The Quiet Reform in American Education: Policy Issues and Conceptual Challenges in the School-to-Work Transition

A quiet reform has gone almost unnoticed in the many policy debates about improving America's schools. Labeled “The School-to-Work Revolution” by Lynn Olson and others, this little-noticed movement offers, at last, a solution to the constraining historical dualism between academic and vocational training. There is a new enthusiasm for and focus on the preparation-for employment side of American secondary education. However, although reinvigorated, the school-to-work revolution remains heavily threatened by our nation's reputation for low-quality vocational education and by some long-unresolved tensions with regard to social mobility and political control. This article discusses the need for additional theorizing about and policy-minded attention to the revolution and observes that valuable opportunities for improvement in job preparation are at hand in an increased national interest in economic development.