LAUREN B. RESNICK is professor and director of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. JOHN G. WIRT is a senior analyst in the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress.

• Introduction and OverviewPart One: Structure of an Education System for Linking School and Work1. Certifying Competence in a School-to-Work System(Marc Tucker)2. Policy Choices in the Assessment of Work Readiness: Strategy and Structure(Richard Elmore)3. Signaling the Competencies of High School Students to Employers(John Bishop)4. A School-to-Work Transition System: The Role of Standards and Assessments(Paul Barton)Part Two: Linking Assessment and Instruction5. Quality Control for Educating a Smart Workforce(Alan Lesgold)6. Assessment Student Performance: Three Different Views(John Frederiksen)7. A School-Based Strategy for Achieving and Assessing Work-Readiness Skills(Henry Braun)Part Three: Technical Requirements for New Forms of Assessment8. Work Readiness Assessment: Questions of Validity(Robert Linn)9. Evaluation of Performance Assessments for Work Readiness(Robert Guion)10. Open-Ended Exercises in Large-Scale Educational Assessment(R. Darrel Bock)Part Four: Lessons from Abroad11. New Directions in the Assessment of High School Achievement: Cross-National Perspectives(Margaret Vickers)12. The Role of Assessment in Education for High Performance Work: Lessons from Denmark and Great Britain(Davis Jenkins)