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VOCATIONAL EDUCATION OFFERINGS

IN RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS

NCES 2002–120

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

July 2002

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Educational Research and Impr ch and Improvement

A great deal is known about high school vocational

coursetaking, including which students take more rather than

less vocational education (see Levesque et al. 2000; Tuma

1996). Less is known about vocational education offerings

and the types of schools that provide various types of vocational education programs. To help fill this gap, this Issue

Brief uses data from the 1999 “Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary Schools” (see Phelps et al. 2001) to examine systems for delivering vocational education and the

offerings provided by public high schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas.1

 Schools in these areas are likely to

differ in the nature of their local labor markets, and thus in

the demand for vocational education faced by schools. In

particular, many rural areas are likely to have labor markets that are less diverse than those in suburban and urban

areas. Vocational offerings also might be more limited in

rural areas compared to urban and suburban areas in part

because rural high schools tend to be smaller than high

schools in other areas. In 1998–99, for example, the average student enrollment in rural public high schools was 437,

compared to 1,120 for schools in suburban and urban areas. Assuming rural schools do have more limited vocational

offerings, a subsequent issue of interest is the likelihood that

rural schools offer certain types of programs. This Issue Brief

examines these issues.

The 1999 he 1999 “Survey on Vocational Programs in

Secondary Schools”

This survey asked administrators of public high schools to

classify their school as “comprehensive” or “vocational” in

focus.2 The survey also included a list of 28 selected occupations that typically require less than a baccalaureate degree. School administrators were asked to identify for which

of the 28 selected occupations their school offered a vocational education program (defined as a sequence of courses

within an occupational preparation area) in 1998–99 (tables

1 and 2). The survey included the most common occupations for which vocational education prepares students at

the high school level, but it did not include all possible occupations for which schools may have vocational offerings.

However, based on analyses of public high school transcripts,

the information derived from this survey describes the vast

majority of high school vocational education offerings.3

 Systems for Delivering Vocational Education

According to the “Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary Schools,” almost 90 percent of U.S. public high

schools in 1998–99 were comprehensive high schools rather

than vocational schools (table 1). The remaining 11 percent

of schools were roughly evenly split between area or regional

vocational schools (which typically serve students on a parttime basis) and full-time vocational high schools.

Among comprehensive high schools, only 63 percent offered

at least one program for any of the 28 selected occupations

(Phelps et al. 2001). Some comprehensive schools that do

not offer these programs might offer individual vocational

education courses rather than programs. In addition, some

may offer students access to vocational education programs

at area or regional vocational schools.4

 Thus, student access to vocational education is more widespread than is indicated by schools’ program offerings. As evidence of this

widespread access, 91 percent of 1998 public high school

graduates earned credits in occupational coursework.5

The systems used to deliver vocational education were

slightly different in urban areas than in suburban and rural

areas (table 1). Urban areas had a higher proportion of vocational high schools than did suburban areas and rural areas, possibly because urban areas were more likely to use

Table 1.—Percentage distribution of public high schools,

by type, and percent offering at least one

vocational education program for any of the 28

selected occupations, overall and by locale:

1998–99

Percentage distribution of public high schools

Area or Percent of

regional schools offering

vocational Vocational Comprehensive at least one

Locale school high school high school program

Overall /all areas 6.2 4.6 89.2 66.5

Urban areas 5.5 10.3 84.2 72.9

Suburban areas 5.9 4.4 89.7 63.9

Rural areas 6.6 3.1 90.3 66.5

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics,

Fast Response Survey System, “Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary

Schools,” 1999.

IssueBrief
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vocational high schools as magnet schools. Nonetheless,

there were no (statistically) detectable differences among

urban, suburban, and rural areas in the percentage of high

schools that offered at least one of the listed vocational programs.6 However, the number of programs offered and the

specific programs offered did vary across locales, as discussed

below.

Occupational Offerings by Locale

An initial analysis comparing the distribution of vocational

education offerings in urban, suburban, and rural areas revealed no differences between urban and suburban areas

(data not shown). Thus, for this Issue Brief, urban and suburban high schools were combined into a single category

(nonrural schools) that was compared to rural high schools.

Table 2 shows the percentage of public high schools that

offered at least one program for each of the 28 selected occupations, for schools overall and separately for rural schools

and nonrural schools.

On average, rural high schools offered at least one program

for fewer of the selected occupations than did nonrural high

schools—an average of 3.7 occupations in rural schools versus 4.8 in nonrural schools.7 This difference reflects a lower

proportion of rural schools offering programs for most of

the listed occupations (16 of the 28), rather than differences

in a few offerings. Specifically, rural schools were less likely

than nonrural schools to offer programs for four of the five

listed technical occupations, all listed service occupations,

and three of the four listed mechanical occupations. Rural

schools also were less likely than nonrural schools to offer

three of the six listed programs for health and life science

occupations, including the relatively common nurse/nurse’s

aide programs, and two of the four programs for business

and marketing occupations (sales associate and restaurant/

food service manager).

On the other hand, rural schools were as likely as nonrural

schools to offer the two most common business and marketing programs (accountant/bookkeeper and administrative assistant/secretary) and were at least as likely as nonrural

schools to offer all listed programs in the building trades.

Rural schools were more likely than nonrural schools to

offer vocational education programs for welding and for

agriscience. The greater propensity of rural schools to offer

vocational programs for these two fields would seem to reflect labor market differences between rural and nonrural

areas—specifically, the concentration of agribusiness in rural areas.

Other factors also could contribute to this pattern of offerings. One hypothesis suggested by the findings is that vocational education programs for expanding occupations (e.g.,

in technical and health fields) are less commonly offered in

rural schools. One way to examine this issue is to compare

schools’ offerings for occupations that are growing at a relatively fast rate. Of the 28 selected occupations, 10 were projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be fast growing

(defined as having a projected growth rate of over 20 percent from 1996 to 2006; Bureau of Labor Statistics 1998)

(table 3). Among the public high schools that offered at least

one program for any of the 28 selected occupations, an average of 25 percent of the programs offered by nonrural

schools were programs for these projected fast-growing occupations, compared to 17 percent for rural schools. In other

words, the programs offered by nonrural schools were more

likely than those offered by rural schools to be programs

that prepare students for occupations expected to be fast

growing. This difference in offerings does not necessarily

mean that rural schools are less responsive to the labor

Table 2.—Percent of public high schools offering at least

one program for each of the 28 selected

occupations, overall and by locale: 1998–99

*The percentages of rural and nonrural schools with programs for these

occupations were statistically different. All other differences between rural and

nonrural schools were not statistically different.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics,

Fast Response Survey System, “Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary

Schools,” 1999.

All Rural Nonrural

Program for schools schools schools

Technical occupations

Drafter or CADD operator 31.8 28.3 35.0

Computer/electronics technician* 14.2 9.7 18.4

Computer graphic designer* 13.3 7.6 18.5

Computer programmer* 11.4 8.3 14.3

Engineering technician* 2.8 1.6 3.9

Service occupations

Chef/cook* 20.3 16.4 24.0

Childcare worker or teacher’s aide* 20.0 15.3 24.5

Cosmetologist* 9.2 5.0 13.2

Paralegal/legal assistant* 1.9 1.0 2.6

Mechanical occupations

Auto body repairer 10.6 8.7 12.4

Automotive mechanic/technician* 27.1 22.5 31.4

Machinist* 9.9 7.5 12.1

AC/heating/refrigeration repair technician* 4.2 1.8 6.5

Health/life science occupations

Agriscience technician* 13.6 16.8 10.5

Emergency medical technician 6.3 5.0 7.5

Veterinary assistant 6.1 5.4 6.7

Nurse or nurse’s aide* 19.2 15.3 22.9

Medical/dental assistant* 9.1 5.1 12.9

Medical/life science lab technician* 4.3 2.4 6.0

Business/marketing occupations

Accountant/bookkeeper 46.3 46.7 45.9

Administrative assistant/secretary 35.8 33.0 38.4

Sales associate* 17.0 10.7 22.8

Restaurant/food service manager* 14.0 9.6 18.0

Building trades

Welder* 23.3 28.2 18.7

Carpenter 28.0 29.6 26.5

Electrician 12.9 12.6 13.2

Bricklayer or mason 7.7 6.5 8.8

Plumber 6.8 7.2 6.4
3

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of curren ief t interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling variability. All

differences are statistically significant at the .05 level. In the design, conduct, and data processing of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys, efforts are made to

minimize the effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error.

This Issue Brief was prepared by Lisa Hudson of NCES and Linda Shafer of the Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI). This ief Issue Brief was desktopped by Carol Rohr of ief

Pinkerton Computer Consultants, Inc. For further information, contact Lisa Hudson, NCES, at 202–502–7358 or Lisa.Hudson@ed.gov. To order additional copies of this Issue

Brief or other NCES publications, call 1–877–433–7827. NCES publications are also available on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov ief .

market than are other schools. Instead, this difference in

offerings could reflect labor market differences in rural and

nonrural areas.

1

 Areas were categorized using U.S. Census Bureau definitions.

Urban areas are defined as large or mid-size central cities.

Suburban areas are the urban fringes of large and mid-size cities,

as well as large towns and rural communities located within

metropolitan areas. Rural areas are small towns and communities

outside of metropolitan areas with populations of less than

25,000.

2

 In this survey, comprehensive schools included all high schools

that were not vocational in focus. Special or alternative education

schools were not separately classified. Vocational schools were

self-classified as (1) area or regional vocational schools or (2)

vocational high schools.

3

 The missing program areas include transportation, protective

services, and some areas within precision production and

communications technology. Based on analyses of the 1998 High

School Transcript Study, these missing programs include less

than 10 percent of students’ occupational coursetaking.

4

 In 1991, over half of all public school districts offered students

access to area or regional vocational schools (Office of

Educational Research and Improvement 1994).

5

 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics, High School Transcript Study, 1998. Occupational

courses include all courses within the “specific labor market

preparation” section of the vocational education curriculum in

the NCES Secondary School Taxonomy (Bradby and

Hoachlander 1999).

6

 These estimates had relatively large standard errors, which

may in part explain why the apparent differences between urban

areas and suburban and rural areas were not statistically

different.

7 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics, Fast Response Survey System, “Survey on Vocational

Programs in Secondary Schools,” 1999.

Table 3. able 3. —List of fast-growing and other occupations, by the likelihood that rural public high schools offered at least one

vocational education program for that occupation: 1998–99

Fast-growing occupations Other occupations

Rural schools less likely Computer/electronics technician Engineering technician ely

than nonrural schools Computer graphic designer Chef/cook ols

to offer at least one Computer programmer Cosmetologist t least one

vocational program for: Childcare worker or teachers’ ai : de Automotive mechanic/technician

Paralegal/legal assistant Machinist

Nurse or nurses’ aide AC/heating/refrig. repair technician

Medical/dental assistant Medical/life science lab technician

Restaurant/food service manager Sales associate

Rural schools and nonrural Emergency medical technician Drafter or CADD operator al

schools are equally likely to Veterinary assistant Auto body repairer o

offer at least one vocational Accountant/bookkeeper

program for: Administrative assistant/secretary

Carpenter

Electrician

Bricklayer or mason

Plumber

Rural schools are more likely Agriscience technician

than nonrural schools to offer Welder

at least one vocational program for:

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response Survey System, “Survey on Vocational Programs in Secondary Schools,” 1999,

and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Spring 1998, pp. 3–39.

References

Bradby, D. and Hoachlander, G. 1999. 1998 Revision of

the Secondary School Taxonomy (NCES 1999–06). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: Author.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1998. “The 1996–2006 Job Outlook in Brief.” Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Spring

1998: 3–39. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.

Levesque, K., Lauen, D., Teitelbaum, P., Alt, M., and Librera,

S. 2000. Vocational Education in the United States: Toward

the Year 2000 (NCES 2000–029). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Office of Educational Research and Improvement. 1994.

National Assessment of Vocational Education: Interim Report to Congress. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: Author.

Phelps, R., Parsad, B., Farris, E., and Hudson, L. 2001. Features of Occupational Programs at the Secondary and

Postsecondary Education Levels (NCES 2001–018). U.S.

Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Tuma, J. 1996. Trends in Participation in Secondary Vocational Education: 1982–1992 (NCES 96–004). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.