material together with recruitment materials to help educate and attract potential vocational students. This program and budget should then be presented to the State board of education for review and approval. If funds are limited or unavailable, the bureau should then be encouraged to seek private, corporate or foundation funds to underwrite this PI program. In either case, the council recommends the immediate creation of this position and program. Funds should be appropriated to provide travel for bureau personnel to review outstanding educational programs throughout the country. This travel allocation should be the outgrowth of a coordinated, comprehensive and well-planned review of appropriate programs to be studied. A few of the programs to be considered could be the four career education models, the skyline career center, business, industry, education cooperative education programs, and comprehensive community school facilities. A program of vocational exploration should be initiated in the 9th and 10th grades. Hopefully career education will help solve some of these problems, but the full-blown career education program is not yet available to all West Virginia students. We further recommend that the bureau of vocational-technical and adult education work with the LEA's to stimulate the further development of cooperative education programs. A student's educational opportunities should not be so restrictive that this decision to become employed automatically precipitates his dropping out of school. The bureau of vocational-technical and adult education, in cooperation with the State department of education, should present the West Virginia Legislature with an informational program designed to clearly update legislators with the impending growing pams. This presentation needs to be coupled with a strong, objective recommendation for the legislators to review their educational funding priorities and to accept the State department's recommendation for an allocation of additional funds for program development and program maintenance. The Bureau must maintain a leadership role in encouraging the legislature to realistically appropriate funds more in line with the educational needs of West Virginia. WISCONSIN 1. Greater emphasis should be placed on the role of continuing education in the upgrading of skills of the health worker throughout the State of Wisconsin. 2. A more creative and coordinated approach should be adopted in the recruitment and certification of health occupations instructional staff. 3. Health occupations instructors should take a more active role in the inservice programs or staff meetings held in the various clinical facilities within the State and their districts. Opportunities to participate and teach at the meetings may prove reciprocally 99 98%- 73--vol 2 - 22 beneficial. The opportunity is also present for an interchange of instructor and agency clinicians periodically. 4. The State staff should work with colleges and universities of Wisconsin to provide more flexible programs to enable present and potential teachers and staff to acquire degrees and meet other credentialing requirements. 5. A job-clearing house should be established so that districts with a shortage of personnel and/or faculty can make their needs known in areas where training programs exist. 6. The staff of the State Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education should compile a semiannual calendar (event list) for health occupations faculty, listing available workshops, seminars. conferences, etc. sponsored by such agencies and organizations as the WBVTAE, Wisconsin Hospital Association, Wisconsin Nursing Home Association, professional organizations, etc. for dissemination to district directors, health occupations faculty, hospital and nursing home administrators, and other interested individuals. 7. The need for improved emergency services, particularly in rural areas, should be met by vocational district development of emergency care training courses. Training should be available for ambulance operators, emergency room staff, police and sheriff department personnel, and firemen who are providing services either as regular employees or volunteers. 8. Training programs that prepare health aids and assistants should be available in all vocational districts as dictated by demand, particularly in the rural areas. This should include preparatory programs for new workers as well as extension programs for workers tained on the job, and should include especially nursing assistants, food service workers, housekeeping aides, activity aides, ward clerks, physical therapy aides, and occupational therapy aides. 9. The personnel of the State board of vocational, technical and adult education staff and of the districts should join in experimenting with present strategies and in seeking new means for developing clinical affiliations. 10. The controversial issue whether the health occupation programs at the secondary school level should be limited to the exploratory rather than preparatory dimension should be resolved. 11. The following recommendation of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare should be implemented in Wisconsin: the development of meaningful equivalency and proficiency examinations appropriate categories of health personnel for entry into educational programs and occupational positions. The States are called upon to assist in the implementation of this effort by amending licensing laws, where necessary, that will recognize such examinations for purposes of granting advanced educational or job placement. Educational institutions accrediting agencies, and certifying bodies are asked to continue to formulate programs that accept alternatives to formal education for entry into career fields. 12. A continuing followup evaluation of the high school students enrolled in high school health occupation classes who pursued further training should be conducted. Such information is valuable to increasing program effectiveness and quality. 13. A new section, health occupations education, should be implemented in the bureau of career and manpower development at the department of public instruction. 14. A high priority of the State board of vocational, technical and adult education leadership should be given in assisting districts in complying with proposal development guidelines and to assisting them in implementing new programs. 15. The staff of the State board of vocational, technical and adult education should consider the development of a curriculum resource center for use by their staff and district staffs. 16. The Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education, in cooperation with the districts in the State, should develop standardized manpower needs study forms so that future manpower projections of districts speak to a common format, and thus lend credence to cross-district examination. 17. Slot in (entry with advanced standing) mechanisms might be more effectively used, especially in longer programs. 18. Agencies and organizations should be encouraged to redefine their districts in such a way as to coincide with State administrative districts to facilitate communication and reduce overlap and conflict and minimize paperwork. 19. All licensing, certifying, and professional organizations should make their membership lists available to dependable agencies so that health workers might be identified more easily. 20. The State board of vocational, technical and adult education should encourage expansion of involvement of educators from university centers. Students should be permitted to do their internship programs for the Bachelor's degree in vocational schools. 21. Earmarked State vocational education funds should be made available o na top priority basis for the support of programs and services for the disadvantaged and handicapped. 22. Specific State funds should be appropriated for vocational education programs at the secondary level to promote the much needed expansion of programs for handicapped and disadvantaged students. 23. Each district should establish local priorities and program commitments to effectively serve the needs of its handicapped and disadvantaged students. 24. Needed supportive services, facilties, and curricular modifications should be provided to handicapped and disadvantaged students to enable them to succeed in regular vocational education programs in keeping with the intent of the 1968 amendments. 25. Articulation between the department of public instruction and the State board should be increased to insure that vocational programing for handicapped and disadvantaged students is continuous and meaningful. 26. Sufficient funds should be included in the budget of the State board and the department of public instruction to allow vocational education consultants to fulfill their responsibilities toward schools with vocational programs for the handicapped and disadvantaged. 27. Secondary programs for the disadvantaged should be carefully evaluated to assure that students will continue to receive the additional services they need to help them succeed in rgular vocational programs. 28. The State board and the division of vocational rehabilitation should assign a staff specialist to maintain liaison and implement programs and services required for the disadvantaged and the handicapped. 29. Efforts should be made to insure a comprehensive program is developed and that the project method enhances the delivery of services to persons with special needs. 30. Communication between all levels of personnel involved in offering vocational programs to the disadvantaged and handicapped should be continual and expanded through (1) inservice- training. (2) dissemination of information about special programs to both secondary and postsecondary schools, and (3) dissemination of the results of research exemplary programs. 31. Guidelines should be established relative to the qualifications of teachers who work with the handicapped and disadvantaged. 32. The use of indigenous, nonprofessionals to increase the identification, recruitment, and outreach of vocational programs into the community should be continued and expanded. 33. Secondary and postsecondary schools should actively help disadvantaged and handicapped students find employment in their communities. 34. The State board and the department of public instruction, in light of the recent critical report by the national advisory council on counseling and guidance, should review and strengthen its vocational counseling and guidance programs for members of minority populations, for handicapped persons, for adults, for correctional institution inmates, and for veterans. 35. The handicapped and disadvantaged should be properly considered in the development of career education programs in Wisconsin. 36. The newly developing postsecondary computer based reporting system for handicapped and disadvantaged students enrolled in Federal projects should receive the full support of the State board for its earliest possible implementation and expansion. 37. Further studies should be undertaken to provide a more in-depth understanding of the role of Wisconsin's vocational, technical, and adult education system in delivering programs to persons with special needs. 38. Wisconsin's significant and encouraging growth in vocational programs for persons with special needs should be make known to all citizens of the State to encourage their active participation and support. PUERTO RICO 1. The advisory council recommends to the VTE Administration the reinforcement of the research and curriculum Unit with the necessary professional personnel, and furthermore, the provisions be made in the budget for the accomplishment of its operation. 2. Concerning the career education program, the advisory council recommends the VTE Administration: a. Secure consultative services for an appraisal of the projects in career education, so that definite approaches might be selected to deal with the problem in Puerto Rico. These services may include industry people to determine the effectiveness of the projects; and b. In the meantime, take some steps to face actual conditions, such as to provide broader attention to the elementary level students in the career education projects, and expand the course on introduction to occupations to all school districts. 3. The advisory council strongly recommends that provisions be made with industry to have more VTE instructors and counselors attend summer sessions working in industry as a definite way to acquaint themselves with the latest processes and working conditions of the new technology, and with the impact of industry for career awareness in students. 4. The advisory council feels that the Secretary of Education and the board for vocational education, as well as the State board of education and the Governor of Puerto Rico, may utilize to a greater extent the potentials of the advisory council in establishing public policies when it refers to the development of occupational education in Puerto Rico. 5. The advisory council, in relation to the collection of data for planning and evaluation purposes, recommends that the VTE Administration: a. Accelerate the implementation of the VTE information system in such a way that the VTE programs may have the basic information available for fiscal year 1973-74 planning and evaluation; b. Verify and update the information collected by the system, periodically, thereafter. 6. The advisory council, in relation to indicators that may show the VTE programs are meeting the needs of the students and of manpower, recommends the VTE Administration: a. Consider the conclusions reached in the analysis of "manpower needs" and "Census of Manufacturers," reports made by the Department of Labor, in planning for next year's vocational offerings and services: b. The advisory council reiterates the recommendations made last year, in the sense that students may have at least a semester work experience in industry. This year, specific emphasis is placed on fostering still more the cooperative programs with industry for the training of production workers. 7. The advisory council wants to emphasize to the VTE Administration. in relation to the development and accomplishment of the plans set forth, that: a. The degree of consistency between what is planned and what is produced or achieved is a sound indication of the quality of planning and the quality of accomplishments. Projections and forecasting of program achievement and clearly stated goals, objectives and priorities set forth in the planning process serve the administration to implement them effectively. b. The implementation of new programs and the expansion and continuation of existing one should be based on appropriate profiles which satisfy the needs ascertained from an effective evaluation. with a systematic basis. 1. A thorough analysis of all present and potential vocational education facilities to enable optimum program development and utilization. |