural principalship should include a partnership between university and school district, an exacting selection process, internship field experience, and individualized…

The Educational Testing Service is piloting WORKLINK, an information system linking education and business. Half of America's high school graduates go directly into the work force with little transitional assistance. WORKLINK combines facts about individual students with skills assessment. Schools and businesses share information on work-bound…

Asserts that sociology is losing ground to other disciplines and programs that are engaged more actively in the workplace. Proposes that, because of the vast changes in the workplace, there is a more active and more applied role for sociology that may help to provide greater opportunities for students and faculty. (DB)

Critical elements and best practices in school-to-work transition programs for disabled youth are identified. Noted are local factors, individual student choice, shared resources, vocational rehabilitation counselors in the schools, and school-business linkages. Best practices include individualized transition planning, community-based…

Describes DeVry Institute of Technology, educational institution whose mission is to help students prepare for careers in high-technology industries, and its attempts to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Discusses multifaceted, ever-evolving, curriculum development process which relies on decentralized approach and continual involvement…

Although the traditionalists prefer a mandated curriculum and rigid top-down regulations, the outcome-based proponents are vague about the means for students to achieve compulsory end results. Neither approach is appropriate, since each is based on a coercive model. One Christian academy balances a traditionalist approach in the affective domain…

Among 320 young adults in matched German and English labor markets, long-term occupational goals and the behaviors used to achieve them depended not only on past socialization in family and school but also on identity formation related to experiences during transition to employment. Five career patterns are described and linked to transitional…

Assesses students' post-college earnings as a specific outcome of a community college education. Describes the economic benefits of a community college education, outlines methodologies used to evaluate students, and discusses policy implications of accountability and performance measures. Contains 31 citations. (VWC)

At the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, Rhode Island, a committee of educators and community members developed a new program and house plan that reinforces building relationships, doing group and individual projects, having individual space, and connecting to the world. Learning Through Internships activities are…