A study used new data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to compare students in combined academic and vocational programs with high school students in other curricular categories in 1997 and to compare the 1997 patterns with those of earlier surveys. Previous studies have found that the proportion of high school students…

A new longitudinal study reveals that the negative association between hours worked and grade point average is weaker for high schoolers in cooperative education (co-op) than in "outside" jobs. High school co-op leads to higher wages soon after graduation. However, students who curtail their education to pursue full-time employment could…

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students in California comprehensive high schools and Regional Occupational Centers/Programs spend about one million hours a day on vocational education. California students who took a concentrated sequence of high school vocational subjects during 1981 had a 26 percent unemployment rate in the spring of 1982, compared…

After more than three decades of development and two decades of evaluation, career academies have been found to be effective in improving the performance of students in high school, particularly for students at greatest risk. Career academies have become the most durable and best-tested component of a high school reform strategy that includes…

This report, which is directed toward policymakers, educators, employers, researchers, and others interested in the school-to-work (STW) movement, synthesizes literature on the development and effectiveness of STW programs since 1993. Part I provides an overview of the STW movement and examines the effectiveness of STW efforts in terms of…