Volume I

Computers have increased the skill levels needed in some jobs and reduced them
in others. Their net effect on skill requirements is still a matter of debate.
Whatever their level, though, computer skills are in demand, and there is every
reason to expect the demand to increase.

The emergence of a global economy, the creation of high-performance
workplaces, and technological growth have contributed to demand for higher
skill levels and different kinds of skills. There has been debate over the rate of
upskilling in the economy in the last two decades and the rate expected in the
future. While it seems clear that there has been no explosion in the demand for
skills in the workforce as a whole, the demand for professional and technical
skills is growing fast, and the overall demand for skills is growing at least ata
moderate pace. This suggests that. there will be increased demand for workers
with postsecondary education, which already confers substantial earnings
benefits.

The results of these trends are evident in data on earnings. In the 1980s the
earnings of college graduates increased 10 percent, those of high school
graduates fell 9 percent, and those of high school dropouts decreased by 12
percent.2 The disadvantaged and minorities were especially hard-hit by the
changing requirements of the labor market. College graduates, who could move
into professional, managerial, and technical jobs, did relatively well in this
period, but high school graduates, who earlier could find relatively stable, well-
paying manufacturing jobs, increasingly tended to move from one low-paying
job to another, often in the service sector, as manufacturing jobs disappeared.
Those without high school diplomas increasingly moved to the margins of the
economy.

Education’s Role

In the context of these economic changes, the poor performance of American
students on international achievement tests and complaints from business and
military leaders about the lack of basic skills among high school graduates
focused the spotlight on our system of public education. A nascent movement for
reform gained momentum with the 1983 publication of the Commission on
Excellence in Education’s report, entitled A Nation at Risk. > The report
emphasized higher standards for education and more rigorous academics for
elementary and secondary students.

State governments responded quickly to this call, raising requirements for high
school graduation and admission to state colleges and universities. Soon
thereafter, other educators charged that the new reforms tended to focus on
college-bound students and to ignore the majority of secondary students who do
not attain baccalaureate degrees. They called for structural reforms to improve
the way the education system prepares secondary and non-baccalaureate

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8. Industry Skill Standards ill standards development has become an
important component of federal policy outside the Perkins Act. The Goals 2000:
Educate America Act establishes a Nationa! Skill Standards Board to encourage
the creation of a comprehensive system of voluntary skill standards and
certification. The Departments of Education and Labor have funded grants to 22
private sector business-education-labor technical committees to promote the
development of skill standards and certification in a variety of industries.
Further, the Departments of Education and Labor are supporting a validation of
the SCANS skills, and that project may provide the basis for a flexible
standardized test of cccupational competencies. To what extent are federal
efforts such as these consistent with the states’ development of performance
standards and measures under the Perkins Act? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of national skill standards? What torm should they take? (See
Volume HI, Chapter 3.)

Findings: So long as they are voluntary, national industry skill standards and
measures are unlikely to disrupt the performance systems states have developed
in response to Perkins. Two of the five Perkins options for these systems are
assessments of student occupational competency and assessments of job- or

work-skill attainment. Since states often lack access to appropriate and reliable
occupational standards and assessment instruments, most have left their
selection or development to localities. In general, the availability of national
industry skill standards and measures would fill a gap in the newly developed
state systems, rather than disrupting them. It would also make data more
comparable, both within and across states.

Evidence regarding the advantages and disadvantages of national skill
standards, whether voluntary or not, is very modest. Much of the justification for
such standards is based on policy inferences from well-documented problems.
Job instability in the youth labor market is one such problem; it may be
symptomatic of an inefficient system for matching training and jobs. Some
studies argue that national skill standards could improve the training /job match,
thereby increasing job tenure and market efficiency. However, countries that use
national skill standards and have better matches also have other structural
mechanisn ich as apprenticeship programs, for improving the match.

Another proviem is a low level of motivation by secondary students to acquire
the skills necessary for the workplace. Some economists argue that this is due in
part to the lack of a means by which students can represent or “signal” their
skills to employers, and by which employers can be confident the representations
accurately reflect skills. (High schoo! diplomas certify such a wide range of
accomplishments that they do not convey much information.) Thus, students
have little incentive to work hard and acquire the skills they need for the
workplace. If students were assessed and certified on the basis of appropriate
and widely understood standards, employers would be better able to identify

2 Summary and Recommendations

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Volume [

authorized, but not funded. The Act should encourage the development, on a
demonstration basis, of partnerships capable of including relatively large
numbers of students.

B. Program Improvement: Education Reform

Evidence of America’s declining economic competitiveness, together with the
poor educational performance and low earnings of high school graduates,
generated education reform movements in the 1980s. Initially, reform efforts
focused on improving academics in elementary and secondary schools, but in the
mid-1980s greater attention was also given to preparing secondary students for
work. Prominent among these reforms was an increased emphasis on
performance standards and on three structural changes — the integration of
academic and vocational curricula, the development of tech-prep programs, and
the promotion of work experience programs — regarded as principal
components of the school-to-work transition.

6. Effects of Education Reform. The Perkins Act calls for an assessment of the
effects of education reform on vocational education.'9 Have the reform
movements of the 1980s affected vocational education, and if so, how? The
Perkins mandate also calls for an assessment of the effects of the Act on local
practices, including the capacity of local vocational education systems to address
the priorities of the Act.'! Is there evidence that Perkins is changing vocational
education at the local level? What role do the states play in local education
reform? (In Volume III, see Chapters 1,2,4 and 5. In Volume IV, see Chapters 1
and 2. In Volume V, see Chapter 2.)

Findings: Education reform since 1980 has occurred ity two waves. The first
emphasized increased academic work and higher staiidards. The second wave
proceeded from a belief that the first did not adequately address the educational
needs of non-college-bound students, and put forth a number of proposals for
restructuring education. Among these proposals, the school-to-work transition
reforms are of primary interest here.

Both first- and second-wave reforms are incorporated in the Perkins Act. The
Perkins requirement that states develop performance standards and measures is
a part of the first wave, extended to vocational education. The Perkins empiasis
on integration, tech prep, and (less explicitly) work experience programs is part
of the second wave.

The impact of first-wave academic reforms on secondary vocational enrollments
has been a much debated issue. It is the view of most vocational educators that
increased academic requirements for high school graduation, one of the key
elements of first-wave reform, have reduced vocational enrollments by leaving
students less time for electives, such as courses in vocational education.

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Volume I

The new Act should support the development of high-quality, integrated
curricular materials benchmarked to world-class Level 2 standards, and
emphasizing the development of cognitive skills, broad technical skills, and
understanding of industries. One way to further this effort would be to support
consortia of states working together to develop these curricular materials.

The new Act should also support systematic research on the quality of integrated
academic/ vocational programs and the quality of applied academics materials.

10. Tech-Prep Programs. Tech prep is another Wave II reform, a major provision
of the Perkins Act with separate funding (in Title II), and a component of the
school-to-work transition. The Perkins Act specifies the key elements of tech prep
as (a) an articulation agreement among tech-prep consortium members, such as
school districts and community colleges; (b) two vears of secondary and two
years of postsecondary education (or apprenticeship) leading to a degree or
certificate; (c) a common core of required proficiency in math, science, and
communications; (d) technical preparation in specified occupational fields; and
(e) placement in employment. The Act calls for an assessment of the “articulation
between secondary and postsecondary programs,”'® and by implication, tech-
prep programs. How extensive and how well developed are tech-prep programs?
(See Volume III, Chapter 5.)

Findings: Tech-prep initiatives have expanded tremendously since the concept
was first introduced in the mid-1980s. The 1990 Perkins Act added impetus to a
movement already well under way. Part of the appeal of tech-prep programs
seems to be that they have natural constituencies. Two-year postsecondary

* institutions and secondary vocational programs both anticipate increased
enrollments of higher-achieving students attracted by tech prep.

While expanding rapidly, tech-prep initiatives come in a bewildering variety of
shapes and sizes. Many are limited to course articulation agreements. Some are
nothing more than relabeled secondary vocational courses or work experience
programs; others may comprise one or two applied academic courses. Still others
are new and tentative, but reflect a serious commitment to long-range
development; and a small number are well-established programs resembling the
Perkins model. Most tech-prep programs do not have formal enrollments, and
definitions of tech-prep students are at least as variable as those of programs.

In 1993, almost half of all secondary districts (5,441 out of 11,527) reported
having tech-prep agreements with postsecondary institutions. However, the
number of tech-prep programs shrinks rapidly when definitional and other
criteria are applied. An estimated 399 secondary districts had tech-prep
programs that both met the Perkins definition and had sent at least some
students on to postsecondary institutions. Only 44 postsecondary institutions
reported tech-prep programs that met the Perkins definition and had at least

Summary and Recommendations 46 7


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in order to prevent a market failure caused by employers lacking sufficient
individual interest to develop standards on their own.

Perkins should become the principal vehicle for connecting skill standards and
vocational education, and thereby contribute to a comprehensive system of
workforce preparation in America. The next Perkins Act should recognize that
responsibility in its language. It should be the champion of closer connections
5etween standards-setting in occupational and academic areas, and it should
encourage localities to recast vocational education as an integrated mixture of
cognitive, industry-related, and occupationally specific skills.7 The new Act should
also support schools and colleges in their efforts to reconcile their curriculum
frameworks with these standards.

Special Populations: Meet the Standards

The Advisory Panel believes that the last Perkins Act may have both harmed and
helped the special populations it tried to serve. (These groups include students who
are disabled, educationally or economically disadvantaged, or of limited English
proficiency.) Special funding formulas for special populations can be harmful if
they encourage schools to retain students in those categories because funding
depends on it. The 1990 Perkins Act did move in the right direction by replacing
categorical, set-aside funding with general funding formulas weighted to reflect the
presence of special populations. But the Act still demands assurance that funds are
being spent on supplemental services for special populations, rather than pressing
educational institutions to demonstrate that they serve these populations well by
emphasizing performance. The Perkins Act should encourage the movement of
students out of the special populations categories (where appropriate), as well as
high standards, high program completion rates, and labor market success among
special populations. In short, Perkins should establish a new criterion for judging
state and local effectiveness in serving special populations: Did the expenditures
serve the best educational interests of the individual student, by improving his or
her attainment of the standarcs?

And as vocational education is put into the larger context of school-to-work
programs supported by the new School-to-Work Opportunities Act, the fecleral
government’s concern for special populations should also be expanded. The federal
government has an important interest in ensuring that disadvantaged and disabled
students have access, not just to high-quality vocational education, but also to
work-based learning opportunities and job placements. The National Assessment
has found that many of the newer structured work-based programs are quite small
and frail, because of the shallow or limited involvement of area employers, so over-
regulation at this point could be quite damaging. Nonetheless, work experience
can provide a valuable complement to in-school education, and the federal
government should remain a strong advocate of access for special populations to
programs that provide such experignce.

y

With the advent of industry-oriented skill standards, the federal government's
concern with special populations should shift to bringing those students up to the
standards. That shift to achievement of standards by special populations should be

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Volume I

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act (and other federal legislation) should
further strengthen the linkage between vocational training, tribal economic
needs, and economic development efforts.

The preparation of Native American students to enter postsecondary health care
programs and the availability of such programs also deserves greater federal
attention.

Congress should consider ways to alleviate the instability of the Perkins grants to
tribes.

18. Vocational Education in Correctional Facilities. Criminal offenders are an
additional special population group targeted by the Perkins Act. The Act
designates that one percent of a state’s basic grant be used to support vocational
education for this population (defined here as those in correctional facilities.)?5
Since one percent might be less than was allotted to correctional facilities under
the previous Perkins Act, the 1990 Act contains a “hold harmless” provision to
ensure that no state receives less under the new Perkins Act than under the old.
Federal funds for correctional vocational education can also sometimes be
obtained through participation in Perkins basic local grants to LEAs and from
other Perkins programs. What is the nature of education within correctional
facilities? How are Perkins funds allocated within this sector?

Findings: Education in correctional facilities faces a number of unique and
potentially debilitating problems. Inmates tend to have extraordinary personal,
social, and educational handicaps. Correctional vocational education programs
must compete with many other programs and interests, including prison
industry and maintenance programs, counseling, drug and alcohol rehabilitation,
and basic education programs. Vocational programs also face the day-to-day
interruptions and inefficiencies created by security needs, overcrowded
conditions, and the often unexpected departure of inmates before programs can
be completed. Lack of public and political support, and problems with funding,
staffing, and equipment are further obstacles. In spite of these problems,
vocational programs are popular in correctional facilities, and serve a fairly
representative cross-section of the inmate population.

A key question is whether correctional education programs help reduce
recidivism. There is some fragmentary evidence suggesting positive effects on
inmates’ attitudes and post-release behaviors, but more reliable, systematic
research is needed.

In most states, Perkins funds for correctional vocational education are broadly
disbursed to both adult and juvenile agencies. In at least six states, correctional
education agencies have lost funding under the new Perkins Act, in spite of hold
harmless provisions. In three of these states, the loss of funds occurred in

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ip)

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Nevertheless, localities could still use more assistance from states, and states
could use more assistance from the federal government on these issues.

Recommendations: To ensure that equal access and participatory planning are
implemented as intended, the Perkins Act should be as explicit as possible about
Congressional intent. For example, a clearer definition of participatory planning
and statement of intent on this issue would be useful. The same is true of
adjustments to performance standards.

As in other priorities, the new Perkins Act should emphasize the states’ role in

improving occupational education for special population students and ensuring
equal access.

16. Sex Equity and Single Parent Programs. The Perkins Act requires “tates to set
aside 10.5 percent of basic grant funds for programs to eliminate sey w1as in
vocational education and programs for. ngle parents, single pregnant women,
and displaced homemakers (called “single parent” programs here).?3 To help
concentrate these state-a!located funds on a limited number of local sites, the Act
requires that grants be competitive. The Act calls for essurances that states will
“emphasize assisting individuals with the greatest financial need” in awarding
single parent funds. The Act also funds a position for a sex equity administrator
in each state. Have sex equity and single parent grants become more
concentrated in fewer sites? Are individuals with the greatest financial need most
likely to receive Perkins-funded single parent services? What are the roles and
responsibilities of sex equity coordinators, and what should be the scope of the
state’s role in sex equity programs? (See Volume IV, Chapter 2.)

Findings: Competitive awards under the 1990 Perkins Act have helped
concentrate sex equity and single parent grants in larger awards to fewer sites
than existed under the 1984 Act. However, sites with high concentrations of
special population students are no more likely to receive single parent grants
than sites with low concentrations. Instead, localities seem to be giving priority to
“individuals with the greatest need” within sites, rather than across them.

Almost all two-year postsecondary institutions offer sex equity programs or
services, although over one-fifth of area vocational schools and one-half of
regular school districts offer none. Recruitment and counseling are the most
commonly offered sex equity services; counseling and job placement are the most
commonly offered single-parent services.

Perkins funding is associated with increased services for both target groups,
more so at the secondary than the postsecondary level. (Postsecondary
institutions may concentrate their efforts on fewer, more costly services.) Locally
delivered single-parent programs seem to be more coherent and effective than
sex equity programs. Perkins-funded state sex equity administrators have

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number of awards decreased from 1,289 to 1,032. There were no postsecondary
consortia in this period, so there was increased concentration of funds under the
new Act. However, postsecondary institutions are now allowed to form
consortia, and their development will need to be monitored.

The state data also reveal that grants to secondary districts increased in large and
middle-sized cities relative to other areas, and grants to postsecondary
institutions increased in large cities relative to other areas.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should specify the role of consortia at
the secondary and postsecondary levels. Given their size, it is important to spell
out the conditions under which consortia should be formed and operate. It is
particularly important to indicate that consortia cannot be bookkeeping entities
established by states to maintain flexibility in allocating funds to districts and
postsecondary institutions.

22. Administrative Changes. To give localities more resources and flexibility to
build their programs, the Perkins Act reduced the proportion of funds allocated
for the administration of state vocational education programs, activities, and
plans, and increased the localities’ share.2? The Act calls for an assessment of the
effects of the Perkins Act on state administration and the capacity of states to
address the priorities in the Act.28 What effect have these legislative changes had
on state administration? On state support for local activities? (See Volume V,
Chapter 2.)

Findings: State secondary and postsecondary vocational agencies received about
28 percent less Perkins money for administration in 1991-92 than in 1990-91.
Over the three-year period ending in spring, 1993, the average number of
employees in state secondary agencies declined from 28.6 to 24.1, though
postsecondary agencies did not lose staff. We cannot tell whether or to what
extent the Perkins reductions contributed to the staff losses in secondary
agencies. However, losses were greatest in the Northeast, where economic
conditions in general have been the worst in recent years.

At least partly as a result of staff losses at the secondary level, the workload of
the remaining staff increased during this period. In a small subset of state
agencies, staffs were reduced by over 50 percent, and the workload of remaining
staff members was very high. However, some functions previously performed by
vocational staff, such as assessment or professional development, may have been
reassigned to other parts of state agencies.

Both secondary and postsecondary state agencies reported increases in staff time
devoted to a wide array of tasks between 1990-91 and 1992-93. Activities related
to the implementation of the new Perkins Act increased the most, especially the
development of performance standards and measures and the coordination of
vocational education with other programs. Reports from local districts indicate

Srommary and Reconmendations 6 0 51



Volume I

¢ Defer much, but not all, occupation-specific training to the postsecondary
level.

¢ Be competency-based; be geared to high, external standards; be assessed
by valid, reliable methods; and lead to portable certification.

« Allow for other essential courses, such as core academics.

One model of career preparation that includes these elements and is based as
much as possible on the findings of the National Assessment is presented below.
The model draws heavily on second-wave education reform efforts being
planned or implemented. It is not a blueprint, but is intended for the
consideration of education policymakers in Congress, the Administration, the
states, and localities.

A Reform Model

The general education track in secondary schools should be eliminated and
vocational education should be folded into a broad career preparation system for
the majority of students. The system would be based on majors in industries or
occupational clusters. As the name implies, its goal should be to prepare students
for careers, not entry-level jobs. The system should encompass work-oriented
and related academic curricula in high school, two-year postsecondary
institutions, and four-year colleges and universities.

It is clear that cognitive skills, broad technical skills, and higher levels of
education pay off in the labor market. It is also clear that the more cognitive skills
and education one has, the more adept at learning one becomes. The ability to
learn is one of the most valuable assets an individual can bring into the labor
market. As noted earlier, the development of cognitive skills is pivotal at the
secondary level, because it prepares students both for work and for
postsecondary education. Hence, there is a major advantage to the “front-
loading” of these skills in the educational sequence and to the attainment of
additional years of education. A student in this system should “front-load” on
cognitive skills and on additional education until the marginal benefits of doing
so become relatively low, or until it becomes infeasible for other reasons, such as
the need to support a family. Thus the extent of front-loading would vary across
individuals, who would require different lengths of time to complete their
education. Training for specific occupations would be undertaken toward the
end of this period, and would not be provided in skill areas for which demand in
the labor market was low.

The emphasis on front-loading cognitive skills and on educational attainment
must also take account of the fact that work experience can provide valuable
skills, information, and motivation to prepare students for careers. In many

Summary and Recommendations 6 4 55



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13. Targeting Special Populations. The 1990 Perkins Act eliminated categorical
funds set aside for disabled, disadvantaged, and LEP students in the 1984 Act,
while continuing those for sex equity, single parent, and corrections programs.
The elimination of the set-asides was intended to give localities more flexibility to
improve their programs. At the same time, to help assure that the needs of
special population students would continue to be met, the Act’s within-state
allocation formulas were designed to target funds on districts and postsecondary
institutions with large shares of a state’s special population students.!9 Did such
recipients tend to get larger grants than others? (See Volume V, Chapter 1.)

Findings: Secondary districts and postsecondary institutions with more special
population students, and higher proportions of these students, did receive larger
basic grants than others in 1991-92. Perkins basic grant funds were already
targeted on recipients with large numbers of special populations in 1990-91
(under the 1984 Act), and the targeting increased after the new Act. These
patterns are stronger at the secondary than at the postsecondary level.

Recommendations: As in Number 12 above.

14. Impact on Services. The elimination of set-asides for special population
students raised concern that services for these students might be cut back. To
prevent this from happening, the 1990 Perkins Act requires basic grant recipients
to address the needs of special population students and to provide assurances
that they are doing so.” The Act also calls for an assessment of its effect on
services for special populations.2! Have these services been reduced under the
new legislation? (See Volume IV, Chapter 1.)

Findings: The Interim Report found that services for special population students
were not reduced under the new Act. At both funded and unfunded sites,
services increased slightly between 1990-91 and 1991-92. The current report
shows that by 1992-93, services had increased further. The increases were greater
in funded than in unfunded districts, suggesting that the loss of the set-asides
did not lower the level of service provision. Also, local administrators report that
the Perkins Act has had a positive effect on support for special population
students.

In general, the use of Perkins funds to provide services for special populations
seems to have become institutionalized at the local level. Perkins funds support a
wide range of support services, with learning-related services (such as tutoring
and learning centers) being the most commonly supported.

The Perkins Act encourages the use of funds for guidance, counseling, and
assessment, and Perkins funds are also frequently used to support these services.
Guidance services are also the supplemental services localities are most likely to
offer (with any funds), though there is little solid evidence that they benefit
vocational students. The potential benefits from improved instructional quality

Summary and Recominendations 43

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Volume |

enrollments up, and thus maintain staff positions, is a familiar practice, and it
often complements a desire in comprehensive schools to move hard-to-educate
students out of regular classes. In situations such as this, some students will
benefit from participation in vocational programs, but others will not.

The second risk is that vocational programs, especially those in area schools, will
increasingly become special needs programs separated from the mainstream of
secondary education — an outcome opposite to the integration of academic and
vocational curricula envisioned by Perkins.

Program Quality and Program Improvement: The Interim Report found
significant weaknesses in the quality of secondary vocational programs,
including deficits in the formal education of teachers, insufficient homework in
vocational courses, and inadequate requirements for vocational program
completion.

Since the publication of that report, new information also highlights some
strengths not previously observed. A new survey reveals that employers familiar
with secondary vocational programs have high opinions of them. And, while the
Interim Report noted mixed findings on whether vocational programs help reduce
dropout rates, new data and additional analyses now strongly suggest that they
do. In addition, vocational programs are the major providers of computer
training in secondary schools, mainly in business and technical programs, and
computer literacy commands an earnings premium. Also, advanced vocational
courses seem to provide more contextualized academics than other courses.

With regard to program improvement, the Perkins strategy of stimulating retorm
at the local level seems to have resulted in initiatives of widely varying quality,

size, and kind. Efforts represented as reforms include everything from relabeling
and ad hoc changes to well planned restructuring effort

Many districts are engaged in some form of activity to integrate their curricula
and develop tech-prep programs, and there was a notable increase in such efforts
between 1992 and 1993. Nevertheless, in most cases the efforts are still new and
small, typically involving only a few courses. There is resistance to integration,
and definitions of tech prep vary widely. Most school systems are trying to fit the
Perkins reforms into their existing curricula, rather than making broad curricular
changes. Whether these small efforts will prove to be the beginnings of larger
reforms or long-term adaptations to the staius quo is vet to be seen.

One factor that may be decisive in the outcome of reform efforts is state
leadership. We know that state reform efforts are associated with increased
reform activity at the local level, and some states, such as Oregon, Maine, and
Tennessee, have adopted comprehensive reforms of work-related education as a
matter of policy. While these efforts are still new, and their prospects over the

Sunomary and Recontmendations 2 4 IS


Vohime |

and hire those with the necessary skills. Under this arrangement, students would
be able to see a connection between their work in school and their chances in the
job market, according to this argument. The portability of nationally recognized
skill certificates would greatly increase those chances.

A taxonomy with three levels of skill standards, and related certification, is
proposed in this report. The three levels are 1) academic and work-related
education standards; 2) industry-level or occupational cluster standards; and 3)
occupational or job-specific standards. In the proposed system, education and
training for work would proceed through gach level sequentially. Level 1
standards describe the knowledge students should master before leaving high
school, or possibly earlier. Level 3 standards are characteristic of most
occupational certification in the United States (e.g. electrician, hairdresser, nurse).
These standards give shape to many vocational curricula and are the ones being
developed by most of the business-education-labor technical committees
supported by the Departments of Education and Labor. Level 2 standards are not
well developed, and hence schoo} curricula are not designed to meet them. These
industry or occupational cluster standards require cognitive skills and broad,
technical skills that are compatible with emerging high-performance workplaces
and that increase workers’ abilities to learn new jobs and undertake new careers.

Recommendations: The federal government should support the development of
industry skill standards and valid, reliable instruments for measuring work-
related skills. In the process, the federal government should emphasize the
development of Level 2 standards and measures.

States should use industry skill standards and measures (as available) in
competency-based assessments of workforce preparation programs.

9. Academic! Vocational Integration, Integration, tech prep, and work experience
programs are prominent in second-wave restructuring reforms and ave key
elements in the school-to-work transition, which the Perkins Act calls upon the
National Assessment to describe and evaluate.! We begin with the integration of
academic and vocational curricula, a required use of Perkins funds.!'4 How
extensive is it and what evidence is there of its effectiveness? (See Volume IL,
Chapter 4.)

Findings: In the first year of 1990 Perkins implementation (1991-92), integration
efforts were widespread among secondary state agencies, le among
postsecondary agencies. State support for integration was rather modest (though
effective, where provided.) By the second year (1992-93) integration-related
activities were growing more rapidly among postsecondary agencies, but were
still not as extensive as in secondary offices. At both levels, the principal activities
were purchasing applied academic materials and providing training and
technical assistance to localities. The training of postsecondary faculty showed
particularly rapid expansion in the second year of Perkins implementation.

42

Summary and Recommendations 33



NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
INDEPENDENT ADVISORY PANEL

Carol L. Ball

Chief Executive Officer
Ball Publishing Company
Arcanum, Ohio

Milton Bins

Vice President
Community Vision, Inc.
Washington, DC

Paul Cole

Secretary /Treasurer
New York State AFL-CIO
Albany, New York

Stephen Denby

Executive Director

Vocational Industrial Clubs of
America

Leesburg, Virginia

James H. Folkening

Supervisor

Community College Services

Michigan Department of
Education

Lansing, Michigan

James Jacobs

Director of Policy Research
Macomb Community College
Warren, Michigan

Edward J. Liston
President

Community College of Rhode Island

Warwick, Rhode Island

E. Jeanne Lopez-Valadez
Director

Office of Applied Innovation
Northern Illinois University
Cary, Illinois

Roger Lyons

President and CEO
Baltimore Urban League
Baltimore, Maryland

Laurel McFarland
Senior Research Analyst
The Brookings Institution
Washington, DC

Steffen E. Palko
President

Cross Timbers Group
Fort Worth, Texas

Darrell L. Parks

Director of Vocational and Career
Education

Ohio Department of Education

Columbus, Ohio

L. Allen Phelps

Director

Vocational Studies Center, School of
Education

University of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Nathaniel Semple

Vice President and Secretary

Research and Policy Committee

Committee for Economic
Development

Washington, DC

Marilyn Smith

Reading Specialist for Special Needs
Students

Tulsa Technology Center

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Diane Troyer

Vice President for Academic Affairs and
Student Services

Harford Community College

Bel Air, Maryland

Loretta Walker

Administrator, School Operations

Division of Adult and Occupational
Education

Los Angeles Unified School District

Los Angeles, California

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Volume I

At the secondary level, the development of cognitive skills seems to be pivotal,
because it helps prepare students both for work and for postsecondary
education. Strong cognitive skills also facilitate learning occupation-specific
skills, and are the basis of lifelong learning. Broad technical competencies, such
as computer literacy or mechanical and electronic knowledge, can help prepare
students for a wide range of jobs; and because they include a sizable cognitive
component, they can also contribute to college prospects. For most secondary
students, training in job-specific procedures should be used primarily as applied
learning to improve cognitive and broad technical skills.

Recommendations: The general track in secondary education may be the
weakest of the three high school curricula in preparing students for work, and it
does not prepare them well for college, either. Hence, the new Perkins Act
should encourage states and districts to eliminate the general track and to fold
vocational education into a broader system designed to prepare students for
careers.

The new Perkins Act should emphasize the development of cognitive skills and
broad technical skills in workforce preparation at the secondary level. Training
specifically for entry-level jobs should be limited to students for whom the
marginal benefits of additional cognitive skill development are relatively low
and to programs that offer those students reasonably good chances of finding
training-related employment.

Because tested skills are more strongly related to labor market outcomes than
coursetaking, education designed to prepare students for careers should be
competency based.

Given the payoffs to cognitive skills, broad technical skills, and postsecondary
education, much of the training in occupation-specific skills should be deferred
to the postsecondary level. (This does not pertain to the use of occupational! skills
in applied settings to improve cognitive and technical skills.)

Perkins basic grant funds used to support occupationally specific education
should be concentrated on programs providing skills for which there is a
demand in the labor market. Employment outcome data should be used where
possible to identify the kinds of training for which there is a demand.

5. Employer Involvement and Satisfaction . The Perkins Act calls for an
assessment of employer involvement in, and satisfaction with, vocational
education programs.’ Employer satisfaction with vocational programs is another
measure of their quality. How familiar are employers with vocational programs?
In what ways are they involved in them? And how satisfied are they with
vocational education programs? (See Volume I, Chapter 7.)

26 Summary and Recommendations



Volume I

postsecondary students for work. The 1990 Carl D. Perkins Act embodies many
of these reforms.

The Perkins Act

Successor to the 1984 Perkins Act, the new Act seeks to strengthen the academic
and technical skills of students in vocational education by a) requiring the
development of statewide vocational performance standavds and measures;

b) integrating academic and vocational curricula; c) promoting two-plus-two
tech-prep programs that link high schools with postsecondary institutions; and
d) supporting work experience programs, such as apprenticeships and
cooperative education.

The Act focuses particularly on improving the occupational education of those
hit hardest by declining wages in low-skill jobs. Termed “special population
students,” they include the economically and educationally disadvantaged, the
disabled, the limited-English-proficient (LEP), individuals in programs designed
to eliminate sex bias, and individuals in correctional institutions. The Act’s dual
emphasis on program improvement and special populations has been a key
feature of federal assistance to vocational education for over two decades, and it
parallels the Department of Education’s twin goals of excellence and equity in
education.

The National Assessment of Vocational Education

In order to evaluate the Perkins initiatives and to provide information for the
next round of legislation in the mid-1990s, the Act calls upon the Department of
Education's Office of Educational esearch and Improvement (OERI) to conduct
a National Assessment of Vocational Education. The Assessment is required to
address a series of issues related to participation in secondary and postsecondary
vocational education; the academic and employment outcomes of vocational
programs; the Perkins reforms; access and services for special population
students; and Perkins funding and administration.

In response to this mandate, OERI has collected information and conducted
analyses over a period of more than three years. An Interim Report of the National
Assessment, containing our preliminary findings, was completed in December
1993. This Final Report updates the preliminary report, incorporating the findings
of new surveys, case studies, and literature reviews. In addition to revisions of
previous chapters, the new report contains seven new chapters on the following
subjects:

¢ Educational outcomes of vocational education

¢ Employer involvement in, and satisfaction with, vocational
education

¢ Industry skill standards

2 ai

Summary aud Reconmendations


Volume [

two-year institutions have generally not been inclined to undertake new
approaches to integration in response to the Perkins Act.

Economic Outcomes: The economic outcomes for postsecondary vocational
students are better than for secondary students. Postsecondary completers are
more likely to find jobs related to their training, and even some coursetaking
without completing a program seems to confer labor market benefits. These
advantages of postsecondary vocational education are most pronounced for
those who attend community colleges.

Employers familiar with postsecondary vocational programs give them high
ratings. There is also suggestive evidence that postsecondary vocational
programs prepare students for the high-performance workplace better than
secondary programs do.

Il. PERKINS QUESTIONS AND ISSUES

This part of the summary addresses questions posed in the Perkins mandate to
the National Assessment of Vocational Education. It first examines various
aspects of program quality in vocational education; then it turns to program
improvement, which today has become a drive for comprehensive reform. The
section then discusses equity issues related to special populations; and finally it
examines funding and administrative issues specified in the legislation.

Each question is addressed by research findings from the main report.
Recommendations that flow from the findings are then presented. Many, but not
all, of the recommendations are designed to inform the debate over the
provisions of the next Perkins Act. Because the Perkins Act may not be the best
means of dealing with some issues in vocational education, a few
recommendations are addressed to Congress in its role as policymaker in the
broader areas of education and labor. Other recommendations are directed
toward other education policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.

A. Program Quality

Conceptually, program quality can be assessed by examining the inputs,
processes, and outcomes of vocational education. Among the inputs, the Perkins
Act calls for inquiry into the preparation and qualifications of vocational teachers
and their academic counterparts. To evaluate process, the report examines
vocational programs and courses. The Act also requires an evaluation of the
academic and employment outcomes of these programs.

Two qualifications to this approach should be noted. First, a comprehensive
evaluation of the quality of vocational education is not required by the Act and is
not attempted here. Nevertheless, responses to the questions in the Perkins
mandate and related issues do tell us a lot about program quality. Second, the

18 Summary and Recommendations

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Volume 1

and fewer state employees work in vocational education. We do not know how
much increased academic requirements for graduation have contributed to
decreasing vocational enrollments, but it is clear that factors other than these
requirements are involved, as the decline started before the academic reforms
occurred. The fact that the largest decreases are found in business programs and
the trades suggests that demand in the labor market may play a role, because
clerical and manufacturing jobs employ a declining share of the workforce.

As vocational enrollments decrease, their composition is changing. Special
population students are an increasing proportion of all vocational students, and
higher achieving students are a decreasing proportion. The Perkins emphasis on
recruiting special population students to vocational education may be among the
factors contributing to this tendency.

On average, the change in student composition is occurring slowly, but it is
considerably more evident in vocational schools than in regular high schools. In
some places, area vocational schools have become largely institutions for special
needs students. Vocational teachers and administrators are worried about this
trend and about the status of vocational programs in the larger education system.
Our case studies show evidence of stigmatization where large numbers of special
population students are concentrated in vocational programs. These studies
suggest that there may be a “tipping point” after which other students avoid
vocational programs.

A closely related issue is the “dumping” of problem students into vocational
education programs, a practice often encountered in our case study sites. We do
not know how widespread the practice is, but 55 percent of vocational teachers in
our national survey say that the placement of problem students in vocational
programs regardless of appropriateness is a serious problem. Of 13 potential
problems li ted in the survey, this is the one most often regarded as serious.

The fundamental question in placing students in vocational programs (or any
others) is whether the interests of the students are well served. This is a
complicated question. Vocational coursetaking probably reduces dropout rates,
enabling some students who would otherwise leave school to graduate.
However, if dropout rates are low because courses are easy, the interests of
students who are not prone to drop out may be adversely affected. In a similar
vein, disabled students receive earnings benefits from vocational coursetaking,
but there is little evidence of benefits to economically disadvantaged or limited-
English-proficient students (except that some may gain by staying in school
rather than dropping out).

There are two major risks in broad-brush efforts to include more special
population students in vocational education. The first is that factors other than
the students’ best interests will become more prominent in placement decisic 1.
For example, recruiting special needs students in order to keep vocational

14 2 3 Summary and Recommendations



Volume f

Findings: A 1993 survey conducted for the National Assessment asked
employers about their familiarity and satisfaction with vocational programs in
their local areas. The survey’s response rate was 55 percent, and non-response
bias may be a problem.

About 60 percent of employers responding to the survey said they were familiar
with vocational education programs in their areas. Forty-one percent were
familiar with secondary vocational programs and 47 percent, with postsecondary
programs. Large employers and those having high-performance workplace
components were more likely to be familiar with vocational education than were
others.

Half of the employers familiar with vocational programs indicated involvement
in one or more activities related to vocational education. For those involved, the
most commonly mentioned activities were (a) providing career information to
students; (b) actively recruiting and hiring students; and (c) supervising students
in co-op or other work-based situations.

Of the 41 percent of employers familiar with secondary vocational programs in
their areas, 82 percent reported that the quality of those programs was good,
very good, or excellent. Of the 47 percent who were familiar with postsecondary
programs, over 90 percent rated the programs good or better. There was no
significant variation by size of establishment, but those in the trades, such as auto
repair and construction, gave especially high ratings to postsecondary programs.
The high-performance establishments were less likely than traditional employers
to give good ratings to secondary vocational programs, though there was no
difference in their ratings of postsecondary programs. This suggests that
postsecondary vocational programs do a better job of preparing students for the
high-performance workplace than do secondary programs.

A survey of employers participating in secondary work experience programs
also gave these programs high ratings. However, other survey and focus group
studies show that employers’ opinions of high school graduates as young
workers are very negative. lt seems that employers who are knowledgeable
about secondary vocational and work experience programs like them, while
employers who are not familiar with them have negative views of the work-
related abilities and attitudes of high school graduates and youth in general. This
does not necessarily mean that if employers in general knew more about work
experience programs, they would regard them favorably. Employers who
participate in these programs may have been favorably disposed toward them
before participating, and participants dissatisfied with the programs would tend
to discontinue their involvement.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should encourage business interest and
involvement in occupational education. One way to do this would be to support
business-labor-education partnerships for training, which are currently

Summary and Recommendations 36 27



Volume I

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

1, INTRODUCTION

The Economic Context

Over the last two decades, several major changes in America’s economy have
altered the skill requirements of the workforce and have focused attention on the
way American education prepares young people for work. These changes
include the emergence of a global economy, the development of new forms of
organization in the workplace, and the continuing growth of technology.

The emergence of the global economy brought with it a decline in America’s
international competitiveness. For more than 20 years after World War II, the
United States faced only limited foreign competition, in part because the war had
weakened many economically developed nations and in part because meay other
countries, or colonies, were underdeveloped. However, the recovery of
industrialized European and Asian nations, together with the decolonization and
economic development of others, greatly intensified the competition. By the
1970s America’s share of the world market had begun to shrink, and its relative
economic position continued to decline through the 1980s. Although there have
been recent improvements in some sectors of the economy, the nation’s
competitiveness remains an issue of critical importance.

Our competitors include high-skill manufacturing economies with well-educated
workforces, often employing new technology and new forms of work
organization to produce high-quality products. Japan's export-oriented
manufacturing sector is an example of this kind of economy. Our competitors
also include nations with less well educated but disciplined workforces able to
perform the sort of semi-skilled work that has been the backbone of American
manufacturing, and willing to do so for lower wages. Thus, many American
manufacturing jobs have migrated to countries such as Taiwan, Korea, and
Mexico. One major report has observed that if America is to avoid competing
ptimarily with low-wage labor in other countries, we will have to invest more in
educating and training America’s workforce to compete better with the high-skill
economies.!

Increased competition, both foreign and domestic, is leading American
companies to adopt new forms of work organization, the second factor affecting,
the skills required of the workforce. The traditional organization of work in fields
such as manufacturing has been based on extensive division of labor, narrow
specialization, routine repetition of tasks, and authoritative top-down
management. This system casts the worker as a cog ina machine, and it requires

Swamary and Recommendations 9

18


Volume I

State agencies face the challenge of moving beyond verbal and written
agreements and participatory planning to genuine collaboration. By 1993,
supercouncils designed to coordinate administration of the various programs
had been established in half of the states, although only eight of these were State
Human Resource Investment Councils authorized by JPTA. While it is too early
to assess the value of supercouncils, anecdotal reports are encouraging, and these
organizations seem to hold the promise of greater coordination at the state level.

At the local level, our data indicate extensive interplay between and among
JTPA, vocational education, JOBS, community-based agencies, community
colleges, and school districts. The set-aside provisions of JTPA and the Perkins
coordination requirements seem to have encouraged a variety of effective and
innovative collaborative activities.

One-stop centers appear to be a promising innovation at the local level. From the
client’s point of view, they can provide a single point of entry into an extremely
complex system. For agency staff, they make tracking the progress of clients and
assessing the utility of services easier.

In general, local officials seem to be fairly successful at knitting together the
plethora of job-training programs, or resources from these programs, in a variety
of ways to serve their clients.

Recommendations: At the federal level, Congress and the Executive branch
should strive to improve coordination among federal education and training
Acts. In particular, they should simplify client eligibility, accounting, planning,
reporting, and other regulations. They should also consider ways to provide
greater flexibility to state and local agencies.

States should be encouraged to use funding as an incentive for local programs to
coordinate programs. A focus on the potential benefits of coordination, rather
than on eliminating perceived barriers, might better persuade institutions to
coordinate with job training programs.

The development of supercouncils should continue to be encouraged, as should
that of one-stop centers. Congress should consider coordination set-asides for
special initiatives such as one-stop centers, while providing, controls to assure
that coordination funds are used for their intended purpose.

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The second wave of the education reform movement has performed an
invaluable service in calling the nation’s attention to the educational needs of
non-college-bound students. It seems clear that shortcomings in the education of
these students are the most serious problem in secondary education, one which

Stummary and Recommendations 6 2 53


Volume I

THE FUTURE OF PERKINS:
A POLICY STATEMENT

by the

Independent Advisory Panel,
National Assessment of Vocational Education

Stop! Before Congress reauthorizes the Perkins Vocational Education Act! in 1995,
they need to consider the critical role of vocational education in today’s economy
and society.

Vocational education is not a dinosaur — at least not in its reformed, reinvigorated
state. Technical and occupational skills are critical to building a high-skill, high-
wage American workforce. Individuals with vocational training (especially at the
postsecondary level) who obtain related jobs enjoy higher wages than their peers
with a general education. On a broader scale, many of the firms that have used
highly skilled workers to transform their enterprise to a high-performance work
organization have benefited on their bottom line. A desire to meet word-class levels
of productivity and competitiveness should propel us toward better vocational
education, not less. The definition of vocational education may need to change, to
embrace an integrated mixture of cognitive, industry-related, and occupationally
specific skills, but vocational education will remain a vital part of this nation’s
preparation of individuals for work.

To adjust to the changing economy, vocational education needs to change
radically in the next decade. While some reform has already taken place, a
significant amount of vocational education, particularly secondary vocational
education, has failed to respond to the emerging skill needs of employers. The
federal government can help leverage change by creating a new Perkins Act. The
Perkins Act is the federal government’s principal instrument for improving the
quality of vocational education in America. The next Perkins Act should develop
these three principles:

* First and foremost, vocational education should become an integral part of a
reformed American system of education and training. A comprehensive
system should provide all students with access, multiple entry and exit
points, clear education pathways, quality programs, high standards,
information, and linkage to the labor market.

¢ Vocational education should be high quality: It should be competency-
based, with industry involvement. Industry-oriented skill standards? should
be used as the mechanism for connecting vocational education to the larger
system of education and training. In combination with academic and
employability skills, skill standards will provide all students with a rigorous
preparation tor work and life.

The Future of Perkins 1

10


Volume I

graduates are employed in jobs that match their training. Postsecondary
students do better, on average: Almost two-thirds of them have training-
related employment.

Concentrating coursework in a particular field of study. Students who
concentrate their coursework in a vocational field earn more in training-
related jobs, are more likely to find training-related jobs, and are less likely
to be unemployed than those who do not.

Attaining more years of education. Regardless of the course of study,
additional years of education increase wages and earnings. At the
secondary level, those who complete high school do better than those who
drop out, and vocational coursetaking is associated with reduced dropout
rates. At the postsecondary level, there are benefits to additional years of
education even if a degree or certificate is not received.

Completing a degree or certificate. There are additional benefits for
postsecondary vocational students who earn degrees or certificates; they
do better than similar individuals with no postsecondary certification.

Field of study. At the secondary level, those with training in business and
health-related fields, mostly women, earn higher wages and experience
less unemployment than those in other fields. At the postsecondary level,
associate’s degrees in health and technical fields tend to improve earnings.

Type of postsecondary institution. Community college students are more
likely to be employed and to use their vocational training on the job than
trainees from other types of postsecondary institutions.

Gender of the student. Economic outcomes for women with vocational
training surpass those for men, probably because their training is more
likely to be in occupational fields that pay well. Women with vocational
training are more likely than men to improve their wages and earnings,
more likely to find a match between training and employment, and more
likely to benefit from completing a degree.

Disabled students. Secondary students with disabilities who take vocational
education are more likely to be employed than those who do not.
Participating in work experience programs increases their likelihood of
finding a job, and taking a coherent sequence of vocational courses
increases their earnings. Disabled students with vocational training also
tend to have better grades and attendance records than others and are
slightly less likely to drop out of school.

On the question of whether secondary vocational students do better in the labor
market than general track students, the evidence is inconclusive. In many studies

m4 33 Summary and Reconmendations


Volume |

ENDNOTES

1

National Center on Education and the Economy (1990). America’s Choice: High Skills ar Low

Wages. Rochester, NY: Author.

Ibid.

3 National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). A Nation at Risk: The lmperative for
Educational Reform, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

4 Section 403 (b) (3).

5 Sections 113 (a) (3) (B) and 235 (b) (1) (a).

6 Section 403 (b) (5)

7 Section 403 (b) (5).

8 Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.

9 Section 403 (b) (6).

10 Section 403 (b) (5) (A).

11 Section 403 (b) (1).

12 Section 403 (b) (7).

13 Section 403 (b) (5) (C).

14 Section 235 (c) (1) (B). Section 403 (b) (5) (B) requires the National Assessment of Vocational
Education to examine the “extent and success of integration of academic and vocational
curricula.”

15 Section 235 (c) (2) (L).

16 Section 403 (b) (8).

17 Sections 118 (a) (1); 118 (a) (2); and 235 (a).

18 Section 403 (b) (4).

19 Sections 231 (a) and 232 (a).

20 Sections 235 (c) (1) (C) and 240 (5).

21 Sections 403 (b) (2) and 403 (b) (8).

22 Sections 118, 111 (c), and 115 (b) (3).

60

69

Summary and Reconunendations


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Volume I

academic courses. Most districts, including Title II grant recipients, do not meet
the Perkins requirement for a coherent sequence of academic and vocational
courses. Only about one-third of districts, encompassing one-half of secondary
students, require a sequence of vocational courses for program completion.
However, a slight majority of districts, encompassing almost three-fourths of
students, require a concentration of vocational courses in an occupational area
(regardless of course level). Such concentration is associated with higher earnings
if a training-related job is found.

Asa rule, students consider vocational courses more useful but less demanding
than academic courses. For example, among students reporting taking specific
courses, 58 percent said their business/ vocational courses were “very useful”; 53
percent said the same of their English courses; 47 percent, their math courses;
and 28 percent, their science courses. In the same survey, 54 percent of students
characterized their vocational courses as “very easy,” while 31 percent
characterized their English courses in that way, and 23-26 percent, their science
and math courses. Easy coursework is not necessarily a bad thing; for example,
students may find some applied courses “easier” than comparable academic
courses, and still learn as much or more. But to the extent that courses do not
challenge students to think and question and do not develop cognitive skills,
their value is open to question. Another indication that vocational courses are
less demanding than academic courses is that the former assign only about 40
percent as much homework, and we know that homework improves
performance, at least in academic courses.

Cross-curricular content is of obvious importance in integrating academic and
vocational education. Yet vocational courses have only modest academic content,
and academic courses have even less occupational content. A little over half of
vocational teachers spend at least 10 percent of classtime on academics, while
only 18 percent of academic teachers spend that amount of time on occupational
subjects. As in the case of teacher preparation, there is probably enough cross-
curricular content for the first stages of integration, but much more will be
needed if integrated education is to be the principal approach to learning for
most secondary students.

Among the areas of strength in secondary vocational education mentioned
earlier were contextualized instruction in advanced vocational courses and
training in computer skills, which command an earnings premium. Despite this
fact, only one-third of all 1992 high school graduates have had at least one
semester of instruction in computer use.

Most vocational students, like most other students, do not think they are
acquiring the skills they will need for a job five years after graduation. Of those
who share this opinion, the largest number think they will need to attend two-
year or four-year colleges.

Summary and Recommendations 3 0 21


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The National Assessment of Vocational Education has been developed and administered

by the following staff members of the Office of Research, Office of Educational Research
and Improvement:

David Boesel Charles Masten
Beverly Farrar Ron Myers

Debra Hollinger Stefani Schneiderman
Lisa Hudson Duc-le To

The National Assessment staff were assisted in this task by a great many people in a
number of organizations. There are too many people to thank individually, but our

gratitude for a job well done extends to all involved, in addition to those acknowledged
below.

First, this report would not have been possible without the unwavering support of
Joseph Conaty, Acting Director of the Office of Research; Sharon Robinson, Assistant
Secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement; Diane Ravitch and
Christopher Cross, former Assistant Secretaries for OERI; and Milton Goldberg,
formerly Director of the Office of Research. We are grateful for their trust,
encouragement, and professional integrity throughout this challenging study.

Westat, Inc. performed the daunting task of administering and analyzing the Omnibus
Survey, the Followup Survey, and the Employer Survey. Westat and MPR Associates
also conducted the Community Case Studies, Funding Case Studies, and Tribal Case
Studies. We would particularly like to thank Lance Hodes, Melanie Martindale, Brad
Chaney, and Diane Ward of Westat; Gary Hoachlander and Paula Hudis of MPR
Associates; and Ann Milne of AMM Associates. We are also grateful to the thousands of
education administrators and other school and community personnel who responded to
lengthy questionnaires and agreed to participate in site visits; we recognize the
imposition these data collection efforts caused for respondents, and appreciate their
willingness to share their time and knowledge with us.

The National Assessment included many other surveys as well as analyses of existing
databases. For assistance with the National Assessment of Vocational Education
Teacher Survey, we would like to thank Judi Carpenter of the National Center for
Education Statistics, and Elizabeth Farris and Sheila Heaviside of Westat. For thorough
and painstaking analyses of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study and the
1982, 1987, 1990, and 1992 transcript studies, we thank John Tuma of MPR Associates;
for similar efforts on the Schools and Staffing Survey, we thank Robin Henke of MPR.
Our access to and understanding of corrections education data was assisted by Gail
Schwartz of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Diane Pelavin and Daniel
Sherman of Pelavin Associates, and Alice Tracy of the Correctional Education
Association. The Survey of Vocational Student Organizations was ably conducted and
analyzed by Fumiyo Tao and George Richard of Fu Associates.

Thanks also to Steven Klein of MPR Associates, Charles Benson of the National Center
for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE), and Trudy Anderson of the National
Association of State Directors of Vocational and Technical Education (NASDVTE) for
their assistance with the State Finance Records Data Collection. We are also indebted to



PREFACE

The National Assessment of Vocational Education was mandated by the 1990 Carl D.
Perkins Act (Section 403) and assigned to the Office of Educational Research and
Improvement (OERI) in the U.S. Department of Education. The Assessment was
conducted in the Office of Research (within OERI).

To help frame the issues and methodology of the Assessment, a Design Conference was
held March 13-15, 1991 in Washington, D.C.

In the course of the research, an Independent Advisory Panel of distinguished experts
and practitioners has met nine times to provide advice on all aspects of the study,
including reviews of its reports.

The Final Report of the National Assessment substantially expands and updates the
Assessment’ Interim Report, presented to Congress in January, 1994. It includes seven
new chapters: Educational Outcomes of Vocational Coursetaking (Volume II, Chapter 5);
Employer Involvement and Satisfaction (Volume II, Chapter 7); Industrial Skill
Standards (Volume II, Chapter 3); Vocational Education Serving Native Americans
(Volume IV, Chapter 3); Vocational Education in Correctional Facilities (Volume IV,
Chapter 4); Minority Participation in Vocational Student Organizations (Volume IV,
Chapter 5); and Coordinating Vocational Education and Federal Job-Training Programs
(Volume V, Chapter 3).

This volume of the Final Report contains a policy statement by the Advisory Panel and
the Assessment's summary and recommendations. Authors of these pieces are:

The Future of Perkins: A Policy Statement by the Independent Advisory Panel —
Laurel McFarland

Summary and Recommendations of the National Assessment of Vocational
Education — David Boesel

In late June, 1994, a limited number of advance copies of this Final Report were published
in order to meet the July 1, 1994 Congressional deadline. This second edition contains
editorial changes to the advance copies. Some substantive changes were made to
Chapter I of Volume IV (State and Local Responsibilities Concerning Special Population
Students), because of inconsistencies between that chapter and Chapter 1 of Volume V
(Allocation and Uses of Perkins Funds). In addition, Chapter 3 of Volume 5
(Coordinating Vocational Education and Federal Job Training Programs) has been
reduced in size and rewritten to improve readability.

While conducted within OERL, this assessment is an independent study and does not
necessarily reflect the views of OERI or the U.S. Department of Education.

David Boesel
Director, National Assessment
of Vocational Education

iii


Volume I

reliable, responsible behavior more than thinking skills and flexibility from front-
line workers. Management is primarily responsible for supervision, decision-
making, and leadership.

This organizational model worked well through the 1960s, but by the 1970s it
was becoming clear that a new model developed in Japan could often achieve
higher levels of productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. Following the
principles of W. Edwards Deming, the new system makes much greater use of
the skills and abilities of front-line workers. It eliminates layers of management
and assigns front-line workers more responsibility for supervisory functions such
as improving operations, solving problems, and assuring quality control.
Teamwork and job rotation are often key elements in the new model. Customer
needs infuse and help guide the process.

This system requires more active thinking, communication, and collaboration
among workers than the old one; hence it requires better educated, more flexible,
and more socially adept workers. While the high-performance workplace is not
yet the dominant mode of production and service delivery in this country, its
recent growth can be gauged from estimates of its prevalence. In the late 1980s
only 5 percent of employers were estimated to have restructured their
workplaces along these lines. By 1993, around one-third of all establishments
were estimated to be incorporating major components of the high-performance
workplace. (This estimate, from survey data, is tentative and requires on-site
verification.) Large manufacturing firms were the most likely to be adopting
these new forms of work organization.

The third factor that has altered the skills demanded of workers is technological
change. While improvements in technology are an old story, today’s technology
is becoming ever more pervasive and sophisticated. Particularly dramatic has
been the proliferation of computers and telecommunications equipment. Many
industries have been transformed by the infusion of computer technology into
their production and services.

The use of computer assisted design (CAD) technology is estimated to have
increased productivity in drafting at least six-fold in comparison to traditional
methods. The insurance industry now routinely uses computerized underwriting
software. Auto mechanics use computerized diagnostic equipment. In
agriculture, computers assist with herd management, crop rotation, and pest
control. In many businesses and offices, of course, computers are now essential
for word processing, financial management, sales information, and a wide range
of other applications.

Some 36 percent of workers used computers on the job in 1989, and occupations
requiring, computer fiteracy have been among the fastest growing in the last
several decades. There is also evidence that employees with computer skills earn
higher wages than similar employees who lack such skills.

10 1 9 Summary and Recommendations



TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME I
The Future of Perkins: A Policy Statement... 0.01

Summary and Recommendations of the
National Assessment of Vocational Education. 9

Introduction. ooo. ccececseeeccecceccseesesseceeseeeeeeseeceeeeeeessssseeansessaseeeen 9
Observations on the Condition of Vocational
Education... .
Perkins Questions an¢ issues,........
Program Quality coeccaneetsaveeenneensneeae
Program Improvement: Education Reform.
Equity in Vocational Education. _......
Funding and Administration Issues...
Conclusion and Future Directions..
Emtec eseesesseeseesseeecesnenrenseeee

9 vii



Volume [

long term are not yet clear, the state-led reform process seems a promising
approach.

Economic Outcomes: Vocational coursetaking at the secondary level pays off for
some students, but not for others. The key to improved outcomes is finding a
training-related job, but fewer than half of secondary vocational students do so.
Rates of matching between training and jobs vary by occupational field. For
example, in one analysis, women in the health field used 71 percent of their
vocational courses on the job, whiie men in precision production used 36 percent
of their courses. Despite these variable employment outcomes, employers
familiar with secondary vocational programs give them high ratings.

Academic courses have small positive effects on wages and employment status
after high school, with the effect on wages increasing over time. Tested
competencies, both academic and vocational, are consistently related to
measures of occupational success such as wages and performance on the job,
suggesting that competency assessment should be a key feature of program
evaluation. General cognitive ability, as reflected in high scores across different
tests, is especially versatile, predicting performance across a wide range of
occupations.

Reforming the System: Career preparation is a desirable goal for many
secondary students, but at present vocational education is too narrowly defined
and too narrowly based to achieve that goal. Occupation-specific skill training at
the secondary level can be valuable, but it focuses on jobs rather than careers,
and its value is qualified by relatively low rates of vocational skill use on the job.
Secondary education systems need to expand the scope of occupational curricula
to broader subject areas, focusing on industries rather than occupations, for
example, and using applications to teach underlying principles (e.g., deriving
power from the expansion of gasses) rather than simply to teach occupational
procedures (e.g., how to replace pistons). Secondary educators should make this
kind of education broadly inclusive, encompassing a large part of the secondary
student body, focusing on the development of cognitive skills, and preparing
many students for postsecondary education. One way to do this is to eliminate
the general track, fold vocational education into a system of industry-based
majors, and prepare participating students, as much as possible, for some form of
postsecondary education, including both two-year institutions and four-year
colleges and universities. The conclusion to this summary provides one model of
such a system.

Postsecondary Vocational Education

Background: Most postsecondary vocational (occupational / technical) education
is provided in community colleges. Private proprietary schools are the second
largest providers, followed by public technical institutes and area vocational
schools serving postsecondary students. Because almost all Perkins funds go to

lo 2 Stmmary and Reconmendations



DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 371 191 CE 066 675

AUTHOR Boesel, David; McFarland, Laurel

TITLE National Assessment of Vocational Education. Final
Report to Congress. Volume I. Summary and
Recommendations.

INSTITUTION National Assessment of Vocational Education (ED),

Washington, DC.; Office of Educational Research and
Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. Office of

Research.
REPORT NO ISBN-0-16-045242~-2; OR-94-3502-1
PUB DATE Jul 94
NOTE 7lp.; For the interim report, see ED 369 929; for

other volumes in this series, see CE 066 676-679.

AVAILABLE FROM U.S. Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents,
Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 (Stock No.
065-000-00685-5, $4.75; Stock No. 065-000-00692-8,
5-volume set, $41).

PUB TYPE Reports ~ Evaluative/Feasibility (142)
EDRS PRICE MFO1/PCO3 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Disabilities; “Educational Assessment; Educational

Change; Educational Development; Educational
Legislation; *Federal Legislation; Models; *Outcomes
of Education; Postsecondary Education; *Program
Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; *Role of
Education; Secondary Education; Special Needs
Students; *Vocational Education

IDENTIFIERS *Carl D Perkins Voc and Appl Techn Educ Act 1990

ABSTRACT

This document, the first of five volumes that
comprise the final report of the National Assessment of Vocational
Education contains a policy statement by the Advisory Panel and a
summary and recommendations. "The Future of Perkins--A Policy
Statement" (Laurel McFarland) outlines three principles that the next
Perkins Act should develop: the federal government should have a new
role in supporting vocational education--fostering a truly
comprehensive system of preparation for work; Perkins should become
the principal vehicle for connecting skill standards and vocational
education; and institutions and states should be held accountable for
disadvantaged and special populations meeting skill standards.
“Summary and Recommendations of the National Education" (David
Boesel) has three parts. The first briefly discusses the condition of
vocational education in secondary schools and nonbaccalaureate
postsecondary institutions. The second part addresses questions posed
in the Perkins mandate and issues related to those questions. It
examines various aspects of program quality in vocational education,
program improvement, equity issues related to special populations,
and funding and administrative issues specified in the legislation.
Recommendations based on the evidence in the report are made. The
third section discusses some implications of the findings and
suggests a model of occupational education consistent with them.
Twenty-eight endnotes are appended. (YLB)


Volume |

to education and workforce preparation. How extensive are these programs, and
what evidence is there of their effectiveness? What is their potential for future
expansion? (See Volume III, Chapter 6.)

Findings: Cooperative education is the oldest and most widespread of the work-
based programs. Most secondary districts and postsecondary institutions have
co-op programs, and over 400,000 secondary students participate in them.
Systematic research indicates that students and employers like co-op programs,
but evidence of positive academic or occupational outcomes is conflicting and
inconclusive. (However, disabled students seem to derive employment benefits
from work-based programs in general.)

New youth apprenticeship programs, in which students receive their
occupational skill training on the job under the supervision of mentors, are
generally small and few in number. A 1993 canvass of states located 55 youth
apprenticeship programs, broadly defined. The typical (median) program served
about 20 students; the average (mean) number of students was 60. Altogether,
the programs enrolled about 3,400 students.

Apprenticeship programs have not been rigorously evaluated, so there is no
systematic information about their effectiveness. However, there are some
positive signs. Student continuation rates over one year are very high — on the
order of 95 percent. Moreover, as noted in Number 5 above, employers who
participate in youth apprenticeship (and co-op) programs have strongly positive
opinions of them.

Unlike tech-prep initiatives, youth apprenticeships and other intensive, formal,
work-based programs do not have widespread pre-existing constituencies. They
usually depend on participation by private-sector employers, and on balance
they entail additional costs to employers. Many labor unions are opposed to
youth apprenticeships. On the education side, if skill training were shifted
primarily to the workplace, vocational programs would experience further
enrollment losses.

Apart from formal work-based programs, about one-third of secondary students
work while in high school, and they may derive some benefits from doing so.
Working up to 15-20 hours a week does not seem to depress grades and is
positively associated with earnings after graduation and /or with later college
attendance. Self-selection may cause some of these effeets.

The biggest difficulty in making formal, work-based programs a major part of
secondary education is what has become known as “the problem of scale.” There
are over 5 million high school students in grades 11 and 12. Co-op programs
currently include somewhat over 400,000 students (8 percent of those in grades
11 and 12) and apprenticeship programs include several thousand. It is proving
difficult to recruit employers and to keep them once recruited. The costs of

Summary and Reconmnendations 390

48



Volume I

All federal education and training legislation, including the Perkins reauthorization,
should complement and strengthen this creation of a system. But, despite the
Perkins Act’s expressed interest in integrating academic and vocational education,
the provision of vocational education in many states is still quite isolated from the
rest of the education system, and from the rest of educational reform. Perkins is not
well designed to accomplish system-building at present. The National Assessment
report suggests several reasons why:

1) There is still too much emphasis on services rather than program
improvement. In particular, Perkins does not place sufficient stress on
teacher training as the key to program improvement.

2) Perkins provides extra funding for special populations students rather
than supporting the attainment of high standards among these
populations. Categories and labeling may present barriers to the
Operation of a seamless system of education and training for all students.

3) By channeling additional funding to local sites, the 1990 Perkins Act
overlooks the vital role of state governments in supporting vocational
education reform. States represent the most promising way to achieve
vocational education reform on the scale necessary to have an impact on
workforce quality. By making clear what results it wants from the system,
Congress can allow considerable flexibility in the way states design the
systems and structures to accomplish these goals.

4) _ Perkins fails to take into account the different roles of secondary and
postsecondary education in workforce preparation. And it is largely silent
on what the respective roles of these levels should be.

5) Though promoting links with postsecondary education through support
of tech prep, Perkins does not give sufficient attention to links with the
workplace, such as work experience programs, or to coordination with
other training providers, such as the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).

It is vital that the next Perkins Act be integrated with the Goals 2000: Educate
America Act, particularly with respect to academic and occupational standards.
The Perkins Act should also connect with the School-to-Work Opportunities Act,
the Adult Education Act, and the Higher Education Act, which is the principal
source of government assistance for postsecondary vocational students. In addition,
the Perkins Act should complement federal efforts to aid the disadvantaged: JTPA,
the JOBS program, and future welfare reform legislation. Finally, the Act should
dovetail with the Re-Employment Act! and its emphasis on improving information,
about both training options and labor market prospects. The Perkins Act should
complement, not contradict the other legislation, and it should take the lead in
emphasizing the importance of a mixture of cognitive and vocational skills in the
preparation of individuals tor work.

If these laws can all be connected to each other in a more seamless way to foster a
system of education and training, then the Perkins Act’s present emphasis on initial

Po

The Future of Perkins 1 2 3


Volume I

* Vocational education should be accessible to all students: The federal
government has a vital and continuing role in securing quality vocational
education for disadvantaged, limited English proficient, and other special
population students who want to pursue that path of study.

In 1990, the 1984 Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act was reauthorized, with
major changes to encourage higher performance standards, equal access, and new
programs for delivering vocational education. For the past three years, the National
Assessment of Vocational Education has examined the impact of federal aid to
vocational education, and it has now issued its final report. The National
Assessment findings are important, and raise serious, troubling questions about the
federal government's present approach to vocational education, and about its
commitment to preparation of a quality workforce.

As the Independent Advisory Panel to the Assessment, we seek to amplify the
findings of its research report, and to draw on our collective expericnce over the

past three years to make policy recommendations to Congress about the future of
Perkins.

We advocate that the new Perkins Act break with the past. While many of the goals
of the 1990 Act were set in the right direction, the results have been disappointing
in many areas. We recommend a major change in the nature of the federal
government's involvement in vocational education. We propose a radical new role
tor the federal government in supporting vocational education: fostering a truly
comprehensive system of preparation for work.

One of the keys to the establishment of a system will be the introduction of
industry-oriented skill standards. These standards will be important for raising the
status and content of vocational education, but they will also give form and content
to education in general, and contribute to the creation of a system of education and
training. Moreover, the standards will serve the existing Perkins commitments to
“special populations” and program improvement by helping to improve the rigor
and accountability of all vocational education programs, for all students.

Perkins and Vocational Education Must Become Part of a New System

Unlike many other industrialized nations, this country still lacks a comprehensive
system of workforce preparation. Educational programs and institutions operate in
loosely coordinated, sometimes disconnected ways, and individuals are left on
their own to navigate their way through them and into the labor market. The
Perkins Act will be reauthorized at a time when the reform of other aspects of
American education is well underway. A growing consensus has emerged, both in
local communities and among policy makers, concerning what an American
system of workforce preparation should look like. The key elements include
standards (academic and industry-linked), assessment, credentialing, curriculum
frameworks, teacher training, labor market information, and planned pathways.

tw

The Frcture of Perkins

11



Volume |

that state support for the implementation of Perkins provisions was modest in

the first year of Perkins implementation (1991-92) but increased substantially in
the second.

Implementation got started more slowly than intended in the Act, in part as a
result of federal delays in evaluating state grant applications and in issuing
regulations. Much of the delay in issuing regulations appears to have been due to
the negotiated rulemaking process and to the many layers of review within the
government. Both were reported to be time-consuming and to have little effect
on the regulations. Evaluation of state applications was hampered by a lack of
criteria with which to evaluate their overall quality (a new federal requirement).

Recommendations: The Department of Education should streamline its
procedures for reviewing regulations and develop criteria for evaluating the
quality of state plans.

23. Coordination of Perkins, JTPA, and Other Federal Job Training Programs.
Congress has historically been concerned about the potential for overlap and
duplication of effort among federal job training programs, and has included
provisions for cooperation in the authorizing legislation for the major programs.
The Perkins Act calls upon the National Assessment to examine coordination
among the Perkins Act, the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the Adult
Education Act, the National Apprenticeship Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
and the Wagner Peyser Act.2? The Jobs Opportunity and Basic Skills Act, though
not included in the Perkins list, is a major training program that should also be
considered in this context.

How rruch of a problem is lack of coordination among these programs at the
federal, state, and local levels? What measures are being taken to improve
coordination? What can be said about the effectiveness of these measures? What
additional steps could usefully be undertaken? (See Volume V, Chapter 3.)

Findings: Problems of fragmentation and duplication across some 125 federal
education and training programs are real, but should not be overstated. Given
the large number of different programs, some overlap is inevitable and may help
assure that individuals in need of services do not fall through the cracks.
Nevertheless, the cost-effective delivery of services is a goal that should be
pursued.

The research suggests that as program administration moves closer to the local
level, and to intended clients, cooperation becomes more visible and seems to be
more effective. At the federal level, greater coordination across different job
training laws is needed. In particular, there is need for a common set of
administrative requirements to govern the major programs. Agreement on
eligibility definitions, fiscal years, reporting requirements, and planning periods
would greatly simplify the work of administrations at all levels of government.

52 G 1 Summary aud Recommendations



Volume I

states and districts have completed the first few miles of a long journey. The
prospects for systemic integration seem to be best in states that undertake broad-
based reforms to improve the workforce preparation of students.

At the postsecondary level, substantial elements of curricular integration
predated the 1990 Perkins Act. As of 1991-92, postsecondary institutions were
more likely than local districts and schools to use cross-curriculum materials and
to provide interdisciplinary courses. Just under three-fourths of postsecondary
institutions had developed applied academic courses such as technical math and
business English. They are almost twice as likely as secondary schools to provide
“tandem” academic and vocational courses.

Further, the great majority of postsecondary institutions (83 percent) required
general education competencies for vocational students. Demonstrating these
competencies usually involves passing a prerequisite academic course or taking a
co-requisite academic course along with a vocational course. In somewhat over
half of the postsecondary institutions (58 percent), vocational faculty are
involved in establishing general education competencies.

Most postsecondary institutions continued to provide the accustomed forms of
integrated education after the 1990 Perkins Act. In contrast to the secondary
level, there was no great expansion of integrative activities across institutions,
with one exception — a marked increase in faculty training for integration.

It is still too early to assess the effectiveness of integrated education in terms of
academic and employment outcomes. However, there is evidence that
“contextualized learning,” that is, education in a context that enables students to
relate schoolwork to the world outside of school, is a more effective pedagogical
approach than traditional education, which emphasizes knowledge for its own
sake. There is also evidence from the military that a contextual approach to
training results in better job performance than other methods, and some
suggestive (but inconclusive) evidence that the military’s use of a contextual
approach to adult literacy training is relatively effective.

On the other hand, there is not much systematic evidence that integrated
academic/ vocational education in schools is effective — in part because not
much systematic research has been conducted. The best research on the subject
has focused on career magnet schools and career academies. Careful studies of
these programs found positive effects on students during their first year of
participation, but the effects faded in subsequent years. Nevertheless, some first-
year effects such as fewer failed courses were not lost, and overalt dropout rates
were lower for students in California career academies. There were also positive
effects for some programs and practices in New York magnet schools.

All Aspects of the Industry. One way to integrate curricula is to provide
students with instruction in all aspects of an industry — for example, teaching

Stammary and Reconunendations 4 4 35



Volume [

Does vocational coursetaking reduce dropout rates? The Interim Report found the
evidence mixed, with some studies reporting that it does, others that it does not.
However, a closer analysis of these studies, taking into account the strength and
weaknesses of their methodologies, leads to a different conclusion. The balance
of evidence suggests that vocational coursetaking does reduce dropout rates,
although a few studies show no effect.

Although a majority of vocational students receive some postsecondary
education, they are less likely than college prep students to enroll in four-year
colleges and universities, even after personal background, educational
aspirations, and other characteristics are controlled. Differences between the two
groups are less marked when the outcome is any form of postsecondary
education, including occupational/technical education. However, some
researchers believe that vocational and college prep students cannot reasonably
be compared on postsecondary outcomes because they are so different in
background and future plans. General track students are a little more likely than
vocational students to enroll in postsecondary education, although the
differences are trivial. In community colleges, students who were vocational
concentrators in high school have lower completion rates than those who were
academic students.

Recommendation: Given the economic returns to postsecondary education, the
new Perkins Act should emphasize that qualified secondary students in
occupational programs should be prepared to attend postsecondary institutions,
including (for some) 4-year colleges and universities. This means that, with some
exceptions, every high school graduate should be prepared to enter a community
college or other two-year postsecondary institution without the need for
remediation. The emphasis on cognitive skill development in the model at the
end of this volume is central to such preparation.

4. Employment Outcomes. The Perkins Act calls for assessment of the
employment outcomes of vocational education.” Employment outcomes are in
many ways the yardstick in evaluating vocational programs. If there is a strong
positive relation between vocational coursetaking and employment status, level
of occupation, and/or earnings, taking other factors into account, then the
student's participation in vocational education, and the public’s investment in it,
will have been worthwhile. What evidence is there that vocational education
pays off? (See Volume II, Chapter 6.)

Economic returns to vocational education at the secondary and postsecondary
levels are conditional on a number of factors. The following are associated with
better employment and earnings outcomes:

Finding a job that matches a field of study. Vocational students who do so
tend to earn more money and have a lower incidence of unemployment
than those who do not. After high school, less than half of secondary

Stummary and Recommendations 32 23


Volume I

training, supervision, and compensation, together with negative employer
opinions about the quality of young workers in general, are major obstacles to
greater employer participation. Efforts by the British government to subsidize
apprenticeship programs by giving students a living allowance in lieu of wages
attracted employers, but had unexpected negative effects.

More limited forms of work experience and employer involvement might be a
more feasible means of expanding opportunities for students to participate in this
form of learning. In particular, efforts to relate jobs that students get on their own
to education in such areas as employability skills and labor-force supply and
demand should be pursued.

Recommendations: The federal government should continue to explore ways to
expand work experience programs. Attention should be given to new
approaches that have the potential to involve large numbers of students.

The government should conduct rigorous evaluations of formal work-based
8
programs. The evaluations should assess program effects on outcomes such as

student skill competencies, student retention, and subsequent employment and
earnings.

Formal work-based programs should be developed on an incremental basis,
consistent with economic principles. The government should carefully assess
these programs’ potential for expansion and review evidence pertaining to
employment outcomes before considering any major commitment of resources to
them.

C. Equity in Vocational Education

12. Access for Special Populations. As part of its effort to help special population
students, the Perkins Act requires states to provide assurances that these
students have equal access to vocational education and that localities ensure their
full participation in programs improved with Perkins money.!7 As part of its
mandate to the National Assessment, the Act also calls for an examination of the
“participation in vocational education programs, including, in particular, the
access of . . . special populations to high-quality vocational education
programs.” '§ The previous National Assessment identified area vocational
schools as among the principal providers of high-quality secondary vocational
education and found that special population students had less access to them
than students in general. Has this access pattern changed? More broadly, what
are the patterns of access and participation for special population students at the
secondary and postsecondary levels? (See Volume II, Chapters 1 and 2.)

Findings: At the secondary level, access of special population students to area
vocational schools (AVSs) is still more limited than that of other students,
because special populations are located in central cities and rural areas out of

40 49 Summary and Recommendations



Volume |

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should strengthen the requirement for
coherent course sequences in funded districts. A sequence of related academic,
occupational, and/or integrated courses, moving from more basic to more
advanced courses, should be required for program completion and certification
in districts that receive Perkins grants. An exception should be made for districts
with programs too small to meet this requirement.

Given the positive relation between homework and performance on achievement
tests, the relation between time spent on a subject and knowledge of the subject,
and the relatively low level of homework assigned in vocational courses, policy
makers in vocational education should encourage secondary schools to assign
more homework to students in work-related courses.

The new Perkins Act should incorporate the recommendation of the National
Commission on Excellence in Education that all high school students be required
to complete at least one semester of instruction in the use of computers.

Out zomes of Vocational Education

3. Educational Outcomes. The Perkins Act calls for an assessment of the
academic outcomes of vocational education. In response to this mandate, the
report addresses a number of different questions about academic and other
educational outcomes of secondary vocational education. How does vocational
coursetaking affect students’ achievement? How does it affect their chances of
staying in school or dropping out? And how does it affect their chances for
postsecondary education? (See Volume II, Chapter 5; also Volume II, Chapter 2.)

Findings: Vocational students (concentrators) earn fewer academic credits than
those in the general track, although they are gaining ground. Increased academic
requirements for graduation may be responsible for this change. Vocational
students also earn fewer advanced academic credits, and their gains have been
smaller for these courses.

The test scores of vocational students are about the same as those of general track
students, and substantially lower than those of college preparatory students.
These differences are largely the result of selection: Students with differing
aptitudes and achievement levels enter college preparatory and non-college
programs. According to one estimate, 80 percent of the difference between
college prep and vocational students is due to pre-existing student
characteristics; 10 percent is due to the fact that vocational students take fewer
advanced academic courses; and 10 percent is due to other program
characteristics.

Consistent with casual observation, the evidence also suggests that vocational
coursetaking improves occupational skills, as measured on standardized tests.

22 3 1 Summary and Recommendations



Volume I

already pursuing such reforms vigorously. We think that state leadership is the
best bet to give context, shape, and direction to the diverse local reform activities
already under way, and more broadly, to convert them to coherent career
preparation programs.

The role of the federal government should be to set a flexible agenda; provide
resources to facilitate its implementation, through such measures as the
development on industry standards and curricular material; help assure the
access of special populations to reformed and improved programs; and conduct
rigorous assessments of these programs.

Summary and Recommendations 6 8 59


the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity for sharing with us their survey of state
sex equity administrators.

The NCRVE provided critical research on additional issues relevant to the National
Assessment. We would especially like to thank the key authors of the NCRVE reports:
Marion Asche, Norton Grubb, Gerald Hayward, Cathy Stasz, Brian Stecher, David Stern,
and David Stevens.

Along the way, numerous people helped us to remain on tarvet, on time, and of sound
mind. For this we thank Daniel Chenok and Cynthia Brown of the Office of
Management and Budget; Donald Brannon and Barbara Shay of the Council of Chief
State School Officers; Joseph Cassello, Tom Corwin, and Tom Johns of the U.S.
Department of Education; Gary Hoachlander of MPR; Madeleine Hemmings of the
NASDVTE; and Anne App of Word for Word, the Advisory Panel's diligent recorder.
We are particularly grateful to the Advisory Panel (see separate listing) for their
constructive comments, recommendations, and assistance throughout the three years of
the study.

The text and structure of the Final Report were enhanced by the review and comments of
the National Assessment’s Advisory Panel and the following OERI staff: Nabeel
Alsalam, Mary Frase, and Jim Houser of NCES, and Judith Anderson, Marilyn Binkley,
Joseph Conaty, Jim Fox, Sue Klein, Patricia Lines, Sheilah Maramack, and Nevzer Stacy
of OR. Two organizations, Conwal Incorporated and HumRRO, provided courteous and
professional production assistance under the pressure of inflexible deadlines. We wouid
especially like to thank Pearl NaChampassak, Shelia Newman, and Janet Pooley of
Conwal; Mazie Knerr of HumRRO; and our editor Lola Zook for their patience,
perseverance, and good work.

vi


Volume I

¢ Vocational education in tribal institutions

¢ Vocational education in correctional facilities

¢ Minority student participation in: vocational student
organizations

¢ The coordination of Perkins, JTPA, and other federal
job training programs

This summary has three parts. The first briefly discusses the condition of
vocational education in secondary schools and non-baccalaureate postsecondary
institutions. The second addresses questions posed in the Perkins mandate and
issues related to those questions. It also makes recommendations based on the
evidence in the report. The third discusses some implications of our findings and
suggests a model of occupational education consistent with them.

Il. OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDITION OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Secondary Vocational Education

Background: Most secondary vocational education occurs in vocational
programs in comprehensive high schools. Some is provided in area vocational
schools, where students typically spend half a day on vocational courses,
followed or preceded by half a day in their comprehensive high schools. Area
vocational schools are more likely to be located in suburban tha: in urban or
rural areas. A small number of students attend all-day vocational high schools,
which are typically located in urban areas and which focus on vocational
education, while providing essential academic courses.

Almost every high school student earns at least some credits in vocational
education courses, but only one in four graduates as a vocational student — that
is, earns at least three credits within in one vocational program area. Among the
24 percent of students who do concentrate their vocational coursetaking,
business and the trades (such as carpentry, metal working, and welding) are by
far the most popular program areas.

Secondary vocational districts receive more Perkins money than regular districts,
on average. They also tend to receive more support and assistance from state
vocational education agencies and to be more active in implementing Perkins
reforms such as integration and tech prep. Perkins basic grant funds are
associated with greater reform efforts at the local level, as are state support for
Perkins reforms and the perceived influence of the Perkins Act.

Student Participation: Over the last decade there has been a broad shift away
from secondary vocational education and toward academics. After a period of
growth in the 1960s and 1970s, secondary vocational education has been
shrinking. Students are taking fewer vocational courses than in the early 1980s;
there are fewer vocational teachers and fewer university programs training them;

Summary and Recommendations 22 13



Volume I

Recommendations: Congress should consider whether the Perkins Act should
play a role in the division of funds between the secondary and postsecondary
sectors.

21. Concentrating Funds. The last National Assessment of Vocational Education
found that Perkins basic grants allocated by states to secondary districts under
the 1984 Act were so small and widely distributed that it was doubtful they
could have much impact on vocational education programs. (The median grant
to regular school districts was $7,900.)

The 1990 Perkins Act attempted to concentrate and target funds by merging the
disabled and disadvantaged set-aside funds with the-remainder of basic grant
funds; by providing formulas for the allocation of basic grants; by setting $15,000
as the minimum size of grants to secondary recipients and $50,000 to
postsecondary institutions; and by shifting funds from state administration to
localities. Secondary districts that could not qualify for the minimum were
permitted to join together in consortia that could qualify. What were the
allocation patterns under the 1990 Perkins Act, and how did they change from
those under the last year of the 1984 Act? Were Perkins moneys concentrated in
bigger grants to fewer recipients? (See Volume V, Chapter 1.)

Findings: At the secondary level, the findings are complicated by the role of
consortia. While fewer basic grants were awarded under the new Act, more
districts now “participate” in Perkins funding, because many districts are
included in consortia. Data from state funding records indicate that the mean
basic grant increased from $44,516 in FY91 to $99,616 in FY92, while the number
of grants decreased from 7,625 to 3,958. Of the 3,958 awards, 2,825 were to
individual school districts and 1,133 were to consortia. The consortia included
8,170 districts (almost three-quarters of all secondary districts).

If these data are correct, 98 percent of districts with secondary vocational
programs (10,995 out of 11,274) participate in Perkins funding, either directly or
through consortia. Some states are using consortia as the primary mechanism for
distributing Perkins funds: In 16 of 43 states for which data are available, more
than 90 percent of the districts are in consortia.

While these findings seem to indicate a great increase in the number of districts
participating in Perkins basic grant funds (from 7,625 to 10,995), the actual
number of districts using grant money is somewhat lower than the data suggest.
We estimate that 82 percent of consortium districts are using Perkins funds,
roughly the same as the proportion of all districts using them (84%).
Nevertheless, these proportions are considerably higher than they were under
the 1984 Act, and in this sense, concentration decreased.

At the postsecondary level, the findings are more straightforward. The mean
basic grant increased from $178,234 in 1990-91 to $228,627 in 1991-92, and the

tr 9 Summary and Recommendations

8)


Volume I

For the high school career programs to succeed, it is essential that they include
preparation for four-year college for at least some students. Without this
postsecondary option, the programs will tend to become second-class operations.

One key to designing multilevel career preparation programs is to assure that
they are articulated across educational levels. Tech-prep initiatives are
articulating courses and programs in high schools and two-year postsecondary
schools. Given the problems in implementing tech prep, it would be premature
to try to extend the concept to four-year colleges and universities. Rather,
secondary career programs should be designed to assure that students who want
to pursue education for careers in college are fully prepared to do so. A very
small but growing number of secondary students are currently following such a

path by taking a college prep program and vocational concentrations that include
advanced courses.

School-to-work transition reforms are among the core elements in this model of
career preparation. At each level, career courses, including some occupationally
specific vocational courses, would be integrated with academic courses. Tech
prep and college prep would both coordinate programs across educational levels.
Work experience, whether through formal work-based programs or other
arrangements, would be encouraged at both the secondary and postsecondary
levels.

Quality, Standards, and Assessment

Improved quality of educational offerings is absolutely essential to the success of
this or any other new model of work-related education. The courses must be
well-designed, challenging, and interesting, and students should be expected to
work hard.

To assure the quality of career preparation, the system should be competency
based, benchmarked to high academic and industry standards, and externally
assessed by valid, reliable, standardized tests, among other assessment
mechanisms. Student performance should be assessed periodically, and students’
skills should be certified based on the assessments. Certification should be
designed to be portable. External certification and asse sment, as a measure of
student and program performance, would tend to cast teachers in the role of
coaches rather than judges.°”

The career preparation system would use academic and industrial standards
developed under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, assuming that Level 2
skill standards are ac!squately developed under the Act. The Departments of
Education and Labor are also laying the groundwork for the development of a
flexible standardized test capable of assessing skills across industries and
occupations.

Summmry and Recommendations 6 6 57



Volume |

State support for Perkins reforms also seems to affect local implementation. Only
a minority of districts reported strong state support for Perkins reforms in 1991
92, but greater state support and activism were associated with more local reform
efforts in areas such as integration and performance standards, even when other
factors were taken into account. State support improved markedly in the second
year of Perkins implementation, as states completed work on their performance
standards and turned to other aspects of reform.

The 1990 Perkins Act, like its predecessors, assumed that vocational educators
would be primarily responsible for implementing provisions of the Act,
including reforms such as integration. Yet vocational educators are a minority
within the larger system, and they are often regarded as outside the mainstream.
Hence, they are sometimes at a disadvantage in fulfilling their responsibilities,
having to “sell” reforms to other educators who may not be interested in them.
A new approach is needed to remedy this problem.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should encourage state education
establishments as a whole to take a leading role in formally restructuring work-
related education. The goal should be to develop comprehensive career
preparation systems encompassing, at a minimum, all secondary students who
would otherwise be pursuing a vocational or general education program. The
conclusion to this summary outlines one model of such a system.

The new Act should help assure that states wanting to take leadership roles in
reforming work-related education have the financial and technical resources to
do so. To engage the energies of state education establishments in restructuring
work-related education, Congress should consider using some portion of Perkins
yrant funds for competitive grants to states that propose, and show promise of
effecting, comprehensive reforms consistent with the goals of the Act. Since some
states have already initiated such reforms, it might be useful to distinguish
between grants for developing reform plans and others for facilitating
implementation.

The new Act should approach the reform of postsecondary vocational education
recognizing that ils history, structure, and proce are different from those at
the secondary level. f lence it should tailor its provisions for the two levels
differently, as appropriate.

7. Performance Standards and Measures. The Perkins requirement that states

dev clop performance standards and measures for vocational education, and that
local grant recipients implement them, is an important first-wave reform, The
Act calls for an evaluation of the effect of performance standards on the delivery
of vocational education services.!? How well are states doing in developing the
required standards and measures? To what extent is local implementation of
standards and measures occurring? (See Volume HL, Chapter 2.)

x0 3 9 Summary and Reconmicinlations



Volume |

Findings: As of 1991-92 state agencies had given a high priority to developing
performance standards and measures, but local implementation had not yet
occurred. Most states went beyond the requirements of the Perkins Act,
developing fuller arrays of performance measures than required and applying
them to all vocational programs, not just those receiving Perkins funds.

While state agencies were developing Perkins performance standards in 1991-92,
local administrators were giving more attention to other Perkins reforms such as
integration and tech prep. The 1992-93 school year saw noticeable increases in the
proportions of districts and postsecondary institutions reporting assessment data
to states, suggesting that local implementation was under way. In 1992-93 about
half the districts said there had been an increase in state support for program
assessment and accountability.

Current implementation efforts face a number of problems, none of them
insuperable. First, implementation is demanding and time consuming, because it
often involves modifying the data collection procedures of many local
assessment systems in a state. Some state administrators are reluctant to impose
additional data collection requirements on localities. Second, states and localities
have had difficulty adopting learning outcome measures. The absence of widely
accepted industry skill standards and assessment instruments makes it difficult
to assess occupational gains at both the secondary and postsecondary levels.
Many postsecondary institutions also have difficulty measuring academic gains.
Third, too little attention has been paid to how local educational svstems will
actually use standards and measures to evaluate and improve local programs,
and there has been too little training and technical assistance on this subject.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should encourage states and localities
to give more attention to the way in which standards and measures will be used
to evaluate and improve local programs. The new Act should provide for federal
technica’ assistance to states in implementing and using their accountability
ems, and should also encourage states to provide training and technical
assistance to localities on this subject, as needed

The Act should emphasize the assessment of students’ cognitive skills and broad
technical skills, especially at the secondary level. The occupation-specific sk#lls of
students preparing to take full-time jobs directly after program completion
should also be assessed at both levels.

Given the importance of relating vocational training to demand in the labor
market, the new Act should encourage the use of employment outcomes,
especially training-related jobs, as a measure of performance.

Other recommendations regarding standards and measures are found in
Number 8, below.

Stmmary and Recommendations 40 a



Volume I

increased authority and responsibility under the 1990 Perkins Act, but often lack
the time for all their new responsibilities.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should require that in awarding single
parent grants, states give priority to localities that are the most economically
depressed and/or have the highest concentrations of targeted populations.

The Perkins Act should concentrate sex equity efforts at the state level. State
leadership and activism can probably promote more extensive and effective
change in attitudes, behaviors, and programs than is possible through local

grants.

The new Act should prioritize the major responsibilities of state sex equity
coordinators to assure that the most important responsibilities are fulfilled.

17. Vocational Education Serving Native Americans. It is federal policy to
promote Native American tribal development and self-sufficiency. The Perkins
Act designates 1.25 percent of its tota! funds to support vocational education
programs administered by Indian tribes. In 1991-92 approximately $11 million
was allocated via competitive grants to 38 tribes. What role does Perkins funding
play in tribal vocational programs? How effective are the programs it supports in
achieving the government's goals? (See Volume IV, Chapter 3.)

Findings: Perkins-funded-Vocational education programs play a key role in tribal
efforts to achieve self-sufficiency. Perkins requirements that funded programs be
developed on the basis of a local needs assessment and that funding priority be
given to programs linked to tribal economic development plans seem to be
having the desired effects.

In general, the Perkins-funded programs have high job placement rates, strong
student interest, and the support of the local community. They foster tribal
development efforts by helping to supply the trained workforce that local
employers need.

There are exceptions to these generally positive outcomes, however. Most
notable is the fact that Perkins-funded programs have had only limited success in
meeting the large demand for health care workers on reservations. There are few
health programs, and those that exist tend to have very small enrollments. The
underlying problem seems to be that too many students lack the basic skills
necessary to enter these rigorous and selective postsecondary training programs.

In addition, although the competitive award process seems to help assure
program quality, the temporary nature of the grants causes organizational and
personnel problems.

40 . Summary and Recommendations


Volume I

focus on inputs, processes, and outcomes is not intended as a rigorous model of
vocational education; it is merely a convenient way of organizing the findings in
this area of inquiry.

Inputs — Vocational Teachers

1. Teacher Preparation The Perkins Act mandates an evaluation of the
preparation and qualifications of vocational and academic teachers. How well
prepared are vocational teachers to provide high-quality education? How well
are vocational and academic teachers prepared to teach in the context of
comprehensive curricular integration, as envisioned by Perkins? (See Volume II,
Chapter 3.)

Findings: Both secondary and postsecondary vocational teachers have less
formal education than academic teachers. While virtually all academic teachers
and faculty members have at least a bachelor’s degree, 12 percent of secondary
vocational teachers and 15 percent of postsecondary occupational faculty do not.

While they have less formal education than academic teachers, secondary
vocational teachers have more occupational experience related to their subject
areas. We infer that the same is true of postsecondary faculty, although data are
lacking.

The tendency for vocational teachers to have less formal education and more
occupational experience than academic teachers is most pronounced in trade and
industrial education (T&l). Forty-five percent of secondary T&l teachers and 33
percent of those in postsecondary institutions have less than a bachelor's degree.
Beginning with the 1917 Smith-Hughes Act, which provided the first federal
assistance for vocational education, federal law and state certification policies
have required less education for T&I teachers than for others, calling for related
occupational experience instead. If secondary trade and industrial teachers had
the same education as other vocational teachers, the educational differences
between vocational and academic teachers at this level would be slight.

Whether extensive occupational experience improves vocational teaching has
long been an issue. Research on the subject suggests that several years of
occupational experience make a positive contribution to teaching vocational
subjects, but that additional! years of experience do not. On the other hand,
formal postsecondary education is positively associated with desirable teaching
and student outcomes. Thus, instruction in trade and industry would benefit if
the teachers had more formal education and less occupational experience. More
formal education would also facilitate efforts to integrate academic and
vocational education.

Judging from secondary vocational teachers’ assessments of their ability to teach
academic subjects, and from academic teachers’ assessments of their ability to

Summary and Recommendations 23 19


Volume |

School administrators and VSO chapter advisors report that the greatest
disincentives to student participation in VSOs are a lack of student interest,
conflicts with other student interests and activities (including jobs), and
participation costs. Lack of interest and participation costs are perceived as
greater barriers in high-minority schools than in low-minority schools. One
reason why participation costs may be a more significant barrier in high-minority
schools is that students in those schools pay more out-of-pocket than those in
low-minority schoois. (Chapters in low-minority schools earn more money from
fundraising, for one thing.)

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should encourage VSO chapters where
minorities are underrepresented to more actively recruit minority students,
especially at the postsecondary level.

Congress should permit or encourage states to allocate modest amounts of basic
grant money to defray the costs of VSO participation (including transportation
costs) for low-income students and to increase the recruitment of minority
students to VSOs, especially at the postsecondary level.

D. Funding and Administration Issues

20. Secondary! Postsecondary Funding. Perkins Title I basic grants are awarded
to the states by the federal government on a formula basis. Each state then
decides how the basic grant money will be divided between the secondary and
postsecondary sectors. The secondary/postsecondary split has long been of
interest to federal policymakers. What is the split, and how has it changed under
the new Perkins Act? (See Volume V, Chapter 1.)

Findings: State administrative records indicate that the postsecondary share of
Title Il basic grant funds declined from 40.2 percent in 1990-91 to 37.8 percent in
1992-93, a 2.4 percentage point decrease. When all Perkins funds, including

Title If tech prep moneys are included, however, the reduction was less than 2.4
percentage points. Postsecondary allocations have hovered around 40 percent for
the past six years, but seem to have declined slightly in the last two years.

The fiterini Report found that the combined effects of the federal formula for
allocating funds to the states and the secondary / postsecondary split are
powerful, and they can resultin marked differences in allocations to local
districts with similar educational needs. For example, Oakland, California, a city
with a 29.1 percent poverty rate for children aged 5-17, received $12.50 per
student in grades 9-12 in 1991-92. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a 29.2
percent poverty rate among children of the same age, received $20.97 per
student. However, postsecondary institutions in and around Oakland
presumably received more per-student funds than those in and around
Philadelphia.

Summary and Reconmnendations 4


Volume I

In theory, student certification could be based solely on demonstrated
competence, regardless of time spent in school or the number and kind of courses
completed. In practice, competency assessment is subject to some degree of error,
and the completion of certain kinds and numbers of courses also may be
necessary to assure adequate skill development. Further, a system in which time
and coursetaking were completely variable might be too difficult to organize.
Nevertheless, the competency-based system of career preparation would be
designed to accommodate varying lengths of time for students to achieve a given
level of certification.

Career preparation programs, as well as students, should be periodically
assessed and certified. The Perkins system of performance standards and
measures, together with the use of industrial skill standards and measures,
should largely accomplish this goal. Moreover, states and localities should be
encouraged to include representatives of business, labor, and perhaps other
sectors in their program assessments.

Special Populations

Consistent with the 1990 Perkins Act and other federal laws, special population
students must have equal access to the high-quality career preparation programs
being proposed here. The same standards and certifications should apply to
special population students and to programs with high proportions of special
populations as apply to other career students and programs. However, they
should have more help and more time, as needed, to ensure they can meet the
standards.

The 1990 Perkins Act targeted resources to localities with high concentrations of
special populations and emphasized improving the quality of vocational
education in those sites. The provision of services to special population students
was also encouraged, and it is our impression that educational administrators in
many localities still regard services as a special population entitlement that has
the advantage of providing a clear audit trail. In general, we think that much of
the money spent on services could be better spent on reforming and improving,
the quality of occupational programs. Districts and schools serving high
concentrations of special needs students are likely to need the most assistance in
implementing reforms such as those outlined above, and federal funds should
continue to be targeted on them.

The State and Federal Roles

The new Perkins Act should encourage states to take the lead in developing and
implementing career preparation programs such as the one outlined above.
Evidence from our surveys and case studies show that states can be effective
education reformers if they are resolved to do so, and a number of states are

58 6 7 Stummary and Reconmendations



FINAL REPORT
TO

CONGRESS

VOLUME |
SUMMARY
AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

David Boesel
Laurel McFarland

Office of Research

Office of Educational Research and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education

July 1994

4


Volume |

some tech-prep graduates. Even under these more restrictive definitions, the
estimated number of programs may be high, for a variety of reasons.

Nevertheless, there was visible progress between the first and second years of
Perkins implementation. The number of states using their own funds to support
tech prep jumped from 7 to 19 in this period. Moreover, in 1992-93 most tech-
prep programs had enrolled their first students, in contrast to the previous year,
when the majority had no students. Further, in the small number of sites where
student retention can be estimated, the rates are quite respectable. A median 79
percent of students in these districts are estimated to complete the secondary part
of the tech-prep program, and a median 47 percent make the transition to the
postsecondary part. Of those entering postsecondary tech prep, a median 58
percent are estimated to graduate. These estimates come from a small number of
sites and may be high, but on the whole, they are encouraging.

As with integration, the kev question for the future is, how many tech-prep
initiatives wili grow into well-developed programs that are consistent with
Perkins and encompass sizable numbers of students? Alternatively, how many
will disappear or persist as small modifications of the status quo?

With regard to equity issues, Perkins Title II tech-prep awards are largely
independent of the proportion of special population students in a district. Tech-
prep programs are being developed primarily for “the average student.” Most
districts are making provisions for special populations in tech prep, but their
participation is usually not a priority.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should continue to support tech-prep
programs, but should require states to verify that Title IM grant recipients are
building comprehensive, structured tech-prep programs that (a) meet the current
Perkins definition of tech prep, including the goal of a postsecondary degree; (b)
are articulated at the program or industry level; and (c) formally enroll,
enumerate, and follow the progress of tech-prep students.

To ensure equity, states and districts should place greater emphasis on preparing
special population students to participate and succeed in tech-prep programs.

The government should conduct rigorous evaluations of tech-prep programs.
The evaluations should assess program effects on outcomes such as student
competencies, transition to postsecondary institutions, attainment of
postsecondary credentials, and subsequent employment and earnings.

11. Work Experience Programs, A third element in the school-to-work transition
is work experience programs, including formal work-based programs such as
cooperative education and youth apprenticeship, and other less formal kinds of
work experience. As a final step in addressing the Perkins mandate to assess the
school-to-work transition, we examine these ways in which work may contribute

aR 47 Summary and Recommendations



Volume I

carpentry students about managing a construction business, handling labor
relations, and meeting environmental regulations. Such instruction would better
enable workers to start their own businesses or to move up in companies.

Local recipients of Perkins basic grant funds are encouraged to use the funds to
provide vocational education in programs that “train adults and students for all
aspects of the occupation, in which job openings are projected or available.”15
Other parts of the legislation reinforce the Act’s emphasis on what is commonly
referred to as training in “all aspects of the industry.” How extensive are efforts
to implement this provision of the Act?

The Interim Report found that in 1991-92, the first year of 1990 Perkins
implementation, relatively few states and localities were working to promote
education in all aspects of the industry. For example, only 14-25 percent of
secondary state agencies had taken specific steps toward this end, and only about
one-fourth of the secondary districts said that “all aspects” education had
increased since 1990-91.

The picture was markedly different by the spring of 1993. For most of the listed
steps, the percentage of active states had at least doubled. For example, the
proportion of state secondary agencies providing recommended curriculum
frameworks or guidelines to local districts increased from 25 percent to 60
percent. Further, two-thirds of regular districts reported that activities in this
area had increased in the last three years, up from one-fourth the year before.

In the first year of Perkins implementation, states and districts were clearly
focusing on things other than education in all aspects of the industry. By the
second year, the majority of states and districts had begun to take steps to
implement provisions of the Perkins Act in this area.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should continue to support

academic/ vocational integration. Eliminating the deep division between the
academic and vocational “cultures” in secondary schools should be one of the
major goals of the legislation. Another major goal should be the development of
cognitive skills through integrated instruction, particularly at the secondary
level.

The new Act should continue to encourage education in all aspects of the
industry and should provide an operational definition of the term, taking into
account that many states have already developed their own definitions.

The new Perkins Act should encourage states to support integration and
instruction in all aspects on an industry within the context of industry-based or
other broadly applicable majors in reformed systems of workforce preparation.

36 Summary and Recommendations

45



26
27
ae

29

30

Volume [

Section 102 (a) (2).
Suction 101 (a) (1) (b) (i)
Section 102 (a) (5).
Section 403 (b) (10).
Section 102,

Section 403 (b) (1).
Section 403 (b) (9).

This observation is taken from Bishop, J. (1993b) Inceutitvs to Study and the Organization of
Secomfary Education, pp. 23-24, Ithaca, NY: Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies.

Summary and Recommendations 0 61


Volume |

supported in Perkins by increased allocations for improving the quality of
programs. This emphasis will force government and educational institutions to
return the emphasis in vocational education to the right place: to the student’s
individual needs in achieving the standard, not to their assumed needs as a
member of a particular “special population” group. He or she may need more
time, more personal effort, or more individual help. The allocation of resources
should reflect these individual needs in the achievement of the standard.

Conclusion: The Federal Role in Vocational Education

Though the National Assessment demonstrates that the contribution of vocational
education to individuals’ educational and economic outcomes has been somewhat
disappointing (especially at the secondary level), the federal commitment to
vocational education should not be reduced or abolished. Vocational education
remains a vital piece of this nation’s efforts to create a high quality workforce and
avenues for school-to-work transition.

Rather, the federal interest in vocational education should be recast as a foundation
stone of a new American system of education and training for work. The system
should be competency-based and include clear pathways for students, assessment,
credentialing, curriculum frameworks, teacher training, and effective career
counseling and labor market information. Industry-oriented skill standards should
be the principal vehicle for tying vocational education to this larger system of
education and training. Though further research is necessary, such standards hold
considerable promise in improving the quality of the technical and occupational
workforce.

The next Perkins Act should capture this new federal role in vocational education
by:

* Continuing the shift of emphasis in Perkins from funding services to
program improvement. The last Perkins Act did increase support for
program improvements, such as tech prep, and the integration of
academic and vocational education, These reforms are vital to the future
of vocational education. This emphasis on program improvement should
be continued in the next Act, and be expanded to include support of
teacher training. Special funding for services to special populations
should be de-emphasized, in favor of improving programs that will assist
those individuals in meeting skill standards,

* Once again emphasizing the state role in vocational education reform.
States should have considerable flexibility in designing the systems and
structures to accomplish federal goals and desired outcomes — but they
should be held to making these reforms. States hold the key to achieving
vocational education reform at a pace and scale sufficient to affect
national workforce quality.

© Designating Perkins funds to support the financing and institutionalization
of broad industry-oriented skill standards. Special support should be

The Vuture of Perkins


Volume I

compliance with the law, but three others may not be in compliance. More
information is needed before any conclusions can be reached.

Perkins funding is notably larger in the 41 state correctional education agencies
that are deemed LEAs for Perkins Act purposes and are therefore eligible for
basic grant funds. States that make this designation are likely to be more
committed to correctional education in general.

Finally, state corrections education administrators have varying degrees of
participation in Perkins planning and decision-making, with most having some
input, but one-fifth to one-fourth having none.

Recommendations: In the new Perkins Act, state correctional education officials
should be afforded more direct and consistent means of input into the Perkins
planning and decision-making process.

To avoid competition and duplication of effort, the Perkins Act should require
that correctional education agencies demonstrate (in their state plans) active
coordination of prison industry, education, and vocational training programs.
Past efforts to foster coordination have often failed because of an emphasis on
institutional cost-recovery: Inmates’ production of goods and services becomes
more important than the training they receive. The Perkins Act should encourage
states to develop safeguards against this occurrence.

19. Minority Participation in Vocational Student Organizations. Vocational
student organizations (VSOs), such as the Vocational Industrial Clubs of
America, Distributive Education Clubs of America, and the Technology Student
Association, provide vocational students with a range of individual, cooperative,
and competitive activities designed to expand their leadership and work-related
skills. In 1990 the Department of Education instituted a policy of support for and
cooperation with ten federally recognized VSOs. The 1990 Perkins Act permits
the use of basic grant funds to support VSOs. It also calls upon the National
Assessment to examine the participation of minority students in vocational
student organizations.2° Are minority students equitably represented in them?
(See Volume IV, Chapter 5.)

Findings: In general, VSOs appear to be fair, equitable organizations dedicated
to improving the leadership and skills of vocational students and the quality of
the technical workforce. Across all secondary schools, minority students are
represented in VSOs in proportion to their numbers. However, within schools
that have VSOs, minority students may be a little less likely than others to join.
(This underrepresentation is not reflected in the overall data because high-
minority schools are larger, and large schools have more VSO chapters.) At the
postsecondary level, minority students are underrepresented in VSOs, both
across and within institutions.

48 nx ” Summary and Recommendations



Volume I

substantially affects their performance relative to that of students in other
countries and which contributes to the poor labor market outcomes of high
school graduates.

The 1990 Perkins Act attempted to remedy some of these shortcomings by
setting a reform agenda for vocational education — the development and
implementation of performance standards, integration, and tech prep. It
assigned the development of performance standards to the states and tried to
stimulate integration and tech prep at the local level. The states have done a
reasonably good job of developing performance standards. However, the
implementation of integration and tech prep has been somewhat haphazard,
and these reforms lack depth and coherence.

The next Perkins Act (together with other related federal education legislation)
should expand its reform agenda to restructuring education for non-college-
bound students in order to effectively prepare them for work. In so doing, it
should rely more on states to develop restructuring plans, and within such
frameworks, to give local reform efforts greater coherence and direction. It
should also rely more on the federal government to help develop resources to
‘facilitate reform, such as industry skill standards, occupational competency tests,
and curricular materials.

The goal of reform should be to create new systems of workforce preparation
that will:

¢ Encompass all non-college-bound and some college-bound students.
¢ Prepare students for careers rather than jobs.

¢ Broaden the curriculum framework from occupations to industries or
other more inclusive constructs.

¢ Emphasize the development of cognitive skills, broad technical skills, and
understanding of industries at the secondary level.

¢ Emphasize the use of applications to teach underlying principles (e.g.,
how electricity works) before teaching occupational procedures (e.g., steps
in repairing an air conditioner).

¢ Use work experience, including jobs students find for themselves, to
increase understanding of issues such as how the labor market functions
and what skills and personal qualities the workplace requires.

¢ Prepare most students for some form of postsecondary education (e.g.,
two-year college, technical college, four-year college) and additional
training.

4 6 3 Summary and Recommendations


Volume I

ENDNOTES

NI

The 1990 Perkins Act was formally entitled “The Cerl D. Perkins Vocational Education and
Applied Technology Act of 1990."

Throughout this statement “Industry” is used in its widest sense, to include not just the
manufacturing sector, but also the service sector, health, business, the non-profit sector, and
so on, “Industry-oriented” is used rather than “industry-based” to reflect the Advisory Panel's
belief that industry-based skill standards may be too narrow a concept: Students should be
encouraged to develop a broad range of generic abilities that translate into a number of
occupations.

This Act hac not yet passed in June 1994

In this statement, the term “initial preparation” refers to the education and training that a
young person obtains before permanently entering the workforce. This may include
postsecondary education.

See Robert Triest, “Occupational Credentialing: A Review of the Empirical Evidence,”
Preliminary Draft, Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, February 1994;
and James Heckman, Rebecca Roselius, and Jeffrey Smith, “U.S. Education and Training
Policy: A Re-evaluation of the Underlying Assumptions Behind the ‘New Consensus’,” Center
ior Program Evaluation, Working Paper CSE94-1, pp. 22-24.

For a detailed discussion of the state of skill standards development in the United States and
abroad, see Joan Wills. The Institute for Educational Leaciership, Overview of Education and
Industry Skill Standards Systems in the United States and Other Countries, Voume 1, 1993.
For a discussion of the potential benefits and problems of introducing industry-based skill
standards, sce Chapter 3 in Volume Il of this report.

“Employability skills,” the practical skills that indivicuals need to obtain and keep jobs, are
also frequently cited as desirable additions to a fully integrated vocational education
curriculum,

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Our statistical analyses do not support this view. According io survey reports,
between 1987 and 1992 districts with higher graduation requirements showed no
greater decline in vocational enrollments than other districts. In our community
case studies, on the other hand, it was the nearly unanimous opinion of
respondents asked about this issue tnat academic reforms had reduced
vocational enrollments.

The role of higher graduation requirements in decreasing vocational enrollments
is still unclear, but the fact that the enrollment decline started before the
academic reform movement indicates that factors other than academic reforms
are involved. One such factor may be shifts in labor market demand for
traditional vocational skills, as the share of clerical and blue collar jobs in the
workforce declines.

Some second-wave reform efforts are associated with increasing vocational
enrollments. Districts that take more steps to integrate their curricula and
districts that have more state support for integration than others tend to have
increasing enrollments. Districts that have added vocational student
organizations (VSOs) and those that have added career exploration courses are
also more likely than others to have experienced increases in vocational
enrollments. We do not know that these reforms or improvements cause an
increase in enrollments, only that they are associated with it.

Second-wave reforms are bringing new energy to efforts to prepare young
people for work. At the federal level, the Perkins Act and the School-to-Work
Opportunities Act focus on reforms such as integration, tech prep, and work
experience programs. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act has created a
national board to develop skill standards. At the same time, at least 20 states are
considering or undertaking major structural reforms to improve workforce
preparation in secondary schools. Among the most active are Oregon, Wisconsin,
Maine, South Carolina, Washington, Tennessee, California, Vermont, and
Florida.

The data suggest that the Perkins Act has an impact on local programs. School
districts receiving Perkins basic grant funds (a) have taken more steps to
integrate their curricula; (b) have taken more steps to develop tech-prep
programs; and (c) provide more services for special populations than their
unfunded counterparts. In multivariate analyses, school districts that report
having been influenced by Perkins are more active than others in integrating
their curricula and developing tech-prep programs.

Relationships between Perkins funding and reforms such as integration and tech
prep are less pronounced at the postsecondary level. Postsecondary state
agencies also seem to have less effect on local programs than do their secondary
counterparts. This diminished impact may be related to a perception that Perkins
is intended more for secondary than for postsecondary education.

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public institutions, the assessment focuses on them, rather than on private
institutions. The largest providers, community colleges, serve students in a wide
range of ages whe attend for a variety of purposes. Only a minority of students
enter community colleges directly after high school, and many enrollees do not
receive associate's degrees or certificates.

While secondary vocational districts are more likely than regular districts to
receive Perkins funds and be involved in Perkins reforms, the situation is
different at the postsecondary level. It is the comprehensive postsecondary
institutions — the community colleges — that are the most likely to receive
Perkins funds, to have integrated curricula, and especially to develop tech-prep
programs.

In contrast to the pattern in secondary districts, the allocation of Perkins basic
grants across postsecondary institutions is not strongly associated with
integration and tech-prep efforts. Basic grants seem to be less a stimulus to
reform at this level. Moreover, state postsecondary agencies have less influence
than secondary agencies over their local institutions and hence have less
potential as agents of reform.

Student Participation: Vocational education is a relatively large and stable part
of the postsecondary system, accounting for two-thirds of all students in sub-
baccalaureate institutions. In the late 1980s, vocational enrollments increased at
the same pace as enrollments in general, in spite of rising attendance costs and a
declining cohort of college-aged students. Apparently students continue to be
attracted to postsecondary education because of its ability to improve job
opportunities and pay. Health education, technical education, and occupational
home economics (including child care and commercial cooking) are among the

areas of fastest growth, perhaps reflecting increased labor market demand for
these skills.

While postsecondary vocational programs tend to have more special population
students than others, the concentration of special populations in vocational
education appears to be stable. Their proportion of all enrollments did not
increase from 1986 to 1989 and that of other students did not decrease.
“Dumping” and stigmatization are not major issues at the postsecondary level.

Program Quality and Program Improvement: Postsecondary vocational
programs provide more structure than their secondary counterparts for students
working toward a degree. Occupational majors that include vocational and
related academic courses are common. Moreover, postsecondary institutions,
especially community colleges, have had elements of curricular iategration for
some years. These include prerequisites and corequisites that link academic and
occupational courses; cross-curricular instruction; interdisciplinary courses; and
academic remediation for occupational students. Perhaps because these
“traditional” strengths of postsecondary education appear to have worked well,

Stommary and Recommendations 17

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proportion to their numbers, while most area vocational schools are in suburban
areas. As the Interim Report noted, however, two factors tend to offset this
limitation. First, in many large cities, vocational high schools, including career
magnets, provide access to special population students, among others. Second,
comprehensive high schools with access to AVSs send a disproportionate share
of special population students to them. Area vocational schools have higher
concentrations of special population students than do comprehensive high
schools, but this development can have serious drawbacks, as discussed below.

Of particular concern is the shrinkage and growing isolation of some vocational
programs.

One access issue not discussed in the Interim Report concerns the availability of
Perkins funds to occupationally oriented schools that exclusively serve special
population students, such as alternative schools for students with behavior
problems. In at least 40 percent of the states, schools such as these do not receive
Perkins funds because they do not meet the minimum eligibility requirements, or
for other reasons.

In the context of a general decline in secondary vocational enrollments, special
population students — particularly the disabled and disadvantaged — are
overrepresented in secondary vocational education. For example, in 1992 the 34
percent of all high school graduates who were members of special population
groups earned 43 percent of all vocational credits. Special population students
are a somewhat larger proportion of all vocational students now than they were
ten years ago, and higher achieving students are a smaller proportion. In some
districts, vocational education programs, especially those in area vocational
schools, are becoming the province of the hard-to-educate. (See Section II above.)

Disabled and disadvantaged students tend to concentrate their vocational
coursetaking in certain program areas — agriculture, occupational home
economics, and the trades — while taking relatively few courses in other areas —
business, health, and, most notably, technical education. It is unclear whether
these coursetaking patterns serve the students’ interests, but given the growing
importance of computer literacy in the workplace, their lower rates of enrollment
in business and technical courses seem to be a problem.

Vocational enrollments continue to be highly sex-typed at both educational
levels. Students in the trades, agriculture, and technical programs are mostly
boys, and those in business, health, and occupational home economics are mostly
girls. Over time, boys have increased their participation in business courses, but
girls have not increased their enrollments in traditionally male fields.

Postsecondary vocational programs serve a wide array of students, particularly
special population students, by providing courses in dive e and accessible
institutions. Blacks, Hispanics, and disabled students are overrepresented in
postsecondary vocational education, but LEP students are underrepresented.

Stummary and Recommendations

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there is n> evidence of an overall effect of vocational education, although some
studies: ) report positive effects. Methodological problems often limit
conclusions that can be drawn, and the problems are not resolvable without
additional information or further data analysis. One thing is clear, however: the
research does not show that secondary vocational students have a clear,
consistent, and sizable labor market advantage over general track students. The
debate over whether vocational students do a little better than general students,
or about the same, should not obscure the larger fact that, on average, high
school graduates with no postsecondary education are doing poorly in the labor
market. Without a large difference between the outcomes of vocational and
general track students, we must conclude that, for most participants, neither
program is working very well.

However, as we have seen, some students do benefit from secondary vocational
education. The conclusion to this volume outlines a strategy for reforming both
types of education — one that retains vocational programs for those most likely
to benefit from them.

For secondary students who do not go on to college, academic courses have
small positive effects on wages, employment, and occupational status soon after
high school. The effects on wages increase over time. Certain core academic
courses — math, science, and foreign language — are the most likely to be
related to employment outcomes, as are more advanced academic courses and
participation in a college prep program.

Tested skills, both academic and vocational, are consistently related to measures
of occupational success such as wages and performance on the job. In the
psychological testing literature, general cognitive ability is the strongest
predictor of job performance. It is also associated with increased wages and
earnings later in one’s career (but not in the first job) and with employment
status. Broad technical competencies also show substantial positive effects on
employment outcomes in one study. A composite of mechanical comprehension,
auto and shop information, and electronics scores from the military’s ASVABS
test is associated with improved job performance, increased earnings, and
reduced unemployment. Job-specific skills can also affect carly employment
outcomes, but the effect depends largely on a match between training and
occupation.

These findings highlight the importance of skills, as distinct from coursetaking,
in predicting employment outcomes. This is not surprising. We know that
academic and vocational courses improve skills, and we know that skills
improve job performance. General cognitive ability and broad technical skills,
which include a substantial cognitive component, have substantial effects on
employment outcomes. Job-specific skills have smaller additional effects.

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At the local level, most districts and schools had taken some specific steps to
integrate their curricula by 1991-92. Districts receiving Perkins basic grant funds
were more likely than others to report taking such steps, and vocational districts
were more likely than regular districts to do so.

Although many districts reported integration efforts by 1991-92, those efforts
were not very well developed. Teachers lacked time to work on integration; there
was little academic content in vocational classes and less occupational content in
academic classes; and modification of existing vocational classes was the
integrative approach favored by most schools.

The second year of Perkins implementation (1992-93) saw some improvement in
efforts to integrate. State support for integration increased. Many more districts
provided time for teachers to work on integrating curricula. Cross-curricular
integration and the development of coherent sequences of academic and
vocational courses were among the integrative approaches most often pursued.
The purchase of applied academic materials was an important but not dominant
approach to integration.

Nevertheless, integrated education as the norm in American high schools is still a
long way off. The Community Case Studies, conducted in 1992-93, found
relatively few examples of fully integrated courses, let alone curricula. One
problem seems to be the need for a framework within which integration can take
place. Some districts are using tech-prep programs as the framework, but these
programs are usually small, and their potential for growth remains to be seen. (A
framework is suggested in the model at the end of this summary.)

Although a few applied academic courses have been accepted as satisfying
admission criteria at some universities, most have not been evaluated, and their
quality has yet to be determined. More generally, a great deal of attention needs
to be paid to the quality of integrated education.

The division between the secondary academic and vocational systems is still so
pronounced that they often comprise separate cultures within schools. Academic
teachers are more likely to coordinate courses among themselves than with
vocational teachers, and vice versa. Long-established assumptions and patterns
of behavior generate resistance to integration. The resistance seems to be stronger
among academic teachers and administrators, but is by no means absent on the
vocational side. Moreover, the slowly increasing participation of special
population students in vocational courses and sci vols may tend to increase the
separation of the two spheres.

To what extent the resistance will dissipate, and to what extent the small current
efforts will develop into more systemic integration are still unclear. If the goal of
Perkins is integrated education for most secondary tudents, we could say that

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teach occupational subjects, both types of teachers currently have enough
knowledge in common to begin integrating their curricula. In the longer run,
though, if curricular integration is going to encompass the majority of students, a
great deal more cross-curricular knowledge will be needed on both sides.

The Perkins Act also calls for an assessment of “shortages” of vocational teachers.
There is no evidence of any national shortage, though there may be shortages in
some subjects and/or geographical areas. As secondary vocational enrollments
have declined, the number of secondary vocational teachers fell 9 percent
between 1987-88 and 1991, while the number of other teachers increased 7
percent. Current projections show no future shortages either, but changes such as
state reforms focusing on workforce preparation may increase the demand for
vocational teachers over time.

Recommendations: The new Perkins Act should support the preparation of
teachers for reformed workforce preparation systems in which integrated
learning and the development of cognitive skills, broad technical skills, and
understanding of industries are heavily emphasized.

A bachelor’s degree with preservice training in education should be a standard
requirement for the certification of all new vocational teachers and occupational
faculty. A limited amount of relevant occupational experience should also be
required or encouraged in most subjects.

Assuming that reformed career preparation systems are developed at the
secondary level, new academic teachers will need more of an orientation to the
world of work, possibly through courses in business and technology or in
methods of teaching academics in a work-related context. New vocational
teachers should have more courses and more rigorous courses in the liberal arts
(especially math and science) and in computers.

Process in Vocational Education

2. Programs and Courses. The Perkins Act calls upon grant recipients to improve
the quality of vocational education programs by integrating academic and
vocational offerings in coherent sequences of courses.® To what extent do
districts require such sequences for vocational program completion? How
demanding are vocational courses as compared to academic courses? With
regard to integration, how extensive is the cross-curricular content of vocational
and academic courses (¢.g., academic content of vocational courses), and how
much can the present cross-curricular content contribute to integration? (See
Volume II, Chapter +.)

Findings: In general, secondary vocational progran:s are not as coherent or
rigorous as they should be. They usually lack prerequisites, which maximizes
access but reduces chances of aligning vocational courses with cach other or with

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preparation and in-school (or in-college) provision of vocational education should
be carried further.4 Perkins should serve as a foundation for creating a system of
life-long education and training. If Perkins were to implement high siandards in the
initial preparation of students for work, it would launch this system of lifetime skill
acquisition at a high level.

Industry-Based Skill Standards

introducing skill standards tc vocational and technical education will not be an
easy road, or even a path of guaranteed success. On one hand, by providing an
external standard and industry input into curriculum content, skill standards may
introduce a new force to improve the rigor, status, and market relevance of
vocational education. On the other hand, skill standards may be defined too
narrowly, assessments may not be able to measure the skills that employers actually
value economically, and skill-based credentials may discourage private investment
in training by employers because workers’ skills will be more documented, and
hence more portable.5 They may also establish standards-setting mechanisms that
are not flexible or adaptive to rapid changes in employers’ skill requirements.

Skill standards have been established in limited occupational or geographic areas
in this country, and new efforts are underway to establish standards and credentials
in certain industries. But thus far, no national framework for standards has been
developed, and many of the existing standards are haphazard, or focused on
narrow entry-level skills. The evidence on the effectiveness of skill standards is still
limited and preliminary. This National Assessment report provides evidence on the
international experience with skill standards and the limited American experience
with skill standards in certain occupations and industries. It concludes with a
cautious but optimistic recommendation that explicit industry-based skill standards
should become part of vocational education.

The Advisory Panel to the National Assessment of Vocational Education believes
that industry-oriented skill standards should be introduced and integrated into the
provision of vocational education in America. Skill standards are a promising
development, and should he pursued aggressively, but responsibly. The next
reauthorization of Perkins should support this effort through financial and practical
support of the standards-setting process, but also through the initiation of research
on the economic impact of industry-based skill standards in practice. Skill
standards should be introduced only if they improve the quality of the workforce
and the functioning of the labor market.

Though the skill standards-setting process will have to be employer-driven, the
federal government will have a vital, counterbalancing role to play. Because
employers’ interests rest in their own needs for producing efficiently, the federal
government look out for the interests of students in a system of skill standards and
credentials. It should promote equal opportunity in access, portability of skill
credentials, and the presence of generat and foundation skills in the standards
(rather than just occupationally specific skills), The federal government will also
have a critical role to play in coordinating and funding the standard-setting process,

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areas, occupation-specific skills may be learned better on the job — either in
formal work-based programs or through individual participation in the
workforce — than in school. Comportment and teamwork skills, flexibility, and
adaptability, important attributes in the high-performance workplace, may also
be better learned on the job than in school. In this educational model, work
experience would be phased in during the latter stages of an individual's
preparation in cognitive and technical skills. Such experience could take a
number of forms, including jobs individuals obtained on their own, work-based
programs such as apprenticeships, or other forms of exposure to work such as
job shadowing. A key goal of this process would be to draw more general
lessons from the work experience.

General workforce preparation would be a required part of each industry major,
or a prerequisite for all. It should include a minimum of one semester's training
in computer use, and might include courses such as technology education and an
introduction to the labor market.

Majors based on industry or occupational clusters are being tried in some states.
They seem to be a good way of providing a framework for the integration of
academic and vocational curricula, and providing broad knowledge and skills to
career-oriented secondary students. The new Swedish system offers majors in the
care professions; economics and commerce; technology and science; technology
and industry; agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; and arts and sciences. Many
industry fields have analogues in current secondary vocational programs; a
major difference is that industry-based instruction focuses on underlying skills
and knowledge, rather than on occupationally specific skills.

As in college, the career majors would make up only part of a secondary
student’s courses. A core of other courses usually deemed essential for broad
social literacy and citizenship, such as English, math, and American history,
would continue to be required. In some, but not all cases, these subjects could be
integrated into an industrial or occupational context — e.g. history of industry,
writing for the media. In general, math, English, and science seem to lend
themselves best to integrated academic/ vocational education.

A liberal arts program would continue to be available at each educational level:
secondary, two-year postsecondary, and four-year postsecondary. However, in
high schools, the industry-based career majors would be designed to prepare

tudents for several options, including high school graduation with work
experience, two-year colleges or technical schools, and four-year colleges and
universities. For example, secondary health programs would be designed to
prepare some students for licensed practical nursing upon graduation from high
school; others for two-vear postsecondary health technician programs; others for
four-year college programs in health care administration; and still others for
college pre-ined programs. One can easily draw similar examples from other
career fields,

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Some institutions have difficulty meeting the needs of LEP students, especially in
areas where large and growing disadvantaged and immigrant populations strain
institutions’ resources.

During the three-year period from 1986 to 1989, the concentration of special
populations in postsecondary vocational education did not increase, as it did at
the secondary level, over a longer period.

Minority and special population enrollments are higher in proprietary schools
than elsewhere, and proprietary school enrollments are increasing. These
enrollments seem to reflect a demand for short-term postsecondary programs
designed to improve earnings quickly. The conflicting needs for more education
and immediate income reflected in this preference are likely to continue.

Completion rates in sub-baccalaureate postsecondary institutions seem to be
declining, and the increasing number of postsecondary students needing
remediation may be contributing to this decline. Recent reforms, such as the
elimination of remedial course credits and stricter academic requirements for
vocational certificate students, may also contribute to lower completion rates.
These trends emphasize the need to focus on the most fundamental determinant

of access to postsecondary education — high school students’ preparation for
further education.

Recommendations: To counter the growing isolation of secondary vocational
programs, the new Perkins Act should encourage states and localities to broaden
the student base of vocational education by creating reformed systems of
workforce preparation that encompass the majority of secondary students. The
Perkins Act should also maintain strong requirements for equal access to
occupational programs, but should not otherwise encourage the enrollment of
special population students as groups in any particular form of education.
Decisions about programs and coursetaking should be made on the basis of the
educational interests of the individual student. Congress should help special
population students meet the same standards as other students, regardless of the
programs they participate in.

To improve the access of special populations to quality vocational education,
regardless of the school in which they are enrolled, the Perkins Act should (a)
maintain its focus on targeting funds to schools and districts that serve special
population students, with efforts within those sites focused on reform and
program improvement; (b) require that states include public schools that provide
vocational education exclusively to special population students in their Perkins
funding allocations; and (c) target funds more closely on postsecondary
institutions with large and growing concentrations of special population
students, especially immigrant populations (or some other measure of LEP
student concentration).

42 Summary and Recommendations



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— through program reform and learning assistance — appear to be greater than
those gained from the increased use of ancillary personnel and services that do
not directly improve the learning process.

The general focus on service provision within the Perkins Act is troublesome
because it implies that students with special needs should — as a group — be
enrolled in vocational education. Although this was not the original intent of the
Act, it is often interpreted this way in states and localities. Services for special
needs students should be equally available to all who need them, regardless of
the program in which they are enrolled.

Recommendations: The Congress should reconsider the rationale for providing
funds for supplemental services within federal vocational education legislation.
To best serve the educational interests of these students, the Perkins Act should
give even greater emphasis to reforming and otherwise improving the quality of
vocational programs within localities that serve these students, and should limit
service provision to those services that directly improve student learning.

15. State Activities in Support of Special Populations. To help ensure that the
needs of special population students are addressed, the Perkins Act requires that
states monitor the access of special populations to vocational education; include
representatives of special populations in reviewing local applications for Perkins
funds; and adjust performance standards or provide incentives to encourage
service to special populations.?" To what extent are states complying with these
Perkins requirements? (See Volume IV, Chapter 1.)

Findings: At both secondary and postsecondary levels, equal access seems to be
a major focus of states’ Perkins reform efforts. States are as active in this area as
they are in most other Perkins initiatives. Compliance with equal access
requirements and assurances is high, although it is not universal.

State compliance rates are highest for activities that are clearly mandated in the
1990 Act (e.g., involvement of state special population representatives in review
of local plans), but not as high for activities that are less specifically mandated
(c.g., participatory planning requirements).

Adjustments to performance standard systems for special populations are not
widespread. The reasons for this apparent shortcoming are unclear, but states
may be focusing on the language of the provision, which requires performance
systems to include “incentives or adjustments. . designed to encourage service to
targeted groups or special populations.” There is a good deal of ambiguity and
latitude in this language. Also, states may be having trouble determining how to
make adjustments; they overestimated their ability to do so by 1992-93.

State assistance to localities on special population matters was limited in the first
year of Perkins implementation (1991-92) but increased markedly in the second.

44 Summary and Reconmendations

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made available for the task of integrating these standards in vocational
education curricuia in high schools and community colleges.

¢ Holding institutions and states accountable for clisadvantaged and
special populations meeting these skill standards. Their achievement of
these standards will be a better way of assisting these populations than
simply providing additional funding for services.

A new Perkins Act, that embodies the recommendations the Advisory Panel
outlined above, will not only support the creation of a comprehensive system of
education and training, but it will also place vocational education in the vanguard
of education and training reform in general. By stressing competency measures and
emphasizing the introduction of industry-oriented skill standards in vocational
education curricula, the Perkins Act can provide important national leadership to
the vocational education community. Vocational education remains a critical part
of the school-to-work transition, and of workforce preparation in general, and a
new Perkins Act will create an effective new federal role.

This statement represents the opinions of the Independent Advisory Panel to the
National Assessment of Vocational Education, and does not necessarily reflect the
position of the U.S. Department of Education, or the National Assessment of
Vocational Education.

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