Current State of Occupational and Technical Training: The Need for Integration and High Quality Programs. Working Paper.

National data regarding occupational and technical training programs in secondary and area vocational schools are useful in describing patterns of courses taken by students and characteristics of teachers. Data are not available on student enrollments and financial investment, student outcomes in general and related to quality of training programs, economic value of vocational education, and labor market relevance of vocational education. For secondary schools, the educational reform movement of the 1980s was built on four pillars: longer school days, longer school years, more rigorous standards for high school graduation, and heightened requirements for entrance to college. An alternative approach to educational reform is "high schools with character." Its four pillars are as follows: integration of academic and vocational studies, cooperative learning, teacher collegiality and collaboration, and a special school identity, commonly established through an industrial connection. A national experiment on high schools with character should be conducted to determine whether schools that fully implemented the concept tend to show greater student achievement than conventional high schools. If they do, the approach would have three benefits: equity in terms of access of students to learning, cost effectiveness, and meeting of the needs of the economy. (Fourteen footnotes and 17 references are appended.) (YLB)