The author lists characteristics of agriculture education programs at universities. He discusses ways to use resources, ideas, and people to command respect and recognition for the field. (CH)

Stakeholders in Taiwan's process for reviewing and approving senior vocational school (SVS) textbooks were surveyed to identify ways of improving the process. The questionnaire contained items examining respondents' demographic characteristics, their opinions of Taiwan's existing SVS textbook review and approval process, and suggestions for…

Four kinds of measures of excellence are currently used in evaluating vocational education: components and process, occupational impact, equity, and individual student development. None of them displays the kind of precision that characterizes measures in the physical sciences. Furthermore, the nature of the enterprise to which these measures must…

Since the passage of the National Apprenticeship Act in 1937 apprenticeship has remained a totally voluntary program, the costs of which are covered by the program sponsor (either an employer, a joint labor-employer sponsor, or a government agency). As of 1988, there were about 325,000 apprentices in training and another 55,000 in the armed…

Impact must be defined before it can be assessed. Part of the definition is that impact is the consequences of funded vocational education research and development projects and programs, not just the fact of the dissemination of the products of the projects. Programs are defined as a group of funded research and development improvement projects…

A project was developed to link together the computer and an operations research technique (goal programming) and to bring them to bear on problems in improving vocational education planning. The process involves using the computer to solve a mathematical model designed to determine trade-off values among alternative goals and plans. Simulating…

Vocational education programs cannot and should not serve all the population groups targeted by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Rather, they should and must collaborate and cooperate with the manpower community. In order to do that five major policy issues need to be dealt with: getting agreements to collaborate, prime…

A three-phase study was conducted at a female correctional institution in the Midwest to determine inmates' occupational aspirations and educational needs. In the first phase of the study, 121 of the 167 inmates participated in 9 forums in which they voiced their career choices and ranked them in priority order. In the second phase, a panel of…

Maintaining effective leadership in vocational agriculture education with reduced resources will require change. Change is needed in four areas: effective leadership/reduced resources, communications/involvement, concerns, and use of others. In the area of effective leadership in an age of reduced resources, the responsibilities of supervisors in…

The current school reform movement has been plagued by three false assumptions. The first of these postulates that more academic requirements will strengthen the minds of students, improve their reasoning, prepare them for a rapidly changing economy, and make the U.S. economy more competitive. Although it is true that the workers of the future…

For America to sustain a high standard of living and set aside the resources needed for national security, at least a decade of shoring up productive capacity is required--a period of reindustrialization. The United States has been underdeveloping, with too much consumption of goods and resources and too little investment in the national economic…

Focusing on the improvement of graduate programs in vocational education, this monograph is organized into two sections. Section 1 reports the results of a survey initiated by the National Resource Panel of graduate programs in vocational education in the United States. Section 2 contains working papers used in a workshop which addressed the…

Programs to aid disadvantaged youth in making the transition from school to work are often lacking or underdeveloped. As a result, many disadvantaged youth become unemployed, and more than half of disabled adults are unemployed. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act contains provisions for vocational services for special populations. This…

Because vocational researchers and practitioners have not been able to reach a consensus concerning criteria for judging excellence in vocational education and have been unable to agree on exactly which factors lead to successful programs, research in vocational education has had limited impact on improving practice. Two sets of research findings…

Half of this paper is the text of a lecture, based on the author's involvement in a study by the Committee on Vocational Education Research and Development (R & D). Focus is on the summary of the study's recommendations in three areas: (1) Administration of vocational education R & D, (2) the content of vocational education R & D, and (3) the…