School followup of students after graduation is a crucial means of determining the percentage of students who secured training-related jobs and their occupational progress over the years. Most schools follow up their graduates for one year; but only about 20 percent of the schools gather information on their graduates' employment progress after the first year. It would seem, therefore, that private vocational schools-as well as most other educational and training institutions-could improve their followup procedures and, in turn, provide accrediting teams with additional important evidence for evaluating the schools.

In the absence of dependable data on the employment experiences of private vocational school graduates, only indirect and qualified impressions are possible. In the first place, the utilization of the schools under numerous government-financed training programs represents a measure of the confidence placed in the courses, teachers, and managements. Second, close contacts between the schools and employers are likely to ensure the presentation of "relevant" training. Third, graduates recommend the schools to others, and in fact they are a principal source of new students; thus they must have been pleased with the training and employment received.9

In addition to the practical advantages of accreditation, such as detached evaluation and suggestions for improving a school's functioning, accreditation draws attention to competent schools and strengthens their competitive position with counselors and prospective students. Also, poor schools may be forced to improve their teaching standards, purchase necessary equipment, and generally raise their capital base.

The importance of voluntary accreditation is especially apparent when it is noted that less than half of all states license the operations of private vocational schools and that a considerably smaller percentage of the states carefully evaluate instructional courses. 10 Principal interests of the regulating states include: financial structure (e.g., requirement to post bond), teacher qualifications, course outlines, adequacy of equipment, student contracts, and advertising claims.

9Belitsky, op. cit., p. 125.

Eighty-five percent of about 1,100 surveyed students gave their schools at least an “average” rating.

10"Licensing is nothing more than a permit to do business, having regard generally to safety and commercial standards. Certification, on the other hand, is generally related to curriculum, instructional staff, facilities, etc...." See R. Fulton, "Proprietary Schools," Encyclopedia of Educational Research, 4th ed.

In general, the inspection of private schools by most state supervisors is less thorough than that of a NATTS accrediting team. Each state supervisor in even the larger states frequently must oversee a sizable number of schools. New York and possibly a few other states utilize subject specialists in their evaluative inspections when a school introduces a new course. According to New York law, each course must be reevaluated every five years; this is similar to a NATTS provision.

Most of the 20 states that regulate private schools require instructors to have work experience, ranging from two years in Colorado to eight years in Massachusetts, in the vocation that they are teaching. Usually work experience is an alternative to formal education, and no state requires more than a high school education. However, a survey of instructors in the member schools of NATTS disclosed that about 60 percent of the instructors actually had some college education and more than one-third of the total had at least four years of college education.11 The larger independent schools, plus those operated as subsidiaries of corporations, often pay the tuition of their instructors enrolled part time in college courses that are related to their teaching fields.

Instructors' Roles

It is noteworthy that numerous policies regarding instructors in private vocational schools are still exceptional cases or experiments in other schools. For instance, most private schools consider a sizable number of student failures in one instructor's course, or in several of his courses over time, an indication of the instructor's failure.

Instructors in private vocational schools are urged to consider their students as "clients," not "charges." An important financial accountability, therefore, resides with the school and its instructors. The supervisor of a school for electronics technicians once observed that each prospective instructor must be critically evaluated, since the referrals of former students account for at least 50 percent of a school's student body. The schools are convinced that creditable teaching performances can be ensured by making teaching capability the main criterion for reward and advancement; and instructors are not usually given tenure.

11Seven hundred and twenty-six full-time and part-time instructors were included in the 65 schools responding. See E.L. Johnson, A Descriptive Survey of Teachers of Private Trade and Technical Schools Associated with the National Association of Trade and Technical Schools, doctoral dissertation submitted to The George Washington University; reproduced in part by Griswold Institute Print Shop, Cleveland, 1967, pp. 57, 70.

A distinctive instructor-student relationship in vocational schools naturally influences the form and manner of instruction in such schools. For example, the instructors at many schools engage in "group teaching on an individual basis." This consists of students proceeding at the same pace in the theoretical part of their course and at different rates of progress in the practical or shop training. Students who are deficient in the theory portion of a course are encouraged to seek aid in frequently conducted review classes.

Shop training, on the other hand, is apparently more readily learned and applied although there are differences in performance levels here, too. It is therefore an instructor's responsibility to circulate freely among individuals or small groups of students.

Small classes and individualized instruction make many of the schools an ideal setting for training both students who failed in secondary schools and persons with a variety of handicaps who are referred by a Vocational Rehabilitation Center. Students with varied capacities surely require instructors who are not limited to a fixed lesson plan. In addition, instructors must be able to accommodate students who are at different stages of progress because students can enroll in many of the courses at frequent intervals (i.e., there is no single starting date).

In view of instructor responsbilities, the typical student-teacher ratio for classroom instruction or lectures is small-at least when compared with the ratios found in the introductory subjects of many colleges and universities. About 60 percent of the NATTS members had a ratio of 24 or fewer students per instructor. Of course, the average ratio is still lower in the shop, laboratory, and machine practice. The majority of the schools assigned 19 or fewer students to an instructor at any given time. 12

The student-teacher ratio is also significant since teachers often counsel students. Although not licensed to provide guidance, the instructors have to assume the role of guidance counselors to assist students who have been inadequately counseled or not counseled at all while in high school. This is a direct result of the limited number of high school guidance personnel and their equally limited views on postsecondary vocational education. Consequently, many persons who drop out of school, and even many who graduate from high school, have insufficient knowledge of occupational training opportunities and the labor market. A substantial proportion of students are not thoroughly familiar with the courses provided by private vocational schools, or else they learn about the schools through friends

12 Belitsky, op. cit., pp. 82-83.

attending them, members of their families, newspaper advertisements, or sales representatives of the schools. As a major consequence of these informal lines, many young persons who enroll in the schools are likely to do so with incomplete information on the nature of training, requirements of the occupation they are training for, and the opportunities for advancement.

The counseling continues throughout a course for many students and may involve a fatherly form of encouragement that is not available at home. This includes the provision of extra assistance after class hours to a small group or even to an individual in such subjects as elementary arithmetic and reading.

Since students are the major "consumers" at private vocational schools, it has been in the interest of school administrators and instructors to adjust to student differences in age, educational attainment, ability, and health.

Although the average age of the enrolled students is comparatively young, there have been numerous instances of success in training older persons, both the healthy and those ailing physically or emotionally. The study of NATTS schools disclosed a median age of 20 years for students enrolled in the day sessions; only about 10 percent of the students were 26 or older. The average age of evening students was considerably higher, with nearly two-fifths being 26 or older. Most evening students had been employed full time, and a high percentage of them still found it necessary to work full time during the day while training for a specialty within their occupation, or for a completely different vocation. For both day and evening sessions, the general age range at the NATTS schools during 1965 to 1967 was 17 to 48 years; but some schools even had students who were in their sixties.

Although enrollees in the trade and technical schools are predominantly men, several schools do provide considerable training opportunities for women in such courses as medical and dental assisting, commercial art, and

13It is not known to what extent Negroes and disadvantaged members of other minorities have been enrolled in private vocational schools. Probably most of the Negroes enjoying such opportunities receive financial aid under programs of the Veterans Administration, Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, the Manpower Development and Training Act, and other government agencies. However, in some nonprofit schools, notably the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), Negroes have been the principal beneficiaries. The OIC was organized in Philadelphia, but several of the training centers have been established recently in other cities.

hotel-motel management. The women naturally account for the large majority of students enrolled in business and cosmetology schools.

Flexibility of the schools in accommodating students of varied backgrounds and needs is particularly evident with regard to educational preparation. Student bodies include:

1. High school dropouts with no occupational training.

2. High school graduates of a general education program who
lack any specific preparation for employment.

3. High school graduates who fail to pass the private schools'
aptitude tests in algebra or even arithmetic.

4. Persons preparing for a licensable occupation.

5. College dropouts, or even college students and graduates,
desiring an otherwise unavailable course, such as computer
programming.

6.

Persons for whom the formal education requirement is eased
because they have had several years of employment
experience but are currently unemployed or finding it
difficult, for physical reasons, to remain in their present
occupations.

Besides taking account of their students' educational preparation, school administrators adjust the scheduling of courses to the requirements of students. For some courses, new students are enrolled as often as once each week. The majority of schools have four new classes annually, but they may accept students on a monthly basis. Students can also attend either day or evening sessions, and they can choose to attend on a full- or part-time basis. Courses given by members of NATTS ranged from one-half week to 130 weeks. The median for these courses was 40 weeks. Most courses require twice as long when taken on a part-time basis. The option of enrolling in a course on either a full-time or part-time basis and the great variations in course length afford considerable flexibility to students. Finally, practically all trade and technical schools operate at least 48 weeks annually, permitting the ambitious student to complete the already compact course most expeditiously.

After a typical student is enrolled in a private school, his major challenge is having adequate funds to finance all expenses during the period of education. Although empirical data are unavailable, it is likely that students are predominantly from middle-income families where the father is not