A study used new data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to compare students in combined academic and vocational programs with high school students in other curricular categories in 1997 and to compare the 1997 patterns with those of earlier surveys. Previous studies have found that the proportion of high school students participating in vocational course sequences has declined during the 1980s and early 1990s, and vocational students have increasingly represented a low-achieving segment of the student population. To counter these tendencies, public and private initiatives have promoted new forms of high school vocational education that include academic studies and lead to postsecondary education. Data from the 1997 survey showed that students in a combined program were more similar to the overall student population in socioeconomic composition, though there was a relatively large proportion of females. Compared to vocational students, those in the combined program also expressed more confidence about completing high school and reported fewer absences. The new data showed that the number of students in combined programs continued to increase and that the combined programs have moved career and technical education toward the mainstream of the high school curriculum and involved a broader spectrum of students. (Contains 25 references.) (KC)