Federal funds for youth employment programs have increased for two decades, yet program effectiveness could improve if greater coordination between job training agencies and educational institutions were achieved. Initial coordination efforts gave educational agencies a major role in governing and operating the vocational education services needed by local manpower programs. With the enactment of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), state and local manpower agencies were given freedom to develop and operate educational programs. Educators criticized these arrangements, and Congress amended CETA to give them a greater role. Some evidence, such as increased communication and cooperation, suggests that administrative relationships between educational institutions and manpower agencies have improved. Most educational institutions, however, continue to treat manpower programs as low priorities. Few have matched CETA dollars with their own resources or developed mechanisms for awarding credit for work experience. Most manpower agencies have made little effort to develop training programs with a strong basic educational component. Causes of weak linkages include recency of CETA coordination mandates, defects in the mandates, and characteristics of manpower agencies and schools which probably cannot be changed by coordination alone. (A table of findings of exemplary CETA-local education agency service agreements is appended.) (YLB)