In response to expanding American industry in the late 1800s, manual training and industrial education were proposed to prepare properly trained workers. Industrial education was advocated as education for specific trades, and cooperative education was one of its most innovative forms. The first high school cooperative industrial course in the United States was established during summer, 1908, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Open to high school boys and other young men, the four-year course included one year spent in the high school building and the next three spent alternating weekly between shop and school. Curriculum materials used in the academic subjects required were directly related to shop work. Boys also received compensation for their shop work. Upon completion of the required hours of work, the student was documented as a beginning journeyman. The program was discontinued in 1928. Intergenerational occupational data were obtained on 251 participants, and 71 graduates were interviewed. It was found that 53% of the sons of blue-collar workers ended up in white collar occupations; 74% moved to an occupational category higher than the father. Significantly, 31% of graduates ended up in "high white-collar occupations," and 25% of them entered professional occupations. (YLB)