The School-To-Work Revolution: How Employers and Educators Are Joining Forces to Prepare Tomorrow's Skilled Workforce

""This book,"" says Olson, senior editor at Education Week, ""focuses on efforts to create a much more substantive connection between education and work so that young people can be better prepared for the rapidly changing world that awaits them."" From the productive but elementary strategy of ""shadowing"" in which a student observes an individual at the workplace, Olson quickly explores more complex arrangements. Often beginning in the last two years of high school, students may spend intensive learning time in a workplace, becoming adept at a cluster of demonstrable skills, before progressing to a specific apprenticeship. Unlike more rigidly routed European equivalents, American apprentices usually complete four years of high school, and in some career designs, the young worker may then continue advanced training and study. The benefits to businesses are obvious--workers who are tailored to their industry at a relatively low cost. Olson emphasizes descriptions of the work aspects of the programs rather than on the in-school activities, and she unfortunately relies on some tired canards about the inadequacy of public schools: e.g. ""too many teachers and students are engaged in a `conspiracy of the least' that demands little of anyone,"" or the outmoded characterization of school where students sit at their desks ""and memorize facts free from any immediate context or use."" But Olson's book is a valuable overview of the many variations of school-to-work projects, making it an important resource to educators, business people and policy makers. (Sept.)