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This paper presents the initial findings from a five-year evaluation of state and local efforts to develop school-to-work (STW) systems in the United States. It is based on two main sources of information. They are: (1) extensive site visits in eight states and 39 communities conducted in 1996; and (2) a survey of a representative sample of 1996 high school seniors in the same eight states. The main findings are: (1) states have begun building a system by creating employer incentives, promoting career development models, facilitating college enrolments, defining target career clusters and providing technical assistance to local partnerships but it must be noted that the approaches reflect different priorities; (2) establishing direct links between STW reforms and the states' more general reform agenda has been difficult; (3) early stage efforts often build onto programs that originate in vocational education, but such an approach hampers efforts to broaden to the appeal of STW to larger segments of the student population; and (4) career development activities designed to permit students to become aware of and explore careers is one of the main ways in which large numbers of students are exposed to STW.