Data from recently published analyses of past youth training efforts, together with demonstration programs for dropouts just getting underway, provide some clear indications of directions that must be taken to effectively treat the needs of seriously-at-risk youth. Furthermore, data on trends in youth unemployment among dropouts show that long-range employment training investments will be less costly to the nation in terms of tax revenues, economic productivity, and welfare and criminal justice costs than allowing the problem to continue to worsen. But early reports on the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), including an in-depth look at Portland, Maine, suggest that effective, targeted training is not being provided to this group, despite Congress' intent to do so. Unless local private industry councils and government officials make greater use of what we now know about what works and does not work for training at-risk youth, JTPA will continue to fall far short of its service and performance goals for dropouts, and for youth in general. (Author/GC)