This serial issue focusing on the theme of "School-to-Work." The two articles it contains describe promising practices that benefit individual students who participate. The first article, "Connecting the Dots: Linking School and Work to Accelerate Student Results," examines how schools and businesses are linking up, leading to benefits for students and employers. It reports evidence that forging closer links between schools and the workplace spurs student academic performance and motivation and that employers benefit because school-to-work participation better prepares students to succeed in college and in the workplace and helping employers better match applicants' skills with workplace needs. It presents these findings: business participation in school-to-work partnerships varies by business size and industry and the number of employers providing more informal work-based learning experiences jumped significantly. The second article, "Education Helps Young Workers Get Ahead," examines the diversity in the "youth" labor market in terms of education, skills, and labor market attachment. It reports that young workers can increase their chances of success in the working world by acquiring a college education; labor market churn may benefit young workers for a limited amount of time; real hourly earnings have increased more rapidly for younger workers than for other segments of the job market; and the transition from school to work is still a troublesome process for young people. (YLB)