Beyond College For All

Career Paths for the Forgotten Half

James E. Rosenbaum

• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9780871547538
  9780871547279
• eBook ISBN:
  9781610444767
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Business Education

In a society where everyone is supposed to go to college, the problems facing high school graduates who do not continue their education are often forgotten. Many cannot find jobs, and those who do are often stuck in low-wage, dead-end positions. Meanwhile employers complain that high school graduates lack the necessary skills for today's workplace. Beyond College for All focuses on this crisis in the American labor market. Around the world, author James E. Rosenbaum finds, employers view high school graduates as valuable workers. Why not here? Rosenbaum reports on new studies of the interaction between employers and high schools in the United States. He concludes that each fails to communicate its needs to the other, leading to a predictable array of problems for young people in the years after graduation. High schools caught up in the college-for-all myth, provide little job advice or preparation, leading students to make unrealistic plans and hampering both students who do not go to college and those who start college but do not finish. Employers say they care about academic skills, but then do not consider grades when deciding whom to hire. Faced with few incentives to achieve, many students lapse into precisely the kinds of habits employers deplore, doing as little as possible in high school and developing poor attitudes. Rosenbaum contrasts the situation in the United States with that of two other industrialized nations-Japan and Germany-which have formal systems for aiding young people who are looking for employment. Virtually all Japanese high school graduates obtain work, and in Germany, eighteen-year-olds routinely hold responsible jobs. While the American system lacks such formal linkages, Rosenbaum uncovers an encouraging hidden system that helps many high school graduates find work. He shows that some American teachers, particularly vocational teachers, create informal networks with employers to guide students into the labor market. Enterprising employers have figures out how to use these networks to meet their labor needs, while students themselves can take steps to increase their ability to land desirable jobs. Beyond College for All suggests new policies based on such practices. Rosenbaum presents a compelling case that the problems faced by American high school graduates and employers can be solved if young people, employers, and high schools build upon existing informal networks to create formal paths for students to enter the world of work. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Preface
• Chapter 1 - Pathways to Adulthood: Reversing the Downward Spiral of the Youth Labor Market
• Chapter 2 - Market and Network Theories of the High School–to–Work Transition
• Chapter 3 - College for All: Do Students Understand What College Demands?
• Chapter 4 - Gatekeeping in an Era of More Open Gates: High School Counselors’ Views of Their Influence on Students’ College Plans
• Chapter 5 - Do Employers Need More Educated Youth?
• Chapter 6 - Hiring in a Hobbesian World: Social Infrastructure and Employers’ Use of Information
• Chapter 7 - Ships Passing in the Night: The Sociological Foundations of Economic Transactions
• Chapter 8 - Are Noncognitive Behaviors in School Related to Later Life Outcomes?
• Chapter 9 - Pathways into Work: Short- and Long-Term Effects of Personal and Institutional Ties
• Chapter 10 - Hidden Links: Teachers’ Social Construction of Employer Linkages
• Chapter 11 - Theoretical Implications: Using Institutional Linkages to Signal and Enhance Youths’ Capabilities
• Chapter 12 - Policy Implications: Career Paths for the Forgotten Half
• Notes
• References
• Index