Seventy students and 62 teachers and administrators in New York City career magnet and comprehensive schools were interviewed to learn why the career magnets were successful. A statistical analysis of student outcome data for the interview sites verified they were at least as effective as the typical magnet school. Interviews with students revealed benefits, complaints, and career magnet versus comprehensive high schools. Interviews also explored ways in which adolescents expressed attitudes toward a work ethic and the way attitudes toward work were affected by attitudes toward marriage and family. Results of the study indicated the following: (1) students developed a more optimistic future outlook as a result of receiving career training and developed a strategy of "parallel career planning"; (2) the schools taught a work ethic to help students succeed in adult life; (3) students both obtained a career-related education and retained ambitions for college; and (4) students were often placed in new peer groups that were sources of positive values. Faculty members were enthusiastic and worked hard, but schools could not provide all the help low income and minority students needed, especially with job knowledge. Both comprehensive schools and magnet schools lack enough career guidance, and career magnets do not do as good a job of educating students with poor academic records as they do average students. (Contains 27 references.) (YLB)