I

SUMMATION AND INTERPRETATION

The following pages seem to indicate that change in vocational and technical education is rampant over the land. Certainly there has been no five-year period in which there has been so much change in this field as there has been from 1963 to 1967. The evidence in this publication, especially that concerning research and development, implies changes during the next five years far greater than those reported for 1963-67.

Yet much remains unchanged or little changed. This is a publication about new designs. Programs whose worth has been proved are continuing and growing. Not all ineffectual or misguided programs have been eliminated.

1

Our commitment to occupational education for all. Perhaps the most significant recent development has been wide public acceptance of the concept that everyone is entitled to appropriate occupational education, that is, education designed to contribute to occupational choice, competence, and advancement, provided at the times in his life when it is needed. We are gradually spelling out and implementing the implications of this commitment, but we have far to go. Some of the unanswered questions are these:

1. Could occupational education be designed that is
appropriate for all students in the elementary
schools, the junior high schools, and the senior
high schools?

2.

How are occupational education programs in the local
schools, the area schools, the colleges, and the
adult schools to be articulated?

3. What new provisions should be made for occupational
education for the underprivileged and dissident in
our society?

4. What additional financing of occupational education
is needed? How should the funds be raised? How can
the funds now available for it be better spent? What
financial assistance is needed by students?

5.

For what portion of occupational education should the
public school system be responsible? How much should
be done by other public agencies and by private agencies?
May we expect increasing shifting of responsibility
from private to public agencies?

6. Can crash programs for out-of-school youth and adults
with no occupational education or limited occupational
education be reduced as the public school system func-
tions more adequately?

7.

Can we come to regard occupational education as one
of many types of education contributing to well-
rounded human development and integrate it with the
other types of education which also contribute?

8. What kinds of vocational and technical education are we going to develop for the rapidly increasing numbers of women employed outside their homes?

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

What changes in programs are implied by high and increas-
ing rates of migration? By what steps shall we get
away from vocational education oriented only toward
a community?

Can we use vocational education more extensively to
reduce welfare rolls?

How can we prepare children and youth to deal more
wisely with the increased complexity of occupational
choice with some 30,000 occupations available to
them and opportunity to migrate to any area where
a particular occupation is practiced?

Should the public schools become responsible for
seeing that junior and senior high school students
get the occupational experience they need if their
development is to be balanced and sane?

Can we devise programs that will induce more youth
to remain long enough in school to qualify for the
better occupational opportunities?

14. Can we lift to occupational competency the millions
of adults who have left school without occupational
preparation?

15.

16.

Can we recruit and train enough competent professional personnel to provide the vocational and technical education needed?

Can we become sufficiently proficient in research
and development to provide the concepts, principles,
and practices to guide change and innovation?

Basic to all these questions and to many more is the question as to whether we can evolve the public policies and improve the methods of public policy-making to secure the kind of occupational education we might have.

Factors outside the states which influence national trends. This is a report from the states. Outside influences upon the states have been noted incidentally. It seems desirable to elaborate upon some of them.

Federal legislation is likely to play an important and perhaps a critical part in the future development of vocational and technical education in the states. The report of the first five-year evaluation of programs aided by federal funds will go to the Congress in January, 1968. The mood of Congress will determine what will be done.

Recently it has been interested in vocational education to relieve slum conditions, reduce juvenile delinquency, and cut unemployment.

National organizations of business men, industrialists, laborers, and farmers will have much to do with the future development of occupational education. The Education Commission of the States has become interested in vocational education. The Council of State Governments

and the Council on Intergovernmental Relations influence state legislation. The American Vocational Association, the American Association of Junior Colleges, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Schools Boards Association, and the National Council for Support of the Public Schools will affect decisions. Interstate cooperation in providing vocational and technical education is developing through regional associations such as the Southern Regional Education Board. The accrediting associations can be expected to increase their influence over vocational education.

The educational program of the Armed Forces, described recently by Secretary McNamara as the largest educational enterprise in the world, cannot be ignored in planning the future of vocational-technical education since much of it is in vocational and technical education.

Private business and industry are likely to expect more and better vocational-technical education in the public schools. As they transfer a part of their responsibility for training to the schools they are also developing a strong interest in providing equipment and aids for school programs.

Much will depend upon state and local reactions to federal gestures in the financing of vocational and technical education. This report shows the states and the school districts stimulated to increase their own spending by the increase in federal funds. What would happen if the federal government, hard-pressed for funds for other uses, would cut its expenditure for vocational education?

SUMMATION. The report indicates increased vitality in public vocational and technical education in the states and their subdivisions. There is a healthy partnership of the local, state, and federal governments in providing it which has seldom been achieved in other governmental affairs. There is a new public awareness of the importance of this type of education. Funds are being made available for it as funds are being withheld from some other types of education.

The provision of adequate occupational education for all of our population is enormously complex. All of the agencies now providing it are likely to continue to function. Taken together, they are still inadequate. Conflicts among them will have to be resolved. Gaps will have to be filled. It is predictable, however, that the public schools will have a larger part than they have had and that the resourcefulness and initiative reflected in this report will continue to operate in effecting changes that are needed.

Perhaps the wisest comment that can be made regarding the future

93-989 0-68--pt. 5———5

of the entire educational system is that of Dr. Kenneth Boulding who says that it should "plan for surprise".1

II

NEW DESIGNS REPORTED

1

Policy, Policy-Making, and Planning

The Vocational Education Act of 1963 sparked policy and program revision in the states and the school districts throughout the nation. The Act encouraged the provision of modern vocational and technical education for four groups and provided funds to aid in providing it. These groups are:

The Act also provided substantially larger funds for the construction of area vocational school facilities and some increase in funds for

other special purposes. Ten per cent of the new federal funds were to be used for research, development, and training in vocational and technical education.

South Carolina reports that "the 1963 Vocational Education Act has done much more than provide funds to expand vocational education in South Carolina. With it have come new concepts, new opportunities, new challenges, and new inspirations. It has brought the entire vocational program into focus with job opportunities and the need for providing our people with marketable skills, not only to improve the welfare of the individual but to promote the economic development of our states throughout the nation."

Florida capsules recent developments in these terms: "Progress in vocational, technical, and adult education in Florida since the passage of the Vocational Education Act of 1963 has been increasingly based upon program innovation, sound management and administrative practice, concern for the education of all students, and understanding of the need for objective bases in decision-making."

Policy-makers, administrators, and vocational educators seeking the implications of the new federal legislation were made very conscious of the limited or negligible services provided for certain groups specified in the Act. Antiquated policies were frequently reviewed and revised. New organizations were set up. New programs to serve new groups were financed, staffed, and provided with facilities.