Policymakers and educators are paying increased attention to determining how best to prepare those in adult education programs not only for immediate employment, but also for career advancement and further training or postsecondary education. This focus echoes current efforts among secondary educators, particularly those in career and technical…

This newsletter includes vignettes about schools that are effectively integrating academic and career/technical (CT) studies to help more students find meaning in their learning and to motivate students to make great effort to achieve. This is part of a series of newsletters describing best practices for implementing the "High Schools That Work"…

Describes three programs successfully integrating vocational and academic education: (1) Dauphin County Technical School (Pennsylvania), which uses the cluster concept; (2) St. Mary's (Maryland) Technical Center's tech prep program; and (3) Frederick Vocational-Technical Center (Maryland), which offers core course mastery and a systems approach to…

Describes three approaches to integration of academic and vocational education and discusses how schools can move toward this concept. The approaches are (1) integrating academic and vocational coursework; (2) the academy model; and (3) occupational clusters and career paths. (JOW)

Outlines the external and internal policy context of high school career and technical education (CTE). Analyzes four policy options: (1) traditional sequential occupational courses; (2) elimination in favor of a common academic program; (3) CTE as an applied context for academics; and (4) integrated CTE and academics. Concludes that the integrated…

Designed as a resource guide for a school district's governance team, this publication provides descriptions of 20 best district practices and 11 national demonstration projects on academic-vocational integration. It enables board members and superintendents to envision how the curriculum integration of academic and vocational education occurs on…

The Options Program, a vocational program using applied academic courses at the Greene County Career Center in Ohio, was evaluated in 1989-90. Objectives measured were program enrollment, job placement of graduates, and postsecondary education of graduates. Data were gathered by comparing the enrollment, placement statistics, and percentage…

The All Aspects of the Industry (AAI) approach, one of a number of educational reforms designed to reduce the gap between vocational and academic education, provides a framework for schools to redesign their programs around broadly conceived, interdisciplinary, industry-focused programs. With an AAI framework, schools can prepare students for a…

This handbook describes the processes and techniques used to develop, implement, and evaluate four integrated vocational and academic learning programs in Wisconsin that included students from special populations. The handbook contains seven chapters. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the project, including the request for proposal process and…

This document contains a performance report, a master plan, objectives, and an evaluation plan for a project in which Valencia Community College (Orlando, Florida) is to facilitate increasing cooperation between vocational and academic departments and move toward integrating vocational and academic courses in high schools and postsecondary…

Illinois State University and University of Illinois faculty collaborated to pilot test and evaluate Applied Academics curricula in Illinois. Three sets of pilot sites included the following: (1) 14 local education agencies that pilot tested Applied Communications and/or Mathematics; (2) 10 sites at which vocational teachers collaborated with…

Project SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) Integration is a 5-year initiative to explore how well all high school instructors would be able to integrate competency-based instruction in designated work-related competencies into their courses and rate students' mastery of the competencies. Three teachers from each of 14…

This document contains supporting materials from five case studies illustrating the All Aspects of the Industry (AAI) approach. AAI provides a framework for redesigning programs around broadly conceived, interdisciplinary, industry-focused programs and integrating academic and vocational education. Materials from the Boston (Massachusetts) Public…

Research identified strategies implemented collaboratively between vocational and academic teachers at Southern Regional Education Board-Vocational Education Consortium pilot sites to develop basic academic competencies of students in vocational programs. Structured interviews were completed at three pilot-site schools--a comprehensive high school…

A study examined the performance of the High Schools That Work (HSTW) initiative in 1996 and 1998, based on data from the HSTW Assessments. Analyses found support for the hypothesis that HSTW is the cause of school improvement, although other non-measured factors may also influence these schools, and showed that between 1996-98 HSTW schools…