This document, which draws heavily on lessons learned during 11 years of the Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work initiative, is intended to help state leaders review their existing system for assessing accountability in vocational education or plan such a system. The document begins with a discussion of the purpose of…

The key features of student achievement were examined at twelve sixth form colleges (SFCs) in the United Kingdom with an emphasis on strategies to maintain and improve performance. It was found that students at SFCs have on average higher prior attainment and suffer less deprivation than their counterparts in General Further Education and Tertiary…

The growing importance of education in overall economic growth and individual opportunity has necessitated that education reformers address the need for the additional and better human capital needed to foster overall growth in the new knowledge-based economy. Education reformers must also work to reduce the growing differences in family incomes…

The impact of career and technical education (CTE) reforms and comprehensive school reforms in high schools on education outcomes for at-risk youth was examined in a review of research on current reforms. The review identified a series of individual, family and home, school, and community factors that can place students at risk of failing to…

Recent educational approaches that have career and technical education (CTE) components have integrated work-based learning (WBL) with traditional academics. Among positive effects of the association between WBL and secondary students' educational outcomes are: (1) increased attendance, (2) decreased dropout rates, (3) increased number of academic…

Periodically since 1890 the Office of Education has attempted to catch and keep a sort of survey picture of the developing secondary school curriculum. Each one shows the school's answer to the question of what is good--educationally--for boys and girls. Each one shows, too, through registration figures for electives, what boys and girls think is…

During fiscal year 1994, enrollment in secondary-level vocational education (VE) in Alabama totaled 202,402. Secondary school districts provided VE to 17,037 adult students, and postsecondary institutions provided regular occupational/technical training to 80,764 adults and training for business/industry to 19,723 adults. Secondary and/or…

During fiscal year 1994, South Dakota's vocational-technical education delivery system served 30,498 secondary students, 3,809 postsecondary students, and 8,358 adults. Of South Dakota's 178 school districts, 132 had to organize into some type of consortium arrangement to qualify for Perkins Act funds. The Perkins funds were used to provide…

During the 1993-94 program year, the 16 local Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) postsecondary districts delivered a total of 98,191 services to 36,071 clients through grant activities funded by the Carl D. Perkins Act. The WTCs board developed a format and process for reporting performance measures. All 16 WTCS districts exceeded the 35%…

Sweden's educational system was analyzed to determine the degree of coherence that exists between compulsory education, upper secondary education (which in Sweden includes both vocational and general education), and the various forms of adult education available. First, the objectives and structure of the following components of Sweden's school…

These two documents deal with the relationship between Missouri's Show-Me Standards (the standards defining what all Missouri students should know upon graduation from high school) with the vocational competencies taught in secondary-level family and consumer science (FACS) education courses. The first document, which is a database documenting the…

A 3-year national assessment of vocational education (VE) examined various issues related to improvement of VE programs, their academic and employment outcomes, participation of special population students in VE, and Perkins funding and administration. The assessment established that most secondary VE is still very traditional and that Perkins…

In the late 1980s, in response to a number of problems including consistently low academic performance by students and graduates lacking the skills needed by employers, Swansea High School in Swansea, South Carolina, launched a major reform effort designed to transform Swansea into a high-performance high school. During the multi-year reform…

Teachers responsible for transforming their vocational education programs into career and technical education (CTE) programs need to concentrate on ensuring programs' technical and academic rigor, engaging in collaboration in school and in the community, keeping current through professional development experiences, and extending learning beyond…

This document introduces the underlying principles and components of Ohio's Integrated Technical and Academic Competencies (ITAC) system of career-focused education, which combines high-level academics and technical skills with a real-life context for learning that maximizes students' present and future academic and career success. The document…