Although the disappointing results of earlier ex-offender programs convinced many that "nothing works so let's just keep prisoners incarcerated longer," research in the 1980s and 1990s has shown that intensive pre-release employment training and post-release employment programs and support can cut the rate of recidivism. Current initiatives…

This report describes and evaluates the Raven School, a charter school established in 1998 to serve adjudicated youths ages 16 to 18. The school is administered by the Gulf Coast Trades Center, a private nonprofit organization located in the Sam Houston National Forest in rural Texas. In addition to academics and GED preparation, other program…

The claim that work-based experience improves students' academic performance was examined through a study of the academic progress of 25 high school and community college student interns employed in various health care workplaces. Data were collected from the following activities: (1) review of the literature on academic reinforcement and academic…

This issue reports research that addresses the needs and future of business education, work-based initiatives, business educators' use of the Web, and technology skills for entry-level workers. "Editorial Comment: Scholarship of the 21st Century" (Moore) provides an overview of the issue. "Quality Business Teacher Education:…

This paper discusses a study that investigated whether competencies identified by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) could be used to document job skills of students with mild disabilities. Participants in the study were 17 teachers, job coaches, and parents associated with a high school special education department…

This document explains how community work experience programs (CWEP) and publicly funded jobs (PFJ) can be used to help hard-to-serve welfare recipients meet the work requirements imposed by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The document begins with a brief overview of available options for helping hard-to-serve welfare…

This document profiles learning environments, educational strategies, and learning activities taking place across Arizona within the scope of school-to-work and vocational-technical education. The 33 institutions profiled include public, charter, and private elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as a vocational-technical center. Funding…

A study documented factors associated with the operation of vocational education and training (VET) in small rural schools and their communities. Case studies of 14 schools with high-quality VET practices identified important facilitators of course development: formal commitment to the VET programs within the school's objectives; role of…

The tech prep work-based learning program for child care management occupations at Carlyle (Illinois) High School had nine goals: (1) market the program to students, parents, employers, and the community; (2) increase the number of students enrolled in Tech Prep Youth Apprenticeship (TPYA); (3) increase the number of employers providing work-based…

Designed to satisfy paid and unpaid employment needs, the vocational home economics program in the Dallas (Texas) Indpendent School District provides: the comprehensive homemaking program, home economics cooperative education, coordinated vocational academic education, and vocational education for the handicapped. All these home economics programs…

Several decades of studies evaluating youth employment programs funded through the nation's second-chance system have demonstrated the shortcomings of programs that concentrate on work experience alone and try to reverse years of inadequate education, discrimination, and alienation in a few weeks or months. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act…

This guide is intended as a resource for implementing cooperative education skills standards certificate programs in Wisconsin under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA). Section 1 is an introduction/program overview in which information is provided on the objectives of cooperative education, program design, program eligibility, and…

This paper reviews issues in fostering closer connections between higher education and the workplace and summarizes results of a 1995 survey of 404 New Jersey employers concerning the knowledge, skills, and abilities that New Jersey employers expect from higher education graduates and their suggestions for improving college-based workforce…

This collection of background materials and guides is intended to assist Wisconsin educators involved in providing vocational experience programs for students with disabilities. Following an introductory section, the second section presents information on the following federal laws: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); Individuals with Disabilities…

The 1994-95 school year was the first year of the MECA (Manufacturing, Engineering, Construction, Automotive) partnership implementation in the Saginaw (Michigan) Public Schools. MECA's purpose was to nurture the potential of youth while placing them in workplace environments that had not been a traditional part of applied learning in secondary…