This document is intended to help business leaders to optimize school-to-career partnerships. The guide begins with a series of facts documenting the benefits of school-to-career partnerships and a brief introduction. The first section traces business involvement in education over the past 2 decades and explains how data analysis and a focus on results can facilitate continuous improvement of a school-to-career partnership. The next section explains the rationale for evaluating six student outcomes (students' high school completion rates, academic performance, and participation in challenging courses; students' college preparation, participation, and completion rates; teacher preparation; and students' career awareness) and four company outcomes (improved employee morale, loyalty, and productivity; recruitment advantages; reduced training and supervision costs; and public relations). The following principles for optimizing data collection and analysis are detailed: (1) promote a culture of continuous improvement and focus on outcomes; (2) ensure that all partners agree on goals; (3) clearly define the initiative's audience; (4) create a viable evaluation process; (5) choose a realistic methodological approach; (6) document the plan in writing; (7) use common sense when collecting data; (8) evaluate routinely; (9) report the findings to all audiences; and (10) learn to see strength in missteps. Twenty-eight resource organizations are profiled. (Contains 28 references.) (MN)