A study was designed to test the effectiveness of 21 public and 29 proprietary schools in four large metropolitan areas by following 2270 graduates from six large and fast-growing occupational programs into the labor market and assessing their success. Average proprietary instructional costs were 35 percent less than public costs: they concentrated on specific, short, intensive job training and tended to work their teachers more and to pay them less. Proprietary schools recruited and seemed to hold the less-advantaged student better. Other findings include: (1) Only 2 of 10 graduates of either kind of school who chose professional or technical-level training ever got those jobs; (2) Almost 8 of 10 graduates of either kind of school who chose lower-level clerical or service worker programs got those jobs, but most earned less than the federal minimum wage; (3) Public and proprietary school graduates had about the same occupational success, after controlling for differences in their backgrounds; (4) Female graduates always earned less than male graduates and ethnic minorities generally earned less than Whites in the same jobs; (5) Apparently because they paid twenty times more for their courses, proprietary school graduates were generally less satisfied than their public counterparts. Recommendations for improvement are made. (Author/DC)