KANSAS

State Director-John E. Snyder

INTRODUCTION

The Educational Structure in Kansas

The higher education system in Kansas includes three Statesupported universities and three State colleges, one municipal university at Topeka, and 17 church-supported colleges and universities throughout the State. These denominational schools tend to be small liberal arts colleges with an average enrollment of approximately 1,000 students or less. The 24 State and private colleges and universities in Kansas enrolled 74,676 students in the fall of 1971.

There are 19 public community colleges, one operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and five church-supported junior colleges in Kansas. In the fall of 1971, the 19 public community colleges enrolled a total of 15,752 students. The five church-related junior colleges enrolled a total of 1,472 and the Haskell Indian Junior College enrolled 1,128 indian students. All of these are postsecondary students.

There are 14 area vocational-technical schools that offer vocational education for both high school and postsecondary students. In 1972, these 14 schools enrolled 7,615 high school students and 4,738 postsecondary students. Depending on the population of the attendance area, the number of programs offered in these schools varies from 11 to 38. The average number of programs is 17.

The Vocational Technical Institute, a division of the Kansas State College of Pittsburg, offers 10 programs in trade and industrial education, and the Kansas Technical Institute at Salina offers seven high-level engineering technology programs. Both of these institutions are for postsecondary students and are State supported.

There are 311 unified school districts in Kansas. These unified districts offered 339 programs of vocational education for high school students in 1972. Agriculture and home economics predominates among these programs and reflects the rural nature of many of these high schools.

The problem of providing equal access to vocational education for all students is always difficult in States that have a relatively small population spread over a relatively large land area. In Kansas, this problem is especially critical at the secondary level.

In spite of diligent efforts to unify local districts, the low population density in some parts of the State still requires many high schools with comparatively small enrollment. Data reported by the (231)

Kansas State Department of Education on enrollments in public high schools are shown in table I.

Source: "Selected School Statistics," January 1971-Kansas State Department of Education.

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These data show that approximately one out of four public high schools in Kansas enrolls less than 100 students and approximately one out of two public high schools has less than 200 students. It is not economically feasible to provide much diversity of offerings through the traditional pattern of vocational education in schools of less than 200 students.

A partial answer has been the area vocational-technical school which can serve a combination of these small high schools, but many areas of the State are not yet included in a district of this type. Ă second approach has been the development of diversified or cooperative programs supervised by a local coordinator, but here again, the number of these programs at the present time, is not sufficient to meet the needs of all students. In 1972, 339 vocational programs were offered in the unified school districts of Kansas.

Growth in Vocational Enrollments

There has been continued growth in the number of vocational programs and enrollments among the Kansas schools in the last decade. Data abstracted from the State reports to the U.S. Office of Education show the following total public school enrollments in vocational education.

1 Includes full-time and part-time adult enrollments.

2 Based on a straight line projection of the average growth in enrollment from 1963 through 1972.

In addition to the vocational programs offered in the public schools of the State, the Kansas Technical Institute offers 7 engineering technology programs for postsecondary students. This school is

entirely State supported and was started in 1966. In 1968 this school enrolled 186 students and 326 in 1972.

Other vocational programs administered by the Kansas Division of Vocational Education and sponsored jointly with other Federal agencies are:

1. MDTA programs including skill centers, G.E.D., basic education and employability training.

2. Correctional Training offered for inmates of the reformatories and penitentiaries in Kansas.

3. Project Transition operated in cooperation with the U.S. Army at Fort Riley, Kans. The purpose of this project was to facilitate the transition of Vietnam veterans from military to civilian life.

4. Forbes Skill Center operated at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force. The purpose of this project was to provide veterans with salable skills prior to discharge.

Programs of this type are based on demand and comparisons between years are not very meaningful. In fiscal year 1968 and fiscal year 1972, these programs reported the following enrollments of adults. These are in addition to the enrollments reported in table II.

Reports from the division of vocational education in Kansas to the U.S. Office of Education show the following enrollments for fiscal year 1963, fiscal year 1968 and fiscal year 1972.

Estimates for fiscal year 1977 have been made by a straight line projection based on the average yearly growth. Where unusual circumstances have interrupted the continuity of the data, modifications have been made to this procedure to provide the best judgment available on the estimate.

Comparisons of these data must be made with some caution. Changes in the reporting forms by the U.S. Office of Education do not produce data that are strictly comparable from one year to another. The refining of definitions for various programs and services have shifted some enrollment from one category to another. For example, in fiscal year 1963 data processing enrollments were reported under Technical Occupations. Between fiscal year 1968 and fiscal year 1972, these enrollments were shifted to Office Occupations. This resulted in a decline in Technical enrollments and an increase in Office Occupations. These data can be used to identify trends but should not be regarded as precise.

With these restrictions, the following enrollment data by service are submitted.

1 It is the policy of the division of vocational education to place health programs at the postsecondary level whenever possible.

2 The consumer education and homemaking division has emphasized the development of quality programs at the secondary and adult levels. There is concern for expanding the program into the postsecondary level but the funds and personnel have not been available.

There is a substantial number of home economics programs in community colleges, but these are college transfer programs.

3 It is the policy of the division of vocational education to offer technical education programs at the postsecondary level whenever possible.

b. General Description

There has been substantial growth in both the number of vocational programs and the enrollment of students over the past 5 years in Kansas. The following tables show the enrollment for fiscal year 1968 and fiscal year 1972 and the percentage change which the difference in the enrollments for these 2 fiscal years represents using fiscal year 1968 as a base.

1 It is the policy of the Division of Vocational Education to place health programs at the postsecondary level whenever possible.

The decrease in technical occupations at the secondary level was the result of a State division of vocational educational policy to move technical education to the postsecondary level whenever possible. The average growth per year in secondary vocational enrollments was approximately 17 percent per year.

Postsecondary vocational education was the fastest growing category from a percentage standpoint.

The decline in technical occupations was the result of the two factors. First, certain types of courses were started by technical education and later transferred to other services. For example, automated data processing classes were reported as a part of technical education in fiscal year 1968 and as a part of office occupations in fiscal year

1972.

Secondly, there has been a continuing effort on the part of the division of vocational education to clarify the definition of technical education and to transfer programs which do not meet the established criteria to other appropriate services. This has resulted in a smaller enrollment in programs which are more truly representative of technical education.

The average enrollment growth in postsecondary vocational education has been approximately 39 percent per year.