Since the transformation of secondary schooling from an elite institution into one that is open to the full range of American youth, our educational system has struggled with the question of how best to prepare students who are not bound for four-year colleges. My task is to assess the value of academic preparation for success on the job market among those who do not attend college. Of course, there are many reasons that students should engage in academic study at the secondary level, quite apart from any possible payoff in the labor market.
Academic preparation keeps students' options open, in case they decide to attend college later.
Among students who do not attend four-year colleges, moreover, those with more academic training in high school are more likely to enroll in junior and technical colleges. All these are valuable reasons for enrolling in academic courses in high school, but they are beyond the scope of my inquiry. I will return to them briefly only to place the findings of my investigation in a broader context. This paper focuses on whether academic programs and courses contribute to the labor market's success of noncollege youth. For the most part I discuss studies that address the question directly, with evidence on the relation between course work and labor market outcomes.