Federal legislation has driven and been receptive to the vision of a rigorous, relevant career and technical education (CTE) system integrated with academics and aligned across middle school, secondary school, and postsecondary education. This article uses a social policy analysis approach to trace the history of federal CTE policy throughout the…

Traces the development of vocational education programs through the manual training movement of the 1880s, the creation of the Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education in 1914, and the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. Discusses five key values intrinsic to the vocational education movement and why current programs have not met their promise.…