The 1990s saw the emergence of an information-based service economy driven largely by rapid advances in technology. While the low unemployment rates experienced throughout much of the 1990s and into the twenty-first century attest to the strength of this transformation, many business leaders have expressed concern that the U.S. education system is failing to produce workers capable of performing in today’s highly skilled, knowledge-intensive labor market.

Many educators and business leaders are convinced that one solution is to expand job training efforts, in particular the school-to-work programs for high school students, based loosely on Germany’s dual education system. In Germany, students who do not plan to continue into higher education enroll in occupational apprenticeships while they attend school, leaving high school with marketable job skills. School-to-work programs in the United States are designed with...