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This paper describes the implementation of an innovative integrated approach to the delivery of services for disadvantaged youth in Massachusetts, and examines the fiscal, political, and organizational factors that led to its subsequent demise. Massachusetts was one of the first states to envision and implement a statewide system of coordinated services for disadvantaged youth funded under the Federal Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 (JTPA). A state Youth Coordinating Council (YCC) was formed in 1983 to create ongoing collaboration among youth-serving groups, to eliminate needless service duplication, and to bridge gaps in programs available to troubled youth. Despite problems, the YCC succeeded in encouraging interagency coordination during the mid- to late-1980s in the areas of vocational education, job training, adult literacy, early parenthood, and substance abuse. Efforts peaked with the creation of Commonwealth Futures, a dropout prevention initiative. Economic recession and the departure of key state personnel began to severely weaken the coordination effort in 1988. Public education, the core of the youth-serving system, was ravaged by budget cuts begun in 1989. Support for Commonwealth Futures was withdrawn at the local level and most of the collaborative activity came to a halt. In 1991, the bulk of funding was shifted away from integrated-services dropout prevention programs. Organizational and funding recommendations for protecting such initiatives in the future are made. A list of 13 references is appended. (FMW)

This essay attempts to forge links needed between literacy and economic activity by demonstrating analytical methods for relating the production and consumption of goods and services in an economy to the requirements for literacy among its workers. First, work force literacy is described within an economic framework. Second, economy-literacy links are demonstrated with data from a hypothetical economy, dubbed Tinkerland because its economic features are "tinkered with" during the demonstration. The links among production, consumption, employment, and literacy are shown in the economy during the "previous" period. Then the status quo of the economy is altered to show the sensitivity of literacy requirements to changes in production and consumption. Third, directions for research are established to help unravel the complex ties between the employment needs of an economy with the literacy of its workers. A technical appendix describes methods used to calculate the linkages and changes described in the section on the hypothetical economy, Tinkerland. A list of 61 references is provided. (YLB)

This paper discusses the significant political advances for disadvantaged children that have been dependent upon trends and upheavals in the economy and major social or political movements. Evidence is provided which indicates that large scale U.S. government programs are rarely based on a public concern for children, but rather on a more instrumental goal such as developing skilled workers to maintain and increase the productivity and international competitiveness of the American economy. This paper focuses on federal policy throughout the last 30 years in relation to funding for disadvantaged children. The trends are tracked through changing administrations and economics. The following sections are included: (1) "The Politics of Growth: The 1960's War on Poverty"; (2) "The Incremental Gains of the 1970's"; (3) "The 1980's and Programs for the Disadvantaged"; and (4) "Looking to the Future." Evidence indicates that programs for the disadvantaged are not sufficient to overcome the problems that these children face. Recommendations are made for program revisions and unification of efforts in the fight to turn heightened political concern about the disadvantaged into political action. Three tables, one figure, and 16 references are included. (JS)

This paper discusses the economic development challenge to vocational education. It begins with an overview of the dynamic processes of technological change and industrial development and their implications for jobs and training. Several issues are then raised regarding planning, implementation, and evaluation of vocational education programs as they seek to facilitate state and local economic development. Four specific topics are addressed that highlight the importance of making critical distinctions between short-term and long-term economic development: (1) future skill surpluses, (2) customized training, (3) jobs in branch plants versus indigenous new firms, and (4) serving new skills at the expense of the old. Thereafter, the paper poses important research questions that should be addressed in the national assessment of vocational education. The 10 issues are categorized by three major areas: the responsiveness of vocational education to changing labor market needs, balancing short-term and longer-term development objectives, and vocational education and the education and training network. The final section comments on a case study research approach to generate answers to these questions. A six-page reference list concludes the document. (YLB)

Recent research on the impact of economics on mental and physical health has raised fundamental questions about structural elements in the macro-economy and their role in creating stress. This paper reviews and integrates these sometimes conflicting findings into a cohesive model. Structural elements of our current economic system are identified as possible major stressors: (1) instability in the business cycle; (2) unemployment; (3) inequality in income distribution; and (4) fragmentation of the work process. Research is reviewed linking the economic cycle with suicide and increased psychological symptoms as well as physical illness. Intervention on the institutional level is suggested since these macro-economic elements appear to be more powerful than the individual coping mechanisms of some demographic subgroups. The implications of these findings for primary prevention are discussed. (Author/JAC)

Four papers are featured. The first is a statistical overview and analysis of past, present and future happenings to small communities in the Region; it focuses on two indicators: (1) population growth or declining community class size and, (2) the changing distribution of commercial outlets by community class size. The other three papers report on provincial governmental policy and program intentions and actions having a bearing on the viability of small communities. "Balanced Population and Economic Growth Policy for Alberta" outlines basic foundations respecting economic policies and economic development goals. Elements of the Regional Development Program are discussed along with rural/urban development, rural development projects, regional business and industrial development, and communications strategy. The third paper summarizes public sector initiatives brought to bear upon small Saskatchewan towns; it discusses general and specific policy and program controls with specific reference to intergovernmental components. The final paper describes the agriculture/rural community situation prior to the introduction of the "Stay Option" in Manitoba, including the policy basis for the option, the program components, associated policy thrusts, and the impact upon the people and enterprises of the area. (DS)

This paper examines the effects of cyclical economic fluctuations on the occupational mobility of younger black and white male workers during the years between 1966 and 1975. Two measures of occupational standing were applied to 805 men who in 1966 were between the ages of 14 and 24 years. Their occupational position for the 10-year period was compared with economic upturns and recessions to ascertain racial differences in occupational gain. The analysis showed that younger black men were more likely to be at the bottom of the occupational categories than were younger white men. In all categories blacks held lower status positions than did whites. Both blacks and whites moved up the occupational hierarchy as groups, but when whites began in the same categories as blacks, they improved their occupational status more than blacks did over the 10 years. During the economic downturn of the 1970s, black craft workers suffered large losses in occupational status relative to white craft workers. (VM)

Certain economic theories can help explain the rise to prominence of parent participation preschools in the 1950s and help to make predictions about their future. Specifically, the long-wave cycle of economic behavior and its explanation of social systems and innovations can be useful. One popular approach is that of the Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratieff, who discovered 50-year cycles in capitalist economies, although governments now may be able to moderate those cycles in the future. A related observation is that clusters of inventions or innovations that have been proposed while the economy descended into a depression have become successful as it recovered. Further, while invention is constant, application of such invention is cyclic: only during a "window of opportunity" provided by an economic downturn will new concepts be seriously considered. Educational developments seem to fit this pattern, including the introduction of the ideas of Locke, Pestalozzi, and Froebel into United States education. Charting the history of the nursery school movement in the United States shows that the years for the introduction of parent co-ops and their rapid rise occurred as the economy rose to a plateau after World War II. At that time, federal funding for war-time nursery schools was terminated, and mothers with increasing numbers of preschool children were dependent upon the co-op community for social support networks. Thus, awareness of economic wave theories may add a critical perspective to analysis of early childhood education history and enable comprehension of current and future situations. (Contains 25 references.) (TM)

This paper examines the growing college premium for younger men and the earnings patterns for other groups that developed between 1973 and 1987. At first glance, the rapidly increasing college premium for young men seems to confirm several frequently cited economic trends, including a massive restructuring of the economy that displaces all less educated workers into low-paying jobs and the devaluation of a high school diploma due to the deterioration of public education. However, a review of earning trends for all groups of workers suggests the influence of the following forces on wage trends: (1) shifts in the demand for different kinds of labor; (2) shifts in the supply of different kinds of labor; and (3) macroeconomic forces which determine the underlying trend in wage growth. The economic stagnation of the 1973-1987 period explains the slow growth of all earnings. However, most movements in relative earnings were not driven by changes in the supply of different kinds of labor. The earnings of older men and women performed better than those of younger workers because and demand for younger workers decreased during periods of adjustment in manufacturing employment. Much of the continued slow growth in wages reflects the sustained low growth in productivity which reflects our ability to educate workers. Statistical data are included on six graphs and eight tables. The appendices comprise discussions of the effects of alternative price deflators on real income and testing for the significance of earnings differences. (FMW)