An optimal vocational evaluation program is described which was provided as part of a treatment of vocational and school behaviors of 119 reluctant learners from twenty-two rural school districts. (The 60-hour vocational evaluation process involved out-of-school psychometric and work sample testing over a two-week period.) An alternative in-school variation of that program is suggested and the effects (generally positive) of the original program on learners are summarized. Three perspectives are discussed with respect to the use of vocational evaluation in rehabilitation and educational applications: as an information gathering process, as a client-reactive process, and a rehabilitative process. The central components of a variety of educational experiments are examined as catalysts for increasing the relevancy of education and for effecting changes in behaviors of special needs students. Vocational evaluation is identified as a key catalyst for affecting the vocational development and school behaviors of the reluctant learners in the three-step Equal Career Opportunities Program (ECO): (1) in-school identification; (2) out-of-school vocational evaluation; and (3) in-school followthrough. In the alternative model which is suggested, vocational evaluation and career guidance are formally joined into a one- or two-semester course, the terminal objective being that students will establish realistic vocational plans and be provided with necessary school resources to attain these goals. The evaluation of the effects of vocational evaluation on the ECO students' vocational development and school behaviors are summarized and presented as suggested minimum levels for the in-school model. (Author/MEK)