Florida's College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) required schools to administer a community college placement test to 11th-grade students and enroll students who did not pass in a college readiness course. Christine Mokher, James Rosenbaum, Alexis Gable, Caitlin Ahearn, and Louis Jacobson surveyed teachers of the course and found that,…

States and districts across the country have experimented with various college and career readiness initiatives designed to help students complete the postsecondary education they need to succeed in the labor market. Yet how do teachers view their students' likely college capabilities following these efforts? Can the reforms help work-bound…

Research often focuses on how students fail to meet college expectations, but it rarely asks how colleges fail to meet students' expectations. This study examines students' expectations of college and their institutional confidence--their level of certainty that college will meet their expectations. Drawing on 65 pilot interviews and a survey of…

This study explored whether community college websites are a useful medium for providing knowledge relevant to degree completion. Ten community students used one of three community college websites to answer 10 questions about occupational degree programs. A facilitator asked participants to think aloud while using the website to answer these…

High schools have responded to the poor labor market primarily by encouraging college-for-all policies, leading the majority of seniors to plan to get college degrees, even those who perform poorly. School policies focus too narrowly on academic achievement, overlooking soft skills like motivation, dependability, attention to quality, and social…

Research indicates that the "college for all" policies encouraged by well-intentioned but misguided educators are preventing many students from getting crucial information about how they are doing, seeing the full range of their desirable options, assessing the appropriateness and likely outcomes of available options, and identifying actions that…

This book discusses problems facing U.S. high school graduates who do not continue their education, noting that many cannot find jobs, and those who do are often stuck in low-wage, dead-end positions. At the same time, employers complain that high school graduates lack the necessary skills for today's workplace. The book looks at new studies of…

Identifies the three elements of the school-to-work transition as schools, employers, and the relationship between them. Suggests that this transition could be improved if schools make academic instruction vocationally relevant, employers base hiring on applicants' achievement in school, and school-employer linkages are created and designed…

Compares employers' stated needs for entry-level workers possessing better academic skills with their training programs and hiring practices to supposedly meet this need. Discovers a dichotomy between the stated needs and the corrective practice. Most remedial training emphasizes short-term job skills and hiring practices do not reward academic…

Investigated the career and college advice given to students unlikely to seek four-year college degrees by high school counselors and vocational teachers. Interview data indicated that most counselors encouraged all students to attend college, while vocational teachers fit into four broad categories in terms of advice and opinions about college…