The United States faces a pressing national security and competitiveness challenge rooted in a shortage of a diverse, highly skilled workforce, particularly in vital cross-disciplinary fields such as data science and analytics, cybersecurity, and information technology. To address this challenge, Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) launched the…

Effective strategic planning has clearly become a skill that is essential to the survival of managers in public and private sector agencies alike. While sometimes thought of as being an overly quantitative and excessively time-consuming activity, strategic planning does not need to be characterized in these terms. In its simplest and most…

Strategies for integrating academic and vocational skill have been the focus of increasing attention in recent years. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 mandates that state and local education agencies integrate these programs so students achieve both academic and vocational competencies. Implementation of…

A social learning model focusing on intrinsic outcomes of vocational programs is proposed. It would assess technical skills and knowledge, communication skills and literacy, and personal skills and attitudes. Instruments should be devised to measure characteristics of the learning setting, learner involved activities, and nature of consequences of…

This study examines recent manpower training evaluation studies to illustrate how local program managers can evaluate their programs for greater program effectiveness. An evaluation model was developed to assess the long-term impact of specific classroom and on-the-job training programs on selected participants. Guidelines for program planning are…

This guide begins with background information useful to understanding Illinois' framework for implementation and evaluation of Programs of Study. It starts with a visual depiction of the relationships between activity at the federal, state and local levels that evolved to the creation of Illinois' Career Cluster Model. This Model, which is based…

This guide was developed to help career guidance counselors and administrators improve their programs by adapting the best practices from exemplars and other models and by using standards suggested by national groups. The guide includes the guidance and counseling framework that the National Center for Research in Vocational Education uses for…

Program advisory committees in vocational education have traditionally been charged with the responsibility of evaluating programs for the purpose of keeping them up to date with business and industry practices and current technology. Rapid technological development and accountability requirements have led to state mandates that the advisory…

This paper offers a conceptual model or theory that synthesizes previous research, personal experience, and years of dialogue with instructors of wilderness programs, and other wilderness users. The goals of this model are to create a useful tool to help practitioners improve their programs and train instructors, focus additional research, help…

This study prepared by a special task force of the National Association of Secondary School Principals is a report on articulation between secondary and post-secondary education. Included are presentations given by distinguished educators representing secondary schools, college and universities, vocational technical schools, proprietary…

The purpose of this project was to develop a set of model policies, procedures, and agreements that would enhance student articulation among and between secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs. The project was divided into four phases. In the first phase, a nationwide search and review of existing articulation programs and…

The responsive model of evaluation has been seen as an alternative to formal evaluation models. This model was used for the evaluation of a Certificate in Industrial Relations program in a Quebec French university. This study focused on two main objectives: first, the local utility of the program being assessed, along with the major problems…

The Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM), developed in 1966 by Malcolm Provus, provides information for program assessment and program improvement. Under the DEM, evaluation is defined as the comparison of an actual performance to a desired standard. The DEM embodies five stages of evaluation based upon a program's natural development: program…

This document summarizes and describes the projected activities for the fifth funding period of the Center for Occupational Education. Specific projects and activities are directed toward achieving the following goals: (1) the development and implementation of comprehensive programs of occupational education in postsecondary institutions of the…

This technical assistance guide was developed to help state policy makers develop performance-standard incentive policies that are effective tools in accomplishing state and federal goals for Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) programs. The guide is organized in three sections. The first section introduces incentive policies as tools to further…