Many work-bound youths have poor work habits and poor basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. Many work-bound youths, especially minorities and females, spend their first years after school unemployed or job hopping, with consequent loss of training and productivity. These problems are becoming more serious because minorities and females are becoming an increasing portion of the labor force and the youth labor force is shrinking while demand is projected to increase. Achievement cannot be improved without student incentives and teacher authority. The school-work transition and employers' hiring practices undermine student incentives and teacher authority. Lacking authority, teachers make "bad bargains" with youths. Japan, West Germany, and Boston use alternative models. To improve the situation of noncollege-bound students, (1) employers should hire youths based on grades, test scores, and school recommendations; (2) employers must show youths how basic skills lead to desirable jobs; (3) employers must tell school counselors about job openings and hiring criteria, trust counselors' recommendations, and make hiring selections while youths are still in school; (4) schools must make grades meaningful to employers, especially recruiters and supervisors; (5) schools should rate students for "effort" and for "improved skills"; (6) teachers should write references for work-bound students, as they do for the college bound; (7) schools must make grades and teacher recommendations available to employers and make transcripts easily understood and compared; and (8) schools must restructure the general track to offer preparation for youths' future goals. (80 references) (CML)