This guide is intended to assist local planners in developing a policy for awarding equivalent credit for materials taught in vocational and regular academic classrooms. The first section summarizes the benefits of developing an equivalent credit policy. The second section provides details on developing an equivalent credit plan. It lists the benefits of an equivalent credit policy to students, teachers, and taxpayers and presents guidelines for the following eight steps in initiating the planning process: reviewing state and local guidelines, determining which curriculum areas offer the most promise, establishing a support group to guide the planning effort, building communication and trust among faculty, matching student learning outcomes for comparison, determining credit possibilities and transcript designations, keeping everyone informed, and monitoring the process. The third section covers some of the questions that people are likely to ask in conjunction with the establishment of an equivalent credit policy; issues these questions raise include teacher certification, the reaction of colleges and universities to equivalent credit policies, assessment and testing, staff development, scheduling problems, and additional space and materials requirements. The final section discusses various types of resources available to assist in planning. Appendixes include a discussion of the background of the guide, a partial survey of Washington district practices, materials on approaches used by models from selected school districts, and a list of participants in area workshops on the academic-vocational connection. (MN)