Executive Summary

Today’s high school graduates are entering a world in which they’ll need at least some college to gain access to decent-paying careers, according to the 2007 edition of Diplomas Count . And those without even a high school diploma will face increasingly bleak labor-market prospects.

This report, Ready for What? Preparing Students for College, Careers, and Life After High School , draws on two national databases to examine the distribution of jobs nationally and within each state, as well as the related education and pay levels.

The analysis uses information from the Occupational Information Network , or O*NET, a database developed for the U.S. Department of Labor . O*NET classifies jobs into five “zones,” each defined by various worker attributes, including particular education, training, and experience requirements. By combining that information with another national database—the American Community Survey , conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau —the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center is able to show what proportions of adults nationally and in each state hold occupations in the various job zones, their median earnings, and...