The next step in the school-to-career (STC) movement is to build upon its significant successes in today's policy and political environment. The School to Work Opportunities Act 1994 codifies a reform agenda to promote academic achievement and economic opportunity for young people during and after high school. Its general principles are that most young people need help making the transition to adulthood; effective solutions must improve educational achievement and career prospects; schools must enter into new relationships with community partners; reform must be systematic; state and local flexibility must be maximized; and gradual implementation provides flexibility. The best STC initiatives are demonstrating improvements in student attendance, motivation, and satisfaction; rigor of course selection; employer engagement; quality of adult relationships; dropout prevention; college attention rates; and wages in first jobs. The following four factors have contributed to STC's weakening as a national reform initiative: (1) political realignments; (2) complexity and ambition of the STC vision; (3) implementation choices; and (4) conflict between implementation of standards-driven reform and STC's experiential, outside-the-classroom core. Five priorities can advance what is best in STC: (1) focus on high school; (2) focus on postsecondary institutions and connections; (3) promote STC principles within other education and workforce initiatives; (4) fund the local institutional base for long-term school-community partnerships; and (5) fund research to improve design and implementation. (Contains 27 endnotes.) (YLB)