Most current major educational reforms call for extensive, meaningful teacher collaboration. Teachers who have worked together see substantial improvements in student achievement, behavior, and attitude. For teachers, collegiality breaks the isolation of the classroom and brings career rewards and daily satisfactions. Schools benefit for a number…

This brief suggests that vocational educators may be unclear as to whether they have accomplished integration of vocational and academic education because of the multistage nature of the process. The three stages suggest a continuum of professional growth, as vocational and academic educators first become aware of limitations of the status quo,…

Using cognitive science as the knowledge base for the discussion, this paper reviews why many school learning situations are ineffective and introduces cognitive apprenticeship models that suggest what effective learning situations might look like. Five wrong assumptions about learning are examined: (1) people transfer learning from one situation…

Challenges exist in secondary education, and new developments are being made in the area of integration of academic and vocational education. The first section of this paper focuses on the need for integration and provides a conceptual framework for viewing academic and vocational integration as well as teacher collaboration. Section two…

Educational institutions, families, and communities are not meeting the educational needs of more than 50 percent of the students enrolled in public and private schools in the United States. In 1997, only 43 percent of high school seniors reported themselves to be in demanding "academic" programs, compared with 45 percent in…

Outlines the external and internal policy context of high school career and technical education (CTE). Analyzes four policy options: (1) traditional sequential occupational courses; (2) elimination in favor of a common academic program; (3) CTE as an applied context for academics; and (4) integrated CTE and academics. Concludes that the integrated…

Institutional barriers that hinder the collaborative process must be removed for an integrated program such as tech prep to work. A foundation for program development is laid if teachers are made aware of the benefits of integration. (SK)

Although most efforts to improve schools through integration of academic and vocational education recognize the need for staff development, most staff development efforts fall short. The reasons these efforts often do not succeed include the following: teachers have little authority to make decisions about the improvement process; the programs do…

The integration of academic and vocational education is an educational reform strategy conceptualized by vocational educators, supported by the business community, and articulated by policy makers. Integration may improve the educational and employment opportunities of youth. Integration may offer change in an educational system that is in need of…

Because tech prep has the twin goals of preparing students for entry into postsecondary/continuing education or the work force after high school, tech prep programs require significant modification of conventional curricula and teaching methodologies. Both research and experience have demonstrated that the ability to transfer learning from one…

This document describes teaching techniques that vocational and academic teachers can use jointly to improve students' basic skills. It is part of BASICS, a package of integrated materials developed to assist teachers, administrators, and counselors in bridging vocational and academic skills. Section 1 focuses on the problem of students' basic…

Career education consists of all those activities and experiences through which one learns about work; vocational education, those through which one learns about a primary work role; and occupational education, those through which one learns to work in the world of paid employment. The three terms imply a progressive narrowing of purpose. The…

This document consists of a final report and practitioner's guide. The final report describes a project that studied successful integration efforts between academic and vocational education. Four secondary school and three community college programs were studied. Teachers and administrators were interviewed, classes were observed, and curriculum…

The River Bend Tech Prep project was undertaken to develop a tech prep curriculum in high schools in the Lewis and Clark Community College (LCCC) district in Illinois to improve students' academic skills and eventual employment opportunities and contribute to the region's economic growth and stability. The following activities were completed…

This journal provides an account of pilot site visits and other professional notes from July 1989 to June 1990. It begins with a description of an initial meeting to determine the author's role in the Applied Academics Project, namely that of facilitator of the integration of academic and vocational education with local teachers. Other entries…