Using data from three longitudinal surveys of American high school students, I show that vocational courses helped non-college-bound-students to start their work life more successfully, in terms of steadier employment, higher wages and higher earnings. A comparison of the returns to academic and...

Our review of the evidence suggests that the claims of the advocates of standards and examination based reform of American secondary education may be right. The countries and Canadian provinces with such systems outperform other countries at comparable levels of development. In addition, New...