The traditional sharp distinction between vocational and academic education has come under increasing criticism for a number of reasons, including growing recognition of the failure of conventional curriculum and modes of instruction to respond to the ways in which students actually learn and increased awareness of the social, economic, and political consequences of a differentiated and hierarchically organized curriculum. Response to the criticism has been generally consistent with greater integration of vocational and academic education and has included academic "intensification" of vocational course offerings, transformations in the teaching of academic subjects, and reforms in the social organization of schooling. Vocational education has itself contributed the following to the reform of secondary education: broadened definitions of work education, instructional practices that bridge theory and application, practices of authentic assessment, and a history of engaging disengaged students. The following questions must be answered before the subject organization of high schools can be revamped and work education can be transformed: Which activities and topics of high school education are essential? Which elements of the academic curriculum "count" as work education? How are the goals of vocational and academic education in competition and conflict with one another? (Contains 88 references.) (MN)