These institutes seek to meet the needs of the State for viable studies and functions that can improve the climate for occupation education change. The functions of the institutes range from specific responsibilities such as training, to more generalized responsibilities such as general supervision of research innovations. In addition, the institutes are concerned with a wide spectrum of activities which include: Performing basic and applied research in occupational education; conducting conferences and seminars; training researchers in Occupational education; preparing occupational education materials for dissemination throughout the State; and supporting graduate students in occupational education research programs.

The institutes have a close tie and serve as an extension of the RCU, working closely and continually with department personnel. Furthermore, the institutes are in communication with professional Occupational education associations and organizations, and business. and industrial concerns.

The institutes, within the guidelines established by the RCU, have the advantages of flexibility and adaptability. For example, they are able to solicit funds from other State and Federal agencies, private foundations, and private businesses.

The Evaluation Service Center for Occupational Education (ESCOE) which has been in operation since 1970, was designed to create evaluation, instructional, and teacher training tools to help educational agencies develop autonomous curriculums in occupational education. A part of the project is a computerized bank which contains behavioral objectives for various occupational education programs. Faculty from 20 schools, 3 BOCES, and 7 community colleges have been provided training in writing behavioral objectives and correlated test items for the bank. The test component of the bank enables schools to select evaluation measures for the curriculums they offer.

Currently, over 12,500 objectives have been coded and classified in the major occupational education curriculum areas. Plans for fiscal year 1973-74 include: Establishing links with other statewide curriculum systems, establishing ESCOE models in two city school districts and in two BOCES centers, and experimenting in the field with the test items for four different occupational curriculum areas. ESCOE can benefit nonparticipating schools by providing up-todate information on occupational education systems building, curriculum development and evaluation and by providing teachers with tested ESCOE materials.

STATE ADVISORY COUNCIL

The members of the State Advisory Council are appointed by the Board of Regents. There are 30 members, each of whom serves a 3year term. Appointments are arranged so that one third of the membership changes each year.

The council meets 5 times a year with meetings of the various standing committees scheduled in between regular meetings. There is a full-time professional staff member and clerical support employed. While the council does prepare an annual report and conducts independent evaluations of various elements of the State's program, its

conclusions have been supportive of the Education Department efforts and its recommendations for improvement were minimal. The significant impact of the Advisory Council is found in its functions dealing with advice and counsel with respect to program policies and long range and annual planning. As an example, there is a close working relationship between members of the council committee on the State plan and annual report and the staff of the Office of Occupational Education. The council committee meets regularly with the department planning staff to review priorities, budgets, projections, and activities. At each stage of the development of the State plan each year the council committee and department staff work jointly to present to the council recommendations in regard to action to be taken.

The most recent, and probably one of the most effective actions on the part of the council, was its sponsorship and leadership in conducting a 2-day conference for members of local advisory councils. In New York State, each agency operating an occupational education program is required by statute to maintain an advisory council whose membership and functions are patterned after the State Advisory Council.

This conference provided opportunities for local advisory council members to exchange views with each other as well as with members of the State Council. To our knowledge, it is the first time such an activity has been conducted by a State Advisory Council. Members of the Education Department staff participated in the conference and served as resource consultants during workshop sessions. The council utilized a small portion of the funds available to it to pay the expenses of two members from each of the 60 local councils to attend the meeting. Many local councils sent additional participants at their own expense.

It has been found that the State Advisory Council serves a useful function in the conduct of New York State's occupational education program, and its members individually and collecitvely have been able to influence matters of deep concern to the State.

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The narrative report presented above provides a picture of the growth and expansion of occupational education in New York State during the 10-year period, 1963 to 1973.

The kind of change and increase in providing a delivery system for preparing people for employment was based on several deliberate policies and goals.

Several decisions made early after the enactment of the Vocational Education Act of 1963 contributed significantly to New York State's progress. These include the following:

1. Development of area centers to serve secondary school students, utilizing the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services in order to share in continued operation. Except in the major cities, all expansion of occupational education was vested in the area centers. This policy permitted targeting available Federal funds in large enough amounts to make a difference as opposed to a general "sharing" in the cost of operating existing programs.

2. All postsecondary occupational education was developed in the existing and emerging public community college system, as opposed to establishing separate postsecondary technical institutes or utilizing the secondary level area centers as a competitive system to the community colleges.

3. Federal funds were used, and continue to be used, for program development without the need for a local agency to match these grants or contribute any substantial part of the initial cost of program implementation. This arrangement permitted local agencies to begin new programs without the need to absorb the high cost of startup with local tax levey funds. Continued operating expenses became the responsibility of the local agency. Using Federal funds in this manner has generated increased State and local support for occupational education and has moved the Federal to State and local expenditure ratio to an unprecedented $10 to $1 of Federal money.

The State's priorities have been changed frequently during the 10-year period. In the early years, the key priority was to equalize opportunities for students in suburban and rural areas of the State. Our priorities, therefore, were to concentrate on development of new programs and to construct needed permanent facilities for the area centers. As this system was set in place, priorities shifted to increase efforts to improve the quality of programs and to make significant change in the major cities. At the same time, increased effort was applied to programs for disadvantaged and handicapped persons. Current priorities are: (1) Massive attention to the needs of the cities-most of the funds are now directed to the cities, (2) programs for adults in order to provide training and retraining as needed, (3) establishment of career education demonstration models, and (4) improvement in the quality of occupational education.

The policies with respect to program development and use of Federal funds coupled with continuously changing priorities has produced the framework for a comprehensive system of occupational education in New York State.

Some of the major accomplishments over the 10-year period include:

1. Increase in enrollment at all levels. Overall, there has been a 45 percent increase in enrollments. Enrollments at the secondary level have increased 51 percent, adult enrollments have increased 65 percent, and postsecondary enrollments have increased 268 percent between 1963 and 1973.

2. There has been a shifting emphasis in the pattern of occupa tional education as represented by the numbers of persons in each of the major occupational fields. While enrollments in all of the occupational fields have increased, the percentage of students in each occupational field has changed signficiantly so that overwhelming proportion of students are no longer in agriculture and home economics.

3. There are now 72 area centers serving secondary level students across the State. The establishment of these centers permits access within reasonable commuting distance for every secondary school student who needs or wants occupational education.

4. Construction of needed permanent facilities for the area centers. could not have been accomplished without the use of Federal funds

for partial support. There are now 53 permanent facilities in New York State with a capacity to serve over 60,000 students a day. The total cost of construction of these facilities amounted to $160 million of which $25 million were Federal funds.

5. A new program in consumer and homemaking education was developed using part F funds. This program, conducted in the major cities, primarily is directed toward inner city disadvantaged homemakers and now serves close to 85,000 people. Almost all of the consumer and homemaking funds under part F have been used to establish and maintain these programs. Without the Federal funds, local school districts could not afford a program of this nature.

6. An investment of $1.5 million of Federal vocational education funds has permitted the establishment of 23 career education models strategically located across the State. Each of these model programs is now in either the developmental or demonstration phase. Continued support in the period ahead is needed in order to develop program elements which will meet several of the goals established by the board of regents in its position paper.

With respect to recommendations dealing with the Vocational Education Amendments of 1968, the following are offered:

1. Each year New York State has requests for $4 of Federal funds for every dollar available for distribution. There is a need for increased appropriations to the extent of the authorizations in the statute in order to better meet the needs of people and accelerate the change and expansion which is projected during the next several years.

2. The mandated set asides for disadvantaged, handicapped and postsecondary programs should be removed and the categorical provisions, such as exemplary, cooperative education, work study, should be eliminated. The mandated set asides are restrictive to a State in terms of its long-range planning and establishment of priorities. They permit little flexibility to target against emerging needs within the State. The categorical programs can all be conducted under the present provisions of the basic act, part B. Only simple changes in the language would be needed in order to include consumer and homemaking education under the basic act. Folding in of the categorical programs would again permit the State greater flexibility and allow the State to set its priorities based on clearly identified needs in its long-range plan.

NORTH CAROLINA

State Director-Charles J. Law, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

The North Carolina General Assembly, during its 1963 session, legislated, the Community College Act, which transferred the responsibility for post-high school and adult education programs to the Department of Community Colleges, the exception was that secondary schools could also offer adult agricultural and home economics education programs.

The basic organizational pattern in North Carolina's public schools consists of a kindergarten through grade 14 program. Kindergarten through grade 12 is in the organizational structure of the State Department of Public Instruction.

Twenty area vocational schools and five community colleges became the nucleus of the community college system, by the legislature in 1963. The system has grown to 56 institutions; all 56 are technical institutes with 15 offering college transfer programs and are thereby designated community colleges. There is a postsecondary institution within commuting distance (25 miles) of 90 percent of the population of the State.

Vocational enrollments for both youth and adults have increased significantly from 1963 through 1972, with projections of increased enrollments for fiscal year 1977.

Beginning in fiscal year 1970, the Division of Occupational Education initiated a data collection system reflecting both duplicated and unduplicated enrollment count. Thus, all enrollment figures for fiscal years 1972 and 1977 (projected) throughout this report are unduplicated.

The following table indicates enrollments representative of funding from Federal, State, and local resources for fiscal years 1963, 1968, 1972, and 1977 (projected). The sources of data for enrollment include: (1) Reports submitted to U.S. Office of Education; (2) "North Carolina State Plan For Occupational Education"; and (3) "North Carolina Public Schools, Biennial Report" (report which the State superintendent of public instruction submits to the Governor of North Carolina and members of the general asssembly in compliance with provisions of chapter 115 of the General Statutes of North Carolina).

The chart includes vocational education enrollment figures for both the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Community Colleges.

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