students have significantly lower rates of completion (56 percent lower) and higher dropout
rates (24 percent higher). White and Hispanic students have essentially simiiar patterns of
completion and noncompletion.

\ The total rate of degree completion (associate degree and certificate) for low-SES
Students appears equal to or greater than the rate for middle- and high-SES students but, in
fact, low SES students tend to opt for certificate programs and more affluent middle- and
high-SES students tend to transfer to four-year colleges, often before completing the associate
degree. More telling than completions is the extent to which different groups of students
leave school without earning a degree or certificate. Fifty-three percent of the low-SES
students who enter community colleges drop out within four years without earning a
credential. Dropout rates for middle- and high-SES students, although high, are substantially
lower than they are for low-SES students.

A similar pattern exists among students of different ability levels. Low-ability students
have substantially lower rates of completion (12.6 percent) and higher rates of noncompletion

-(53.3 percent) than do other studerts.

Because the rates of completion are generally low and dropout rates are high for all
groups of studengs attending community colleges, it would be incorrect to say that this problem
is simply limited to special populations. Noncompletion is a problem that applies to all groups
of students enrolled in community colleges. But the findings of large differences between the
students who are black or of low-SES and the other students enrolled in community colleges
are consistent with the earlier finding on differences in average credits earned by Various
groups of students. Clearly, many black or low-SES students have special needs for assistance
if, once enrolled, they are to complete their programs of study.

Table 4.6 also shows the completion status of high school vocational students who
subsequently enroll in community colleges. A large proportion (34 percent) of all community
college students were self-classified as vocational students in high school. Although high

school vocational education students go on to postsecondary education in increasing numbers,

49


and postsecondary enrollment. Florida also conducts supplemental employer surveys to obtain
occupational classification data from which it determines whether job placements are training
related. Vocational programs in several other states have begun to explore the use of
unemployment insurance records as a way to measure the labor market performance of
students. Parallel efforts are under way in various states by those administering the JTPA
program.®?

State unemployment insurance data do, however, have several limitations. Some
categories of workers are not covered, out-of-state workers cannot be traced using a single
state’s data, only total egrnings per quarter and not wage rates are reported, and worker
occupations are not identified. Many of these limitations can be rectified by linking
unemployment insurance data with additional data sets, or by adding limited and low-cost
follow-up employer surveys to determine a worker's hourly wages.

One difficulty with measuring labor market outcomes is that differences in institutional
performance may reflect not only differences in program quality but also differences in the
types of students served. A program serving many academically disadvantaged students is
unlikely to have completion or placement rates as high as a program that serves better
prepared students. Differences in student performance may also reflect differences in local or
regional labor market conditions, Adjusting for differences in student characteristics and
differences in labor market conditions is difficult but not impossible. The Department of
Labor has addressed the same problems under JTPA by formulating statistically based
adjustment models that states may use, or further modify, to weight the performance standards
imposed on service delivery areas. These models take into account multiple client

characteristics and local economic factors such as average wages, poverty levels, and

82 For a thorough review of the uses and limits of unemployment insurance wage records,
see David Stevens, Using State Unemployment Insurance Wage-Records to Evaluate the
Subsequent Labor Market Experiences of Vocational Education Program Leavers, NAVE
Contractor Report, January 1989.

M5



limited to the four-year period after high school graduation. Because these data bases include
transcripts of individual students’ postsecondary education, the results are drawn from official
records about the amount and type of education and credentials students earned. Since these
data sets are limited to high school graduates who entered postsecondary education shortly after
leaving high school, they do not include alt postsecondary students.

NPSAS is a nationally representative cross-sectional portrait of all undergraduate
students enrolled in October 1986. Unlike the longitudinal data sources, NPSAS contains
demographic information on all students--older as well as younger ones. In addition, NPSAS
includes information on the student's major field of study and types of financial aid received.
The sample includes students who receive financial aid as well as those who do not. Data on
the student’s enrollment status, field of study, and financial aid com. from institutional records
and do not rely on student recall.

‘) The various data sets used in this analysis have different characteristics that permit
description of the students enrolled in postsecondary vocational education. The results from
each data set are not strictly comparable, however, because they differ with respect to the
population sampled, the means by which students are classified as vocational or academic, and

the classification of different types of institutions.

Types of Institutions
For purposes of analysis, postsecondary institutions are categorized as follows:
Four-year colleges are public and private educational institutions that grant bachelor’s
degrees in both occupationa'ly specific and academic fields. Some also grant a small number
of associate degrees and certificates. Although much of the course work at these institutions is
arguably vocational in nature, we have not considered students at these institutions in our

analysis of vocational education.

14

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U.8. ORPARTMENT OF EDUCATION |
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EDYCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

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NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION



enrollment toward suppliers with superior performance. The fact that "money follows
students"--that is, revenues from tuition payments, student aid programs, and state
appropriations are all linked to enrollment--could provide a strong incentive for programs to
raise perfurmance.®®

Disseminating information to other participants in the educational system-~-political
authorities, administrators, and employers--also can contribute to raising performance.
Evidence that some publicly supported institutions perform well and others do not can induce
political authorities and administrators to shift funds among programs or to impose more
rigorous oversight. Providing this information to employers could strengthen the resolve of
administrators and political leaders to make budgetary and other decisions conducive to
program improvement, and further encourage students to faver highly rated programs. These
concepts undergird the growing effort of states to develop indicators of general education

performance.

Performance-based Funding

Under this strategy, performance information would not merely be disseminated, it
would be linked directly to the receipt of funds. Distribution of federal vocational education
funds woulu be determined by explicit state formulas based on measures of program
performance and improvement. One feature of JTPA that exemplifies this approach is the
allocation of 6 percent of program funds as incentive grants to providers who exceed
performance standards. As another example of performance-based funding in education,

Florida requires that, to be eligible to receive state funds, vocational programs must maintain a

85 This approach rests on two assumptions: students are mobile and free to choose among
alternative institutions and programs; and students value information on institutional
performance in making decisions about where to enroll. The first condition is more likely to
exist at the postsecondary level than at the secondary level because adult students can compare
different public and private suppliers of vocational training. On the second requirement, the
willingness of students to use performance information, there is some evidence that students
consider various aspects of program quality in making enrollment decisions. For a discussion
of this research, see E. Gareth Hoachlander, Susan Choy, and Cynthia Brown, Performance-
Based Policy Options for Postsecondary Vocational Education: A Feasibility Study, pp. 92-100.

Md


Table 6.1

Economie Outcomes of Postsecondary Vocational Education
by Number of Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

Regression
Unadjusted Adjusted
Mepne Means’
Economic Outcomes
Unemployment 18.9 18.9
Course Utilization Rate 68.0 58.0
Hourly Wage Rate 6.67 6.67
Economic Outcomes by Number of Credits Taken

Unemployment?/

Few Credits 16.5 20.6

Moderate Level of Credits 17.2 18.3

Many Credits 12.3 18.0
Course Utilization Ratel/

Few Credits 60.2 51.0

Moderate Level of Credits 58.4 69.0

Many Credits 66.0 61.4
Hourly Wage Rates/

Few Credits 6.98

Moderate Level of Credits 7.30

Many Credits 7.98

Increase per Year (80 Credits) of Vocational Course work?/

Unemployment -6.0
Courage Utilisation Rate $1
Hourly Wage Rate 12.2

Note: Data derived from the High Suhool and Beyond Survey, Senior Cohort. Only includes individuals who attended postsecondary
institutions and took at least 16 percent of their course work in vocational aubjects.

al Regression adjusted means contro! for the following variables: sex, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, SES, ability quartile
(multipte content area tests measured while trainee was a senior in high school), educational plans, high school program, and
work history while a senior in high school, the number of postsecondary credits taken in language and humanities, science and
math, social sciences, fine and liberal arts, and remedial courses, the types of institutions attended, the number of credits taken
in each institution type, the degree attained, the vocational subject area from which the majority of the postsecondary courses
were taken, additional postsecondary work and non-school training experiences, local unemployment rate, employment growth
rate, and average manufacturing wage (all measured in 1982), and the number of months since the postsecon lary training ended.
Data set for estimating the adjusted means includes students who transferred from community college to four-year institutions
and other students who attended multiple typas of institutions.

b/ For the unsdjusted meaas:

"Few means = 12 or fewer credits in the major subject area
Moderate = from 18 to 30 credits in the major subject area
High = greater than $0 credits in the major subject area

For the adjusted means:
Few = 12 credits in the major subject area
Moderate = 80 credits in the major subject area
High = 60 credits in the major subject aren

¢/ For the unadjusted means:
Few = 12 or fewer cre: utilised on the job
Moderate = from 18 so 80 credits utilised on the job
High = greater than 30 credits utilised on the job

For the adjusted means:

Few = 12 credite utilized on the job
Moderate = 80 credits utilized on the job
High = 80 credits utilized on the job

ad For unemployment and course utilisation rate, courses in major subject area
For hourly wage rate, credits that are utilized on (related to) the job

58


Table 5.4

Hourly Wage Rates by Type of Institution and by Number
of Utilized Crodits (Credits that are Job-Related)

Regression
Unadjusted Adjusted
Means Means”!
Institution Type

Comnuunity College 7.03 . 6.63
Few Crediteb/ 6.90 6.68
Moderate Level of Credits 7.00 7.05
Many Credits -- 7.39
Public Technical Institute 8.74 8.90
Few Credits 5.60 6.84
Moderate Level of Credits 7.40 6.61
Many Credits -- 7.19
Proprietary School 8.59 7.40
Few Credits o- 7.38
Moderate Level of Credits -- 7.59
Many Credits -- 7.13

Increase per Year (80 Credits) of Vocational Course work Percentage
Community College 93
Public Technical Institute 16.8
Proprietary School 18.2

Nove: Data derived from the High School and Beyond Survey, Senior Cohort. Only includes individuals who attended
postsecondary institutions and took at least 16 percent of their course work in vocational subjects.

Cells with "-" have too few observations to provide stable estimates.

a/ Regression adjusted mesns control for the following variables: sex, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, SES,
ability quartile (multiple content area tests measured while trainee was a lor in high school), educational
plans, high school program, and work history while a senior in high school, the number of postsecondary
credits taken in I cience and math, social sciences, fine and liberal arts, and remedial
courses, the types of institutions attended, the numbur of credits taken in each institution type, the degree
attained, the vocational subject area from which the majority of the postsecondary courses were taken,
additional postsecondary work and non-school training experiences, local unemployment rate, employment
growth rate, and average manufacturing wage (all measured in 1982), and the number of months since the
postsecondary training ended. Data set for estimating the adjusted means includes students who transferred
from community college to four-year institutior.s and other students who attended multiple types of
institutions.

b/ For the unadjusted means:
Few means = 12 or fewer credits in the major subject area
Moderate = from I$ to 80 credits in the major subject area
High = greater than 80 credits in the major subject arsa

For the adjusted means:

Few = 12 credits In the major subject area
Moderate = 80 credits in the major subject area
High = 60 credits in the major subject area


demographics have changed. Declining numbers of high school graduates have reduced the
pool from which students are recruited, ‘To maintain enrollments, these institutions must
expend considerable effort to recruit students, identify new groups of Students, and provide
many new kinds of services,

As community colleges expanded, their goals and operating realities evolved. As
originally conceived, these colleges were places where students who were not yet academically
Prepared for a four-year college, or who could not afford one, could begin their college
experience, After two years, these students would transfer to a four-year college. Although
this purpose was never fully realized, community colleges were d ‘veloped, staffed, and
Structured with a model uf academic higher education very much in mind,

As postsecondary enrollments grew during the late 1960s and 1970s, the demand for
vocational studies increased. Postsecondary institutions begin to provide more occupational
training that formerly had either been provided by employers or, in an era when the demand
for particular occupational skills was less, perhaps not provided at all. This shift in demand
largely fueled the rapid growth of community colleges and other institutions--technicat
colleges, vocational schools, and Proprietary schools--dedicated to vocational training. Demand
increased for training of different lengths of time (not everyone wanted an associate degree)
and for related services such as job placement and remedial basic skill training,

The demographics of the 1980s further contributed to this trend, Declining numbers of
18-year-old high school students stimulated stifi competition between two- and four-year
institutions for students and, over time, lowered admissions standards at four-year colleges. As
a result, many students who might have enrolled in two-year institutions were able to enroll in
four-year institutions directly after high school.

Today, community colleges no longer attract a large number of students who eventually

transfer to four-year institutions, although many students still say that transferring is their


Issues of Fairness

Proposing performance incentive systems always leads to concerns about the potential
for "creaming," that is, recruiting only those students with the greatest likelihood of success,
Creaming has been a matter of concern in the JTPA program.®® There are two reasons why
creaming is unlikely to cause serious problems in implementing performance-based funding in
Postsecondary vocational education. First, community colleges, technical colleges, and
vocational technical schools generally do not have waiting lists of students, They take all
students who wish to enroll. Second, even with performance-based funding, 95 percent of
postsecondary vocational funds are likely to remain based on enrollment criteria, thereby
providing strong disincentives to cream.” As one local administrator said in describing
Tennessee's system of higher education performance-based funding, “When 95 percent of my
money is still driven by FTE and only 5 percent by perfo: ince, why would I give up $95 to
make $5? I will still take any student who wants to enroll,"! Jn contrast, the dual system of
performance incentives and performance contracts used in JTPA has resulted in the award of
considerably more total resources on the basis of performance than is ever likely to be the case
in vocational education.

Although selective admissions may not be an issue, the fairness of any performance-
based system requires that performance ratings not penalize those institutions that enroll at-risk

populations, Indeed, a major purpose of the Perkins Act is to give special help to those

98 A recent study found that specific state performance standards policies can affect the
types of clients served in JTPA programs, Specifically, an emphasis on exceeding specified
performance standards, coupled with the cost of providing services, tends to reduce enrollments
among hard-to-serve groups such as welfare recipients and dropouts. In contrast, other
policies, such as special incentives for serving specific client groups and the use of adjustment
models, encourage service for at-risk Sroups. See National Commission for Employment
Policy, JTPA Performance Standards.

59 NAVE estimates that federal vocational education funds account for only 5.7 percent of
total revenues for vocatic?al programs at community colleges, although probably more at
public technical colleges.

100 Hoachlander, et al., Performance Based Policy Options, p. 73.

120

le.


performance-based formula. In year 4, states should be required to allocate all their federal
vocational education funds spent at the Postsecondary level in accordance with a federally

approved performance funding formula.

Program Coordination

Secondary and postsecondary designated agencies should be strongly encouraged to
Cooperate in the development of performance measures. Designing ways to access state wage
record data, to determine whether placements are training related, and to measure certain
occupational competencies are most efficientiy undertaken as joint secondary-postsecondary
activities. Cooperation would not preclude secondary and Postsecondary systems from using

“ferent measures of program performance, or placing different weights on similar measures.

Vocational education and the JTPA Program share an interest in measuring the labor
market performance of students who participate in postsecondary vocational programs. Should
both programs increase their reliance on existing unemployment insurance wage records, a
direction that appears likely, it would be both inefficient and burdensome on state officials
and employers for JTPA and vocational education to proceed independently. Therefore, we
recommend a strong federal mandate that JTPA and vocational education coordinate closely
any efforts they undertake to use state wage records to assess the labor market performance of

program participants.

How Federal Funds Are Used

Performance-based funding leaves decisions about how federal funds are to be spent to
local educators. We recommend only two obvious and limited restrictions on the uses of
federal funds. First, institutions that receive performance awards should be required to use
federal funds for the improvement of vocational education Programs. Whether they buy
equipment, improve curricula, hire teachers, or give bonuses to their best teachers is their
decision, Second, performance rewards should not supplant other sources of state and

institutional suppett for vocational education. If states can decrease state support when they

126

Igy


‘
level of training in a specific area because they believe such trainees are highly motivated and

interested in working in that area.

The link between job-related training and wages--that individuals in jobs related to
their training earn more than those in unrelated jobs--has been documentea before in the
literature on vocational education.°® The Sreater the level of relevant training that workers
have attained, the greater their productivity on the job, and the higher the wages they can
command.

Does the Type of Instityefon that Students Attended Affect Their
Postsecondary Outconfés?

~
In this section we examine how the economic outcomes of postsecondary vocational
training vary according to the types of institution from which the training was obtained. In
this analysis of the relationship between institution type and postsecondary vocational
outcomes, we focus on students who attended thrasetypes of less-than-baccalaureate
institutions, community colleges (57 Percent), public technical institutes (14 percent), and
proprietary training schools (7 percent)."® We first look at the effect of institution type on

incidence of unemployment, then on course utilization rates, then on wage levels,

Incidence of Unemployment

Our findings indicate that the type of postsecondary institution attended is related to
the average incidence of unemployment for trainees in the labor market. For students who
studied in public technical institutes, the unadjusted incidence of unemployment is 12.7

percent (see table 5.2). For trainees who studied in a community college, it was 17.0 percent.

58 A summary of economic studies evaluating the earnings benefits of training-related
placement is given in John Bishop, “Occupational Training in High School When Does It Pay
Off?" Economics of Education Review (vol. 8, no. 1, pp 1-15, spring 1989).

5® Some of the students in our sample attended both community colleges and four-year
colleges (16 percent) and others attended various combinations of Postsecondary institutions (6
percent), but we did not analyze the economic benefits of attending multiple types of
institutions, While we statistically controlled for students who transferred from two-year to
four-year institutions, we did not analyze their labor-market outcomes,

64


There has been a shift over time toward more vocational and fewer academic credits at
community colleges and technical institutes. For the high school class of 1972 that entered
community colleges, 29 percent of total credits were in vocational subjects pnd 64 percent were
in academic areas. For the class of 1980, vocational course work increased by 6 percentage
points, while academic course work declined by 6 percentage points. In effect, vocational
course work increased by 19 percent during this period of time.

ENROLLMENT OF SPECIAL POPULATIONS IN POSTSECONDARY
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

The Perkins Act is directed largely at special populations in postsecondary vocational
education. This section disc es-engollments of special populations in postsecondary vocational
education.?4 ¢

Postsecondary vocational programs draw otudents from most segments of the population,
but the types of students that are enrolled vary with the institution. Table 2.4 presents data
on the characteristics of students enrolled in postsecondary vocational education. Several
conclusions can be drawn: students enrolled at less-than-baccalaureate institutions represent a
broad cross section of the population by sex, race, family income, and age. The breadth of
enrollment indicates that the appeal of these institutions is not restricted to poor students or
minorities, or to one gender or age group. Students in postsecondary vocational education are
in many ways broadly representative of the population, and are certainly more likely to be
drawn from different economic, racial, and age groups than are students enrolled in four-year
institutions.

Black students continue to be seriously underrepresented in postsecondary education,
especially at four-year colleges and at two-year public institutions. Blacks represent 13.7

percent of all high school graduates aged 18 through 24,2? but only 8 percent of the students

21 Data are not available for all the special population categories in the Perkins Act.

22 american Council on Education, Fact Book of Higher Education, 1986-87 (New York:
Macmillan, 1987), table 14.

21


CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Postsecondary vocational training is a growing enterprise that is central to the
educational mission of less-than-baccalaureate institutions, A total of 4.3 million "vocational"
students are enrolled at community colleges, two-year technical colleges, public vocational
technical schools, and proprietary schools. Three-fourths of all the students at these
institutions major in vocational subjects and, over the past two decades, the percentage of
Postsecondary students enrolled in vocational education has grown substantially. Most of the
vocational credits in less-than-baccalaureate institutions are earned at community colleges (61
percent). Public technical institutions and proprietary schools account for another 23 percent
and 15 percent, respectively, of the vocational credits. Although community colleges may have
been started to prepare students for continued academic education in four-year institutions,
this goal was never fully realized, and over the years community colleges have become the
major providers of postsecondary vocational training. Thus, vocational training is now the
principal educational mission in community colleges, as it has always been in other less-than-
baccalaureate postsecondary institutions.

Students enrolled in postsecondary vocational programs are demographically diverse,
drawn from all economic strata, races, age groups, and levels of ability. Compared with
students at four-year colleges, however, postsecondary vocationa! students are more likely to be
from working-class and poor families, and from racial and ethnic minority groups. They are
also more likely to be older, independent of their parents, and enrolled part-time.

The reasons that students choose to enroll in postsecondary vocational programs are
many and complex-- 1s are their subsequent decisions about how much training they need and
whether to complete a postsecondary credential. Although many students enroll to earn a

college degree, it cannot be assumed that all students intend to earn even an associate degree

95

Loy


behavior, acquisition and deployment of resources, instructional methods, and program
linkages. Interviews were conducted with the program’s chief administrator and with a sample
of faculty and current students. Through statistical analysis, the most important factors in
each of the four program domains were identified. Each of these variables was then

considered jointly to determine which ones were the best overall Predictors of program quality.

FIVE MAIN FACTORS

Five main factors were found to predict high employer ratings:

° intensity of vocational instruction;

° integration of theoretical and applied aspects of vocational
instruction;

° frequency of external linkages through advisory panels of

employers and ustomized training programs, as well as other
means that keep faculty abreast of developments in their field;

° quality of the placement function; and
° dissemination of "honest" program information.

Each of these aspects of program quality is briefly described in the paragraphs that follow.

Intensity of Instruction

The most important factor directly related to Program quality may be the intensity of
vocational instruction; that is, the extent to which faculty have opportunities for in-depth,
concentrated, and sustained instruction. The best-rated institutions exhibited a strong
commitment to teaching. In schools with relatively low employer ratings, instructional
intensity is frequently diluted because faculty take on additional responsibilities for
management, institutional planning, and recruitment. In other low-ranked programs, extensive
reliance on part-time faculty meant that few instructors were available beyond scheduled class
hours for consultations or discussions with students. In the best-rated schools, there were,

with the exception of curriculum planning, fewer extra assignments unrelated to instruction.

f~

28

he
C:


individuals who (a) attended community colleges, proprietary training institutions, or public
technical institutes between 1980 and 1984, (b) took at least 15 percent of their Postsecondary
credits in vocational or technical courses,“4 and (c) were no longer enrolled in postsecondary
institutions. A data set containing the complete list of all the courses taken in postsecondary
institutions by the HS&B seniors comes from the HS&B senior cohort postsecondary transcript
survey,

To assess the degree to which these individuals derived economic benefits from their
Postsecondary training, we used several outcome measures, For analyzing unemployment, we
Measured the incidence of unemployment during a 12-month period.*® The analysis included
only those individuals who were either working in the labor market or who reported that they
were out of school, unemployed, and looking for work during each month from March 1985 to
February 1986.“° To examine the extent to which employed trainees use their vocational
training in their jobs, we computed their course utilization rate. The course utilization rate is

estimated as the proportion of the trainees’ total vocational course work that is related to the

4 We excluded individuals who took less than 15 percent of their course work in

vocational education because they were most likely academic majors who took vocational
courses as incidental electives,

“© Economists argue that there are tvvo components of an individual's unemployment rate
during 4 given period: the “incidence of unemployment" (whether the individual was
unemployed at any time during ths period), and the average duration of unemployment in the
period. We use “incidence of unemployment" for two reasons, First, previous research
supports the view that it is incidence rather than duration in a given period that is the primary
cause of youth unemployment (see “Labor Turnover and Youth Unemployment," by Leighton
and Minver, in The Youth Labor Market Problem, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
Second. the High School and Beyond Survey questions the respondents on whether they were
unemployed each month in the survey period, but not on how long they were unemployed
during each month.

“* In our analysis, incidence of unemployment is a binary (0,1) variable equal to 1 if, in
March 1986, the individual reported having experienced at least one incidence of
unemployment during the previous 12 months,

54
ts


largely accounts for the enrollment growth that occurred at community and technical colleges.?°

In all other types of postsecondary institutions, about three-fourths of all students are full-

time.

Table 2.5 describes the educational characteristics of students enrolled in vocational
Programs and academic programs at various types of institutions. Vocational students are
drawn from all ability levels, but compared to four-year College students and academic
students at community colleges, vocational students are less likely to be of high ability and
more likely to be of low- and mid-level ability,

According to self-reports, a high percentage of Postsecondary vocational students
enrolled in community colleges (30 percent), public technical institutes (41 percent) and
Proprietary schools (46 percent) were also vocational students in high school (table 2.5).
Indeed, as reported in the National Assessment's Second Interim Report, the proportion of high
School "vocational students" going on to college increased rapidly in the 1970s."4 The fact that
significant numbers of high school vocasiunal students enroll in college-level vocational
Programs suggests the value of developing greater continuity between vocational curricula at
high school and postsecondary levels, a practice called articulation. This practice could result
in more thorough and advanced training at the postsecondary level.

Clearly, postsecondary vocational education is serving groups that might have difficulty
attending cc!!ese--women, minorities, students from poor and working-class families, older
students, and students of middle and lower ability. Access of special populations to
postsecondary vocational education in general does not seem to be much of a problem,
although black students remain underrepresented at four-year and two-year public institutions,
Minorities, women, and economically disadvantaged students are disproportionately enrolled in

vocational institutions that offer short-term training.

28 American Council on Education, Community College Factbook, p. 17.

4 The proportion of high school vocational education students entering postsecondary
vocational programs increased by 44 percent between the high school classes of 1972 and 1980.

24
dy


economic outcomes? and 2) Is there @ difference in economic outcomes for students who attend
different types of institutions: community colleges, public technical institutes, or private,
proprietary institutions? This section takes up each of these questions in turn, examining for
each: 1) the effect of vocational training on the incidence of unemployment; 2) the extent to
which employed trainees actually use vocational course work in their jobs (utilized credits),
and 3) how utilized credits affect earning levels.
Is There a Relationship Between the Number of Credits Trainees Take
in Their Major Vocational Subject and Their Economic Outcomes?
Incidence of Unemployment

On average, 18.9 percent of our sample of postsecondary, non-baccalaureate vocational
trainees experienced one or more spells of unemploy.xent between March 1985 and February
1986 (table 5.1), although the unemployment rate for these individuals during any given month
was about one-half of that.°° Table 5.1 shows that trainces who took few vocational credits
(12 or fewer credits) in their major subject area®! were about as likely to have experienced a
spell of unemployment as those who took a moderate amount of credits (13 to 30 credits) in
their major. The overall average, however, does not control such key exogenous and
intervening factors as the number of credits the trainees took outside their vocational major,
the amount of academic course work they took, the types of postsecondary institutions they
attended, the subject areas they pursued, their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics,
their ability level, previous job experience, local labor market conditions, and othc. factors
(see footnote 14), When these characte,istics are held constant through multiple regression

techniques, the relationship between the number of major subject credits taken and individual

£0 The unemployment rate for this sample during the month of February 1986 was 9.8
percent.

51 The major subject area is defined as the vocational subject from which the largest
share of vocational courses were taken. On average for our sample, approximately 8¢ percent
of the vocational courses were taken from the niajor subject area. We focus on the effect of
courses from the major area because we believe students exercise their choice of occupations
through their choice of the vocational major.

57


or certificate. Students may enroll to take a limited sequence of courses to enter a particular
field, or to enhance existing career skills. They may enroll to exp'ore career alternatives or to
satisfy avocational interests. This mix of educational objectives is inevitable among institutions
that offer enrollment to virtually all students who wisn to attend.

Diversity in student expectations and abilities poses a difficult problem for institutions
trying to accommodate a wide array of student needs--not just those of the traditional,
degree-seeking college student. This diversity also suggests that not all students who leave
without earning a credential can be considered dropouts or educational failures. On the other
hand, noncompletion of degree should not always be condoned under the assumption that the
student has fulfilled some alternative but equally valid educational purpose.

The main problem facing postsecondary vocational education is that many students do
not stay in school long enough to receive comprehensive training, regardless of whether they
actually earn a degree or certificate. Students without sufficient training are unlikely to obtain
jobs in the field for which they have trained. Our evidence indicates that the economic
benefits of vocational education are greatest for students who complete a multicourse sequence
of vocational training. These students obtain better-paying jobs that use their training at
greater rates than do other students. Unfortunately, a large number of students enrolled in
vocational programs earn very few credits. Among a sample of recent high school graduates,

almost half who entered less-than-baccalaureate institutions left without completing a degree or

certificate.

Low rates of program completion and limited course-taking prevail among all types of
students regardless of race, sex, economic status, or ability. However, the problem is most
serious among minorities, economically disadvantaged students, and the growing number of
high school vocational students who pursue additional postsecondary training. This limits the
extent to which such students get jobs in the fields in which they have trained and, as a

result, the wages they are paid.

96

lus


Educational Attainment Outcomes

This category includes program completion rates, continuation rates, course-taking in a
sequence, course-taking above the introductory revel, or (to encourage greater
Secondary/postsecondary “articulation") Course-taking in a tech-prep or similar type of
Program. Continu: ‘ion and completion rates can be determined at little cost by examining
existing student records, which are increasingly automated at postsecondary institutions. If
adjusted for student characteristics and length of program, these data can be used to compare
completion rates among different institutions. Such adjustments are important, for completion
rates at two-year programs should not be compared directly with those at institutions where
Programs are six months or one year in length. For equity purposes, measures of continuation,
completion, and advanced coursetaking can be adjusted to accommodate differences among
students of different races, sexes, and economic backgrounds.

Although a common measure of educational attainment, our findings suggest the
number of certificates and degrees earned has its limitations as a measure of institutional
performance. At community colleges, about 80 percent of students who enter do Not earn
these credentials. These students may engage in legitimate and valuable patterns of course-
taking without earning a degree--although obviously many students do not. Distinctions
between students who do not complete would be ignored if a state used degree completion as
the sole measure of educational attainment.

For this reason it is important to distinguish among different groups of students and to
use measures of educational attainment that are appropriate for each. For students who
indicate that they expect to earn a degree or certificate, this standard measure of educational
attainment seems most appropriate. For other students, however, alternative measures are
called for. Because our research strongly indicates that additional credits earned in one’s
vocational major increase the likelihood of finding a job in that field, credits in a major field

might serve as an alternative measure of educational attainment.

118


do have several implications for Program iraprovement. First, the chance of any positive
relationship between available equipment and program quality suggests that the extensive use
of federal program improvernent funds for equipment purchases should be reconsidered,
Second, minorities seem to be concentrated in some of the weaker training programs; as
Previously noted, minority students are also more likely to be enrolled in short-term vocational
training programs. Equitable access to high-quality programs remains a serious problem.
Finally, the basic findings about instruction, job placement, employer linkages, and the
integration of theoretical and applied training are relevant to current Suggestions for the
improvement of postsecondary vocational education. This is discussed below.
At the postsecondary level, elements of a reform agenda have begun to emerge from a
variety of sources. Possible directions for program improvement include the following:
° Performance measures to track the Progress of students while *
they are in school, to assess their competencies upon program
completion, and to follow students into the labor market to
measure placement and earnings.
° Progranis such as Two-Plus-Two or Tech-Prep are designed to
improve the continuity between vocational training at the
secondary and postsecondary levels, to make occupational training
more coherent, and to permit in-depth instruction,
(1) Increased emphasis on placement of students in jobs related to

their training, as well as certification to employers of the
competencies that students possess,

(0) Basic skills remediation more closely integrated in the vocational
program.

° Improved ties with business and the economic development
community.

There is a strong convergence between NAVE's findings, other research on effective
schools, and some of the vocational reform Proposals being touted. For example, Two-Plus-
Two and Tech-Prep are examples of secondary-postsecondary articulation S.rategies that are
intended to make occupational training more coherent and permit in-depth instruction. The
emphasis on training-related placements and linkages with the business/union/economic

development community were also Supported in this research. Various measures of student

34

45


colleges) receive 20 percent of all the aid obtained by postsecondary vocational students, while
acccunting for over 80 percent of total enrollment (table 2.2),

These differences reflect the basic rules that govern the distribution of financial aid.
Eligibility is heavily based on need, which is determined by a combination of family income
and the cost of attendance. There are also eligibility rules pertaining to enrollment status.
Proprietary schools attract a high proportion of low-income students and charge high tuition,
Moreover, a high proportion of students at two-year public colleges enroll on a part-time
basis, Nonetheless, it is clear from the distributiva of aid that although the Perkins Act
represents an extremely modest subsidy for vocational education in the public sector, student
aid represents a substantially greater federal investment in postsecondary vocational! training,

In contract to the Perkins Act, it primarily subsidizes training received in the private sectur.

STATE AND LOCAL SUPPORT FOR POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL TRAINING ’

Although most federal stucent aid received by postsecondary vocational students goes to
students attending proprietary schools, public institutions are not without large subsidies.°®
These subsidies come to community and technical colleges through state anu local
appropriations that provide for the operation of these institutions, Table 6.2 compares the
average per-student subsidy from federal student aid with the subsidy from state and local
appropriations. To equalize for differences resulting from full- and part-time enrollment, the
estimates are for full-time equivalent enrollment.

Federal student aid provides $815 per full-time student for all students enrolled in two-
year public colleges, and $2,882 for students attending proprietary schools. Student aid
accounts for 12 percent of institutional revenues at public institutions but for a much larger

share, at least 44 percent (and probably much more), at proprietary schools.

6 Since students must repay these loans, from the student’s perspective they are only
partial subsidies.

78


° One-third of all postsecondary "vocational" students take less than
12 credits in vocational subjects and 50 percent of vocational
students earn less than 24 vocational credits, Typically, 30 total
credits of academic and vocational Subjects are required for
certificate and 60 credits are needed for an associate degree,

° At community colleges, black students earn 30 percent fewer
credits than white students, and black students fail to earn a

degree or certificate at a rate 20 percent higher than white
students, ~

What Are the Outcomes for Students?

For students who accumulate substantial amounts of vocational credits or complete
Programs, ‘postsecondary vocational education Pays off in economic terms. Students who obtain
degrees or certificates, or who otherwise take a substantial amount of vocational training in
their. major field, are more likely to be employed and more likely to get a job in their ‘ield of

° Overall, about 58 percent of Postsecondary vocational course work
was related to the jobs students later obtained.

° Students who completed 30 credits in their major area were 28
percent less likely to be unemployed than students who completed

1 to 12 credits, and 14 percent more likely to get a job related to
their’ training,

© - Students with 30 vocational credits related to their job earned an
average of $7.52 per hour compared to $6.59 per hour for
students with 12 job-matched credits,

° The economic benefits of vocational training are largest for
courses taken in a student's major field or subject area.

Vocational credits taken outside the students’ major field are not
used and contribute little to earnings,

These findings stro: ly indicate the need to help students choose a field of stud: » construct a
ferent Sequence of courses in that field, complete the courses or Program, and find a related
job.

How Is Postsecondary Vocational Education Financed?

Considered together, federal and State policies of financial support to Postsecondary
vocational education accomplish two major objectives. First, both federal and state policies
Support access to postsecondary vocational education--federal policy through student aid and
foan programs, and state policy through the direct Support of public two-year colleges and
other vocational-technica, institutions, Second, federal policy supports access to the private
sector in postsecondary vocational education (mostly proprietary schools), while state and local
policy primarily supports access to public sector institutions. State and local support allows

Vili

le



PREFACE

The National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) was mandated by Congress
in the Carl D. Perkins Act of 1984 (Section 403[a]). The mandate calls for “descriptions and
evaluations" of the vocational education services delivered to special populations, the effects of
the Act in modernizing the vocational education system, the impact of vocational education on
academic skills and employment opportunities, and other topics.

The final report from the National Assessment consists of five volumes.

Volume I: Summary of Findings and Recommendations summarizes the main findings
and conclusions of the National Assessment.

Volume II: Implementation of the Perkins Act examines how the federal law was
implemented and federal funds were distributed and used under the Perkins legislation.

Volume III; Secondary Vocational Education analyzes high school vocational education
enrollments, academic achievement and employment outcomes, and recommends federal
policy.

Volume IV: Postsecondary Vocational Education analyzes postsecondary vocational
education enrollments, employment outcomes, issues of finance in relation to federal
support for vocational education, and recommends federal policy.

Volume V: Handicapped and Disadvantaged Students--Access to Quality Vocational
Education describes and analyzes the participation of handicapped and disadvantaged
students in vocational education.

These reports were based on a series of studies commissioned by the NAVE. Copies of
the NAVE reports and a list of all the contractor reports can be obtained by contacting:
NAVE-Room 3141, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington,

A distinguished panel of experts met four times to advise the National Assessment and
review drafts of the interim and final reports. The members of the panel, who gave
generously of their time and sound advice, were: Charles Benson (University of California,
Berkeley), Sue E, Berryman (Teachers College, Columbia University), James Campbell
(MISSCO Corporation), Edwin Herr (Pennsylvania State University), Dorothy Horrell (Red
Rocks Community College), James Kadamus (State Department of Education, New York),
Willis McCleod (Petersbr:g Public Schools), Milbrey McLaughlin (Stanford University), Daniel
Morley (State Street Bank and Trust Company), William Morrill (Math Tech, Inc.), Lawrence
Palmer (Cornell University), Robert Scot (North Carolina System of Community Colleges), and
David Wise (Harvard University).

NAVE staff began to implement the National Assessment in January 1987, after the
study plan was reviewed by congressional staff members in both the House and Senate
education committees. The key staff members were Lana Muraskin, David Goodwin, Robert
Meyer, and Dorothy Shuler. Specific acknowledgments of all staff and contractor contributions
to the final reports are contained in each of the reports.



Public Information

We also found that the kind of information schools disseminate about their programs is
closely related to employers’ measures of program quality. Schools try to attract students
through a variety of means ranging from <outine distribution of descriptive information to
high school students, to multimedia high profile presentations targeted at different segments of
the public and the employer community. Since schools have moved heavily into the field of
customized training, employers themselves are increasingly exposed to information about
different vocational training programs.

’ The study found wide variation in the content and reliability of the information schools
provided about their programs. Some schools responded to requests with descriptive
information about courses and schedules. Others used all the classic tools of market analysis to
deliver their message--segmentation, targeting, penetration, and market share. Marketing
studies provided valuable information on the types of students attracted to the school.
Sometimes this information trickled down to affect program planning and curriculum decisions.

Some schools provided primarily factual information relating to costs of enrollment,
length of program, fields of study, graduation requirement, and prospective fields of post-
school employment. Other schools went considerably further by making claims about future
employment and salaries, Programs in schools making those kinds of claims, particularly where
they were apparently undocumented, were not nearly as highly rated by employers as were
programs in schools that provided more factual information. Because institutions disseminate
much information to the public about their performance, and it is often of questionable
quality, there may be a federal policy interest in improving the quality of public information
about a program's capabilities and track record. (This is discussed in Chapter 7, "Conclusions

and Recommendations.")

31

tee


vocational institutions. This suggests that pre-employment training in job-related skills lowers
the incidence of job change because it may substitute for on-the-job training in job-related
skills.

Other factors may contrihute to this inverse relationship. Employers may reward
workers who have acquired many job-related skills with more on-the-job training than their
less trained counterparts.°° This additional on-the-job training may provide those who are
better trained with a greater incentive to stay in their jobs.”

As discussed above, students with more vocational credits in their major subject not
only suffer from less unemployme:t; they also use more of their credits in their jobs. How
can we explain this positive relationship between the number of vocational credits taken in the
major subject area and the rate at which vocational credits are utilized? First, individuals
with larger investments in occup tionally specific training have a greater incentive to find
training-related jobs than those with smaller investments. This is because postsecondary
training is a costly investment for individuals who could otherwise be employed full-time in
the labor market. Individuals who undertake the investment in postsecondary vocational
training expect that they will benefit from higher wages (and perhaps greater job satisfaction)
if they are able to use the occupationally specific skills they acquired in postsecondary
institutions.

On the demand side, employers may establish skill requirements for particular jobs and
would more likely hire applicants who meet or approach these skill requirements than those
who do not. Moreover, employers may provide better-trained individuals with greater
opportunities to use their skills. Finally, employers may prefer to hire trainees with higher

e

y

5€ Perhaps employers provide better prepared workers with more on-the-job training
because higher levels of occupational training signals employers that the workers are more
motivated, or because individuals with more pre-service occupational training are more capable
of benefitting from on-the-job specific training.

57 Another reason why a higher level of occupationally specific training is associated with

a lower incidence of unemployment is that employers may be more willing to initially hire and
subsequently retain workers with a higher level of occupationally specific skills.

63


CHAPTER 6
FEDERAL FINANCING OF POSTSECONDARY TRAINING:
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT AID AND
POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION

As mentioned earlier, current federal vocational education policy has two major goals:
increasing access to vocational programs for students with special educational needs and
improving the quality of vocational education programs for all students to ensure the supply of
well-trained and productive workers. The federal government has two general types of policy
instruments availak’ > achieve these goals. The first is “supply-oriented" and provides direct
grants to institutions that meet certain federal statutory and regulatory requirements, the
Perkins Vocational Education Act represents the main supply-oriented approach to federal
vocational education policy. The second is "demand-oriented" (student aid) and provides grants
and loans to students seeking to participate in postsecondary education, including those in
vocational programs.”*

Although both student aid and direct federal funding for postsecondary vocational
education are designed to make postsecondary education more accessible for students who are
underrepresented in the postsecondary sector, the means by which these objectives are pursued
are quite different. Student aid policy seeks to increase access by providing money to students
who lack sufficient resources to attend the school of their choice. Vocational education policy
directly intervenes in the delivery of vocational education to increase access by legislating goals
and distributing resources to schools that serve students with special education needs, including
disadvantaged and handicapped persons and adults who need training. Financial aid policy
focuses on removing financial barriers to postsecondary education, but has not been designed

to achieve enrollment objectives for groups other than those in economic need.

65 Results on student aid are based on John Tuma, Antoinette Gifford, and Susan Choy,
Student Financial Aid and Postsecondary Vocational Education, NAVE Contractor Report
(Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates, 1989).

73

Le 6)


DOCUNENT RESUME

ED 317 661 CE 053 875

AUTHOR Goodwin, David

TITLE Postsecondary Vocational Education. National
Assessment of Vocational Education Final Report.
Volume IV.

INSTITUTION National Assessment of Vocational Education (ED),
Washington, DC.

PUB DATE 89

NOTE 148p.; For relatea documents, see ED 283 020, ED 290

881, ED 299 412, ED 297 150, ED 315 513-535, ED 315
536-549, and CE 053 873-876. Volume III has not yet
been published.

AVAILABLE FROM NAVE Room 3141, U.S. Department of Education, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202.

PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143)
EDRS PRICE MFO1/PC06 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS *Academic Persistence; Access to Fducation;

Compliance (Legal); Disabilities; Disadvantaged
Youth; Educational Improvements Educational Policy;
*Education Work Relationship; Exceptional Persons;
*Federal Legislation; Federal State Relationship; Job
Training; Policy Formation; Postsecondary Education;
*Program Effectiveness; *Program Implementation;

Program Improvement; Two Year Colleges; *Vocational
Education

IDENTIFIERS *Carl D Perkins Vocational Education Act 1984;
National Assessment of Vocational Education

ABSTRACT

The National Assessment of Vocational Education
(NAVE) examined how the federal law was implemented and federal funds
were distributed under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act
of 1984. This part of the study examined the federal role in
supporting vocational education at the postsecondary level. It
examines enrollments, course-taking, educational attainments, and
labor market outcomes associated with postsecondary vocat: :nal
education. It compares different groups of students at va ious types
of institutions and considers the relationship between the act and
other policies, both federal and state, that also finance
postsecondary vocational education. The study found thar
postsecondary education is a growing enterprise that is central to
the educational mission of less-than-baccalaureate institutions.
There are 4.3 million vocational students at these schools. The major
problem facing postsecondary vocationa’. education is that many
students do not stay in school long enough to receive in-depth
training. For students wh~ accumulate substantial amounts of
vocational credits or complete programs, postsecondary vocational
education pays off in economic terms. These findings strongly
indicate the need to help students choose a field of study, complete
the program, and find a related job. Perkins Act support of
Postsecondary education is low compared to state and local support.
Federal policy in postsecondary vocational education should aim to
improve rates of program completion and placement in related jubs, to
Provide special assistance to at-risk populations, and to improve the
transition from secondary to postsecondary vocational education.
(Ke)


years, Although some students remaining in school after four
years will go on to earn degrees, the majority of these students
will ultimately drop out. Consequently, these estimates of non-
completion must be considered conservative, ,
° A comparison of the community college experience of two
different high school classes (1972 and 1980) indicates that
noncompletions for the class of 1980 increased by 40 percent over
those for the class of 1972. Over the same period, the proportion
of students awarded two-year associate degrees declined by 17
percent, There was virtually no change in the percentage of
Students receiving certificates, which require shorter training.

Noncompletion is an institution-wide problem that affects students who concentrate in
both vocational and academic fields. However, because less-than-baccalaureate institutions are
largely, if not predominantly, vocational in the education they provide, it is appropriate that
vocational education policy address the noncompletion matter.

The problem of noncomple.ion and limited training exists among all groups of students,
but it is significantly worse for minorities and disadvantaged students.

° At community colleges, black students earn 30 percent fewer
credits than white students and fail to earn a degree or certificate
at a rate 20 percent higher. Fifty-one percent of black students
who enter community colleges leave before completing their
program. Hispanic students average 16 percent fewer total credits
than white students, although they earn degrees at about the same
rate. Dropout rates are significantly higher for the most
economically disadvantaged students and their credits earned,
both ¢ -* und vocational, are much less than those earned by
more —_. ue:it_ students.

° Significant differences in noncompletion also exist among groups
of students at public technical colleges and proprietary schools.
At proprietary schools, black students leave school without a
degree or certificate at a rate 40 percent higher than that of
white students and, at public technical institutes, black non-
completions are 23 percent higher than those of white students.
Similar differences exist among students from different socio-
economic backgrounds.

Although high school vocational students often continue their training at the
postsecondary level, this group frequently experiences difficulty completing postsecondary
Programs. There is both considerable need and opportunity to assist these students in making

a successful transition from secondary to postsecondary vocational education.

100 | j


Agencies directly responsible for administering the postsecondary vocational education system
often play a limited role in overseeing the use of Perkins Act funds. Sometimes major
providers of postsecondary vocational training are, in effect, excluded from receiving Perkins
Act funds. The success of performance-based funding requires strong state leadership at the
postsecondary level, which the current Act does not always facilitate.

We recommend that the governor of each state designate a "lead" agency to develop and
administer the postsecondary performance information and performance-based funding system.
We prefer that the choice be made so as to tie decisions about resource allocation to meeting
the state’s job training and economic development needs. The designated agency should be
required to state publicly which types of institutions (community colleges, postsecondary
vocational-technical schools, technical colleges, school district adult education programs, area
vocational schools, etc.) are eligible to receive federal vocational education funds. Public
disclosure will make decisions to exclude certain types of institutions more difficult.

Performance incentives will be most effective when applied to a broad range of
vocational training institutions. However, community colleges may differ from technical
colleges and vocational-technical schools in their aoproach to vocational training so much
(especially in requirements for academic course work) that one set of performance measures
could effectively exclude one type of institution or the other from receiving federal funds.!°
Therefore, we recommend that the designated state ageucy should be permitted to allot
separate pools of money to different types of institutions in relation to their full-time-
equivalent enrollment in vocational courses that carry credit toward a degree or certificate.
Vocational training institutions of a similar type would then be rated jointly on performance,

and their allotted pool of resources distributed accordingly. It is preferable that states

108 For example, a state funding formula that placed heavy emphasis on academic skills
and relatively little emphasis on specific occupational competencies would implicitly favor
community colleges, where 70 percent of the course work is in academic subjects. Conversely,
if occupational competencies were the only learning outcomes valued, more narrowly focused
vocational and technical institutions would benefit.

123

13%


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people contributed to this study of vocational education at the postsecondary
level. When all contractor reports and consultant papers are published by the National
Assessment, the full extent to which their ideas, conclusions, and findings shaped this study
will be completely revealed.

Norton Grubb of MPR Associates did the major work on postsecondary enrollments
and program completions, Gary Hoachlander, Susan Choy, and Cynthia Brown, also of MPR
Associates, conducted extensive field work as part of a study of performance-based policy
options in postsecondary vocational education. In the area of performance-based policy,
various issues of measurement and policy design were addressed through excellent papers
prepared by Stephen Barro (SMB, Inc.), Erik Butler (Brandeis University), Charles Manski
(University of Wisconsin), David Stevens (University of Missouri), and David Stern (University
of California, Berkeley).

A study of effective institutional practices was directed by Rocco DePietro of the
Industrial Technology Institute. James Jacobs, Louis Tornatzky, Michael Wood, Beverly
Ostrowiecki, and Mary Servais played major roles throughout the study.

Robin Horn of Decision Resources Corporation analyzed placement rates and earnings
of students participating in postsecondary vocational training. John Tuma, Antoinette Gifford
and Susan Choy of MPR Associates examined the role of student financial aid in postsecondary
vocational education.

I would like to thank the entire NAVE staff--John Wirt, Robert Meyer, Lana Muraskin
and Dorothy Shuler. From the beginning of the study, each helped identify the salient issues
to be addressed, reviewed technical reports, and provided abundant comments on earlier drafts
of this document. Members of NAVE's Advisory Panel also reviewed the report and offered
sound advice. Priscilla Taylor edited the report and Adrienne von Glatz supervised preparation
of the report for publication.

Although this report relies heavily on the work of others, as always, the author bears
full responsibility for all facts and conclusions.

David Goodwin


° Among students entering community colleges, 54 percent of those
who were high school vocational students leave without earning a
degree or certificate.
What Are the Economic Benefits of Postsecondary Vocational Training?

Students take postsecondary vocational training for a variety of reasons, but by far the
most important purpose is to obtain economic benefits. Students expect that vocational
training will increase their employability, help them to get a job in their chosen career field,
and of course, enhance their earnings. To determine whether such benefits are realized,
NAVE examined a nationally representative sample of students from the high school class of
1980 who obtained vocational training at community colleges, public technical institutes, and
proprietary schools, and who were no longer enrolled in college. We examined the economic
status of students who had taken different types and amounts of vocational training about 5
1/2 years following high school graduation. Overall, about 19 percent of the students were
unemployed at least once over the course of a year (from March 1985 to February 1986), with
ahout 9 percent unemployed in any particular month. About 58 percent of the vocational
course work that students took was later used by students who got jobs related to their
training, and the average hourly wage rate of those employed was $6.67.

The degree to which students benefit from vocational training depends on the amount
of training received and the coherence of the program taken. Students who take large amounts
of vocational training in their major subject area are more likely to be employed and are more
likely to be employed in their field of training than students who take small amounts of
vocational training in their major subject. Students who obtain degrees or certificates, or who
otherwise take a substantial amount of vocational training, are at a substantial advantage in
entering the labor market. At the same time, students with limited training have poorer labor
market outcomes.

° Compared with students taking many vocational credits in their

major area (30 to 49 credits), those with less than 12 vocational

credits are 28 percent more likely to be unemployed and are 14
percent less likely to get a job that uses their vecational training.

101

dis


about 67 percent of vocational students are in community colleges, 14 percent are in technical
colleges, 6 percent ace in public vocational schools, and 13 percent are in proprietary schools.!8
Based on enrollments, community colleges are the major providers of vocational training. A
large matority of their students seek occupational training. This is a role that they are not
always comfortable in acknowledging.

Another way to consider "where postsecondary vocational education is taught” is by
examining the types of credits--vocational, academic, and remedial--earned by students in
different institutions. To do this it is necessary to consider the college transcript data in
HS&B Seniors, 1980, and NLS-72.

Table 2.3 indicates that community colleges account for 69 percent of all credits and
about 62 percent of all vocational credits earned by students attending less-than-baccalaureate
institutions. Twenty-three percent of vocational credits are earned by students initially
enrolled in technical institutes (technical colleges and public vocational schools), and 15 percent
of vocational credits are earned by students at proprietary schools.!® These findings are
consistent with previous results on program enrollments (table 2.2).

Table 2.3 also shows that the three types of institutions differ sharply in the proportion
of their total curriculum that is vocational. At community colleges, a majority of the credits
are taken in academic subjects. Even students concentrating in vocational areas (which are the
majority of students) take a substantial share of their course work in academic fields. In
contrast, students attending technical and proprietary schools take about 70 percent of their
courses in vocational subjects. Their academic course work is substantially smaller.

Some types of institutions emphasize remedial course work more than others. Remedial

subjects account for 6.5 percent of the credits earned at community colleges. This figure

18 NPSAS indicates that the proportion of total vocational enrollments in public vocational
schools is only 3 percent, and the proportion in proprietary schools is 14 percent.

19 This could underestimate the share of credits of proprietary schools. Many transcripts.
particularly those from proprietary schools, contain missing information on credits earned.
Missing information could result in lower estimates of total proprietary school credits.

19

Qo


rn

Student aid and state and local appropriations pay for different types of educational
costs, For students attending public two-year colleges, a large share of student aid covers the
students’ living expenses. For these students, only a small portion of student aid directly
supports the educational institution. At proprietary schools, however, most student aid goes to
the institution to cover tuition. In contrast, virtually the entire state and local appropriation is
used by the educational institution for operating expenses. The figures in table 6.2 reflect
only aid retained by the institution for tuition and fees.

A similar pattern exists among four-year institutions, with public sector institutions
receiving their revenues largely from: state and local sources and private institutions receiving
much larger subsidies through the federal student aid program. In effect a division of labor
exists: federal policy provides benefits to the private sector, while state and local resources are
allocated almost entirely to public institutions. Although the remainder of this discussion
focuses on student aid, it should be rememtfred that the state and local contribution to

postsecondary training is substantial.

ROLE OF STUDENT AID IN FINANCING VOCATIONAL TRAINING

This section explores the distribution of financial aid to students in different
institutions and the extent to which aid enables students to pay the cost of obtaining vocational
training.

Almost half of all postsecondary students enrolled in October 1986--45 percent--
received some financial aid (table 6.3). The fraction of students receiving aid, however, varied
greatly by type of institution. Students attending higher cost proprietary schools ‘were much
more likely to receive aid (84 percent) than s‘udents at lower cost public two-year colleges (28
percent) or public vocational schools (52 percent). ‘

The income level of students and the costs associated with different institutions are two
major factors affecting the probability of receiving aid, as will be discussed later. An

additional factor unrelated to the rules that govern eligibility for student aid is the type of

80


METHODS

The primary data source used for this analysis of student aid is the National
Postsecondary Study Aid Survey (NPSAS). It contains data collected during the 1986-87
academic year for 32,500 undergraduates enrolled in October 1986, Because NPSAS represents ;
a cross section of all students enrolled, it includes data on older students enrolled in retraining
programs as well as cuore traditional students who enter college soon after high school.
Although the sample of students in NPSAS is weighted to be representative of all students
enrolled in fall 1986, many vocational students are enrolled in programs that do not correspond
to the academic school year, Training programs may last 10 or 15 weeks; then a new group of
students will enter the program. As a result, although iWPSAS data are an accurate reflection
of all students enrolled in fall 1986, the data substantially underestimate the annual enrollment
of students in programs that operate on a nonstandard term. This particularly affects students
in proprietary, vocational, and public two-year institutions (in NPSAS, the category "public

wo-year institutions" includes ¢ mmunity and technical colleges).

TOTAL AMOUNT OF FEDERAL STUDENT AID TO VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Federal aid consists of two basic types of financial aid programs, portable and campus-
based. Portable programs include the largest federal aid programs--Pell Grants and Stafford
Loans (formerly Guaranteed Student Loans). Portable aid follows the students regardless of
which institution they choose to attend, or whether they choose to pursue a vocational or
academic course of study. Campus-based aid--the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants
(SECG), College Work-Study, and Perkins Act Loans (formerly the National Direct Student
Loan)--is distributed to institutions by formula; the institutions then make decisions about
which students will receive aid from these programs, based on criteria established by Congress.
The Pell and Stafford programs are by far the largest aid programs, so students who receive

federal aid are much more dependent on portable aid than on campus-based aid.

15
on


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Postsecondary vocational education has three main purposes, each of which is reflected
in the Carl D, Perkins Vocational Education Act:

1, Postsecondary vocational education provides students with
occupational skill training that helps them to get better jobs.

2. Enhanced occupational skills improve the productivity of the
work force and thereby contribute to economic development.

3. Postsecondary vocational training can attract students to college
who might not otherwise go.

Since Volume II of the National Assessment's final report focuses on the Perkins Act,
the purpose of this report is to consider the larger context within which postsecondary
vocational education occurs. More than one-third of all undergraduate students major in
vocational fields. Training is available from many different types of educational institutions in
the public and private sectors. Other federal and state programs provide substantially greater
subsidies to vocational education than are obtained from the Perkins Act. Accordingly, this
report considers the federal role in postsecondary vocational education within the framework of
student participation, student outcomes, institutional differences, and other federal (particularly

student aid) ...u svate support.

EXPANSION OF POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Postsecondary vocational education is provided in a variety of settings. This report
focuses on education that occurs in formal degree- or certificate-granting institutions such as
community colleges, technical institutes, and proprietary schools, where the programs of study
generally lead to a degree or certificate. Some students may also take specific training courses

designed for clients in industry, the military, or the employment and training field.2 These

1 We focus on these institutions because, with the exception of proprietary schools, this is
where the Perkins Act money is distributed. _Proprietary schools are major recipients of other
federal education resources, mainly student ad.

2 NAVE's surveys indicate that these secondary sources do not now provide a large share
of all students, but that their share of enrollments is expected to grow.

Ly


student's race or socioeconomic background, so too should community colleges and public
technical institutes be able to raise the performance of their least advantaged students.

Equitable access to high-quality education continues to be a serious problem.

COMPLETION RATES IN POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Students may enroll in postsecondary vocational programs for many reasons. Some take
only a few courses to satisfy certain job-related or avocational objectives and still others enroll
to explore different career alternatives or to gain career information. Finally, some students
enroll to earn a certificate or an associate degree or to prepare to earn a bachelor’s degree,

Student expectations are important, for limited expectations may be easily satisfied by
minimal amounts of postsecondary education. If a postsecondary institution attracts students
with minimal educational aspirations, the fact that few students earn degrees would be
understandable and acceptable.

Most students who enroll at less-than-baccalaureate institutions plan to earn a degree or
certificate. Table 4.4 shows the educational aspirations of high school seniors who
subsequently enrolled in a community college, public technical institute, or proprietary school.
More than 90 percent of *he students aspired to obtain a college degree or certificate; 42
percent-wanted to earn an associate degree, and 25 percent sought a certificate.54 Despite the
many possible reasons that students may enroll in postsecondary vocational Programs, the vast
majority of students hope to earn a college degree or vocational certificate. Thus, whether
these students obtain a postsecondary degree or certificate, or leave school without one, is a
meaningful measure of their educational attainment.

Table 4.5 shows rates of completion and noncompletion of course work for students

who, after high school graduation, entered community colleges, public technical institutes, and

84 Estimates of postsecondary expectations anc’ of completion status are drawn from the
HS&B Seniors, 1980, data. As previously noted, postsecondary transcripts are limited to high
school graduates from the class of 1980 who enrolled in postsecondary education within four
years after high school graduation. The sample does not include adult students, who might
have very different educational expectations.

44


Table 6.6
Characteristics of Students Receiving Federal Aid, 1986

’

All Postsecondary Public Public Proprietary

Characteristic Institutions’ Two-Year Vocational School
Sex

Male 34% 20% 32% 80%

Female 36 23 50 81
Age

Less than 23 39 23 41 80

24-29 34 23 51 89

30+ 25 19 34 74
Race/ethnicity

White 32 20 44 15

Black 56 30 43 92

Hispanic 4! 25 33 87
Personal income

Less than $11,000 61 48 61 94

$11,000-$22,999 50 28 43 87

$23,000-$29,999 40 23 39 82

$30,000-$49,999 20 9 33 69

$50,000+ 15 5 32 55
Enrollment status

Full-time 47 38 53 82

Part-time 14 10 14 72

SOURCE: NPSAS, 1986.

a/ Total is for all students receiving federal aid, including those at four-year institutions.

public college (48 percent). These differences can be attributed largely but not entirely to the
costs of attending different types of institutions.

Family income is also related to the 2mount of federal aid awarded to students. Within
each type of institution (table 6.7), students from lower income families receive more federal
aid than those from higher income families. The differences are surprisingly small, however,

in the amount of aid awarded studenis of varying income levels. At two-year public colleges,

87

Luu


Sew,

For trainees who studied exclusively in proprietary schools it was 26.3 percent. The
regression-adjusted means show a similar pattern. Specifically, the regression equation predicts
that 16.5 percent of the public technical institute trainees, 18.9 percent of community college
trainees, and 27.7 percent of the proprietary school trainees should have experienced
unemployment during some part of the 12-month period under examination. After controlling
\gor differences in student characteristics and other individual and community-level factors,
among those who tovk 30 credits of postsecondary training, those who attended proprietary

institutions are significantly mors likely to experience unemployment than students who

attended community colleges.°°

These mean values for institution type do not tell the whole story, however. In
particular, the relationship between type of institution and incidence of unemployment may
depend on the number of credits in the major subject area that students take within each
institution, Table 5.2 shows that community college and public technical institute trainees with
a high level of vocational course work taken in the major subject area experienced a lower
incidence of unemployment than trainees from those institutions with a low level of vocational
course work (7.6 points lower for community college s*sdents and 5.5 points lower for public
technical institute students).

Additional credits taken by individuals who only enrolled in a proprietary school did
not appear to reduce the incidence cf unemployment, however. This result may be explained
by the fact that proprietary school programs are mostly fixed at one year in length and hence

have less variation in total course work than, say, community or technical college programs.

®0 Taking into account both the type of institution attended and the number of credits
taken on average by students who attended that type institution, the incidence of
unemployment was significantly higher, at p. < 05%, for proprietary school students compared
to community college students.

®1 To simplify the discussion of the effect on unemployment of the number of courses
taken by institution type, we only discuss the regression adjusted means.

65

18)

fy


Table 2.5

Educational Characteristics of Students in
Postsecondary Vocational Education

—

Community Colleaes Public
Student Four-Year Academic Vocational Technical

Characteristics Institutions Students Students _Institutes Proprietary
Abitity®/
Low 7.1% 17.8% 22.4% 25.9% 28.7%
Middle 44.5 55.9 59.5 62.5 57.0
High 48.4 rand He —LL6 14.3
100.0 100.0 190.0 100.0 100.0
High School Program’
Academic 68.9 38.5 31.9 22.0 26.0
Vocational 78 17.4 29.7 41.2 459
Genera! 23.3 441 38.4 26.8 28.1
; 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

a/ Ability is measured by a test of verbal and math skills administered to students in high
school, High school program is based on student self-reports about major field of

study.

b/ Numbers may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

Despite the broad access to postsecondary vocational education enjoyed by most groups,

there could be differences in access to fields of study and to the highest-quality institutions

within a given sector. Table 2.6 describes the vocational majors chosen by different kinds of

students. Business and marketing, health, occupational home economics, trades and industry,

technical and engineering, education and public service account for 98 percent of all vocational

enrollments. The results in table 2.6 indicate virtually no differences in occupational fields of

study by race, family income, or age.

25


Table 4.1

Distribution of Postsecondary Students by Number of Total
Credits Earned and by Number of Vocational Credits Earned

Percentage of Students in Institutional Sector

Public
Technical Proprietary
1 Institutes —Schools_
Vocational Credits
Number of Total Vocational Total Vocational _Total Vocational
Credits Credits All Concen- Credits Credits Credits Credits
Earned Earned Students _trators’ Earned Earned Earned Earned
0-12 31.3% 68.1% 36.1% 23.9% 33.0% 17.0% 28.2%
13-24 18.1 15.5 16,7 15.7 14.8 8.3 19.4
25-36 9.3 19 14.1 14.6 14.8 16.0 14.6
37-48 12,0 5.6 16.7 69 16.8 21.4 15.5
49-60 11.6 19 19 12.5 1.8 12.5 17
61+ 17.7 1.0 8.5 26.4 89 24.7 14.6
Average Number
of credits
earned 48.7 17.8 25.9 45.5 26.8 42.0 25.1
SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.
a/ Vocational concentrators are defined here as students with at least 50 percent of their

credits in vocational subjects.

community colleges earned the same number of vocational Credits (26), as students at other
types of institutions,

Community colleges are comprehensive institutions that enroll students with both
voc, tional and academic interests and require students, including those in vocational fields, to
meet academic distribution requirements. Technical institutes and proprietary schools are

dedicated to occupational training exclusively, and course-taking requirements reflect this

38

Gre
ra


nonfederal resources for projects to improve the quality of vocational education.8® Nor do
other federal and state policies, which base funding on enrollments, adequately address the
serious problems of limited cuurse-taking, low completion rates, and lack of placement in jobs

related to training.

Recommendation

We recommend that states use the Perkins Act funds they direct to postsecondary
vocational education to develop a system of performance-based incentives. This system would
use indicators developed by states and keyed to three areas of performance: educational
attainments (e.g., program completions, advanced course-taxing), occupational competencies,
and labor market outcomes (e.g., employment, earnings). We recommend two specific
mechanisms to encourage improvement: dissemination of information to students,
policymakers, employers, and the public on the performance of vocational education training
institutions; and distribution of federal vocational education funds to institutions in accordance
with state-developed performance formulas.

Performance incentives would replace the current emphasis on inputs and process in the
Perkins Act with financial incentives based on student outcomes. The change would shift the
emphasis in federal policy from compliance with rules for spending funds to obtaining better
results for students; induce vocational educators to use more of their state and local
resources--not just the small amounts provided by the federal government--in ways that
enhance student performance; and create incentives affecting all postsecondary institutions, not

just those receiving federal grants in one of the Perkins Act categories.

How Performance Incentives Can Improve Vocational Education
All performance incentive systems share two basic features: a central role for measures

or indicators of how well or poorly the suppliers of vocational education perform; and a

88 For a discussion on the additivity of federal funds, see Volume I of NAVE’s final
report on the Implementation of the Carl Perkins Act.

109

12:


Race and socioeconomic background are important factors in educational attainment,
particularly for students at community colleges and public technical institutes. At community
colleges, black students average 30 percent fewer total credits than do white students, and
Hispanics average 16 percent fewer credits (table 4.3). Black students earn 39 percent fewer
vocational credits than white students, and Hispanic students earn 26 percent fewer vocational
credits. “

At public technical institutes there are also major differences in attainment by race.
Blacks earn 25 percent fewer total credits than whites and 33 percent fewer vocational credits
(table 4.3); Hispanics earn 21 percent fewer total credits and 14 percent fewer vocational
credits,

Because race and socioeconomic background are closely related, it is not surprising that
students with low socioeconomic status (SES) at community colleges and public technical
institutes also have lower levels of attainment, overall and in vocational subjects, than students
from more advantaged backgrounds. As table 4.3 shows, community college students in the
bottom two quartiles of socioeconomic status average nearly 30 percent fewer total credits and
20 percent fewer vocational credits than more affluent students. At public technical institutes,
low SES students also earn fewer credits than do other students. These findings represent
substantial differences by r‘.ce and socioeconomic background. If quality is, in part, measured
by the depth of instruction, this pattern raises serious questions about the quality of education
that minority and disadvantaged students obtain.

In proprietary schools, however, there are no significant differences among students of
different races and socioeconomic background in the quantity of total credits and vocational
credits earned (table 4,3)" ‘This pattern differs from that found in community colleges and
public technical institutes. The implication seems clear. If proprietary schools, enrolling large

numbers of poor and minority students, can produce results that are not conditioned by a

83 We did find, however, that there are significant differences in the rates at which black
and white students attending proprietary schoois complete their programs.

43

ue


APPENDIX A
CLASSIFICATION OF POSTSECONDARY COURSES

14):


focus. Thus, although students average the same amount of total education at these
institutions, differences in the amount of vocational credits reflect institutional goals.

Within each type of institution, there are substantial differences among students in the
level of educational attainment. Some students earn many credits, but a substantial number of
students earn very few credits either overall or in vocational subjects. Table 4.1 shows the
distribution of credits earned: by students enrolled in different postsecondary institutions.>? At
community colleges, almost one-third of all students earn fewer than 12 total credits and half
the students who enter earn fewer than 24 credits. Those earning more than 61 credits are
primarily students who transfer to four-year colleges.

Although three out of four students in the NPSAS data (table 2.2) reported majoring in
vocational fields, 68 percent of the students at community colleges earn fewer than 12 credits
in vocational subjects, and 84 percent earn fewer than 24 total vocational credits. Even
vocational "concentrators" take relatively small amounts of vocational course work; 36 percent
of the vocational concentrators at community colleges earn fewer than 12 credits in vocational
subjects, and 53 percent earn fewer than 24 total vocational credits. This pattern raises serious
questions about the intensity of training received by vocational students at community
colleges--which NAVE’s study of effective postsecondary institutions indicates is an important
dimension of program quality. Because community colleges are the largest source of vocational
training, providing 61 percent of all vocational credits (see table 2.3), the pattern of course-
taking among their students is important in assessing the overall status of postsecondary
vocational education.

The pattern of total course-taking at public technical institutes and proprietary schools
differs from that in community colleges. Whereas 49.4 percent of community college students

earn fewer tian 24 total credits, at technical institutes 39.4 percent earn fewer than 24 credits,

82 Some transcripts, especially those from proprietary schools, reported clock hours per
course rather than credits. Using a standard algorithm, we converted clock hours to equivalent
credit hours.

39

2

ar
C


Wage Differences

Table 5.4 shows that the unadjusted mean wa; for community college trainees was
$7.03 per hour, for public technical institute trainees $5.74 per hour, and for proprietary
school trainees it was $8.59 per hour. But the regression-adjusted means show little
Statistically significant differences in the wages received by individuals trained in each of the
institution types. There is one exception: public technical institute trainees earned
significantly less on average than community college and proprietary school trainees, Although
the adjusted mean wage for proprietary school trainees reported in table 5.4 appears higher

than the adjusted mean wage for community college trainees, the difference is not Statistically

significant,

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Our analysis of the relationship between the amount of postsecondary vocational
training that individuals take and the economic benefits they subsequently receive yields two

important findings.

t) Trainees who derive the greatest benefits take many vocational
courses in a coherent program of occupational-based studies and
find jobs that utilize their training. Compared to these
individuals, those who take few courses in a single subject area,
or who spread their training across multiple vocational majors,
are more likely to experience unemployment and less likely to
utilize their training on the jobs they find. Moreover, those who
do utilize their training earn higher wages,

c Additional courses taken outside the vocational major, perhaps

valuable to students in other ways, do not increase the economic

benefits derived from a given level of vocational training.
These findings suggest that students at less-than-baccalaureate institutions could obtain
significant economic payoffs from engaging in further training. Schools might encourage this
by public information campaigns, counselling, or incentive Programs to encourage students who
enter into postsecondary vocational programs to take a coordinated program of vocational
studies and to pursue their studies long enough to complete them. Further, considering the

wage benefits associated with job-related vocational course work, institutions should provide

68


Takis $2

Average Public Subsidies for Postsecondary Education Per
Full-Time Equivalent Student

Four-Year Four-Year Two-Year Proprietary

Source of Funding Public Private Public School
Federal student aid $1,543 $3,980 $ 815 $ 2,882
Percentage of total revenues 14% 30% 12% 4aye/
State and local appropriations $5,437 $ 165 $3,050 $ 55
Percentage of total revenues 50% 1% 65% 1%

SOURCE: NPSAS, fall 1986, and National Center for Education Statistics, 1988, State Higher

NOTE:

Education Profiles, p. 25.

This table does not include all public subsidies, Specifically excluded are federal
grants and contracts for research and other purposes, as well as gifts and endowments
that benefit from favorable tax provisions. Such subsidies are primarily of benefit to
four-year colleges. Also, the estimate for student aid is based on all students
enrolled, not just those receiving aid. In four-year public and community colleges,
where average aid exceeds the cost of tuition and fees, the excess is assumed to be
used for living expenses, and is not counted in determining the "percent of total
revenues,

Due to serious limitations in the data on proprietary school revenues, it is probable
that this significantly underestimates the percentage of proprietary school revenues
covered by student aid.

The substantial federal student aid to proprietary school (52,882) students is balanced

by an equivalent state and local government subsidy for students enrolled in public institutions

($3,050). Two-year public colleges obtain 65 percent of their total revenue from state and

local appropriations. Proprietary schools receive virtually no support from state and local

governmen

70

%0 Proprietary school students may be eligible for financial aid under state programs.

79

92


OTHER KEY FINDINGS
Equipment
One of the study's significant findings was the limited role that equipment plays, both
its quality and quantity, in explaining program quality. Because about 60 percent of the
Perkins Act program improvement money is spent on equipment purchases, it is reasonable to
assume that educators think it is an important way to enhance program quality.” For each
program in our sample, the adequacy of equipment was rated according to the amount
available relative to enrollment, and the extent to which it represented current technology in
the field. “Adequacy of equipment" did not emerge as a strong independent predictor of
program quality.
There are two possible interpretations:
° Equipment may be less important than is widely thought.
Although a great deal of Perkins Act resources are spent for this
item, schools may simply find it easier to account for federal
funds through equipment purchases than to make other
improvements that involve structural Changes (see Volume II of
NAVE Final Report, /mplementation of the Perkins Act).
° Equipment may be important, but because programs have
acquired a considerable amount of equipment over the years,
there was no measurable difference between high- and low-
quality schools on this dimension. After basic equipment needs
met, what is most important is the manner in which

ment is used--to teach students specific skills and to create
an atmosphere that simulates the actual work environment,

Minority Enrollment
One important finding was that minorities were underrepresent2d in programs with

Organizational attributes that were predictive of high employer ratings. Programs with high

” Figures on the use of Perkins Act money for equipment purchases are from the .
Implementation of the Carl Perkins Act, National Assessment of Vocational Education, Final
Report, Volume II, 1989.

32


groups and, under a performance-based system, institutions that serve special populations
effectively should receive special rewards. To ensure that this occurs, federal policy should
require that state systems adjust for non-performance factors (chiefly, the characteristics of
students served and labor market conditions), reward both program improvement and "value
added," and provide substantial additional weight in funding formulas for performance of
students in special population categories. Each of these topics is discussed in this section.

To ensure that the performance of institutions is compared fairly, states should be
required to adjust for factors that affect outcomes but are outside the control of vocational
educators. Two of the most important of these factors are local labor market conditions and
student background characteristics. In the JTPA program, adjustment models developed by the
Department of Labor have resulted in increased services to various at-risk client groups.
Recent findings indicate that service delivery areas (SDAs) using the Department of Labor
model to adjust performance standards served 7.7 percent more welfare recipients and 3.8
percent more school dropouts than SDAs that did not use the adjustment model,!02

It is important that incentives be designed so that all postsecondary training institutions,
not simply those whose students perform best, make an effort to compete for performance-
based rewards. If institutions with the highest-performing students are the only ones to
receive awards, schools with low-performing students will have little incentive to improve. It
is this latter group that it is most important to influence. To ensure that relatively low-
achieving institutions are encouraged to improve and are rewarded, a substantial portion of the
performance-based funding formula should be tied to measures of institutional improvement in
placement, student earnings, completions, occupationai competency, or "value added" increases
in student learning from entry to exit. On these criteria, schools with low-achieving students

are capable of competing equally with schools’ that enroll better-prepared students.

101 National Commission for Employment Policy, JTPA Performance Standards, p. 47.

12]

135


° Eighty-one percent of proprietary school students receive federal
aid, compared to 20 percent of the students at two-year public
colleges and 42 percent of the students at public vocational
schools,

Thus, through the Perkins Act, federal policy provides modest support for vocational
training in public institutions. Through student aid programs, federal policy provides greater
support for vocational training in public institutions and far greater support for private sector
training.

Student aid provides a substantial share of the funds needed to attend college.
Students receiving federal student aid average $2,666 per year, covering about 60 percent of
their estimated total costs.

to) Students in proprietary institutions average nearly twice ($3,394

yearly) the amount of aid received by students in two-year public
colleges ($1,788) and public vocational institutions ($2,078).

° For students at public two-year colleges and proprietary schools
who receive federal aid, the amount they receive covers 73
percent of the costs of attendance, including tuition and living
expenses.

Both the Perkins Act and student aid policy are designed to make postsecondary
education more accessible for the disadvantaged. The Perkins Act sets aside 22 percent of the
basic grant for disadvantaged students. Since family income is one of the basic criteria
determining eligibility for student aid, that aid is heavily targeted to disadvantaged students.
Overall, students from low-income families (under $11,000 per year) are four times more
likely to receive federal aid than students from the most affluent families (over $50,000 per
year). Within each institution type (public two-year, proprietary, public vocational), poor
students receive student aid much more frequently than do affluent students. However, since
the cost of enrollment is also an important determinant of who gets aid, moderate- and upper-
income students attending expensive schools (e.g., proprietary schools) are more likely to
receive federal aid than the poorest students attending low-cost schools (e.g., community

colleges).

105


the basic purpose of postsecondary vocational education is to prepare students for jobs, labor
market indicators must play an important role in assessing program performance,

The principal problem with measuring labor market outcomes on a state or
programmatic basis has been the inadequacy of data.°° Student follow-ups administered by
schools are frequently characterized by unacceptably high levels of nonresponse and lack of
objectivity in determining whether job placements are related to the student's field of training.
To establish objective indicators of training-related placements, NAVE has built on work
started by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) linking
fields of training to different occupational classifications,

An important recent development is the increased feasibility of monitoring many labor
market outcomes at relatively lov cost and without intrusive follow-up efforts. This
monitoring can be accomplished by drawing on existing administrative data that all staces
routinely collect to operate their unemployment insurance systems. Quarterly data covering
employment and earnings are now routinely collected from employers. Moreover, state
unemployment insurance information is objective, not subject to student recall, and can be
used to measure both short- and long-term labor market outcomes, By following students over
a longer period of time, the full labor market effects of vocational education programs can be
measured,

The feasibility of using state unemployment insurance data to assess students’
employment and earnings has been demonstrated in several states. A project undertaken in
Arizona in 1985 used unemployment insurance records for students attending both puvlic and
proprietary postsecondary institutions to determine job placement rates and earnings. An

ongoing effort in Florida augments unemployment insurance data with information on military

80 Existing national longitudinal data containing employment records are inadequate for
estimating labor market outcomes at any subnational level, Performance-based policy requires
outcomes measured at the program or institutional level.

5 This project is discussed extensively in Hoachlander, et al., Performance Based Policy
Options.

114

1p;


Finally, there is the question of who is a student for the purpose of measuring
attainment. Many students are enrolled very briefly, simply taking one or two courses and
leaving school. It makes little sense to hold institutions accountable for the educational
attainment or labor market performance of such students. Thus, states should set thresholds
(e.g., completion of x number of credits) that exclude those students whose engagement in
postsecondary vocational education is extremely limited.

Postsecondary vocational education is a complex undertaking with multiple goals. No

single measure is likely to be an adequate indicator of program performance.”

Moreover, use
of asingle measure could result in perverse effects, as schools attempt to maximize their
performance ratings. Measures of occupational competency could encourage narrow "teaching
to the test," job placement measures could promote the substitution of job search assistance or
placement in low-quality jobs for more fundamental occupational training, and degree
completion measures could result in r. dilution of graduation standards.

If schools can be rewarded for doing well in one area (such as placement), but can
ignore their responsibilities in other areas (such as student learning), performance funding may
create undesirable incentives. Therefore, federal policy should require the adoption of multiple
definitions of performance. Although states should have considerable discretion to define
performance criteria and to select appropriate measures, their formulas should encourage
institutions to perform well on several criteria relevant to vocational education. States should
be required to develop measures for all three types of outcomes (labor market, learning, and
educational attainments) and to design performance-based funding formulas so that no single
indicator category counts for more than 50 percent of the total performance rating. It may
also be desirable to incorporate explicit penalties in the funding formula for institutions whose

performance is one-dimensional.

§” This is the conclusion in the report of the Office of Technology Assessment,
Performance Standards for Secondary School Vocational Education, 1989.

119

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POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

David Goodwin

National Assessment of Vocational Education
1989

The views expressed in this report are those of the National Assessment of Vocational
Education. They do not necessarily represent positions held by the Department of Education.


1) Thirty-four percent of community college students and 39
percent of public vocational technical school students are over age
30, compaved with 14 percent at four-year colleges.

° Sixty-one percent of community college students are enrolled
part-time, compared with 22 percent at four-year colleges.

Furthermore, vocational students are drawn from all ability levels, but compared with
four-year college students and academic students at community colleges, vocational students are
lecs likely to be of high ability and more likely to be of low- and mid-level ability.

Not ull less-than-baccalaureate institutic is attract the same mix of students, Minorities,
disadvantaged students, and women are more likely to enroll in schools that offer short-term
certificate-oriented training (public vocational-technical and proprietary schools), rather than
the longer term programs that lead to an associate deyree offered at community colleges.

° At proprietary schools, 65 percent of the students are women,
and 35 percent are black or Hispanic.

0 At public vocational technical schools, about 60 percent of the
students come from families with incomes less than $23,000.

Our research also indicates that high school vocational students increasingly go on to
college, where they make up a large share of the students in postsecondary vocational
education. Between the high school classes of 1972 and 1980, postsecondary enrollments of
students who described themselves as "vocational" in high school increased by 22 percent.
Thirty percent of the students enrolled in community college vocational programs were also
vocational students in high school. Forty-one percent of students at public teclinical institutes

and 46 percent at proprietary schools were high school vocational education students.

What Types of Training Do Students Receive?

Institutions vary widely in how they balance academic and vocational curricula, At
community colleges, a majority of the credits taken are in academic Subjects; 35 percent of
credits earned are in vocational subjects. Even students majoring in vocational areas take 4
substantial share of their course work in academic fields. In contrast, students in proprietary

schools and technical institutes take about 70 percent of their course work in vocational fields.

eT,


an educationally or economically disadvantaged background.“® When estimating the effect of
the variables of interest on the outcome measures, we used multiple regression analysis to
statistically control for the influence of the intervening factors that might affect the outcome.
We use adjusted means in our presentation of the results of the regression analysis.4° Adjusted
means show, for example, what the difference in the average wage of youth who attended
proprietary schools, in contrast to other postsecondary institutions, would be if there were no
other differences in the exogenous and intervening factors (e.g., family and student background

characteristics, and the number of vocational credits earned).

EFFECT OF VOCATIONAL COURSE-TAKING ON ECONOMIC OUTCOMES
As explained earlier, this paper focuses on two majo:. questions: 1) Is there a

eee . . Trad
relationship between the number of vocational credits taken in the major subject dréa and

48 The choices that high school graduates make regarding postsecondary attendance, the
type of institutions they attend, and the numter of credits they take may reflect individual
differences, for example, in ability and motivation. Such selection biases, if notrcontrolled
for, could contaminate our estimates of the consequences of taking additional credits in a
particular subject area or of attending alternative types of institutions. Every effort was made
to avoid such contamination by including in the multiple regression analysis available measures
of indiviaual characteristics and other variables that may have influenced institutional choice.
Nevertheless, important unobserved differences between students in different sectors may still
exist. For example, despite the considerable research efforts that have been directed at
assessing the benefits of the JTPA program, the Department of Labor concluded that
substantial uncertainty remains regarding the degree to which JTPA provides benefits to
program participants. The Department decided that only through an experimental design, in
which individuals are randomly assigned to training and non-training groups, is it possible to
assess the impact of JTPA on its trainees free of the influence of selection biases.

® The adjusted means are estimated from a weighted multiple regression equation that
adjusts for differences in (i.e., holds constant for) the amount of credits taken in the major
and non-major vocational subject areas in each type of postsecondary institution and overall,
ability (the quartile ranking of HS&B standardized tests taken in 12th grade), race and
ethnicity, gender, the region of the country in which the high school was located, the type of
degree or certificate obtained (if any), the family socioeconomic Status, the type of
postsecondary institution attended, the primary subject concentration area, the number of
postsecondary credits taker in letters, science and math, social studies, remedial courses,
whether the trainee obtained nonschool-tased training in 1983-1984 or in ! 85-1986, whether
the trainee took work-study or cooperative education courses in high school or whether the
trainee worked for pay during the senior year of high school, during the period between high
school and postsecondary education, or during the last semester before postsecondary education
ended. Several controls for local labor-market conditions were also included in the multiple
regression analysis,

56
o's


Table 4.3

Average Credits, Total and Vocational, Earned by
Students in Less-Than-Baccalaurvate Institutions '

Public
Community Technical Proprietary
Colleges Institutes Schools
Total Vocational Total Vocational Total Vocational

Sex

Male 50.9 19.3 47.8 30.9 40.7 24.3

Female 47.4 17.6 40.1 22.3 42.3 25.8
Race

White 50.9 19.6 46.3 30.1 41.1 26.9

Black 35.9 12.0 34.5 20.2 45.1 32.4

Hispanic 42.9 14.5 36.4 26.0 41.3 28.4
SES Quartile

I (Low) 40.7 16.4 35.0 23.8 47.4 26.8

I 41.7 16.6 46.5 33.3 43.4 31.5

III 53.6 20.5 45.5 29.7 38.3 26.9

IV (High) 59.0 19.5 55.4 31.6 44.2 27.4

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

earned by different groups of students at community colleges, public technical institutes, and

proprietary schools.

Overall, gender is not an important determinant of students’ course-taking level. Men

and women attending community colleges and proprietary schools take about the same number

of credits--both total credits and credits in vocational subjects (see table 4,3). At public

technical institutes (mostly technical colleges and a limited number of vocational-technical

schools), the pattern shows that men earn mare credits, This difference may be explained by

the types of programs in which men and women enroll, with women in more short-term

certificate granting programs.


Table 6.9

Postsecondary Outcomes for Vocational Students of Various Family Income
Wh» Were Always Aided, Sometimes Aided, and Never Aided

NoD Certificate by 1984

Still in Not in

Family Income Completed School School
Under $12,000

Never aided 23% 9% 68%

Sometimes aided 36 20 43

Always aided 48 5 47
$12,000-$15,999

Never aided 21 5 14

Sometimes aided 21 8 71

Always aided 57 3 40
$16,000-$23,999

Never aided 19 14 66

Sometimes aided 44 10 46

Always aided 59 5 36
$24,000+

Never aided 34 10 56

Sometimes aided 58 10 32

Always aided nN 2 27

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

educational without a degree or certificate.8° These Patterns exist for all income groups. It
should be emphasized that these findings do not show conclusively if student aid actually
increases the likelihood of persisting to complete a vocational program. Students intent on
earning a degree may be more inclined to seek a grant or loan than st.dents who expect to

drop out shortly. At the least, it is clear that financial aid is more likely to benefit those who

80 These figures on degree completion and noncompletion differ from those presented in
table 4.5, p. 46. This analysis relies on a subsample of HS&B students for whom both
financial aid records aud postsecondary transcripts exist.

92

lu


Community cotleges are comprehensive two-year institutions that offer programs in both
academic and vocational subject areas. These public institutions primarily grant two-year
associate degrees, and a small number of certiricates.

Public technical colleges specialize in vocational subjects. They are two-year colleges
that offer both associate degrees and certificates.

Public vocational schools generally offer certificate programs whose duration is one year
or less,

Proprietary schools are profit-making institutions t*at provide training and education in
particular occupational areas. They include schools that specialize in business and secretarial
training, cosmetology and barbering, health care, trades, and technical areas. These institutions
grant mainly certificates.

Two-year private junior colleges are private, non-profit colleges. They account for less
than I percent of total enrollments and are generally omitted from ‘our analysis.

There are important differences across data bases in the way institutions of particular
interest in this study are categorized. In HS&B and NLS-72, public technical colleges and
public vocational schools are pooled in one category called public technical institutes, although
most students appear to attend technical colleges. These data sets report community colleges as
a separate category. In the NPSAS data, community and technical colleges are classified
together as public two-year colleges, although most students attend community colleges. In

NPSAS, public vocational schools are reported separately.

Classification of Vocational Education

Because of differences in the data bases used, it was necessary to define vocational
students differently across the data sets. For NLS-72 and HS&B, all students attending
proprietary schools and technical institutes were assumed to be vocational. At community
colleges, where course work may have either a vocational or an academic focus, vocational

students were defined as those who earned a majority of credits in vocational subjects during

15


intended to improve vocational education programs in general but are not directed at
postsecondary goals in particular. The Perkins Act makes few distinctions between secondary
and postsecondary levels in the purposes for which aid is provided. Thus, although multiple
federal programs impinge on the postsecondary sector, there has been no federal postsecondary
vocational education policy as such.

As the preceding discussion indicates, it would not suffice to examine the Perkins Act
in isolation from the larger context of postsecondary vocational education, How postsecondary
vocational education is organized and operates and how Perkins Act grants relate to other
forms of federal aid are as relevant in considering the future of the Perkins Act as is the
functioning of the Perkins Act programs themselves, In fact, the appropriate federal role in
future vocational education legislation cannot be determined without considering the larger
framework of participation, outcomes, and other federal support. Accordingly, this report
deals primarily with the conditions of postsecondary vocational education and the relevance
that other policies, namely student aid, have for vocational education policy.

The issues that need to be considered in assessing the Perkins Act programs at the
postsecondary level may be categorized as follows:

1 Participation in postsecondary vocational education and its ;
relationship to the purposes of the Perkins Act grants. Describing
participation is relevant, first, for what it reveals about the need
for types of assistance provided under the act, and second, for
what guidance it gives in determining how federal aid can be
better directed. For instance, are disadvantaged, handicapped,
and other special-need groups well represented among
postsecondary vocational education enrollees? How are such
students distributed among types of institutions and programs?
Are these students, including those in the special groups,
successfully completing vocational training? Are there indications
that program quality is inadequate? Armed with answers to these
questions, policymakers can judge whether the focus of the
Perkins Act is appropriate and whether the present apportionment
of funds is reasonably related to the incidence and severity of
problenis.

2. Outcomes of postsecondary vocational education and their
implications for the goal of enhancing employment. Determining
the outcomes of postsecondary vocational education is of obvious
importance. If students are not getting decent jobs, then
vocational programs are not delivering on their primary goal.

i

con)
Cc


SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS

The National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) conducted research in five
main areas: enrollment in postsecondary vocational education, educational attainment, training-
related placement, institutional quality, and finance. Keys findings from research in each of

these areas are summarized below.

Who Enrolls in Postsecondary Vocational Education?

Enrollments in vocational education at the postsecondary level are high and, over time,
the proportion of total course work in vocational subject areas has increased. Community
colleges are the main providers of vocational training.

0 Thirty-f: ive percent of all undergraduate students major in
vocational fields.

° Seventy-eight percent of students enrolled reported majors in
vocational fields.

° The share of vocational course work taken by members of the
high school class of 1980 who enrolled in community colleges was
18 percent higher than it was for the high school class of 1972.

0 Among students attending less-than-baccalaureate institutions,
community colleges account for 62 percent of vocational credits
earned, Twenty-three percent of vocational credits are earned by
students initially enrolled in public technical institutes (technical
colleges and vocational technical schools), and 15 percent are
earned by students at proprietary schools.

Less-than-baccalaureate institutions draw students from most segments of the
population and, compared to four-year colleges, are more likely to attract a cross section of
students of different ages, races, economic backgrounds, and levels of ability. Compared to
students at four-year colleges, students at less-than-baccalaureate institutions are more likely to
be female, black, Hispanic, from families with lower incomes, older, and financially
independent of their parents.

Less-than-baccalaureate institutions attract a high proportion of older students and,
especially at community colleges, students who are enrolled part-time. Many of these students

must balance family and work responsibilities while also attending school.

97


Table 2.4 shows that minorities and women ate much more likely to enroll in
institutions that offer short-term training. Blacks and Hispanics account for 35 percent of
total enrollment in proprietary schools, 21 percent in public vocational institutes, 18 percent at
public two-year colleges, and !3 percent in four-year colleges. Women account for 65 ~ercent
of the total enrollment in proprietary schools; most of these women are enrolled in office and
secretarial programs.

Public two-year colleges, public vocational schools and proprietary schools all attract
more students from poor or working-class families than do four-year institutions. In two-year
colleges, 42 percent of the students come from familves with incomes under $23,000. Public
vocational and proprietary schools attract about 60 percent of their students from what might
be considered disadvantaged families. In contrast, only 20 percent of the students at four-year
colleges are from families with incomes under $23,000.

Students attending postsecondary vocational institutions are, on average, older than
students at four-year institutions. Nearly three-fourths of the undergraduates at four-year
colleges are under 23 years old--the age group from which college students have traditionally
been drawn. In contrast, at two-year public colleges, only 44 percent of the students are
under 23 years old, and one-third of all students are over 30 years of age; at public vocational
schools, almost 40 percent of the students are at least 30 years of age. Proprietary schools also
draw older students, although not quite to the same extent as public two-year colleges and
public vocational schools. Consistent with these age differences, the majority of postsecondary
vocational students are financially independent of their parents. This is in sharp contrast to
students enrolled at four-year institutions, where three-fourths of the students are dependent
on their parents.

Students at two-year public colleges are more likely than students in all other
institutions to be enrolled part-time. At public two-year colleges, 61 percent of the students
are enrolled part-time compared with about three-fourths for all students in all other types of

postsecondary institutions. Part-time enrollment rose sharply through the mid-1980s, which

23


Nor does the Peikins Act, which primarily specifies populations to be served and
procedures to be followed, directly address issues of student outcomes. In light of the
evidence presented on completions, course-taking, and training-related placements, an emphasis

on student outcomes is an appropriate role for federal policy.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEDERAL POLICY ON POSTSECONDARY
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION®?

Objectives

In any assessment of the possible roles of federal policy in improving postsecondary
vocational education, it is important to observe that Perkins Act funds are very limited; other
federal programs have parallel objectives designed to increase the access of disadvantaged
students to postsecondary education; and public policies that provide major support for
postsecondary vocational training offer inadequate incentives for institutions to improve student

outcomes.

There are several basic sources of support for postsecondary vocational training. At
most, Perkins Act funds account for 5.7 percent of total revenues for vocational training at
community and technical colleges. Federal student aid programs provide $4 billion to
postsecondary vocational students, but at two-year public colleges the share of federal student
aid for tuition and fees represents only about 12 percent of total revenues. State and local
appropriations are the largest source of support, providing about 65 percent of total revenues
for postsecondary vocational training in two-year public colleges.

All these policies are input-oriented. They reward institutions according to their
enrollment of students. None directly addresses the fundamental problem identified in

NAVE's research--although postsecondary vocational training attracts students who might not

82 This sections draws heavily on a study conducted for NAVE by Stephen Barro entitled
Issues in Designing Performance Incentives for Vocacional Education, NAVE Contractor Report
(Washington, DC: SMB Economic Research, 1989), and on E. Gareth Hoachlander, Susan Choy
and Cynthia Brown, Performance Basea Policy Options for Postsecondary Vocational Educatior:
A Feasibility Study, NAVE Contractor Report (Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates, March 1989).

107

L1G


schools already receive $2.8 billion in federal student grants and loans. Moreover, the private
nature of these institutions makes them accountable implicitly to their customers for

performance,

Privacy

States must be required to develop systems that ensure that the Privacy of individuals is
not violated. States should not reveal any information about the achievement, earnings, or
employment of any individual. There must be no Possibility that such information would be
unwittingly disclosed. One requirement should be that no state publish information on an
institution or program in which there are fewer than five students. Under those
circumstances, and for other valid reasons as well, it may be desirable to use a three-year

rolling average of student performance to measure institutional performance,

National Indicators

The primary purpose of this proposal is to develop fair and objective measures and
incentives for improved program performance appropriate to each state. But comparison can
also spur states that have been lax in developing a performance orientation. Unfortunately,
existing national data are inappropriate for drawing valid estimates of performance by state
and rarely contain the types of information needed to fully gauge vocational performance
nationally. We therefore recommend that each state be required to provide its performance
reports to the federal government. In turn, every two years the federal office of vocational
education should submit to Congress a report on national indicators in postsecondary vocational
education. We recognize that states will measure performance in different ways.
Consequently, comparisons across states will be limited to those areas in which similar

measures are employed. Initially, the area most suitable for comparison is labor market

108 Use of a three-year rolling average can smooth out large shifts in measures like
employment that may reflect temporary local conditions, such as the closing or relocation of a
major employer.

128


Table 4.6

Degree Status of Students Enrolled
at Community College, Class of 1980

Student Percentage of Degree Completed Still in Left
Characteristic?/ Enrollmeat Assoc, Certif. Total School School Total®/
All students 100.0% 17.1% 2.0% — 19.1% 39.0% 42.0% 100.0%
Sex

Males 45.3 15.6 15 17.1 441 32.8 100.0

Females 54,7 18.4 2.5 20.9 34.3 44.8 100.0
Race/ethnicity

White 81.1 18.0 2.2 20.2 38.3 41.3 100.0

Black : 10.1 15 1.4 89 40.0 51.1 100.0

Hispanic 6.5 19.5 1.5 21.0 25.2 43.1 100.0
SES

Low 25.0 16.8 9.0 20.8 26.3 53.0 100.0

Middle 55.6 18.3 21 204 ° 37.0 42.0 100.0

High 19.4 14.3 7 15.0 50.6 33.4 = 100.0
Ability

Low 24.1 10.9 1.7 12.6 34.2 53.3 100.0

Middle 59.5 17.0 2.8 19.8 38.0 42.0 100.0

High 16.4 22.0 2 22.2 48.0 29.1 100.0
High school program

Academic 28.9 22.0 4 22.9 46.0 31.1 100.0

Vocational 34.1 11.8 1.6 13.4 32.6 54.2 100.0

General 36.9 16.3 3.3 19.6 36.8 43.7 100.0
SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980, Third Follow-up 1986.
a/ High and low quartiles are 25 vercent of the total high school graduating class.

A* ‘tity as measured in high school by the High School and Beyond Senior Test.
4: * school program as self-reported by students in high school.

b/ Total is sum of "degree completed total," "still in school," and "left school."

community colleges earn a degree or certificate, but 51 percent leave postsecondary education
within four years of high school graduation without earning a credential. The remaining black

students, 40 percent, are still in school after four years. C.mpared to white students, black

48


NAVE's study of effective institutional practices revealed that the amount of equipment
Possessed by programs was not systematically related to employer ratings of program quality.
Although programs differed considerably in the quality of their equipment, these differences
were not sufficient to affect employer ratings. A program’s equipment must meet some
minimum threshold, and of course, programs want new equipment to attract students, but
NAVE's findings suggest that additional outlays for equipment beyond this threshold may have
diminishing returns for program quality. Since most of the Perkins Act program improvement
monies are spent on equipment purchases, it may be wise to consider whether this is the most

appropriate use of federal resources,

How Is Postsecondary Vocational Training Financed?

Federal policy includes several different instruments for increasing access to
postsecondary vocational programs and improving the quality of vocational training that
students receive. The Perkins Act provides about $320 million in grants to postsecondary
institutions to improve their programs and serve special populations. Although not specific to
vocational education, federal student aid is also intended to increase the access of students to
postsecondary education. By enabling students to afford a better education, it may also
impiove the quality of the education they receive. Federal student aid programs provide $4
billi. 1 to vocational students attending less-than-baccalaureate institutions, which is 10 times
the amount spent on postsecondary training in the Perkins Act.

Although federal student aid is not designed to assist particular types of institutions,
the distribution of aid has important consequences for the types of vocational training
supported,

° Proprietary school students receive 25 percent of all federal

student aid while such schools attract only 5 percent of total
undergraduate enrollments, Public two-year colleges receive 13

percent of federal student aid, although their students are 38
percent ; total enrollments.

104


Course Utilization Rates

The unadjusteu mean course utilization rate for students trained in a community college
is 58 percent (table 5.3). Students trained in public technical institutes and Proprietary schools
have higher unadjusted course utilization rates (61.3 and 65.5 percent, respectively). However,
when we contro! for individual background and Course enrollment differences, we discover that
the course utilization rates for community college students (60.2 percent) and public technical
institute trainees (60.3 percent) are higher than the rates for trainees from Proprietary schools’
(52.6 percent),®

The effect of the number of credits taken on the course utilization rate, as discussed in
the preceding section, also depends on the type of institution from which the credits were
taken.®> Recall that the course utilization rate increases by about 5 Percentage points for each
30 credits of courses taken in the major subject area. Our regression equation predicts that, if
those credits are taken in a community college, one year of vocational course work boosts the
course utilization rate by 20 Percentage points. One year of vocational courses taken fron: a
proprietary school is predicted to raise the course utilization rate by only 4.9 percentage
points.“ One year of major subject courses taken in a public vocational institute results in a
nonsignificant one-percentage-point drop in the course utilization rate. As with the incidence
of unemployment, the benefits to community college students from additional credits taken in

the major subject area are particularly large.

’

® The course utilization rate for community college trainees is significantly higher than
for proprietary school trainees, but there is no Statistically significant difference in the course
utilization rates between public technical institution trainees and proprietary school trainees.

88 To simplify the discussion of the effect on course utilization rates of the number of
courses taken by institution type, we only discuss the regression adjusted means.

* The increase in the curse utilizatic.. rate associated with additional credits taken in a
community college is significantly higher than the increase in the course utilization rate
associated with additional credits taken from other types of institutions,


Table 2.1

Percentage of Vocational Students at Community
and Technical Colleges

——

Data Base Vocations Vorationai Student
NLS-72 61 Credits first semester
HS&B Seniors, 1980 68 Credits first semester
NPSAS, 1986 8 Major field
Associate degrees, 1985 69 Major field

—

SOURCE; For NLS-72 and HS&B Seniors, 1980, NAVE, Second Interim
Report; for associate degrees 1985, “Associate Degrees and Other
Awards Below the Baccalaureate, 1983-1986," National Center for
Education Statistics, May 1987, in Community College Factbook
(New York: Macmillan, 1988). For NPSAS, see table 2.2 on
p. 18,
TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
Table 2.2 contains the most recently available data on enrollments of vocational and
academic students in different iastitutions. Enrollments in public two-year colleges, public
vocational schools and proprietary schools accounted for 44 percert of all undergraduate
students enrolled in postsecondary education in fi!1 1986. Thirty-five percent of all
undergraduates major in vocational fields, but 78 percent of the less-than-baccalaureate
students major in vocational subjects.” Thus, the less-than-baccalaureate sector, which
comprises nearly half of all undergraduate enrollment, consists primarily of students majoring

in vocational subjects.

17 In its Second Interim Report, NAVE reported that 25 percent of all postsecondary
students from the high school class of 1972 enrolted in vocational programs and that 30
percent of the high school class of 1980 did so. Those data sets indicate that the proportion of
vocational students has grown. Although NPSAS results are not precisely comparable, they
suggest a continuation of this trend.

17


at a proprietary school mav be less than the total gost of a two-
year program at a comn:unity or technical college.

Table 6.5 shows that students who receive financial aid are able to cover most of the
estimated costs of attending their postsecondary institution. On average, about 75 percent of
the total costs of attendance are covered for those rece:v'ing financial aid. For those receiving
federal aid, about 60 percent of total costs are covered. Scuaents at proprietary sastitutions
cover more than 79 percent of total costs through financial aid, but at lower cost two-year
public colleges and public vocational schools, financial aid covers 85 percent and 97 percent of
total costs, respectively. Thus, for those students who receive financial aid, the out-of-pocket
cost of college enrollment is enormously reduced. Although students at higher-cost institutions
are more likely to receive financial aid than students at lower cost institutions, their out-of-

pocket expenses are also likely to be greater.

WHO GETS AID

The previous section examined the allocation of financial aid among students attending
various types of institutions. In part, aid patterns reflect differences in student populations.
Some types of students are more likely than others to receive aid. Because one of the primary
goals of federal policy is to improve access to vocational education for ditadvantaged students
as well as others, this section examines the characteristics of students who get financial aid.
Two types of student characteristics were examined: characteristics, such as family income and
enrollment status, which determine eligibility fo: financial aid; and other student characteristics
that are outside the student aid eligibility rules, but are of particular interest in light of the
goals of federal vocational education policy, for example, race, age, gender, and major field of

study.

78 There may be other reasons why students are attracted to proprietary schools including
the emphasis on vocational course work, the short length of the training programs, and the
geographic proximity of the schools.

85

95


institutions to keep tuition low. Perkins Act funding is small relative to both of these other
sources.

° The Perkins Act provides about $32(: million in grants directly to
public sector institutions--community’ colleges, technical colleges,
and vocational-technical institutes.

~
° NAVE estimates that two-year public colleges obtain 65 percent
of their total revenues from state and local government.

° Federal student grant and loan programs provide $4 billion to
postsecondary vocational students. Of this aid, $2.8 billion, or 71
percent of the total, is reccived by the 14 percent of
postsecondary vocational students who attend proprietary schools.
A total of $853 million in federal student aid is awarded to the
83 percent of postsecondary vocational students who are enrolled
in community and technical colleges. A total of 81 percent of
proprietary school students receive federal aid compared to 20
percent of the students at public two-year colleges and 42 percent
of the students at public vocational schools.

° Federal student aid is distributed proportionately to family
income and the cost of attending different types of institutions.
This federal investment contributes substantially more to the
access of lower income students to postsecondary vocational
education than is possible through the Perkins Act.

° The major forms of financial support for vocational training are
student aid and state and local appropriations, both of which
provide powerful incentives for institutions to maintain and
increase enrollments. Neither provides strong or direct
incentives, however, for institutions to address the problems of
limited course-taking, low completion sates, or low rates of
training-related job placements.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

In considering the role of federal policy in postsecondary vocational education, it is
important to emphasize that, although funds from the Perkins Act are limited, other federal
programs make a substantial investment in improving access to postsecondary training for
disadvantaged students. Public policy offers few incentives for improving student outcomes.
Our research has identified noncompletions and limited course-taking as serious problems for
all groups of students, but particularly for special population groups. Therefore, improving
student outcomes, especially for disadvantaged students, is the main problem that federal
vocational education policy should address.

To solve the problem, federal policy in postsecondary vocational education should have
three major goals:

Improve rates of program completion and placement in training-related jobs.

Provide special assis‘ance to at-risk populations for whom the problem of
noncompletion is most serious.


Table 6.3

Course Utilisation Rates by Type of Institution and
by Number of Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

—-
Regression
Unadjusted Adjusted
Means Means:
ron
Institution Type |
Community College - §8.0
Few Credits?! 49.1 475
Mod’ rate Level of Credits 60.9 62.5
Many Credits . 65.6 72.7
Public Technical Institute SS $0.8 e
Few Credits 60.8 611
Moderate Level of Credits 611 60.2
Many Credits 614 69.6
Proprietary School $5.5 82.6
Few Credite , 548 49.2
Moderate Level of Credits - 63.0
Many Credits - 56.6
Increase per Year (30 Credits) of Vocaticuat Course work Percentage
Commurity College 20.4
ublic Technical Institute 49
Froprietary School , 18

Note: Data derived from the High School and Beyond Survey, Senior Cohort. Only includes individuals who attended
postsecondary institutions and took at least 18 percent of their course work in vocational subjects.

Cells with "=" have too few observations to provide stable estimates.

a/ Regression adjusted means control for the following variables: sex, region, race/ethnicity, riarital status, SES,
ability quartile (multiple content area tests measured while trainee was a senior in high school), educational
plans, high school program, and work history while » senior in high school, the number of postsecondary
credits taken in language aud humanities, science and math, social sciences, fine and liberal arts, and remocial
courses, the types of institutions attended, the number of credits taken in each institution type, the degree
attained, the vocational subject area from which the majority of the posteecondary courses were taken,
additional postsecondary work and non-school training experiences, local unemployment rate, employment
growth rate, and average manufacturing wage (ait measured in 1982), and the number of months since the
postsecondary training ended. Data set for estimatiag the adjustad means includes students who transferred
from community college to four-year institutions and other students who attended multiple types of
inatitutions,

b/ For the unadjusted means:
Few means = 12 or fewer credits in the major subject arew
Moderate = from 18 to 80 credits in the major subject area .
High = greater than 80 credits in the major subject area
For the adjusted means:
Few = 12 credits in the major subject ares
Moderate = $0 credits in the major subject ares
High = 60 credits in the major eubject ares

67



Although vocational education and student financial aid policies both seek to increase
access, their goals with respect to improving the quality of vocational education are quite
different. Federal vocational education policy pursues the goal of improvement by targeting
federal funds to enhance existing programs or establish new ones. Student financial aid may
enable students to obtain a better education than they otherwise could afford, but student aid
programs have no clear objective to improve existing programs or create new ones.

Program improvement provisions in federal vocational education legislation acknowledge
the importance of up-to-date technological resources in vocational education. The Perkins Act
encourages sta‘e and local education agencies to invest in technologically advanced training
programs to ensure a supply of workers for modern occupations.

Student aid policies, in contrast, are occupationally neutral; financial aid is distributed
on the basis of criteria that are not necessarily related to the national interest in supporting
technologically advanced training. Students make the decision about where to invest resources
made available through financiai aid, although presumably they do so in part on the basis of
perceived opportunities,

Finally, federal vocational education policy limits funding to educational agencies in the
public sector, whereas student aid policy is institutionally neutral. Students may spend their
resources at any type of institution in the public or private sector.

Student financial aid is currently the major source of federal funding for students
enrolled in postsecondary vocational education. Federal financial aid programs supply
substantially more financial resources to vocational students than does the Perkins Act. Little
is known however about how .he ma‘>r student financial aid programs interact with
postsecondary vocational education--who is getting aid, how much, what kinds of aid they are
receiving, and whether financial aid helps students to complete their vocational programs. The

findings to be presentec address these issues.


Table 1.1
Table 2.1
Table 2.2
Table 2.3

Table 2.4

Tavle 2.5

Table 2.6

Table 4.1

Table 4.2

Table 4.3

Table 4.4

Table 4.5

Table 4.6
Table 5.1

Table 5.2

Table 5.3

Table 5.4

Table 5.5

LIST OF TABLES

Federal Expenditures for Postsecondary Vocational Training, 1986
Percentage of Vocational Students at Community and Technical Colleges
Postsecondary Enrollments by Type of Institution, Fall 1986

Distribution of Total and Vocational Credits by Type of Institution,

Percentage of Students Enrolled in Postsecondary Institutions, by Student
Characteristics, 1986

Educational Characteristics of Students in Postsecondary Vocational
Education

Major Fields of Study in Postsecondary Vocational Education, by Student
Characteristics, 1986

Distribution of Postsecondary Students by Number of Total Credits
Earned and by Number of Vocational Credits Earned

Proportion of Total Vocational Credits Taken in the Primary Subject
Area (Concentration Rate)

Average Credits, Total and Vocational, Earned by Students in Less-
Than-Baccalaureate Institutions

Educational Aspirations of Students in Less-Than-Baccalaureate
Institutions

Completions and Noncompletions Among Students Entering Less-Than-
Baccalaureate Institutions

Degree Status of Students Enrolled at Community College, Class of 1980

Economic Outcomes of Postsecondary Vocational Education by Number
of Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

Incidence of Unemployment by Type of Institution and by Number of
Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

Course Utilization Rates by Type of Institution and by Number of
Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

Hourly Wage Rates by Type of Institution and by Number of Utilized
Credits (Credits that are Job-Related)

Distribution of Students in the Sample

i)

Page
9

17
18

20

22

25

26

38

41

42

45

46
48

58

61

67

69
nN


0 Students enrolled in community colleges and public technical
institutes experience similar ates of employment and likelihood
of using their vocational training on the job.

° Proprietary school students are more likely to experience
unemployment once or more during a year (28 percent) than

similar students at community colleges (19 percent) and at public
technical institutes (17 percent).

° Proprietary school students are about 13 percent less likely to get
jobs that use their vocational training than students with similar
amounts of training at community colleges and public technical
institutes,

° The hourly wages earned by students from public technical
institutes are about I1 percent lower than the wages of students
from community colleges and 20 percent below wages of studc tts
from proprietary schools,

After controlling for differences in occupational field, amount of training completed,
type of institution, and personal characteristics, we found no differences in the use of
vocational training in subsequent employment by race, socioeconomic status, ability, or sex. In
other words, students of different races and SES who take similar amounts of training, choose
similar fields and enroll in similar types of institutions, are likely to experience similar
economic outcomes. However, research previously discussed shows significant differences in

actual completions and the amount of credits earned between various groups in the population.

What Are the Characteristics of High-Quality Vocational Training Programs?

The issues of what constitutes a high-quality vocational program and who has access to
such programs are central to federal policy. Based on employer ratings of program quality and
case studies of individual schools, NAVE found four main factors that predict program quality:
the intensity of vocational instruction, the integration of theoretical and applied aspects of
vocational instruction, the presence of active linkages with employers and others in the
profession, and the quality of the job placement assistance provided to students. Although
other factors were also important, the ones cited above were statistically significant across

different types of institutional settings.

103


Table 6.6
Distribution of Students in the Sample

Percent of
Students
tio i 1 ‘ajor
All Students
Low (less than 12) 46.8
lium (12-80) 82.1
High (31-60) 17.6
Graster than 50 4.5
Institution Type
Community College 57.4
Public Technical Institute 14.8
Proprietary School 66
Community College Transfers to 4-Year College 16.8
Other Combinations 6.0
Number of Vocational Credits Taken in Maio. Within Institution Type
Community College .
Few Credits (less than 12) 62.6
Moderate Level of Credits (12-30) "6
Many Credits (31-50) 12.9
Greater than 50 Credits 1.0
Public Technical Institution
Few Credits (less than 12) 29.2
Moderate Level of Credits (12-30) 41.5
Many Credits (31-50) 22.2
Greater than 60 Credits 7.0
Proprietary Schools
Few Credits (less than 12) 82.9
Moderate Level of Credits (12-30) 86.6
Many Credits (31-50) 18.9
Greater than 50 Credits 17
| Vocational Credits W: ituti
Community College
Zero Credits 26.8
Few Credits (less than 12) 4.3
Moderate Level of Credits (12-80) 16.8
Many Credits (31-50) 9.2
Greater than 60 Credits 1
Public Technical Institutions
Zero Credits 24.3
Few Credits (less than 12) 28.7
Moderate Level of Credits (12-30) 22.9
Many Credits (81-60) 24.1
Greater than 60 Credits } 8.1
Proprietary Schools dl
Zero Credits 24.0
Few Credite (lees than 12) 23.4
Moderate Level of Credits (12-30) 27.1
Many Credits (31-00) 16.9
Greater than 60 Credits 8.7
All
Zero Credits 25.4
Few Credits (less than 12) $6.0
Moderate Level of Credits (12-80) 20.1
Many Credits (81-50) 14.8
Greater than 60 Credits 41

nN


There is little difference in the number of total credits or vocational credits earned by

students at community colleges, technical institutes, and proprietary schools. The average

student earns about 47 total credits. While some students receive an in-depth program of

study, there are large numbers of students whose training is quite meager.

°

Vocational concentrators (defined as students with a majority of
their credits in vocational subjects) at community colleges earn an
average of 26 vocational credits, while students at technical
institutes average 27 vocational credits, and those at proprietary
schools average 25 vocational credits.

One-third of all postsecondary vocational students take less than

12 credits in vocational subjects, and 50 percent earn less than 24
vocational credits.

The rate at which students who enroll at community colleges complete degrees is low

and has declined over time. Nearly all community college students who complete degrees earn

associate degrees. Completion rates are higher at public technical institutes and proprietary

schools largely because these institutions award many more certificates that require much less

course work than does an associate degree. These results, however, are limited to a sample of

recent high school graduates who entered college shortly thereafter. The sample did not

include older students and mid-career adults, for whom measures of degree completion and

non-completion are less meaningful.

°

Within four years after high school graduatior, 19 percent of the
high school class of 1980 entering community colleges earned a
college degree or certificate. In contrast, the completion rate for
the high school class of 1972 was 23 percent.

Overall completion rates at public technical institutes and

proprietary schools (degrees and certificates) were 36 percent for
the high school class of 1980.

Noncompletion rates at less-than-baccalaureate postsecondary institutions are high and

have increased over time. Because of the increased rates of non-completion, fewer students

have received advanced-level vocational training.

°o

Data from the High School and Beyond Survey for the class of
1980 show that 90 percent of the students in this sample who
enrolled in community colleges, technical institutes, and
proprietary schools expected to earn a degree or certificate, but
about 42 percent left schoo! without earning either within four

99


Table 6.4

Average Amount of Aid Received by Students
in Different Institutions, 1986

Four-Year Four-Year Two-Year Public

Type of Aid Total Public Private Public Vocational Proprietary
Total aid®/ $3,150 $2,859 $4,897 $1,676 $2,008 $3,659
Federa. aid®/ 2,666 - 2,651 3,147 1,788 2,078 3,394
State aid 1,133 946 1,759 585 855 1,721
Other aid 1,671 1,269 2,538 640 536 2,015

SOURCE: NPSAS, 1980.

a/ The sum of federal, state, and other aid exceeds “total aid" because not all students
receive aid from each sourc:

b/ Estimates of federal aid differ from those in table 6.2 where the figures were based
on all students enrolled and adjusted fur differences in full- and part-time

enrollment. Table 6.4 is limiter *» aided students only and does not reflect
differences in enrollment status.

The amount of aid received largely reflects differences in cost associated with the type
of postsecondary institution att ded. Table 6.5 shows the average one-year cust of attending
different types of vrnsecondanvé. onal training. Among less-than-baccalaureate
institutions, tuition and fees range from lows of $228 ar. $326 at public vocational and two-
year public institutions, respectively, to $3,347 at proprietary schools. Given the low tuition
costs at two-year public and public vocational schools, most of the financial aid that these
students receive supports personal living expenses; relatively little goes directly to the
institution for tuition. At proprietary schools, in contrast, the aid students receive just about

equals the tuition costs, suggesting that little student aid is left over for living expenses.

83

Sk


those enrolled in community colleges have substantially lower rates of degree completion (13.4
percent) than high school academic (22.9 percent) or general program (19.9 percent) students.
They also leave postsecondary education without a credential at much higher rates (54.2
percent) than do academic (31.1 percent) or general program students (43.7 percent).

High school vocational education is not just limited to workbound students, It enrolls
large numbers of students who cnroll in postsecondary programs, particularly vocational
programs. These students face a particularly serious problem in making the transition from
one level of vocational training to the next. This is one reason that it is important to make
occupational training at secondary and postsecondary levels more complementary and
sequential. Increasec completions might be one goal of such efforts. Another might be to see
that the vocational training received, however limited, is at least coordinated in a sequence that

permits students to progress to more advanced training.

50


Table 4.5

Completions and Noncompletions Among Students Entering
Less-Than-Baccalaureate Institutions

— —

Public
Community Technical Proprietary
Student Outcome Colleges Institutes Schools
Total completions for
HS class of 1980 19.1% 36.1% 36.1%
Associate degree 17.1 18.1 12,5
Certificate 2.0 18.0 23.6
HS class of 1972 23.0 32.5 38.5
Leaves without credential
HS class of 1980 42.0 46.5 42,2
HS class of 1972 30.0 35.8 405.
Transfers to other institutions/ “& "
HS class of 1980 25.2 8.6 13.2
HS class of 1972 28.2 17.8 16.0
Still enrolled in first school entered
HS class of 1980 13.8 9.0 14.0
HS class of 1972 19.9 14.0 5.0

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980 and NLS-72.

a/ Includes transfers to all other postsecondary institutions, not just to four-year colleges.

represent a pattern of declining achievement.*® Moreover, all the decline in completions
occurred in the award of associate degrees; there was no change in the rate at which students

earn the less demanding certificates,

85 An alternative explanation may be that students simply take more time to complete
their credentials because of part-time or intermittent enrollment. The four-year observation
period in this data could be insufficient to accurately capture all completions. This
explanation is unlikely, however, for as indicated in table 4.5, the number of community
college students :**'l in school after four years actually declined by 19 percent from the high
school class of 16 Thus the pool of potential additional completers shrank substantially.

46

uy


Governance

Although the federal requirement for a sole state agency to administer secondary and
postsecondary vocational education under the Perkins Act suggests a view that vocational
education is, or can be made into, a unified system, the realities of state governance suggest
something quite different. In almost no case does a single state-level entity administer both
secondary and postsecondary vocational education. States designate a single state agency to
administer the Perkins Act, but governance authority is really divided in many different
ways,” When it comes to the use of federal funds, resources are either restricted to
institutions under the direct control of the sole state agency or "handed off" to a
postsecondary agency that, in turn, allocates resources among community colleges and,
depending on state governance, technical colleges as well. When funds are restricted to
educational institutions directly under the state department of education, important sources of
postsecondary vocational training not under the sole state agency tend to be excluded from
receiving Perkins Act funds. When funds are handed off to a postsecondary governing agency,

this body is rarely active in overseeing or administering the federal taw.!3

Federal Policies

Finally, more federal policies affect access to postsecondary vocational education,
particularly for the disadvantaged, than affect access to secondary vocational education.
Federal policies such as student aid and JTPA provide substantial support for adult or

postsecondary-level training, Other much smaller federal programs, such as the Trio

12 The most frequently designated sole state agency is the state department of education,
which oversees secondary schoo! vocational education. In some cases, it also administers
technical colleges or vocational technical schools. Almost always a separate state entity is
responsible for community college programs; sometimes this body has oversight of the technical
college system, and other times there is a separate technical college governing body, or, as
previously noted, governance falls within the state department of education. See Mary Ann
Millsap, et al., State and Local Response to the Carl D. Perkins Act, Case Study Analysis, Final
Report, NAVE Contractor Report (Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates, 1989).

13 Ipid., pp. 112-113.

DD
eG


CHAPTER 4
COURSE-TAKING AND PROGRAM COMPLETION

The previous chapter discussed factors related to program quality in postsecondary
vocational education. The extent to which teachers were able to focus on instruction was an
important predictor of program quality. In this chapter, intensity of instruction is discussed
from a different perspective--by describing the amount of vocational education that students
take, and the extent to which they complete programs of study.°° This chapter further
explores differences in participation and completion of course work by race, gender,
socioeconomic background, and other characteristics of students. These results are based on
postsecondary transcripts for a sample of students who entered college shortly after graduating
from high school (HS&B Seniors, 1980). The transcripts follow students over four years.
Educational attainments of other types of college students, or that followed the four-year

observation period are not reflected in these findings.

AMOUNT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION TAKEN

While total credits earned by students at community colleges, public technical institutes,
and proprietary schools differed little, the amount of vocational credits earned varied widely.
The typical student enrolled in a less-than-baccalaureate institution earned about 47 total
credits (see table 4.1). Students at community colleges averaged 18 vocational credits, while
those attending public technical institutes or proprietary schools earned substantially more

vocational credits--27 and 25, respectively.*! But vocational "concentrators" attending

80 This section is based on Norton Grubb, Access, Achievement, Completion, and ‘Milling
Around’, NAVE Contractor Report (Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates, 1988); it is also based on
special analyses by Robin Horn of Decision Resources Corporation.

51 Missing credit information on student transcripts could bias these estimates. Since
missing credit information occurred most often on proprietary school transcripts, these
estimates are potentially less reliable. .

37 ~


all students regardless of the amount of total vocational credits earned. These findings indicate
that students at the postsecondary level engage in very little exploration among different

occupational fields, but focus on those of particular interest.

Table 4.2

Proportion of Total Vocational Credits Taken
in the Primary Subject Area (Concentration Rate)

Community College

Public
Number of Vocational Other Technical
Vocational Credits Concentrators Students Institutions Proprietary
0-6 0.87 0.80 0.87 0.93
7-12 0.76 0.69 0.84 0.81
13-24 0.79 0.69 0.83 0.78
25-36 0.79 0.74 0.74 0.67
37-48 0.76 0.69 0.79 0.77
48+ 0.67 0.74 0.75 0.88
All 0.78 0.03 0.80 0.79

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

RACE, GENDER, AND SOCIOECONOMIC DIFFERENCES AMONG STUDENTS

A major goal of the Perkins Act is to improve the quality of vocational education for
special populations. Research already discussed in this report indicates that women, minorities,
and disadvantaged students enter vocational programs in substantial numbers, but NAVE's
study of effective institutions indicates that minorities have limited access to high-quality
programs and other NAVE results indicate that minorities and women are heavily concentrated
in institutions that offer short-term training. This section further explores the issue of access
to high-quality vocational education by examining the course-taking patterns of women,

minorities, and disadvantaged persons, Table 4.3 shows the total credits and vocational credits

41


even students who have completed very few credits with greater assistance in finding jobs that
can utilize their training,

“
We also found that the type of institution students attended affects students’ economic

outcomes,

° Community college students were more likely to be employed and
to utilize their vocational credits than trainees from other types
of institutions,

to) For students who persisted in their vocational stud.es, those from

community colleges were substantially more likely to find Jobs

and to utilize their training than those from proprietary schools

or public technical colleges. In contrast, for students who took

few vocational credits (most students), those from community

colleges did not substantially outperform those from other types

of institutions,
Although community college students have the potential to obtain benefits from their training,
they take the fewest number of vocational credits relative to trainees from the other types of
institutions, Table 5.5 shows that nearly two-thirds (62.5 percent) of the community college
students in our sample took fewer than 12 credits from their vocational major,

There are several types of efforts that community colleges should contemplate in light
of these findings. First, these institutions should encourage vocational students to take more
credits in a well-focused occupationally oriented program, Second, community colleges, who
currently award relatively few vocational certificates for short-term targeted training programs,
should consider expanding their offerings of highly-focused, certificate-granting training
activities. Finally, considerang the positive association between utilized vocational credits and
wages, community colleges (as well as other types of institutions) should make greater efforts
to provide placement assistance to those students who appear determined to terminate their

attendance before they complete a degree or certificate program.

70


APPENDIX B

DEGREE STATUS OF STUDENTS AT PUBLIC TECHNICAL
INSTITUTIONS AND PROPRIETARY SCHOOLS


reward an institution with performance~based federal funds, it will effectively undo any

incentive to improve.

Inclusions and Exclusions

For purposes of determining performance ratings, only students taking credit courses in
programs that lead to a degree or certificate should be included. Various forms of one-time-
only courses, recreational course-taking, customized training, or training that is subject to
performance contracts (e.g., under JTPA) should be excluded. Customized training and other
contractual training arrangements already contain explicit or implicit performance incentives or
rewards,

How to treat proprietary schools and other private sources of vocational training is an
important issue. It is desirable to include private training institutions in the performance-
based system in order to provide potential students with information on all their training
alternatives.!°® Because geographic accessibility can seriously limit student choice, inclusion of
proprietary schools in the performance information system may be the only way to provide
students with information on all the schools in their community.

Unfortunately, many proprietary schools are not likely to cooperate completely in
identifying their students or providing information on fields of study ard completers. We
recommend that the Higher Education Act be amended to require institutions, as a condition
of eligibility for their students to receive Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, to provide to the
state agency responsible for performance incentives the Social Security numbers of all students,
identifying those that receive degrees and certificates. As states publish the performance
information, consumers will be able to compare program completion rates, and the earnings of
students who complete programs. We do not recommend, however, that states be required to

make proprietary schools eligible for performance funding. Students attending proprietary

108 Recent Department of Education regulations to lower default rates on student loans
require proprietary and vocational-technical schools to divulge completion and placement rates
to new students.

127


institutions enroll approximately 5.3 million total students, of which about 4,3 million are in
occupational programs of study.> Most Postsecondary vocational students (3.6 nuillion) attend
one of roughly 1,200 community and technical colleges, About 763,000 students are enrolled
in about 3,000 proprietary schools. Vocational enrollments constitute 35 percent of total
undergraduate enrollments in Postsecondary education and 77 percent of enrollments in less-
than-baccalaureate institutions.® Altogether, these institutions operate on total revenues of
about $14 billion.

Considerable occupational training also occurs in training programs provided by
employers or community-based organizations. Employer-provided training may be provided
through on-the-job training, customized training developed with a Postsecondary school, or
joint union-employer arrangements. Although no reliable estimates exist of the size of this
enterprise, it seems probable that resources spent on employer-sponsored training are equal to
or may even exceed those spent in formal degree programs.® One major source of employer-

based training is the military, where much, although obviously not all of the training is for

5 There are various ways in which to define "vocational" students, This estimate is based
on institution-reported majors of students collected in the National Postsecondary Student Aid
Survey (NVSAS), a nationally representative survey of students enrolled in higher education in

tober \. :

4 Estimates of the number of proprietary school students vary widely. See Undergraduate
Financing of Postsecondary Education: A Report of the 1987 National Postsecondary Student
Aig Study, US. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, June
1988, p. 120,

5 This estimate is based on student-reported majors collected in the NPSAS, 1986. This is
4 conservative estimate of vocational enrollments. NPSAS data reflect enrollments in October
1986 but many students enroll at other periods during the year. As a result, NPSAS data
substantially underestimate the annual enrollment of students in programs of nonstandard
jength, which primarily include students in two-year, vocational technical, and proprietary
institutions,

® For a review of studies on employer training expenditures, see Anthony Carnevale and
Harold Goldstein. Employee Training: Its Changing Role and An Analysis of New Data, ASTD
Press, 1988. Another study estimates that employer sponsored training represents 40 percent of
the nation's total investment in human capital development, See Roger Vaughan and Sue
Berryman, “Employer Sponsored Training: Current Status, Future Possibilities," prepared for
the National Assessment of Vocational Education Conference on Employer-Sponsored Training,
February 1989,

tome

aT


outcomes, where the unemployment insurance records are standardized across states and it is

easy to define outcomes precisely.

129

14j


Table 4.4

Educational Aspirations of Students in
Less-Than-Baccalaureate Institutions

Educational Aspirations

(in High School) Percentage
High school only 8.1%
Vocational certificate 25.0
Associate degree 42.4
Bachelor's degree 13.2
Postgraduate degree AL3
Total 100.0

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

proprietary schools. About 70 percent of these students enrolled in community colleges, but
within four years after high school graduation only !9 percent of those students had obtained a
postsecondary degree or credential. Of these, 17 percent earned associate degrees, the other 2
percent received certificates. (Certificates require less course work than degrees.)

Completion rates are higher at public technical institutes and proprietary schools where
36 percent of the students earned postsecondary credentials. Higher completion rates at these
institutions, however, reflect the award of many more certificates than associate degrees.

When compared with the high school class of 1972, completion rates declined 17
percent at community colleges, increased 11 percent at public technical institutes, and stayed

about the same in proprietary schools. Thus, the low completion rates at community colleges

~N

45 on

abo


The National Assessment of Vocational Education was generously supported by the

Office of Planning, Budget, and Evaluation of. the Department of Education. acey officials of
the Office and the Department granted NAVE staff both the funds required and the
independence necessary to carry out the study, Special gratitude is owed in this regard to

Alan S, Ginsburg of the Planning and Evaluation Service and Thomas M. Corwin of the
Budget Service,

However, all conclusions and recommendations of this report are strictly those of the
National Assessment and do not necessarily represent views of the Department of Education.

John G, Wirt
Director, National Assessment
of Vocational Education

ii



and then to $7.98 for trainees who acquired a high number of utilized credits, (The average
wage received by youth in our sample was $6.67 an hour.)

When we use multiple regression analysis to control for di. ferences in student and
institutional characteristics, we find that ‘nis pattern intensifies. Those with only 12 matched
credits earned $6.59 an hour. Trainees with 30 matched credits earned $7.42 an hour, or about
$1 more than those with few matched credits (table 5.1). Those who had a high number of
credits related to their jobs earned $8 an hour. In other words, our analysis shows that each
30 credits of utilized Postsecondary vocational training yields trainees a Statistically significant
12.2 percent increase in their hourly wage. If we were to interpret this figure as an annual rate
of return on an investment, we would note that it exceeds the return on most forms of
investment in physical capital and is slightly higher than the rule of thumb for rates of return
on a year of academic education, 10 percent.

The regression analysis of the hourly wage also shows that additional vocational courses
taken that are not related to the trainees’ occupations do not contribute significantly to

earnings.

Discussion

Higher leveis of occupationally specific training might be associated with a luwer
incidence of unemployment for several reasons. An incidence (spell) of unemployment occurs
when individuals quit their jobs (or are involuntarily laid off) either to take another job, to
seek another job, or to leave the labor force entirely, Previous research has shown that young
people tend to stay in their jobs for relatively short periods of time and to change their jobs
frequently. These studies found that as individuals acquire more job-related skills through on-
the-job training they have a greater incentive to stay in the same job.©° We found that the

incidence of unemployment is inversely related to the number of credits taken in postsecondary

55 Tinda Leighton and Jacob Mincer “Labor Turnover and Youth Unemployment," The
Youth Labor Market Problem (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).

62

a rae


their first semester in postsecondary education. This definition emphasizes entry-level course-
taking. Although somewhat arbitrary. this definition was chosen to examine how well students
who began as vocational or academic persisted and eventually earned degrees (Note: there
were no significant differences in the extent to which vocational and academic students
attending community colleges completed or failed to complete their courses.)

Courses were divided into three categories--vocational, academic, and remedial--
according to a taxonomy of courses. The vocational category encompassed courses in 10
subjects; agriculture, business and management, marketing and distribution, health care,
occupational home economics, trades and industry, technical and engineering, education, public
service, and communications. This taxonomy is similar to one developed by NAVE to analyze
secondary school courses. It also includes subjects unique to postsecondary education--
engineering, education, and public service. The taxonomy of postsecondary courses is
described in Appendix A.

NPSAS data do not contain transcripts. Therefore, two-year public college students
were classified as vocational or academic according to their major field of study as reported by
the institution they attended. Vocational students were those with reported majors in fields
such as business, health, engineering technology, cosmetology, and law enforcement.

Although the appropriateness of any rule for classifying institutions or students may be
debated, the various data bases produce remarkably consistent findings, Table 2.1 uses four
different data sets to estimate the proportion of vocational students at community and technical
colleges. The first three sources--NLS-72, HS&B Seniors, 1980, and NPSAS--are used in
NAVE's analysis. A fourth data source, also collected by the Department of Education’s
National Center for Education Statistics, describes the proportion of associate degrees awarded
in vocational and academic fields. Fach data set yields an estimate of vocational course-taking
that, considering the different points of time, are of similar magnitude. Each indicates that

community and technical colleges are largely vocational.

16


When we control for background characteristics and other relevant variables, as
discussed above, the relationship between the number of credits taken in the major subject and
the extent to which vocational trainees utilize their training on the job comes through clearly,
The course utilization rate increased significantly with additional credits taken in the major
subject area, As table 5.2 shows, the course utilization rate increased 16 percent--from 51
percent for trainees with few credits in the major subject credits to 59 percent for trainees
with a moderate level of credits, and to 61 percent for those with a high number of credits in
their primary subject area. For each 30 credits of courses taken in the major subject area, the
course utilization rate increased by approximately 5 percentage points.5> _

As we found in our analysis of the incidence of unemployment, additional courses
taken from outside the major subject area do not contribute appreciably to the rate of

vocational course utilization.

Wages

The results for wages show a clear and direct relationship between hourly earnings and
utilized vocational credits, That is, the more courses that trainees took that were related to the
Jobs they held, the higher their hourly earnings.°4 As table 5.1 shows, the unadjusted mean
hourly wage rate climbed from $6.93 an hour for trainees who had few utilized vocational

credits (12 or fewer) to $7.30 an hour for those with a moderate number of utilized credits,

58 This is equivalent to an 8 percent increase in the course utilization rate at the mean.
Table 5.5 indicates that less than one in four individuals in our sample (22.1 percent) took
more than 30 credits in a single vocational subject area.

54 When we analyzed unemployment and vocational course utilization rate outcomes, we
focused on the effect of taking additional courses from the major subject area. In our analysis
of wage outcomes, however, we examined the contribution of taking utilized courses; that is,
vocational courses that provided skills related to the jobs in which trainees were working in
February 1986. We shiftc4 our focus from the earnings effect of courses in the major subject
area to the earnings effect of job-utilized courses because the latter focus is the most relevant
for our study. Students who took more utilized courses earned higher wages. It is the
contribution of utilized credits to earnings that we seek to assess and quantify in this section.

60

ry +

(ind


with their higher occupati nally specific productivity, trainees need to be employed, and in
particular, they need to be employed in jobs that can utilize the skills they acquired. Those
who experience unemployment after training are clearly off to a bad start in recouping their
training investment costs and in securing increased wages. Those working in occupations that
do not utilize the skills they acquired are also failing to reap the full benefits from their
increased productive potential.

We begin this chapter with a description of the data sources and methodology used.

Next, we discuss our findings on two major questions:

° Is there a relationship between the number o° credits trainees
take in their major vocational subject and their- economic
outcomes?

° Is there a difference in economic outcomes for trainees who

attend different types of institutions; namely, community colleges,
public technical institutes, or private, proprietary institutions?

In the discussion of each of these major questions, we address three topics:

) The effect of vocational training on the incidence of
unemployment;
°o The extent to which employed trainees actually utilize their

vocational training in their jobs; and
° The impact of utilized vocational credits on wage rates.

Finally, we present some implications of our findings for vocational students and postsecondary

vocational training institutions.

DATA AND METHODS

The analysis of the economic outcomes of postsecondary vocational education was based
on a nationally representative survey of youth who graduated from high school in 1980.4°
These data are derived from the senior cohort of the High School and Beyond (HS&B) data
base, which contains questionnaire information from surveys of these students in 1980, 1982,

1984, and 1986. The sample of approximately 1,500 individuals that we analyzed includes only

483 Actualty, 99.1 percent of the s.uple were high school graduates.

53

ty


Table 1.1

Federal Expenditure ‘or Postsecondary Vocational
Traning, 1986

—_— ——————

Type of Program Amount (millions) Percentage”!
Vocational education $ 320 2.3%
Trio programs 33 0.2
Student aid 3,753 26.9
Job training 4,286 30.8
Military manpower 3,722 26.7
Veterans 458 3.3
Vocational rehabilitation 1350 9.72
Total $13,922 100.0

SOURCE: Findings are based on program records. In programs with
multiple goals, only expenditures reasonably allocable to
vocational training are counted. To simplify presentation, each
of 19 current federal programs is classified into one of the basic
program types. For example, the “student aid” category includes
six major aid programs under the Higher Education Act; "job
training" includes the Job Training Partnership Act, Work
Incentive Act, Job Corps, and Trade Adjustment Act; "military" is
limited to one type of "specialized skill training:” "veterans"
includes various GI and other educational benefit programs; and
“vocational rehabilitation" includes programs under the Veterans
Department, Department of Education, and Social Security.

a/ Numbers do not add to 100 because of rounding.

programs at community colleges, but probably account for a substantially greater proportion at

technical schools and colleges.?5

15 This estimate is based on the Center for Education Statistics’ Higher Education General
Information Survey (HEGIS) data indicating total revenues of $12 billion dollars in 1985-86 at
two-year public colleges, allocated according to the number of students enrolled in community
and technical colleges, and the percentage of total credits taken in vocational subjects.

as


Table 2.6

Major Fields of Study in Postsecondary Vocational
Education, by Student Characteristics, 1986

Occupational Education/
Student Business/ Home Trades/ — Technical/ Public

Characteristics Marketing Health Economics Industry Engineering Service
All vocational
students 36.0% 14.5% 5.6% 10.0% 21.3% 10.6%
Age

Up to 23 36.3 13.1 5.5 9.9 22.1 10.6

24-29 32.6 16.2 4.5 10.8 25.5 8.9

30 or more 37.8 15.5 6.6 9.5 17.3 17
Family income

Up to $23,000 37.8 13.3 2.9 9.8 20.2 14.2

$23,000-50,000 37.8 14.9 2.6 19 23.6 11.8

$50,000 or more 37.4 11.5 3.6 5.6 23.8 15.0
Race

White 35.0 15.2 5.4 9.8 2.1 11

Black 39.5 13.1 6.7 8.0 20.9 11.0

Hispanic 41.2 11.6 5.8 10.9 20.7 8.4
Sex

Male 27.0 49 1.4 20.5 33.6 9.2

Female 43.0 21.9 89 1.8 11.8 Mt

SOURCE: NPSAS, fall 1986.

NOTE: Percentages of students in major field do not add to 100. Due to space limitations,
agriculture and communications, accounting for only 2 percent of total majors in
vocational subjects, are not presented in this table,

Men and women, however, exhibit substantial differences between men and women in
fields of study chosen. Women are concentrated in the fields of business and marketing,
health, and occupational home economics; men predominate in trade and industry and
technology and engineering. With the exception of gender preferences for different
occupations, minorities, lower income and other special populations make the same choice of

vocational fields as do other students.

26


NONCOMPLETION STATUS

Rates at which students leave school without a degree or certificate are high; the
figures for the class of 1980 are 42 percent at community colleges, 47 percent at technical
institutes, and 42 percent at proprietary schools (see table 4.5) up from 30, 36, and 40 percent,
respectively, for the class of 1970,5° At community colleges, where students may be either
vocational or academic, there are no significant differences between both groups in rates of
noncempletion.

These findings reveal a great gap between students’ expectations and accomplishments.
As table 4.4 showed, 90 percent of postsecondary students enrolled in less-than-baccalaureate
institutions expect to earn a college degree or certificate but, according to table 4.5, only a
small fraction of these students actually do complete a program of study. Large numbers of
students leave college without realizing this objective and often with a very limited amount of
occupational training.

Previo. ily discussed research indicated that postsecondary vocational programs attract
relatively large numbers of disad vantaged and minority students, and that these students earn
substantially fewer educational credits than other students while they are enrolled. The
research also demonstrated that many students drop out without earning a postsecondary degree
or certificate. Is this simply a problem limited to special populations recently recruited in
larger numbers, or is it a more general, institutional issue?

Table 4.6 shows the completion staius of different groups of students who enrolled in
community colleges. (Similar tables are presented in appendix B for students at public

technical institutes and proprietary schools.) Only 9 percent of the bl +k students entering

S€ These are conservative estimates of the rate at which stu: . '@ school without a
degree or certificate. Many students who transfer to other instite subsequently drop out
of that institution; they are not counted in this estimate. Students sified as leaving
postsecondary education without a credential could turn out to be 2 outs"--students who
interrupt their studies but eventually return to earn degrees. The « .4 in NLS-72, which
examines degree status after seven years, suggest that although some additional students will
complete associate degrees over the longer period of time (28 percent), many more students
still in school will eventually lose interest and drop out (47 percent).

47

7


5.

Somewhat differently, outcomes may vary among students in
ways that suggest which educational strategies are most beneficial
or which target populations, programs, or institutions need special
assistance.

The actual operation of the Perkins Act at the postsecondary level.
Issues concerning how the Perkins Act operates «re important in
determining whether the design and strategies underlying the
current Act work as intended. Questions concerning who receives
Perkins Act funds, how they are allocated between secondary and
postsecondary levels, what kinds of students are served and what
federal funds actually purchase at the secondary as well as
postsecondary levels have been considered in Volume II of
NAVE's final report. These issues, therefore, are not specifically
addressed in this report.

The role of student aid in contributing to the federal purpose
expressed in the Perkins Act of enhancing access to postsecondary
education, Federal student aid is important to examine because it
is a major source of support for pestsecondary vocational
education and it benefits many of the special population groups
of concern in the Perkins Act. Where several federal programs
appear to operate toward similar ends, the return on the federal
investment can be enhanced if the separate purposes of different
Policies are clear and complementary.

Possible changes in the Perkins Act or, more generally, in the
goals and strategies embodied in this federal program. Finally,
describing and assessing possible changes in the Perkins Act are
relevant for identifying ways of dealing with specific
shortcomings in the current Act or for dealing with broader
problems that may not be addressed at present. Questions such as
how federal aid can raise the quality of vocational programs or
stimulate more emphasis on desired outcomes of vocational
education can suggest options that policymakers should consider
in shaping vocational policy for the future.

12


Degree Status of Students Enrolled at
Proprietary Schools, High School Class of 1980

Student Percentage of Degree Completed Still in Left
Characteristic®/ Enrollment Assoc. Certif. Total School School Total®/
All students 100.0% 12.5% 23.6% 36.1% 21.7% 42.2% 100.0%

Males 27.3% 11.2% 17.3% 28.5% 30.7% 40.9% 100.0%

Females 72.7 12.0 26.0 38.0 18.4 42.7 100.0
Race/ethnicity

White 80.0 13.1 24.7 37.8 22.1 40.2 100.0

Black 13.1 10.9 11.8 22.7 21.7 55.7 100.0

Hispanic 5.8 8.6 32.4 41.0 17.1 41.9 100.0
SES

Low 25.9 11.0 = 20.7 30.7 17.6 50.7 100.0

Middle 59.1 10.0 26.7 36.7 21.2 41.4 100.0

High 15.0 27.8 14.1 41.9 36.0 22.2 100.0
Ability

Low 28.7 3.3 19.5 22.8 24.3 52.9 100.0

Middle 57.0 15.9 26.3 42.2 28.6 28.8 100.0

High 14.3 28.7 20.6 49.3 6.3 44.3 100.0

i |_ program
Academic 26.0 23.3 18.8 42.1 22.7 35.2 100.0
Vocational 45.9 10.7 27.7 38.4 17.3 44.3 100.0
General 28.1 7.2 23.4 30.6 26.9 42.5 100.0
SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.
a/ High and low quartiles are 25 percent of the total high school graduating class.

Ability as measured in high school by the High School and Beyond Senior Test.
High school program as self reported by students in high school.

b/ Total is sum of “degree completed total," "still in school," and "left school."

B-2

va
to
U.S, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFF ICE 11999~247-582190648


Table 6.3

Percentage of Students at Various Institutions with Different Types
of Financial Aid

Four-Year Four-Year Two-Year Public

Type of Aid Total Public Private Public Vocational Proprietary
Any student aid 45% 47% 65% 28% 52% 84%
Any federal aid 35 37 48 20 42 81
Any state aid 15 16 25 9 14 10
Other aid®/ 17 19 17 45 10 0)

SOURCE: NPSAS, 1980.

a/ Primarily includes institutional tid, although scholarships from buSiness, union, and
philanthropic sources are included.

institution attended. After controlling for differences in tuition, parental income, and other
factors potentially related to the probability of receiving financial aid, students attending
proprietary schools are 26 percent more likely to get aid than students at two-year puulic
colleges and 20 percent more likely than students at public vocational technical schools,”4
Clearly, community colleges do not take the same advantage of available student aid benefits as
do proprietary schools,”2

Because federal aid represents two-thirds of all the financial aid available from
different sources (and more than three-fourths at less-than-baccalaureate institutions), the
patterns that characterize the receipt of "any student aid" also characterize the distribution of

federal aid. Students at two-year public institutions are much less likely to receive federal aid

71 Based on a regression analysis in Tuma, op. cit., p. 43.

73 Community colleges are much less dependent on student aid for institutional revenues
than proprietary schools and, also, may be reluctant to encourage disadvantaged students to
assume debts that they will have difficulty repaying.

81


minority enrollment were often rated Jower by employers than were programs with low
minority enrollment.28

There are two possible explanations for this:

0 There may be stigma attached to programs with high minority
enrollment that reflects prejudice against minorities. Low ratings,
therefore, may have nothing to do with the intrinsic quality of
the vocational program itself.

° Programs with high minority enrollment are, in fact, deficient
because they lack some of the attributes of quality just described.

The evidence in NAVE's study most strongly suprorts the second explanation--
programs with high minority enrollment often score low on dimensions that predict program
quality. To reach this conclusion, we controlled for various organizational characteristics
known to be determinants of program quality, such as employer linkages and instructional
focus. When such program characteristics were considered, the correlation between race and
employer ratings virtually disappeared. Students’ race is undoubtedly a factor in the way that
some employers perceive vocational programs, but our results suggest that there are some
serious deficiencies in program quality where large numbers of minority students are enrolled.

To summarize, five strong predictors of program quality were identified: the intensity
of vocational instruction, opportunities for the integration of theory and practice, linkages with
employers, student placement, and the perceived even-handedness of public information about
the program. Equipment did not rank high as a determinant of program quality. Race and
ethnicity, however, have a strong relationship to program rankings, primarily because of the

organizational characteristics of programs with high minority enrollment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT
Although the results from this study of effective postsecondary vocational programs by

themselves may not be sufficient to warrant a major change in federal policy, these findings

28 The correlation between minority enrollment and employer ratings (-.44) was the
strongest coefficient in the analysis.

33


Most financial aid is awarded to students according to their financial need, which is
determined by reference to formulas that consider the students’ own financial resources (¢.g.,
family income, siblings in college) and their cost of attendance (tuition, fees, books, room and
board). The mua goal of federal financial aid policy is to increase access to postsecondary
education generally and, in particular, to increase access tor economically disadvantaged
students. Federal policy is not designed to influence the sup,ly of specific types of education
programs. The distribution of federal aid may have significant consequences, nonetheless, in
terms of the types of programs supported.

Table 6.1 shows the distribution of "generally available" federal aid among students
enrolled in different postsecondary institutions.©” In 1986, the major generally available
student aid programs provided nearly $4 billion in aid to vocational students enrolled at two-
year public and private, vocational and proprietary institutions, compared with approximately
$320 million allocated directly to public vocational education institutions through the Perkins
Act. The aid available to vocational students through student aid was 10 times the amount

Spent on postsecondary vocational education under the Perkins Act.

86 Family income and cost of attendance are the two main criteria for determining
financial eligibility to receive federal Title IV financial aid, but students must meet other basic
non-financial criteria as well. Students must be enrolled in an eligible program and institution,
they must be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen, and they must maintain satisfactory
academic progress; if they have defaulted on a student loan, they cannot obtain another loan
until they have made appropriate arrangements to repay their defaulted loan. In addition, to
receive a Pell Grant or Perkins Loan, students must be enrolled at least half-time for the
purpose of obtaining a degree or certificate; students may qualify for a Stafford or PLUS
(Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students) if they are enrolled half-time, regardless of degree
objectives. Provisions requiring half-time enrollment to receive a Pell Grant or Stafford Loan
are particularly important for students at community colleges, where a majority of the students
enroll part-time,

§” Generally available aid consists of those federal student aid programs available under
Title IV of the Higher Education Act. It excludes aid limited to specific populations, such as
veterans, Social Security recipients, or nurses.

®8 The estimate of student aid presented here is based on data from NPSAS. Estimates
for postsecondary expenditures under the Perkins Act refer only to those made under the Basic
Grant section.

16

co]


nearly all of their training and about 25 percent were using none of their training.“° Finally,
the average wage was $6.67 an hour; one out of four postsecondary trainees earned below
$5.00 an hour and one out of four earned above $8.75 an hour.

The diverse nature of the postsecondary training enterprise complicates the analysis of
what factors contribute to better economic outcomes for the trainees. Postsecondary vocational
courses are provided in a wide variety of public and private institutions to an ethnically,
racially, and socioeconomically diverse group of individuals. Individuals also vary substantially
in the amount of course work they take, the types of skills they obtain, and the degree to
which they concentrate their course work in a single program area. In our analysis, we
examined the extent to which students’ success in the labor market, as measured in terms of
employment, training-related job placement, and earnings, depends on the amount of
vocational course work they took in these institutions, and the type of postsecondary institution
thpy attended, In order to isolate the effects of the number of credits taken and the types of
institutions attended on economic outcomes, we Statistically controlled for a variety of factors
that are likely to influence these outcome variables, such as the trainees’ major vocational
subject area, their socioeconomie and demographic background, and their ability level,

Our analysis is based on the human capital model of economic behavior, which views
training as an investment with benefits that accrue to "investors" over the course of their
working lives. According to this model, individuals obtain Postsecondary vocational skills
primarily for economic reasons. They take on the costs of occupational-skill acquisition
because they expect that their future earnings resulting from increases ia productivity will

exceed their investment in training.4? it follows that, to reap the economic benefits associated

4° The methods and data set used to estimate this indicator of vocational course work
utilization is discussed below in the text.

4. The maumum wage in February 1986 was $3.35 an hour.

2 The largest cost for most of the trainees is the opportunity costs of the investment.
These are the foregone earnings the trainees would have received if they were employed full-
time in the labor market.

52

by


Table 6.!

Federal Student Aid to Postsecondary Education
by Institution and Vocational Students, 1986-87

Type of Prugram Amount (millions) Percentage
Four-year private $ 2,950 26%
Four-year public 3,778 33 ,
Two-year public 1,456 13
Vocational students only (853) (7)
Two-year private 270 2
Vocational students only2/ (176) (2)
Public vocational 116 1
Proprietary 2,835 23,
Grand total $11,405 100
Vocational total $ 3,980 35
SOURCE: NPSAS, 1986. °

a/ This is a conservative estimate of financial aid received by vocational students at these
institutions because it is based on only those students with a reported major in a
vocational field, About one-third of all students who received federal aid lacked a
reported major. Some of these students were undoubtedly majoring in vocational
fields, or will later do so, but were not counted in this calculation.

Approximately 35 percent of all federal student aid went to vocational students enrolled in
two-year public and private, vocational, and proprietary institutions, The share of total aid
gcing to vocational students is consistent with the overall share of undergraduate students
enrolled in vocational education (about 35 percent, as shown in table 2.2).

There are some substantial differences between institutions in the share of ald received.
Proprietary schouls receive over 70 percent of the federal financial aid awarded to
postsecondary vocational students, although they account for only 14 percent of total

en-ollment .. conteast, vocational students at two-year public colleges (mostly community

17

Ol


° The federal performance standard system developed for JTPA has
transformed this program (compared with its predecessor, the
CETA program) into one that is outcome oriented.®? Federal
performance standards have driven deep into the JTPA service
delivery system through the parallel development of performance
contracting and competency measures for youth outcomes.
° Instead of using limited federal funds to purchase specific
programmatic services, performance-based funding is likely to
encourage institutions to use more of their own resources to
improve programs so they will earn performance awards.
Measures of Program Performance
Measuring performance is a prerequisite for performance-based policy. The feasibility
of creating performance incentives, their likelihood of having beneficial effects, and their
chances of gaining political and professional acceptance, all depend on measurement that is
fair, objective, and not unduly burdensome. The main initial activity undertaken at the
postsecondary level by states should be the development of indicators. The three types of
outcomes most relevant for vocational education are labor market outcomes, learning outcomes,
and educational attainment outcomes. States would be required to develop measures and,
eventually, to award incentive aid in accordance with all three types of indicators. This
section discusses the three types of outcomes, The section that follows discusses equity issues

and how undesirable outcomes can be avoided.

Labor Market Outcomes
Labor market indicators include the rate at which students are placed in jobs, the
degree to which placements are training related, the duration of employment and

unemployment, and the level of earnings at entry and at specified times thereafter. Given that

®9 Erik Butler, The Search for a Bottom Line in Vocational Training: What Lessons Are
Offered by the Job Training Partnership Act?, NAVE Contractor Report, October 1988. While
citing problems with specific performance standards and with the system of competency-based
training, Butler concludes: "As policies which will underlie vocational education are developed,
JTPA's experience should encourage planners that a focus on outcomes can be achieved" (p.
21).

113

12;


employment rates. Similar models could be used to adjust observed labor market outcomes for

different categories of vocational education students.22

,

Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes include the rates at which students obtain state certification,
demonstrate minimum occupational competency sr “employability” in their fields, student scores
on tests of occupational-specific knowledge and skills as well as their performance on tests of

related basic skills, attitudes, and generalized employability.

Measuring learning outcomes is far more complex than measuring labor market
outcomes, but methods of testing both general and occupational-specific knowledge and skills
or competencies are available. Competency tests have been created in conjunction with
introducing competency-based curricula in vocational education. Oklahoma, Vermont,
Minnesota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania are implementing competency-based vocational
curriculum and developing tests that measure the sk‘lls and knowledge that students who
complete a program of vocational study should possess. Tests covering a wide variety of
occupational fields have been developed by private organizations and are currently used by
some postsecondary institutions.** In Tennessee, criteria for obtaining 5 percent greater state
education funding include the performauce of students on tests in their major fields and, as a
measure of general educational competence, gains in student test scores from college entry to
exit using the ACT entrance examination, According to a report from the Office of

Technology Assessment, “...13 states are engaged in testing the occupational competencies of

%3 For a discussion of JTPA adjustment models, see National Commission for Employment
Policy, JTPA Performance Standards: Effects on Clients, Services and Costs, prepared by SRI
International, September 1988.

* The National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) is one such
private organization. NOCTI reports testing 9,000 secondary and postsecondary students
annually in approximately 60 different fields,

116


Table 2.3
Distribution of Total and Vocational Credits by Type of Institution, 1980

Community Public
College Technical Proprietary

Share of all postsecondary credits .
HS class of 1980 68.8% 23.1% 8.0%
HS class of 1972 79.5 13.4 10
Share of all postsecondary

vocational credits
HS class of 1980 61.5 23.2 15,3
HS class of 1972 63.9 22.9 13.2
Distribution of credits among

curriculum areas
Vocational

HS class of 1980 34.7 70.4 69.4

HS class of 1972 29.2 61.8 68.4
Academic

HS class of 1980 58.3 24.9 28.1

HS class of 1972 64.0 32.8 29.0
Remedial

HS class of 1980 6.5 3.8 1.5

HS class of 1972 6.4 4.0 2.0

SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980, and NLS-72,

understates the total effort in remediation, because many remedial courses are not for credit.20
Technical institutes place less emphasis on remedial course work (3.8 percent) and proprietary

schools still less (1.5 percent).

20 Analyses of courses taken suggest that about half of all remedial Courses are noncredit.
Thus, about 12 percent of all course work at community colleges is of a remedial nature; the
amounts at public technical and proprietary schools are substantially less.

20

&
QT


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BACKGROUND

This report examines the federal role in supporting vocational education at the
postsecondary level. It examines enrollments, course-taking, educational attainments, and labor
market outcomes associated with postsecondary vc ational education. The report compares
different groups of students at various types of institutions. It considers the relationship
between the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act and other policies, both federal and state,
that also finance postsecondary vocational education.

OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS
Who Enrolls in Postsecondary Vocational Education?

Postsecondary vocational education is a growing enterprise that is central to the
educational mission of less-than-baccalaureate institutions. There are a total of 4.3 million
"vocational" students at community colleges, two-year technical colleges, public vocational
technical schools, and proprietary schools. Three-fourths of all students at these institutions
major in vocational subjects, and over the past two decades the percentage of postsecondary
students enrolled in vocational education has grown substantially.

° Community colleges are the major providers of postsecondary
vocational education, accounting for 62 percent of all
postsecondary vocational credits earned.

° Compared to four-year institutions, two-year postsecondary
institutions are much more likely to attract a cross-section of
students by age, race, socioeconomic hackground, and level of
ability.

° The largest increase in the rate of college attendance in the past
decade has been among high school students who majored in
vocational education.

At What Rates Do Students Complete Postsecondary Vocational Programs?

The major problem facing postsecondary vocational education is that many students do
not stay in school long enough to receive in-depth training. Low rates of program completion
and a limited number of courses taken are common for all students regardless of race, gender,
economic status, or ability. The problem is most serious, however, among minorities,
economically disadvantaged students, and the growing number of high school “vocational”
students who pursue postsecondary training. Minorities and disadvantaged students average
substantiilly fewer credits and leave postsecondary institutions without earning a degree or
certificate more frequently than do other students,

° Only 19 percent of high school graduates who enter community
colleges shortly after leaving high school complete a certificate or
associate degree within four years of completing high school.

vii

Li



Classification of Postsecondary Courses

The courses described in the HS&B Seniors, 1980 transcripts and NLS-72 transcripts are
classified below under vocational, academic, and remedial/avocational categories.

I, VOCATIONAL COURSES

1, Agriculture
Agribusiness and agricultural production
Agricultural sciences
Renewable natural resources

2. Business and management
Business management and finance
Business support
Business and office

3. Marketing and distribution
Marketing and distribution
Insurance and risk management
Marketing management and research
Real estate

Small-business management

4, Health Care
Nursing
Nursing-related services
Other health care
Allied health care
Health sciences

5. Occupational home economics
Home economics
Vocational home economics
Personal services
Interior design

6. Trades and industry
Construction trades
Mechanics and repairers
Precision production
Transportation and material moving

1, Technical and engineerin;
Computer and information sciences
Business data programming
Business systems analysis
Engineering
Engineering, technologies and other technologies
Engineering-related technologies
Science technologies
Communication technology

“114,

tO)


performance provide “intelligence” about whether a program is succeeding or failing, and can
be channeled to improve curriculum and instruction. Often, the more highly rated programs
acquired this information indirectly in the course of placing students in jobs, or working with
employers to develop new training programs. Thus, NAVE’s research suggests that some of
these ideas may be on the right track.

Despite these and other proposals designed to improve vocational training in
postsecondary institutions, the surveys and case studies conducted by NAVE found little
evidence that federal program improvement funds were used to any significant degree for
these purposes. Instead, program improvement funds were used to purchase equipment.
Although institutions may be attempting some of these changes, there is little indication that
federal Perkins Act funds are used for any but the most routine types of program
improvement.

It has been claimed that federal funds are just too small to be used for other than
routine types of program improvement, but NAVE’s surveys show that the median
postsecondary grant for program improvement is fairly substantial--about $50,000." The
average program improvement grant to postsecondary institutions substantially exceeds per-
institution grants in any other category of Perkins Act funding. Hence, inadequate funds per
se are probably not the main reason that so few of the Perkins Act program improvement
funds are directed at large scale or more ambitious reform strategies,

Another possible explanation may be that there are very few cases in which bold
alternatives have been fully developed and carefully assessed. Most of what is known about
tech-prep, for example, is highly anecdotal. The lack of reliable information raises the
uncertainty, and hence the risk, associated with fundamental reform. This suggests that one
useful role for federal vocational education policy may be to sponsor careful demonstration and

evaluation of promising but unproven reform strategies.

29 Janet P. Swartz, State and Local Response to the Carl D, Perkins Act, Survey Analysis,
Final Report, NAVE Contractor Report (Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates, 1989), exhibit 3.11.

35


Tables (continued)

Table 6.1

Table 6.2

Table 6.3

Table 6.4

Table 6.5

Table 6.6
Table 6.7
Yable 6.8
Table 6.9

Federal Student Aid to Postsecondary Education by Institution and
Vocational Students, 1986-87

Average Public Subsidies for Postsecondary Education Pe’ “ull-Time
Equivalent Student

Percentage of Students at Various Institutions with Different Types
of Financial Aid

tare! Amount of Aid Received by Students in Different Institutions,

Average Costs of Attending Postsecondary Institutions and Proportion
of Costs Covered by Aid

Characteristics of Students Receiving Federal Aid, 1986
Amount of Federal Student Aid Received by Family Income .
Percentage of Students with Aid by Vocational Major, 1986

Postsecondary Outcomes for Vocational Students for Various Family
Income Who Were Always Aided, Sometimes Aided, and Never Aided

vi

LU

7

19

81

83

84
87
88
89

92.


Rewards and promotions, therefore, may have been tied to classroom performance more than
to serving on external committees.

Instructional intensity or depth is an important dimension ‘of program quality. The
commitment to instruction from teachers and administrators and the amount of instruction
students actually receive ("time on task") are found to be important elements of virtually all
effective schools.2° This particular study considered only the extent to which faculty are
focused on instructional goals; instructional intensity from the perspective of student course-

taking is discussed later.

Applied Learning Opportunities

NAVE’s study consistently found that institutions that supplemented classroom work
with hands-on lab experience were rated significantly better than those that did not. Lab
experiences expand opportunities for students to connect theoretical and applied knowledge.
This study suggests that employers respond favorably when the basic understanding and
technical training that students receive is enriched through laboratory or similar field

experience. Employers also value highly the ability to apply vocational skills,

Employer Linkages

Extensive relationships between programs and industry were found to be an important
determinant of program quality. In higher quality programs, linkages included connections to
outside sources of information about supply and demand for different skills, student
performance on the job, technical developments in the profession, job experience opportunities
for students, and customized training for industry. Customized training has sometimes been
criticized ay a training subsidy for employers that draws resources away from more traditional
degree a.d certificate programs. This study suggests that there may be some instructional

benefits for students when faculty, working closely with industry to design and deliver training

28's C. Purkey and M. S. Purkey, "Effective Schools: A Review," Elementary School
Journal, 1983(4), pp. 427-52.

29

iat
ran


job placement rate of 70 percent or higher. Tennessee allocates 5 percent of its higher
education funding according to six different measures of institutional performance, while South

a
Carolina provides monetary rewards to public schools and districts showing increases in
academic achievement.

The rationale for performance-based funding is straightforward. Institutions that score
high on measures of performance, or exceed a specified standard, receive more funds, and
those that score low, or fall below a state’s standards, would have their funding reduced.®*
Institutions would have an incentive to do well, and depending on the level of funding,
resources would be reallocated from low to high performers.2” In Tennessee, local
administrators report many cases of institutional improvement in response to performance
objectives, including changes in curriculum, student follow-up, counseling of students, and
assessment of student capabilities.®*

In contrast to the prescriptive grants that characterize the Perkins Act, performance-
based funding for postsecondary vocational education has several advantages:

0 Performance-based funding decentralizes decision makir.g about

how best to achieve agreed-upon educational and labor market
goals of vocational training.

0) Performance--based funding eliminates federal attempts to specify
program content or services; in exchange, institutions are held
accountable for the results.

° Because money “counts,” performance-based funding sends a clear
message that improving student performance, however

performance is defined and measured by the state, is the goal of
federal policy.

86 4 fundamentally different type of performance-based funding would target resources
on institutions with the lowest level of performance.

87 Assuming that performance-based funding is limited to federal vocational education
funds, the reallocative effect would, at most, be quite modest.

88 Hoachlander, Choy, and Brown, Performance Based Policy Options, p. 73.

112

Lee


programs!‘ for disadvantaged college students, provide institutional grants that support
academic remediation and other services for disadvantaged college students. As the use of
Perkins Act funds under the disadvantaged set-aside reflects, academic remediation is an
enormous need in postsecondary education. It is appropriate, therefore, that the goals of
federal vocational education policy be chosen only after considering the "fit" with other federal

programs that have similar purposes.

FEDERAL ROLE AND FEDERAL POLICY ISSUES

The federal government is involved in postsecondary vocational education in many ways
and in pursuit of a variety of goals. Among the principal forms of federal participation are
grants and loans to individuals enrolled in postsecondary vocational programs; grants to states
to finance training under the JTPA; and, under the Perkins Act, state grants to institutions
that support services for certain target groups (the handicapped, the disadvantaged, adults,
single parents, and homemakers) and to support efforts to improve vocational programs in
general. In addition, there is direct assistance to institutions of higher education to finance
special services for disadvantaged students under the Trio programs and specific occupational
training provided through the military. In the aggregate, as table 1.1 shows, federal financial
support for postsecondary vocational education is estimated at $14 billion. Of this sum,
Perkins Act grants account for only an estimated $320 million per year (2.3 percent of
estimated federal expenditures for Postsecondary vocational training), From a different

perspective, Perkins Act funds represent only about 5.7 percent of total revenues for vocational

4 Trio programs are funded under the Higher Education Act and include Talent Search,
Upward Bound, Student Support Services, and Education Opportunity Centers.


occupations with civilian counterparts.” Finally, a large number of community-based
organizations provide occupational training programs. Community-based organizations appear
to serve persons who are least likely to obtain training at a cullege or from an employer--poor
and unemployed people and those with language barriers. In many cases, this training is
funded by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).

Students enrolled in postsecondary vocational programs are demographically diverse.
Programs draw students from all economic strata, races, age groups, and levels of ability.
Postsecondary vocational students are more likely than four-year college students to be drawn
from working-class and poor families, racial and ethnic minority groups, and the lowest
quartile of academic ability. They also are likely to have taken a large number of vocational
courses in high school. Postsecondary vocational students are older than the typical college
student, they are frequently enrolled part-time, and they are more often financially
independent of their parents. At community colleges, where students may concentrate on
vocational or academic course work, the demographic profile of both groups is generally
similar®

Postsecondary vocational institutions expanded greatly during the 1960s and 1970s, but
are now faced with potential enrollment declines. The post-World War II baby boom, coupled
with national and state policy goals of eliminating economic barriers to college attendance,
resulted in total enrollment growth over two decades of 350 percent, and in the construction of

nearly 700 new community and technical colleges to accommodate these students.? Now the

7 US. Department of Defense, Military Manpower Training Report, FY 88, February 1987.

8 Two data sets used in this analysis yield different results on the socioeconomic
background of vocational and academic students at community colleges. NPSAS indicates
vocational and academic students at two-year public colleges have similar family incomes.
Analysis of High School and Beyond (HS&B) data, in contrast, suggests that vocational students
at community colleges are more likely to be from economically disadvantaged families than are
academic students at the same type of institution.

9 Elaine El-Khawas, et al., Community College Fact Book (New York: Macmillan, 1988)
p.7.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Executive Summary
Chapter 1 ~ Introduction

Expansion of Postsecondary Vocational Education

Differences Between Vocational Education at the Secondary and Postsecondary
Levels

Federal Role and Federal Policy Issues

Chapter 2 - Enrollments

Data Sources and Definitions
Total Enroliment in Postsecondary Vocational Education
Enrollment of Special Populations in Postsecondary Vocational Education

Chapter 3 - Quality in Postsecondary Vocational Education: Institutional Practices

Five Main Factors
Other Key Findings
Implications for Program Improvement

Chapter 4 - Course-Taking and Program Completion

Amount of Vocational Education Taken

Concentration of Vocational Education

Race, Gender, and Socioeconomic Differences Among Students
Completion Rates in Postsecondary Vocational Education
Noncompletion Status

Chapter $ - Economic Outcomes of Postsecondary Vocational Training

Introduction

Data and Methods

Effect of Vocational Course-Taking on Economic Outcomes
Summary and Conclusion

Chapter 6 - Federal Financing of Postsecondary Training: The Relationship Between
Student Aid and Postsecondary Vocational Education

Introduction

Methods

Total Amount of Federal Student Aid to Vocational Education
State and Local Support for Postsecondary Vocational Training
Role of Student Aid in Financing Vocational Training

Who Gets Aid

Effects of Student Aid

iii



determine full-time-equivalent counts in vocational Programs on the basis of credits earned in
vocational subjects. The share allotted to different pools should be adjusted at least every
three years to reflect changes in enrollment.

The same percentage of funds allotted for state administration and indicator
development at the secondary level should also be available to the designated postsecondary
agency. Based on the current Act, up to 20 percent of the postsecondary funds would be
available to the designated Postsecondary agency, with at Jeast 13 Percent for the design and
implementation of the performance-based information and funding systems, and no more than
7 percent for state administration. Funds for state administration could be used to provide

technical assistance to institutions that are performing poorly.

Allocation of Funds to Postsecondary Vocational Education

Under the current Act, each state establishes its own division of resources between
Secondary and postsecondary vocational education. The result has been wide variations among
States in the share of their Perkins Act funds allocated to the postsecondary level. Eight states
allocated less than 20 percent of their Perkins Act funds to postsecondary vocaticnal education
in 1986-87, and nine states allocated more than 60 percent of their funds to this level.
Obviously, states that allocate a small share of their total funds to the postsecondary level
cannot be expected to provide credible financial incentives geared to performance. Where
Postsecondary expenditures amount to less than 20 percent of the state’s Basic Grant allocation,

it is appropriate to require states to design and implement a system providing performance

information only.

Distribution of Funds

Performance-based funding can fail to motivate institutional improvement if the
financial consequences of poor performance are indistinguishable from the consequences of
superior performance. This situation may occur if performance standards are set so low that

virtually all institutions are assured of meeting the standards, or if states simply reallocate their

124

dau


NAVE found that the economic benefits we measured are limited to vocational course-
taking that occurs in a student’s major field or subject area. Vocational training dispersed
among many fields, although useful for students engaged in exploring career alternatives, adds
little to the student's prospects for employment or job placement in a field related to the
training. This suggests that a coherent program of training, not just the total amount of
courses taken, is an important factor affecting the benefits of vocational education.

Students with valued occupational skills are also deemed more productive in that they
are paid more. NAVE found that additional amounts of vocational training that are related to
the field of employment result in substantial wage benefits.

° Students with "low" amounts of job-matched vocational credits

earn an average of $6.59 per hour, while similar students with a

“high" number of credits matching their job earn $8.

° Vocational credits earned by students not matched to the jobs
they receive contribute nothing to their earnings.

These findings indicate strongly the importance of helping students determine what fields of
training they wish to pursue, constructing a program of study to provide a related sequence of
courses, and helping to place students in jobs related to their training.

Students may obtain their vocational training in various types of institutions. After
controlling for differences due to the characteristics of students enrolled in community
colleges, public technical institutes, and proprietary schools, and their fiel¢s of study, we
found that economic outcomes varied by type of institution. Students attending proprietary
schools were more likely than those at community colleges or public technical institutes to
experience unemployment, and were somewhat less likely to utilize their vocational training in
the jobs they obtained. Among students who were employed, those who attended public
technical institutes experienced lower hourly wages than those trained in community colleges or
proprietary schools. An apparent difference in hourly wages between students trained at
community colleges and similar students attending proprietary schools is not statistically

significant.

102


incidence of unemployment emerges as quite pronounced. That is, when we calculate the
adjusted incidence of unemployment we find that a higher level of participation in the vocational
major is associated with a significantly lower incidence of unemployment.

Specifically, the adjusted mean incidence of unemployment for trainees who took few
credits (12 credits) in their major subject area is 20.5 percent (table 5.1). The adjusted mean
drops down to 16.3 percent for those who took a moderate number of credits (30 2dits) in
their major area. Each additional 30 credits of course work in the major area lowers the
incidence of unemployment by approximately 6 percentage points.

Our analysis also found that vocational credits taken from subjects other than the major
area do not contribute to a lower incidence of unemployment for these youth. In oiher words,
the relationship between higher levels of participation in vocational education and a decreasing
incidence of unemployment only holds when the courses students take are from their major

vocational area,

Course Utilization Rates

We define course utilization rates as the proportion of postsecondary vocational credits
that the employed youth in our sample used on the jobs they held five years after leaving high
school. We found that the more credits that trainees took in their major subject area, the
higher the proportion of vocational credits they used in their jobs. That is, compared to
students with few vocational credits (12 or fewer), students with a moderate number of
vocational credits in their major area of study (13 to 30 credits) were more likely to be in
training-related jobs®? and used a greater share of their vocational training in those jobs. The
unadjusted mean course utilization rate for the sample is 58 percent. For trainees with few
vocational credits in their major it is 50.2 percent; for trainees with a moderate number of

vocational credits it is 58.4 percent (see table 5.1).

82 The definition of a training-related job is one in which the course utilization rate is
greater than zero.

59

G:


CHAPTER 2
ENROLLMENTS

A basic objective of the Perkins Act is to help special populations obtain high-quality
vocational education. This may occur through general expansion of the vocational education
enterprise or through special activities undertaken to help “at-risk" population groups gain
greater benefits from postsecondary vocational training. The law allocates 57 percent of
appropriated funds to provide services to special populations--including disadvantaged and
handicapped persons, adults in need of training, enrollees in programs that are not traditional
for their sex, single parents and homemakers, and incarcerated persons. The remainder of the
funds are used to expand and improve the overall enterprise.

This chapter presents descriptive data on participation in postsecondary vocational
education. For different groups of students, basic findings are presensed on rates of
enrollment in vocational education and in different fields of study. Subsequent sections discuss
issues of the completion of course work and the amount of vocational education actually taken.
This description of conditions in postsecondary vocational education can help policymakers

clarify the problems faced and select appropriate policy instruments to enhance both access and

quality.

DATA SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS

The results presented here are drawn from three different national data bases: High
School and Beyond (HS&B Seniors, 1980), the National Longitudinal Survey of the Class of
1972 (NLS-72), and the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS, 1986). These
data bases differ in several important respects. The first two are longitudinal: HS&B Seniors
follows the high school graduating class of 1980, and NLS-72 follows the high school
graduating class of 1972. The results on postsecondary course-taking come from postsecondary
transcripts available in these data bases; HS&B contains transcript data for the first four years

after high school and NLS~72 for seven years. Comparisons between both data bases are


Degree Status of Students Enrolled at

Public Technical Institutions, High School Class of 1980

Student Percentage of Degree Completed Still in Left
Characteristic Enrollment Assoc. Certif. Total School Schoo! Total®/
All students 100.0% 18.0% 18.0% 36.0% 17.5% 46.5% 100.0%
Sex

Males 52.5% 19.2% 17.2% 36.4% 16.4% 47.4% 100.0%

Females 47.5 16.7 18.9 35.6 19.0 45.5 100.0
R hnici

White 82.5 206 168 37.4 156 #66 100.0

Black 10.6 4.4 59 10.3 . 7 100.0

Hispanic 49 --/ os! 8! ~-e/ --£/ 100.0
SES

Low 28.2 146 15.4 30.0 10.9 59.1 100.0

Middle 56.6 18.1 19.3 37.4 17.5 45.0 100.0

High 15.2 20.8 19.6 40.3 29.7 30.0 100.0

bili

Low 25.9 3.4 213 24.6 9.8 65.5 100.0

Middle 62.5 22.0 16.1 38.1 22.6 39.4 100.0

High 11.6 25.1 58 31.9 13.8 54.2 100.0
High school program

Academic 22.0 32.1 8.9 41.0 14.7 44.3 100.0

Vocational 41.2 18.1 25.0 43.1 16.2 40.7 100.0

General 36.8 10.3 16.3 26.6 20.8 52.7, 100.0
SOURCE: HS&B Seniors, 1980.

a/ High and low SES quartiles are 25 percent of the total high school graduating class.

Ability as measured in high school by the HS&B, Senior Test. High school program

is as self-reported by students in high school.

b/ Total is sum of “degree completed total,” "still in school," and “left school."
¢/ Sample size is too small to produce a statistically reliable estimate.
B-1


Improve the transition from Secondary to postsecondary vocational education in a
way that results in more coherent and in-depth training for siudents.

To achieve these goals, NAVE recommends using the limited federal resources provided
to postsecondary vocational education through the Perkins Act to support the state-level
development of indicators to measure the performance of institutions and, within four years of
reauthorization, the distribution of funds to institutions according to their positive resuits for
students, Extra incentives would be created to improve outcomes for students at risk--
disadvantaged students, handicapped students, single parents, and female students enrolled in
nontraditional programs. The recommended policy has five parts:

Performance Indicators. States would develop indicators of the performance of
postsecondary institutions. These indicators would measure the performance of
postsecondary vocational institutions in three main areas:

° Labor Market Outcomes, including the rates at which students are
placed in jobs, whether the placements are “training related," the
duration of employment and unemployment, and the level of
earnings at job entry and selected times thereafter,

to) Learning Outcomes, including the rates at which students attain
state certification (in fields with certification), achieve
occupational competencies, and improve their scores on tests of
academic knowledge.

0 Educational Attainment, including the rates at which students
earn degrees and certificates, take courses in a sequence, and
enroll in mure advanced level courses such as intended by tech-
prep or other similar programs.

Performance Funding. States would distribute funds from the Perkins Act
according to the performance of institutions as measured by the indicators
developed. Institutions with excellent performance would receive higher
rewards. Because improved performance could increase enrollment an¢, retention
of students, which in turn is the Major determinant of institutional revenue,
performance incentives would encourage institutions to use their own resources
beyond federal funding to improve Programs and outcomes for students.

Serving Special Populations. The fairness of any performance-based system
requires that performance ratings not penalize those institutions that enroll at-
risk students or are located in areas where employment opportunities are limited.
To ensure this, federal policy would require that the performance systems
developed by states: (a) adjust for major factors, particularly student
characteristics and labor market conditions, that affect student performance but
are outside the control of vocational educators; (b) reward both institutional
improvement and “value-added” increases in student learning from entry to exit;
and (c) provide substantial additional weight in funding formulas, perhaps as
much as 50 percent, for the performance of students in special population
categories,

Two Phases. Performance funding would be phased in over four years. In the
first two years, states would develop performance indicators; in the next two
years they would develop formulas for performance funding. In the fourth
year, federal funds would be allocated on the basis of performance.


TI,

6. Social sciences
Psychology
Economics
Political science
Sociology
Anthropology
Archeology
Geography
Public affairs
Ethnic studies
Women's studies
Other social science

7. Fine arts
Visual and performing arts
Architecture and environmental design

8. Liberal studies/general studies
REMEDIAL/AVOCATIONAL

1, Basic skills

2. Citizenship

3. Personal health

4. Interpersonal skills

5. Leisure and recreation?! activities


Table 2.2

Postsecondary Enrollments by Type of Institution,

Fall 1986
Percentage of
Enrollment in Less-
Percentage of Than-Baccalaureate
Type of Institution Total Enrollment Institutions

Four-year colleges 55 --
Two-year*/
Academic 9 20
Vocational 29 65
Total 38% 85%
Public vocational 1 2
Proprietary a} ul
Total?! 100 100
Percentage vocational 35 78

SOURCE: NPSAS, fall 1986.

a/ "Two-year" Consists primarily of community colleges and a smaller
number of public two-year technical colleges. A very small number of
two-year private junior colleges are also included.

b/ Numbers may not total exactly 100 percent due to rounding.

In the less-than-baccalaureate sector, 83 percent of all vocational students are enrolled
in two-year colleges, either community colleges or technical colleges. Because community
colleges are often governed by different state agencies and receive different amounts of federal
assistance than technical colleges, the share of vocatior.al students in each is of some concern.
Unfortunately, the NPSAS data base, as previously mentioned, makes no distinction among

these institutions. Data previously reported in NAVE's Second Interim Report indicate that

33


students receive federal aid. However, more than 60 percent of the students at two-year
public colleges are enrolled on less than a full-time basis, For some reason, 72 percent of
part-time students at proprietary schools nevertheless still manage to obtain federal aid.

Table 6.8 shows the fraction of vocational students who received aid by vocational
major. Although students in some fields are more or less likely than students in other fields to
receive aid, there are no clear or consistent differences by field that persist across institutions.
Because financial aid is not targeted toward any field of study, whatever differences that exist

must relate to the income, enrollment status, or cost of the institution attended by different

students.
Table 6.8
Percentage of Students with Aid by Vocational Major, 1986
Two-Year Public
Public Vocational Proprietary

Agriculture 43% --a/ --/
Business/marketing 28 46% 88%
Health care 39 65 89
Occupational home economics 33 54 72
Trades and industry 33 44 78
Technical and engineering 31 62 89
Communications 18 2 83
Education and public service 26 ~-2/ 97

SOURCE: NPSAS, 1986.

a/ Sample size is too small to produce a reliable estimate.

89

le


Il.

8.

9,

10,

Education
Education
Library science

Public service
Protective services
Public affairs
Military science
Military technologies
Parks and recreation
Public administration
Law

Communications
Communications, general and other
Journalism
Radio/television news broadcast and general
Advertising
Communications research
Public relations

ACADEMIC COURSES

1,

Letters
Literature
Writing
Speech and linguistics

Foreign languages
Spanish
French
German
Other languages

Humanities
History
Philosophy
Theology
Humanities and social sciences
Peace studies
Other humanities

Sciences
Biological and life science
Physics
Chemistry
Other sciences

Mathematics


(20 percent) than are students at other types of postsecondary vocational institutions. More
than 80 percent of the students enrolled in proprietary schools and 42 ercent of the students
at vocational schools received federal aid.

Table 6.3 also shows the percentage of students receiving state and other types of uid.
Compared with all undergraduate students, students at two-year public and proprietary schools
were unlikely to receive state or "cther" (primarily, institutional) aid. Public vocational school
students received state aid as frequently as ‘id other postsecondary students, but they, too,
were unlikely to receive aid from their institution,

These findings indicate that students at less-than-baccalaureate institutions who receive
aid depend heavily on federal programs, even more so than students at four-year colleges.
Student aid from state programs and institutional sources plays a much smaller r~'e at these
institutions than it does at four-year colleges. Consequently, changes in federal student aid
policies can greatly affect the demand for postsecondary vocational training.

Students enrolled in high cost institutions are more likely to get financial aid and to
receive a larger amount of aid. Table 6.4 shows the average amount of aid received: by /
students in different institutions. Students who received financial aid obtained an average of
$3,150 from all sources. There are large variations in average aid by type of schools. Students
in proprietary schools averaged twice the amount of aid received by students in two-year
public institutions and public vocational institutions and 28 percent more aid than students at
four-year public colleges. The pattern for federal aid is similar. Students at proprietary
schools receive large awards; the average federal aid package even exceeds the .f students at
four-year private scHooll:., Students may also receive financial aid from state programs or from
other sources (their institution, business, foundations, community awards). The amount of aid
received from these sources is generally much less than it is from federal sources, and, as
previously indicated, is received by relatively few students at less-than-baccalaureate

institutions,

82

at
a


Lead Agency, The governor would designate a lead agency tc develop and
administer state performance systems, The governor would also provide a broad
view of the relationship between vocational programs and other state job-
training and economic development needs, The lead agency could spend up to
20 percent of the Basic Grant funds available for postsecondary education for
the development of performance indicators and funding formulas.


students receive federal aid. However, more than 60 percent of the students at two-year
public colleges are enrolled on less than a full-time basis, For some reason, 72 percent of
part-time students at proprietary schools nevertheless still manage to obtain federal aid.

Table 6.8 shows the fraction of vocational students who received aid by vocational
major. Although students in some fields are more or less likely than students in other fields to
receive aid, there are no clear or consistent differences by field that persist across institutions.
Because financial aid is not targeted toward any field of study, whatever differences that exist

must relate to the income, enrollment status, or cost of the institution attended by different

students,
Table 6.8
Percentage of Students with Aid by Vocational Major, 1986
Two-Year Public
Public Vocational Proprietary

Agriculture 43% --3/ =
Business/marketing 28 46% 88%
Health care 39 65 89
Occupational home economics 33 54 72
Trades and industry 33 44 8
Technical and engineering 31 62 89
Communications 18 --/ 83
Education and public service 26 ~-2/ 97

SOURCE: NPSAS, 1986.

a/ Sample size is too small to produce a reliable estimate.

89

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complete programs of occupational training than those who leave without earning a degree or
certificate.

Student aid can have powerful effects on enrollment and, perhaps, on persistence of
students in postsecondary vocational programs. Its effects are probably greatest on
disadvantaged students, Nonetheless, the percentage of students who leave commun: , colleges,
public technical institutes, and proprietary schools without completing a program of study is
very high, and has worsened over time. The problem is particularly acute for disadvantaged
and minority students. Financial need is only one reason, and possibly not the most important
one, why students leave school. The key to improved retention of students may also lie with
improved counseling and tracking of students, changes in curriculum, better occupational

training, and job placements to encourage students to persist.

93


"feedback" mechanism through which information on past performance is used to encourage
improved future performance. The basic premise underlying performance-based policy is that
information on the performance of vocational institutions, suitably disseminated and linked to
funds or rewards, can create strong incentives for programs to improve their performance.
Improvements may occur as individual programs make greater efforts (through curriculum
upgrading, better teaching or student job placements), or as resources are reallocated toward
suppliers who perform best or exhibit the most improvement.

Performance incentives also encourage schools to contribute additional institutional
resources for programs to enhance student performance. By increasing student persistence and,
perhaps, by attracting new students through a reputation for high job placements and good
earnings of graduates, performance standards can generate additional FTE-based revenue.®

After studying experiences under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), other state
employment and training programs, as well as approaches that states have used in attempting to
introduce performance-based elements into their educational systems, NAVE recommends two
specific performance incentive mechanisms:

1. A performance information system to disseminate information to

students, policymakers, employers, and the public on the
performance of vocational education institutions; and

2. A performance-based funding system that distributes financial aid

to institutions according to performance-based funding formulas.
Performance Information

Performance information disseminated to students, employers, political authorities, and

administrators can significantly affect the demand for high-quality vocational education.

Armed with information on completions, job placements, and earnings, students can shift their

84 For fear of discouraging enrollments, schools are typically reluctant to require that
students demonstrate basic reading, writing, and computational skills. A study of Miami-
Dade Community College, however, suggests that mandatory testing resulted in increased
minority group retentions and no decline in overall enrollment (ser John Roueche, George
Baker, and Suanne Roueche, "Open Door or Revolving Door?" AACJC Journal, April/May
1987).

110

Li:


jobs they hold after training.4” The more vocational courses taken that relate to the jobs im
which trainees were employed, the higher the course utilization rate. We also investigated the
earnings benefits of utilized versus non-utilized vocational courses. Earnings are measured as
the hourly wage received by working individuals. The analysis of course utilization rates and
earnings was conducted only on those who were employed in February 1986.

To understand the relationship between one of these outcomes (e.g., unemployment,
course utilization rates, or hourly wages) and any one of the factors of interest (e.g., type of
institution, number of credits earned), it is important to control for the influence of the
exogenous factors (e.g., sex, race, geographic region) and intervening factors (e.g., high school
work experience and vocational training, postsecondary vocational program area, and the
number of postsecondary credits taken) that might influence that outcome. For example, when
comparing the wages of students who studied in proprietary schools with the wages of those
who studied in community colleges or public technical institutions, we controlled for
intervening factors that might influence wages, such as whether students in proprietary schools
have taken fewer vocational credits than those in other types of institutions, whether they are
more likely to have majored in business programs than in technical/engineering programs,

whether they are more likely to be members of minority groups or, more likely to come from

47 To estimate the course utilization rate (CUR), we relied upon a matrix that identifies
training program-to-occupation matches between vocational courses and occupations. ‘The
matching matrix use’ was developed from a correspondence table or "crosswalk" between
thousands of vocational course and program titles and hundreds of census occupational titles.
The crosswalk wa” originally produced by the U.S. Department of Labor's National
Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) for analyzing issues relating to the
supply of and demand for workers with varying types of specific skills. To compute the CUR
in this analysis, all the courses listed in the trainees’ postsecondary transcript records were fed
through the matching matrix and mapped to the occupations they held. The course utilization
rate was computed as the total number of vocational credits taken that relate to the trainees’
occupations divided by the total number of vocational credits taken.

55


Table 6.2

Incidence of Unemployment by Type of Institution and
by Number of Credits Taken in Major Subject Area

Regression
Unadjusted Adjust
Means Mean:
Institution Type
Community College 170 18.9
Few Credits®/ 149 16.1
» Moderate Level of Credits 10.4 10.6
Many Credits 18.8 6.8
Public Technical Institute 127 16.5
Few Credits 13.8 19.2
Moderate Level of Credits 12.6 16
Many Credits 87 6.4
Proprietary Schoel 283 22.2
Few Credits 28.7 27.3
Moderate Level of Credits -- 28.4
Many Credits 7 29.1
Increase per Year (30 Credits) of Vocational Course work Percentage
- Point Gain
Community Coll “7.5
Public Technical Institute ia
Proprietary School -10.8

Note: Data derived from the High School and Beyond Survey, Senior Cohort. Only includes individuals who attended
postsecondary institutions and took at least 16 percent of their course work in vocational subjects.

Cells with "=" have too few observationn to provide stable estimates.

a/ Regression adjusted means coutrol for the following variables: sex, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, SES,
ability quartile (multiple content area tests measured while trainee was a senior in high school), educational
plans, high school program, and work ry while 8 senior in high school, the number of pustsecondary
credits taken in language and humanitics, science and math, social sciences, fine and liberal arts, and remedial
courses, the types of institutions attended, the number of credits taken in each institution type, the degree
attained, the vocational subject area from which the majority of the postsecondary courses were taken,
additional postsecondary work and non-school training experiences, local unemployment rate, employment

growth rate, and average manufacturing wage (all measured in 1982), and the number of months since the
postsecondary training ended. Data set for estimating the adjusted means includes students who transferred
from comm unity college to four-year institutions and other students who attended multiple types of
institution...

justed means:

8 = 12 or fewer credits in the major subject ures
= from 18 to $0 credits in the major subject area
ater than $0 credits in the major subject area

Few = 12 credits in the major subject ares

Moderate = 80 credits in the major subject area
High = 60 credits in the major subject area

61

/


goal.2° Many of these students are c :er students who enroll part-time. The majority of
students enroll to obtain occupational training. As community colleges evolved from an
academic to a more vocational focus, it has been a challenge to reconcile increased demands
for short- and long-term job training, career placement, and remedial education with the
original goal of providing an academic foundation for students planning to transfer to four-
year institutions.

In addition, some states established one- or two-year technical institutes or colleges as
entities apart from or in lieu of community colleges. Technical institutes are dedicated
exclusively to providing vocational education. Some less than two year technical institutions--
vocational or area vocational centers--began as secondary schools but, feeling the pressure of
declining enrollments, began to enroll adults and recent high school graduates. These
institutions do not easily fit conventional distinctions between secondary and postsecondary
education. :

By any number of measures--institutional enrollments, credits in vocational subjects, or
major subject areas--less-than-baccalaureate institutions have taken on a more vocational cast.
Fewer students are pursuing traditional academic programs. Aggressive recruiting of new
populations--adults in need of training, part-time students, and students who could not afford
college--has brought in more students intent on acquiring vocational skills. By expanding
enrollments among these nontraditional groups, postsecondary vocational programs have

managed to increase their share of the postsecondary student "market."

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AT THE SECONDARY
AND POSTSECONDARY LEVELS

Although the Perkins Act makes no distinction in its goals between vocational education

at the secondary and postsecondary levels, some important differences should be considered in

10 w. » orton Grubb, Access, Achievement, Completion and ‘Milling Around’ in
Postsecondary Vocational Education, NAVE Contractor Report (Berkeley, CA: MPR
Associates, 1989).


St-dent aid is occupationally neutral although the aecisions that students make about
fields of study can be expected to direct federal resources toward fields that are popular or are
in demand, To the extent that the Perkins Act also expresses no strong preference for
particular fields of study, the two main instruments of federal postsecondary vocational policy
may be said to contain no explicit incentives to concentrate resources in fields deemed
important, such as those that contribute to economic development or are technologically

advanced,

EFFECTS OF STUDENT AID

By reducing financial barriers to attendance, student aid is supposed to increase the
access of students, especially low-income students, to postsecondary education and to make it
easier for them to remain in school. Studies on the effects of student aid generally support the
view that financial aid does in fact increase access and improve persistence. This effect seems
to be stronger for students in two-year institutions than it is for students attending four-year
colleges.”> The most sophisticated of these studies, one by Manski and Wise, which analyzed
the effects of Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, concluded that the grants had a
substantial effect on enrollment in two-year colleges and vocational schools but no significant
effect on four-year college enrollments.”° This study found enrollments in community colleges
32 percent higher and in vocational technical schools 152 percent higher as a result of these
grants. Four-year college enrollments were essentially unchanged.

The effects of loans on enrollment decisions are less clear. Loans reduce the money
that a student or his family must provide up-front. Several studies have found that low-

income students, not surprisingly, are more responsive to changes in tuition than are students

7 Despite the large amount of aid going to proprietary school students, there are no
studies on the effects of aid upon students at these schools. Aid is clearly important to access
because so many students rely on aid to cover their tuition, but whether aid contributes to
completion is unknown.

78 Charles Manski and David Wise, College Choice in America (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard
University Press, 1983), chapter 7.

90

105


The social purposes that have motivated federal outlays under this array of programs
may be characterized as, first, "access" or "opportunity" goals, and second, economic
development or, more specifically, human capital goals..° Under the former, the federal
government has sought to extend opportunities for postsecondary education (including, but not
limited to, vocational education) to poor persons and other segments of the population that
might otherwise be unserved or underserved. Under the goal of economic development, it has
sought to promote more rapid national and regional growth, higher productivity, and enhanced
economic competitiveness by enlarging the pool of trained workers and upgrading the quality
of training.

These general goals translate into a number of more specific operational objectives,
such as subsidizing low-income postsecondary students, providing supplemental services to
students with special needs, eliminating barriers to students’ access to programs, and
underwriting program improvement efforts. It is these latter, more specific purposes that are
reflected in provisions of the various federal programs.

Few if any of the federal programs affecting postsecondary vocational education were
formulated, or are operated, with the particular needs or circumstances of the postsecondary
vocational sector in mind. Student aid programs are aimed at helping low-income
postsecondary students generally; the fact that many such students are engaged in vocational
studies is incidental and not reflected explicitly in the program's design. Similarly, the Trio
Programs aim to help poor or low-achieving college students generally without distinguishing
between vocational and nonvocational enroliees, Programs under JTPA, in contrast, are
entirely job-oriented but designed to serve individual participants . .; not to improve the

system that delivers postsecondary vocational education. Finally, Fe... Act funds are

46 Certain program areas fit neither category. Military training is designed to meet
military manpower needs, and it is only incidental that the training provides skills useful in
the civilian sector. Also, veterans education benefits such-as the GI bill may be regarded as
compensation or inducements for military service, not social programs purposefully designed to
expand education or training.


-and at proprietary schools 25 percent of students earn fewer than 24 credits. Clearly,
community colleges have a larger percentage of students who earn very few credits. Many of
these students are enrolled part-time or intermittently.

Students at all types of institutions often earn small amounts of vocational credits, At
community colleges, 53 percent of vocational concentrators earn fewer than 24 vocational
credits. At public technical institutes and proprietary schools, 48 percent of the students earn
fewer than 24 vocational credits. Overall, about one-third of all postsecondary vocational
students earn fewer than 12 vocational credits, and one-half the students take fewer ‘han 24
vocational credits,

When only “vocational concentrators" at community college are considered, the amount

of vocational training taken by students at community colleges is very similar to that taken by

students at technical institutes and proprietary schools. Community college "vocational
concentrators" average 26 v, aso while students at technical institutes and

proprietary schools average 27 and 25 credits, respectively,

CONCENTRATION OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Vocational course-taking may be highly concentrated in a single field or it may be
dispersed among different fields. A concentrated pattern, in which students take most of their
vocational course work in a single subject area, indicates a focus on specific occupational
objectives. If students take very little total vocational course work, a highly concentrated
pattern could be desirable. It could suggest that the student has a well focused program of
study. Low concentration rates on the other hand, suggest primarily that students are
exploring different fields.

Table 4.2 shows that about 80 percent of all vocational credits are earned by students
in their principal field, About 20 to 25 percent of vocational course work is taken outside the
students’ major field. Differences among community colleges, proprietary schools and public

technical institutes are not significant. Vocational course work is highly concentrated among

40


Table 6.6 shows no significant differences by gender or age in the proportion of
Students who receive federal aid. Overall, 34 percent of the men receive federal aid and 36
percent of the women do so. At public vocational schools, women are more likely than men to
receive federal aid, but these institutions represent only 1 percent cf total enrollments. Nor
does age appear to be a significant factor at less-than-baccalaureate institutions in the receipt
of federal student aid. Older students, particulasly those attending less-than-baccalaureate
institutions, are as likely to receive aid as are younger students.

There are substantial differences related to race/ethnicity and to family income.

Except for public vocational schools, blacks are much more likely to receive federal aid than
whites, This pattern exists even after controlling for other factors related to the receipt of
aid--family income, tuition and fees, and type of institution.”4 In table 6.6, Hispanics at two-
year public colleges and proprietary schools appear more likely than white students to receive
aid, but this apparent tendency disappears after controlling for income and other factors.

Family income is one ox the basic determinants of financial need, and therefore, it is
directly related to the likelihood of receiving federal aid. Table 6.6 shows that 61 percent of
all students with family incomes under $11,000 received federal aid, whereas only 15 percent
of the students from families with incomes over $50,000 obtained aid. At all types of
institutions, poor students are much more often recipients of federal aid than middle and
upper income students.

Because students attend different institutions with widely varied costs, and cost is also a
determinant of receiving aid, the likelihood of receiving federal aid varies considerably even
among students with the same family income. Wealthy students (family income over $50,000)
attending proprietary schools (not many do) were still more likely to obtain federal aid (55

percent) than were very poor students (family income under $11,000) enrolled at two-year

4 Tuma, op. cit., Appendix 2.

86

"LS:


Table 2.4

Percentage of Students Enrolled in Postsecondary
Institutions, by Student Characteristics, 1986

Student Four-Year Two-Year Public
Characteristics Institutions Public Vocational Proprietary
Sex
Male r“ 43% 44% 35%
‘emale mY) ply 65
100% 1002/ iooe/ 100%
Race/ethnicity
American Indian 1 1 1 1
Asian 5 6 4 3
Black 8 9 14 21
Hispanic 5 9 7 14
White 82 15 73 60

Family income

Up to $23,000 20 42 62 58

$23-$50,000 42 41 31 32

$50,000 or more 28 17 6 8
Age

Up to 23 73 44 40 54

24-29 13 21 22 21

30 or more 14 34 39 25
Enrollment status

Full-time 78 39 72 84

Part-time 22 61 28 16
Dependent status

Dependent 73 48 40 46

Independent 26 51 59 353

SOURCE: NPSAS, fall 1986.
a/ Numbers may not add to 100 percent because of rounding.

enrolled at four-year colleges and 9 percent of total enrollment at public two-year institutions.
Hispanics account for 7 percent of the Population of high school graduates and reflect or

exceed their share of the population at less-than-baccalaureate institutions,

22

37


own funds to "reimburse" those institutions that lose federal funding. The standards problem
can be addressed by requiring that the funding formulas that states develop allocate funds
among institutions in proportion to their performance rating and that, at a minimum, a given
percentage of eligible institutions receive no performance funding (perhaps 25 percent).!04

The substitution problem is discussed below under "How Federal Funds Are Used."

Phasing In the System

Development of a fully operational pertiormance incentive system will take several
years, and it must be periodically fine-tuned thereafter. We recommend that performance-
based funding be phased-in over a four-year period. In Phase I (years 1 and 2 after
reauthorization), states should be required to develop and implement a system of rerformance
information, States should identify performance indicators, develop appropriate meusures,
obtain the necessary data, and at the end of this period, issue performance reports appropriate
for different audiences. In most states this system should focus initially on measures of
program attainment and labor market outcomes. The sources of information necessary to
measure these performance outcomes are readily available in school records and in the state
unemployment insurance wage records. Measures of learning outcomes, because of their
complexity, will probably take longer to put in place.

In Phase II (years 3 and 4), states would develop and implement a system of
performance-based funding. States would develop rules for linking the allocation of their
federal vocational education funds to institutional performance on various types of student
outcomes. Year 3 should be devoted to developing appropriate formulas and trial runs that

forewarn institutions about how their federal funds are likely to be affected by a

104 The key to determining what proportion of eligible institutions should receive a
performance-based award is to maintain a large pool of institutions competing for such funds
while keeping the average award at an amount sufficient to maintain interest. Under the
Perkins Act, 80 percent of the eligible postsecondary institutions receive awards; the median
amount, $92,395, is substantial. (See Janet P. Swartz, State and Local Response to the Carl D.
Perkins Act, exhibits 3.4 and 3.12.)

125

13


weighing policy options. Secondary and postsecondary vocational education differ with respect
to their basic goals, governance structure, and the federal policies affecting each level. Each

of these differences is briefly discussed in this section.

Goals

Although secondary vocational education began with a fairly narrow purpose--to
provide students with specific occupational skills that can be used at work--over the years
other objectives have gained prominence. High school vocational programs may be designed to
introduce careers, develop common or generic employment skills, keep students from dropping
out of high school, provide a setting to accommodate alternative learning styles, teach specific
occupational skills, help students get jobs, or provide a foundation for more advanced training
at the postsecondary level. Thus, at the secondary level, vocational education has many goals,
and there is no clear consensus on which ones are paramount.

In contrast, at the postsecondary level, vocational training is likely to be both more
advanced, technical, and focused on a single basic purpose--providing students with skills and
knowledge needed to enter and progress in a chosen occupation. In NAVE’s survey of local
vocational education practices, 72 percent of postsecondary program administrators rated
"preparation for specific occupations" as the primary goal of vocational education, compared to
only 13 percent of secondary school vocational program administrators.!!_ Whereas at the high
school level federal policy operates in a framework of uncertain and hotly debated goals, at the
postsecondary level goals are more limited and more widely accepted. Federal vocational
education policy at the postsecondary level, therefore, can be more directly focused on policies

designed to enhance or reward the achievement of generally accepted objectives.

1 Janet P, Swartz, State and Local Response to the Carl D. Perkins Act: Survey Analysis,
NAVE Contractor Report (Cambridge, MA: Abt Associate 1989) p. 44.

z


CHAPTER §
ECONOMIC OUTCOMES OF POSTSECONDARY
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
INTRODUCTION

One of the primary objectives of the postsecondary vocational training system is to
provide young people with the skills they need to enter into and achieve success in their
chosen occupations.®” Many high school graduates enroll in postsecondary vocational programs
to pursue this goal.°® In this chapter we dpvestigate the economic outcomes of postsecondary
vocational training, focusing on unemployment, course work utilization, and wages.
Unemployment is measured because economic benefits of vocational training can only accrue
to trainees who actually find jobs. Training utilization is examined because of the likelihood
that vocational skills benefit individuals who work in jobs that use their occupationally specific
skills and because students expect their training will facilitate access to their chosen careers,
Finally, the earnings effects associated with postsecondary training are important because one
of the main reasons young people acquire training is to obtain higher future wages.

Our analysis shows that there is considerable variation in how successful these youth
were at finding jobs, using their postsecondary vocational skills on their jobs, and obtaining
good wages on these jobs. Specifically, of our sample of 24- to 25-year-old postsecondary
vocational trainees, 90.2 percent were employed in February 1986,°° but 19 percent had
experienced one or more incidents of unemployment during the previous year. Those
employed were using an average of 58 percent of the vocational courses they had taken in

postsecondary institutions on their jobs. O: .y 25 percent of the employed trainees were using

87 This chapter was contributed by Robin Horn of Decision Resources Corporation.

88 Earlier we reported that 78 percent of the students attending less-than-baccalaureate
institutions in 1986 majored in vocational programs (table 2.2, Enrollments).

8? In 1986, the national unemployment rate for 24 year-olds in the civilian labor force
was 8.83 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1989).

31

y

co.


State-developed performaiace-based funding systems should be required to provide
tangible incentives to serve special Populations that may be more costly to educate. Assuring
that schools serve at-risk Populations can be accomplished by requiring that each state’s
incentive funding formula provide substantial additional weight, perhaps as much as 50
percent, for students whose need is great. In JTPA, several states increased services to welfare
and dropout groups by using their 6 percent incentive funds to create special rewards for
SDAs serving these groups.!02

At the postsecondary level, additional incentives should be created for four special
populations: academically and economically disadvantaged persons, handicapped persons, older
students returning to the labor market after a long absence, and women and men in
nentraditional programs. Each state would develop a consistent definition of students in each
of tne weighted categories. For example, academically disadvantaged students might be
defined as those who enter Postsecondary education with reading scores below the 9th-grade
level. Economically disadvantaged students could be defined as persons eligible to receive Pell
Grants, food stamps or other welfare benefits, or persons receiving unemployment insurance
for a period of three months prior to enrollment. Persons returning to the labor market might
be those above the age of 24 who have neither worked for salary or attended Postsecondary

education during the previous five years,

Issues of Design and Administration of Performance Funding
State Administration

The Perkins Act renuires states to designate a single agency to oversee the
administration of federal funds for both secondary and postsecondary vocational education. In
only a handful of states is the designated board responsible for overseeing state and local
Postsecondary vocational education. In most states the “sole state agency" is responsible only

for secondary vocational education and, perhaps, adult or vocational-technical schools.

102 Ibid., p. 48.

122

Lue


Federal student aid plays a major role in financing vocational training in proprietary
schools, but the primary source of support for vocational training in public sector community
colleges and vocational-technical institutes is state and local appropriations. NAVE estimates
that two-year public colleges obtain 65 percent of their total revenues from state and local
government. Considered together, federal policies and state and local policies provide roughly
equivalent resources for vocational training in public and private sector institutions.

The major forms of financial support for vocational training--student aid and state and
iocal appropriations, provide similar incentives to Postsecondary institutions. Both student aid
and state funding formulas provide powerful incentives for institutions to maintain and
increase enrollments. At community colleges, revenues are largely determined by the number
of full-time equivalent students; similarly institutions dependent on student aid have powerful
incentives to maximize student enrollment.

Under enrollment-based finance policies, the incentives to: focus attention on student
performance (e.g., persistence, completion, achievement, and job placement) are indirect and,
at best, weak. While state funding formulas and tuition payments reimburse institutions for
students who persist just as they do for new students (and in theory good performance should
make an institution better able to attract new students), student enrollments and not outcomes

remain the standard by which institutions are judged.®!

81 There may be several reasons why enrollment-based financing provides insufficient
incentive for institutions to emphasize student persistence. First, institutions that simply
“replace” students who leave are rewarded as much as those whose students persist. In the
1960s and 1970s, when the pool of 18- to 24~year- old students expanded greatly, it was
simply easier for schools to admit new students than to initiate Programs to retain ones already
enrolled. Postsecondary institutions have been slow to recognize that, in a period of more
limited eurollment growth, there could be financial rewards for those schools that improved
student persistence and completion. A second factor is cost. Students in large introductory
courses are less expensive to educate than students in more advanced courses that require
expensive equipment and entail higher instructional costs. Both advanced students and students
at risk of dropping out require additional, though quite different, services of an expensive
nature--e.g., Career counseling, job placement, remedial instruction, child care, transportation
and other special support. These additional costs may create a financial disincentive for
institutions to focus on improving completions. Finally, administrators fear that instituting
more rigorous requirements might result in lower enrollments.

106


o' .erwise have the opportunity to attend college, the majority of enrollees do not receive
sufficient training, whether measured by complet’ n of degrees or a sequence of related
courses, to realize substantial benefits in the labor market.

Given these findings and the range of existing policies, we recommend that federal
vocational education policy should help students complete a comprehensive and coherent
program of vocational study and obtain jobs that make full use of that training. Clearly,
federal vocational funding is inadequate to finance all the programmatic changes and services
needed to achieve this goal. Rather, federal policy can stimulate change by providing
incentives for postsecondary institutions to undertake improvements in program content and
job placement that will produce measurable gains in completions, program coherence, and
placements. This policy should have three basic objectives:

t) Yo improve rates of program completion and placement in
training-related jobs;

° To provide special assistance to at-risk populations for whom the
problem of noncompletion is most serious.

° To improve the transition from secondary to postsecondary

vocational education in a way that results in a more coherent and
comprehensive training program for students.

As it is currently structured, the Perkins Act is poorly designed to achieve these
Objectives. Perkins Act grants are input and process-oriented. The dollars they provide are to
be spent in certain prescribed ways, for certain kinds of services, and fur certain groups of
students. There is little in the Perkins Act to ensure, however, that spending federal funds
will actually improve vocational programs. Some recipients of funds become so preoccupied
with adhering to federal rules for allocating and using resources that these means become the
ends of policy, with little evidence that funds accomplish their intended purpose.

The specific effects of the Perkins Act on postsecondary institutions are also of
concern. About 79 percent of eligible postsecondary institutions receive Perkins Act grants in

at least one category, but there is little evidence that the Act effectively leverages additional

108


Contents (continued)

Chapter 7 - Couclusions and Recommendations

Introduction
Summary of Key Findings

Recommendations for Federal Policy on Postsecondary Vocational Education

Apperdix A: Classification of Postsecondary Courses
Appendix B: Degree Status of Students at Public Technical Institutions and

Proprietary Schools

iv

95
95
107

B-!



Table 6.5

Average Costs of Attending Postsecondary Institutions
and Proportion of Costs Covered by Aid

Four-Year Four-Year Two-Year Public
Type of Aid Total Public Private Public Vocational Proprietary

——

Tuition and

fees' $1,743 $1,322 $4,230 $ 326 $ 228 $3,347
Total costs?/ 6,437 5,146 10,097 3,898 2,501 6,881
Percentage of
Costs Covered
by --
All aid 15% 78% 63% 85% 57% 79%
Federal aid 61 66 38 73 94 72

SOURCE: NPSAS, October 1986.

a/ Tuition and fees reflect full-year tuition and fee amounts; for schools that charge on a
programmatic basis or by clock hour, however, tuition and fees reflect the actual amount
students were charged for the program.

b/ = Total costs are institution-reported costs, which are based on the budgets used for
calculating student financial aid. They include estimated costs for tuition, books, living
expenses, and transportation.

¢/ Percentage of costs covered is calculated on a student-by-student basis. Because of the
distribution of students among low- and high-cost institutions, dividing total aid by total
costs underestimates the percentage of costs covered by financial aid.
Previous findings (table 2.4) showed that proprietary schools enroll a high proportion of low-
income students, despite the high costs of attendance. There may be many reasons that low-
income students attend these schools, but these data suggest two important financial factors:
° Financial aid is widely available, and, as shown in table 6.5, it
covers almost 80 percent of the total cost of attendance. Thus,
there is often little or no out-of-pocket" cost to students who
receive financial aid.
° Although the annual cost of attending a proprietary school is

much greater than the cost of a public two-year college, the total
cost to the student of completing a one-year vocational program

84


CHAPTER 3
QUALITY IN POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL EDUCATION:
INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES

The overarching goal of the Perkins Act is to improve vocational education by
increasing the access of special groups to high-quality programs, and by improving the quality
of programs overall. The issues of what constitutes a high-quality vocational program and
who has access to such programs are therefore central to understanding federal policy.

NAVE undertook a special study to determine *he characteristics of high-quality
programs in postsecondary institutions.2® Rather than testing specific school reform proposals,
the study was designed to examine four potential influences on program quality: leadership;
resources; instructional features; and links between the programs and external groups such as
employers, other professionals, and the economic development community. The study design
took into account differences in geographic location, subject matter, and type of institution
(public or private).

A unique feature of the study is that program quality was based on employer views.
Approximately 300 employers in each of eight metropolitan areas were asked to rate the
quality of all less-than-baccalaureate accounting and manufacturing programs in their
communities. Employers were asked to provide an overall rating for each program based on
their assessment of its graduates’ knowledge and skills, work habits, and adaptability to work
roles in the company.

Institutions were then ranked within each metropolitan area for field of study and
location in the public and private sector. One hundred vocational programs were chosen as a
sample from those ranked “high,” "moderate," and “low." Site visits were conducted to collect

extensive information on how each program was organized in four domains--leadership

48 Finaings in this section are based on Rocco DePietro, Lou Tornatzky, James Jacobs,
and Michael Woods, Predictors of High Quality Postsecondary Vocational Education, NAVE
Contractor Report (Ann Arbor, MI: Industrial Technology Institute, February 1989).

27


vocational and technical students, and seven states are in the process of developing competency
tests for vocational students."

Some experience in using competency measures to assess program performance has also
been acquired under JTPA in connection with that program's "positive termination" and
employability enhancement" standards for judging youth training activities, JTPA has placed
more emphasis on general "prevocational” competencies than on detailed occupationally specific
measures,

The experiences in JTPA and Tennessee indicate that it is possible to tie performance
funding to measures of occupational competency and knowledge, but that the process of
developing such measures can be time consuming. It will take considerable time to make
measures of vocational competency operational in all major fields and in all states. Measures
of basic skills and general literacy are already widely used, however, at a large number of
community and technical colleges,°°

Like labor market outcomes, measures of learning outcomes must be adjusted for
differences in student characteristics before they become valid measures on which to compare
institutional performance. There are two ways in which this may be done. One is to focus on
the average learning gains (differences between pre- and post-test scores) for students, rather
than on gross levels of knowledge and skills. In Tennessee’s performance-based funding
system, this "value added" is computed by comparing changes between student entry and exit
on the ACT test. The other method is to develop statistical adjustment mudels that compare

observed with expected test score results for different groups of students.

% Office of Technology Assessment, Congress of the Unite J States, Performance
Standards for Secondary School Vocational Education, April 1989, p. 54.

8 Roueche, et al. ("Open Door or Revolving Door?") say that "entry-level testing {in math
and reading] in [community] colleges is the norm today." Exit testing, however, is far less
common.

N17

125


from higher-income families.”” One possible inference is that loans can affect enrollment
decisions, However, low-income students, it is also believed, are loathe to accept loans,
although these have become the predominant type of federal aid. By not fully using available
aid, disadvantaged students, particularly those in community colleges, may have diminished
access to vocational training.

Studies of the effect of aid on the persistence of students in education yield mixed
results. One recent study found that student aid had a positive effect on persistence, and that
loans as well as grants were effective in promoting persistence.”® But a meta-analysis of the
effez:s of student aid concluded that it permitted "aid recipients to persist about as well as

nonrecipients" and that “grant and scholarship aid have a more positive effect on persistence

than do loans."”®

When persistence is measured in terms of the likelihood of completing a degree or
certificate, the evidence suggests that students receiving federal aid are more likely to obtain a
degree or certificate and are less likely to drop out than students who do not receive aid.
Table 6.9 distinguishes between postsecondary vocational students who, over a four-year period
after high school graduation never received financial aid, received it occasionally, or were
aided every semester that they enrolled. The findings indicate that aided students were much
more likely to complete a degree or certificate, and much less likely to drop out, than were
students who never received financial aid. Among low-income students, 23 percent of those
who were never aided completed a degree or certificate, but for those always aided,
completions increased to 48 percent. Similarly, 68 percent of the "never aideu" low-income

students dropped out, but only 47 percent of the “always aided" students left postsecondary

77 Larry Leslie and Paul Brinkman, Economic Value of Higher Education (New York:
Macmillan, 1988), pp. 124-25.

78 Edward St. John, Rita Kirshstein, and Jay Noell, “The Effects of Student Financial Aid
on Persistence: A Sequential Analysis," (draft) presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the
American Educational Research Association.

79 Leslie and Brinkman, Economic Value of Higher Value, p. 179.

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using new equipment or systems, acquire knowledge they can carry over to their regular

classroom teaching.

Placement

Because this study used employer ratings to measure program quality, it is not
surprising that the nature of the placement function would loom as an important predictor of
Program quality. The efforts a school makes to place its students in good jobs related to their
training pays off in terms of employer ratings. In some of the best cases, faculty take on
placement responsibilities and use their connections with local employers to develop job leads
and to steer students to jobs commensurate with their level of skill, Although involvement in
job placement could be seen as a dilution of the instructional role of faculty, these findings
Suggest that placement and instruction can reinforce each other. This occurs when faculty,
through contacts with employers, try to gauge changing demand for students with particular
skills or knowledge of particular equipment, and shift their instruction accordingly. In the
better programs, placem-nt provides real information about trends in industry that can improve
the quality of instruction.

In institutions with less-effective Programs, placement practices are often characterized
by the total separation of placement from instruction, aud the centralization in one office of
all placement duties for the institution. In the worst cases, officials minimize their
responsibility for placement results. It is not unusual for a single placement office to
Coordinate all placement activities, but we often found cases in which that office did not
actively seek out high-quality placements, spent more time securing part-time jobs for students
than pursuing full-time career positions for graduates, and displayed little specific knowledge
about the fields in which students were to be placed. Such offices rarely provided feedback to
instructors on the kinds of skills their students needed or on the performance of prior students

on the job.

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