SCHOOLS ARE THE main institutions preparing young people to enter productive roles in society. To support the assumption that schools respond to labor-market needs, many scholars refer to human-capital and functionalist theories. Even critics who disparage such responsiveness believe that it occurs (Bowles and Gintis 1976). Nonetheless, at the high school level research has produced little evidence to indicate how this correspondence might take place. Indeed, until recently the general observation has been that high schools and employers do not have much to do with each other (Lortie 1975; Useem 1986). Dan C. Lortie (1975) notes that the teaching role is characterized by its containment within individual classrooms, with no expectation of action outside the school. Studying high school staff and employers, Elizabeth Useem (1986) finds great suspicion of each toward the other, and a reluctance to trust each other or to interact. Moreover, many studies find that recent high school graduates with higher achievement do not get better jobs and pay than lower-achieving graduates, a circumstance implying that employers do not have much regard for high school achievement (Gamoran 1994; Griffin, Kalleberg, and Alexander 1981; Miller 1998; Murnane, Willett, and Levy 1995). Copyright © 2007 by Russell Sage Foundation.
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