Assessing the Premise and the Promise of School to Work

Two central questions arise in assessing the effectiveness of school-to-work programs. The first concerns a major premise of school-to-work - namely that the unstable early labor market experiences of youths in the United States are detrimental to longer-term economic success. The second, more traditional question concerns the promise of school-to-work - that is, whether school-to-work programs are effective in achieving their goals. The research summarized in this paper provides some support for both the premise and the promise of school-to-work. However, the research base for concluding that school-to-work is effective is generally quite weak. The most convincing evidence will likely have to come from well-designed evaluations implemented in conjunction with existing or new school-to-work programs. But new data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth also hold out considerable potential for statistical, non-experimental research on the effectiveness of school-to-work.