This set of 21 lesson plans in career exploration is intended for use by classroom teachers desirous of infusing career education into the curricula for their subjects. Business, humanities, natural science, and social science are the major academic areas covered. The plans are national in scope, and rely on the new DOT and "What Can I Be?" as…

A program is reported for potential and actual high school dropouts that combines academic courses with work experience, and is designed to demonstrate the relationship between education and the world of work. Some of the objectives of the program were to test the feasibility of a joint educational approach of trade instructors and academic…

Assessed the success of an Upward Bound program by increasing achievement and college attendance. Results indicated significant gains in both language arts and quantitative skills. Results also suggest the impact of the program is incremental: More program participation generates more successful outcomes among participants. (Author)

Discusses issues such as reforming the academic-vocational dichotomy of schooling in the context of the history of vocational education and Dewey's perspective of integrated education through the occupations. Also illustrates the concepts presented through promising whole-school reform designs for democratizing the public education system.…

Data from 7,179 graduates of high schools that sent students to Altoona Vocational Technical School (AVTS) and 962 responses to a questionnaire provided information about enrollment trends, vocational credits, postsecondary experience, and work experience. (SK)

Findings of this study (n=2,500) revealed that student attitudes toward academic coursework were highly positive regardless of school quality, but to a large extent were significantly more positive in schools of lesser quality. The paths that lead to student attitudes also were different in schools of unlike quality. (JD)

The workplace demands both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Employer-educator partnerships should focus on workplace skill requirements, give real work experience reinforced through classwork, and provide realistic career awareness activities that eliminate preconceptions and misconceptions about jobs. (SK)

Includes "A National Report Card for Vo-Tech. Excerpts from NAVE--the Federal Government's National Assessment of Vocational Education"; "The Path to a New Perkins Act" (Plawin); and "Good Intentions Gone Bad? NAVE Didn't Mean for Skill Training to Be Removed from High Schools. Doing So Would Be a Terrible Mistake"…

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)

Examines how Australia and France are preparing youth for successful transition to employment in a rapidly changing world. Traces the historical development of technical/vocational education and general/liberal education. Highlights how Australia has tackled the problem of high and low status educational pathways and how the French Baccalaureat…

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 current demand for educational excellence is an outgrowth of recent national reports criticizing secondary education. This push for academic excellence also affects vocational education outcomes. A growing consensus seems to be emerging that at the secondary level (1) vocational education should be integrated with academic education, (2)…

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…

A Bureau of Labor Statistics report reveals that only five percent of job holders requiring some sort of training received it in a secondary vocational education course. Tables from the report are appended. The article discusses what vocational education is and how it can be improved. (MT)

The institutional divisions between academic and technical education at the secondary level in France are analyzed. A brief account of the development of French technical education is also provided, and how pressures from certain social groups have affected both academic and technical education is discussed. (RM)