This serial is in four sections. Part 1--Features: "American Social Policy"; "A Generational Perspective on Young Adults"; "Rising Income Inequality and Poverty"; "A Victim of Policy Neglect? 'Wealth Inequality'"; "Balancing Growth with Economic Equality"; "Economic Inequality: 'A Comparative View'"; Part 2--Commentary: "The Commentaries of a Panel of Experts on Youth Development, Education, Training, and Employment Policies and Programs" (David Brown, Gary Burtless, Susan Curnan, Andrew Hahn, Robert Ivry, Chris King, Gary Walker and Alan Zuckerman); Part 3: Interview--"An Interview with William Julius Wilson". Part 4 is divided into 3 sections--Evaluation Issues and Activities--International Perspectives on Youth Issues-"An Overview of Research on International Youth Issues";"Youth Training";-The Performance Measurement Movement-Performance" Measurement and Continuous Quality Improvement"; "Challenges in Developing Performance Measures and Standards: 'The Case of Educational Skills'"; "Performance Measurement Systems and the' National Performance Review'"; "Testing the Government Performance and Results Act"; "The Experiences of Other Countries with Performance Measurement"; "Performance Auditing and Evaluation Research"; "More Insights about Performance Auditing and Evaluation Research"; "Comments on the Performance Measurement Movement in Australia"; "Comments on the Performance Measurement Movement in the Netherlands"; "Improving Performance Systems in Supporting Program Goals"; "The Potential Effects of Performance Standards Systems" (Ernst W. Stromsdorfer); 'Alternative Evaluation Approaches': "Testing the Use of Program Applicants in Studying the Net Effects of Social Programs" (Ernst W. Stromsdorfer); "Participatory Mixed-Method Evaluation"; and "The European Commission's Effort to More Effectively Structure Evaluation Activities." Concluding the document is a list of 172 useful references on youth-related issues and evaluation of youth programs. (MN)