Reviewing accreditation standards and employer needs surveys emphasizing the importance of general skills for graduating occupational students, this paper describes the 5-year process utilized at Tacoma Community College, in Washington, to develop and implement a general education program for its occupational degree and technical certificate…

This study, undertaken at a Michigan high school, examined the development of collaborative relationships among school personnel, community members, and agency staff for the effective transition of students with disabilities from school to adult life. It attempted to identify the essential components and common barriers to such relationships and…

A study sought to determine what four major populations think about six specific issues relating to vocational education programs. A secondary objective was to determine attitudes about some issues specific to each of the groups surveyed. The four population groups were eleventh grade male and female, vocational and academic students; parents;…

An intensive case study was conducted of one high school student's internship in an effort to determine the organizing principles that created the internship curriculum. A junior in the School for Extended Learning received high school credit for serving an internship at the Community Video Center (CVC), a non profit organization offering video…

Quality circles (QCs) have been considered one of the most promising approaches to improving American workers' productivity. The differences of quality circle effectiveness between active QCs (N=36) and inactive QCs (N=17) in a 3-year period were examined in a quasi-experimental field study. The dependent variables examined were the amount of…

A study compared different firms' methods of recognizing and rewarding employee performance and examined the impact of such recognition and reward on such factors as involuntary and voluntary labor turnover and worker productivity. Data from a survey of 3,412 employers that was sponsored by the National Institute of Education and the National…

Phase I of a study was conducted to identify the basic mathematics competencies needed for job success in office occupations (14 job clusters). It also sought to determine the differences between employees' and employer/supervisors' perceptions of the degree of importance of mathematics skills for office occupations. Following a review of…

This study examined the use of employer satisfaction surveys in the field of teacher education at a state university. Specifically, the issues addressed were whether new graduates' ratings of their job performance could substitute for direct employer satisfaction ratings, and if ratings of individuals by their supervisors yielded similar results…

This study investigated the effects of discriminatory interview questions on applicants' perceptions and intentions toward an organization. Participants included 118 graduate business students (59 percent male), average age of 31 with more than eight years of full-time work experience. Discriminatory questions addressed handicaps, plans for…

Education is constantly criticized for its "failures"--its "failure" to produce literate graduates, its "failure" to prepare students for the jobs of future technology, and its "failure" to reduce unemployment and establish equity for all students. However, these "failures" are not solely those of…

An exploratory study examined what the largest and most successful manufacturing and service companies in the United States are doing to address human capital needs through training and development. A questionnaire was sent to 168 firms from the service sector and 165 from the manufacturing sector, as identified by "Fortune"; 81 responded.…

A study gathered information from the manufacturing world about its perception and evaluation of identified industrial arts/technology education competencies. It determined whether industrial arts/technology educators and manufacturing production managers thought significantly differently about the importance of competencies acquired in a…

In recent years, social scientists have developed an increased interest in the processes by which individuals are matched to jobs. This involves both an examination of the characteristics of job seekers who are rewarded in labor markets and an analysis of how employers evaluate worker characteristics when making hiring and promotion decisions. Of…

Rural school districts where ethnocentrism, traditionalism, primary group preference, and social conservatism form the dominant value system could be contributing to their own ineffectiveness through their patterns of personnel selection. This study investigated the influence of rural values on components of personnel selection and the tacit…

Contract learning is an invaluable tool in organizational learning and management development. A contract can incorporate teacher-directed learning (TDL) and self-directed learning (SDL), as appropriate. Substantial research has revealed the power of SDL; the trick is to harness this learning for the benefit of the organization. The literature on…