High school is an inescapably vocational institution whose occupational focus is largely hidden. Integration of vocational and academic education through academies, occupationally focused schools, and occupational clusters may eliminate "shopping mall" course selections, improve teaching of all subjects, enhance student engagement with learning,…

One legacy of the United States' emphasis on individualism is a system of vocational education disconnected from employers. Collaboration is an attempt to replace hostility with closer relations between the public and private sectors. The movement for partnerships comes as the "system" of work-related education and training is becoming…

The education-work movement is seen as very similar to traditional vocationalism and a force for social and economic stratification, rather than equity. If the relationship between education and work is to take a new direction that is progressive rather than repressive, education must abandon the principles of vocational education. (AF)

This book reviews the effectiveness of job training programs in the United States, concentrating on the most recent and most sophisticated evaluations. Chapter 1 identifies seven differences between education and job training. Chapter 2 describes the types of job training programs that are examined. Chapter 3 outlines the preferred methodology in…

This analysis assesses alternative explanations of the robust enrollment growth in community colleges in the 1970's, part of a larger trend of increased vocationalization of education. The conventional explanation is that community colleges offer the most appropriate training for rapidly increasing jobs requiring middle-level skills. Various other…

This document provides the case studies for an original report on the status of coordination among job related education and training programs. The document contains case studies of state-level coordination in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington. It also includes a section on coordination in selected California…

The cooperative education program at LaGuardia Community College, New York, incorporates seminars that integrate school- and work-based learning. In the seminars, students examine issues related to work in general, the organizations in which they are placed, and the ways in which their academic preparation is applied at the work site. The…

Case studies of a wide variety of state and local job related education and training programs revealed enough about the range of coordination activities nationally to permit generalizations about the current state of coordination. In a 2-year effort to examine the coordination of vocational education and Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)…

This paper states that, although education has been linked historically to economic development, there is no clear evidence that this link is valid. It investigates under what conditions educational programs are likely to be effective and which are likely to shift resources without any net effects on employment, wage levels, productivity, or…

A study examined the history, practice, and quality of cooperative education (CE) in two-year colleges in and around Cincinnati, Ohio. CE proved to be firmly ingrained and widespread in Cincinnati. The most common model of CE found in Cincinnati was the "alternating" model, wherein students complete 2-6 cycles of attending school for…