This Guide is one product of an evaluation of the educational component of the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program which is funded by DOL and being conducted jointly by Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and Brandeis University's Center for Human Resources. In keeping with DOL's guidelines, we define educational services-and therefore the focus of the evaluation-as consisting of efforts by programs to teach academic subjects and/or SCANS foundation skills and competencies" (this definition is taken from the reporting instructions for the Summer Youth program).

The study began during the summer of 1994, when our research staff fanned out to 30 randomly-chosen SDAs across the country. During visits to these sites, staff talked with SDA Summer Youth Coordinators and other administrators and staff to learn about the SDAs' objectives for their Summer Youth program and how they were responding to DOL's guidance. Within each SDA, up to 3 instances of educational instruction (83 in total) were also chosen for m-depth scrutiny; these ranged from traditional classroom instruction using drill-and-practice methods to innovative examples of project-based learning. For each of these 83 programs, site visitors observed instruction being provided, talked with instructors and mentors (be they classroom teachers or worksite supervisors), reviewed case files, and conducted focus groups with participants.

This Guide is one product on an evaluation of the educational component of the SYETP, which is based on in-depth case studies of 83 educational programs in 30 SDAs across the country.