This is the first part of a two-part fifth volume in a series of annual reports on the status of vocational education in the United States. It primarily reports the developments that have taken place each year in the numbers and characteristics of students enrolled, programs, costs, and results. (The entire study, initiated by Congress in 1971, is known as Project Baseline.) Chapter I is a brief overall summary of the past five years, and chapter II is a summary of the statistical tables in Part 2 (a separate document) of this report as well as previous years. Information covers enrollment (expansion in 1974-75, growth among the States, occupational areas, co-op, youth organizations, percent of secondary students, analysis of data on women, disadvantaged and handicapped, and ethnic minorities), expenditures, completions and placements, instructional personnel, and manpower training under CETA. Chapter III discusses title II of the Education Amendments of 1976 (Vocational Education Act) and examines some serious data problems. Chapter IV discusses information on vocational education that has not been covered by previous and present statistical summaries i.e., impact of Federal legislation, strengths and weaknesses of vocational education today, student benefits, duplication between manpower training and vocational education. The financing of continued expansion of vocational education in the face of dwindling tax resources is discussed in Chapter V. Chapter VI is largely a discussion of Project Baseline's role in the five years of its existence and what its role may be in the future. Appendixes include the text title II of the Education Amendments of 1976 and other data related to the Baseline project. (SH)