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…

The high school vocational education curriculum should not be isolated and reformed without considering the experiences of young people leading up to and following high school. At the elementary level a new emphasis needs to be placed on acquisition and application of basic skills. In junior high school, expectations for growth in the basic skills…

Four of the policy statements for vocational education developed by the Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education reflect concerns shared in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education. First, vocational education is accountable to the publics, namely students, employers, and state, local, and…

Vocational education is a key to the education of the future, as the schools absorb more responsibility for preparing students to enter a rapidly expanding job market. Although there are great visions for the future of vocational education, there must be concern for daily details of financial management, personnel motivation, and administrative…

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act authorizes the use of community-based organizations of proven effectiveness, such as Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America (OIC), to be involved in improving the overall vocational education delivery system. State assistance for vocational education support by community-based organizations…

A recent study concluded that the requirements for the completion of apprenticeship training programs should be based on competence rather than the period of participation in the programs. If providers of apprenticeship training programs are to be able to follow this recommendation and to effect other changes in the structure of apprenticeship…

Federal regulations for the Adult Education Act and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act were revised in 1985. The following are the major changes to the Adult Education Act regulations: (1) the definition of "adult" was changed to permit services to persons under the age of 16 in some cases; (2) the definition of…

The emphasis on achieving sex equity, begun under the Education Amendments of 1976, continues and expands with the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act. As in the 1976 amendments, the states are required to assign one person full-time responsibility for fulfilling mandated functions relative to sex equity. However, the new Act provides the…