Legislative Principles for Career-Related Education and Training:
What Does Research Support?

A Forum — April 10, 1995

Legislative Principles for Career-Related Education and Training: What Research Supports, a new report from the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE), examines various vocational education reforms in an attempt to inform policy makers on what has worked in the past and what is required for future legislation to be effective.

David Stern, Director of NCRVE, argued that "the federal government does have a role to play in education and training in this country."  Americans have typically supported successful education policies, and Stern believes that current programs indicate the positive role vocational education can play in improving the American economy.

The nature of education and training, however, is rapidly changing.  The vast improvement of technology, such as personal computers, the internet, and other forms of telecommunication, has led to the creation of a learning-based economy.  This, in turn, requires that the education system change in order to help children meet the demands required of them.  To help policy makers adapt to these changes, the panel discussed a number of guidelines that will help to improve the vital connection between school and work in the United States.

Stern explained that "work and learning by themselves are becoming increasingly inseparable."  The UK, Germany, France and Japan are highlighting the "increasing movement toward the integration, in some form, of academic and vocational education."

Programs integrating academics and work-based learning have also been developed domestically in recent years.  Career academies, clusters and magnet schools all attempt to help students improve their economic outcomes while providing the academic training that vocational programs in the past have so often lacked.

Creating a system that clearly integrates vocational training and academic preparation will (a) help students make stronger connections with the world of work; (b) provide students in occupational training with an academic base to help them perform better inside and outside the classroom; and (c) maintain options for continued learning after high school in a community college or four-year institution.

Norton Grubb, NCRVE's Berkeley Site Director, discussed the importance of postsecondary community colleges and technical institutions in helping to develop such a learning-based system, and outlined a number of obstacles to reform.  Though there have been many successes, implementation has been slow overall and benefits have been uneven across fields.

Encouraging students to continue their education after high school will help them to build on what they have already learned and better prepare them to succeed in today's changing economy.  This will allow high schools to more fully develop basic skills training programs, leaving postsecondary institutions the responsibility to build upon these basic skills and better prepare youth for work.  This system of continuing vocational education will yield greater long-term gains than a system limited only to high school training.

Grubb concluded by highlighting the importance of how staff and teachers are trained.  Staff development must be a continual process, not a small series of one-day seminars and workshops.  To affect true change, there must be a constant emphasis on improving efficiency in the allocation of resources, and allowing schools to adapt to changing times through altering curricula, experimenting with new teaching methods, or restructuring the classroom.  The entire culture of education must be reformed to help today's youth.  This requires constant involvement from all players in the education system.

Allen Phelps, NCRVE's Wisconsin Site Director, explained that expanding employer involvement is crucial to the long-term success of vocational education.  Developing career-oriented programs allows students to recognize the direct correlation between education and work.  Such links are contingent upon providing students with accurate information on what will be required of them at work.  This requires the active involvement of the business sector in not only providing information on the needs of employers, but also in offering students the opportunity to experiment with hands-on work experience.

Inclusion of employers in this critical development cycle will help create career-education systems that are activity-based, and not developed from a "dictionary" definition of what is required at work.  It will also place a programmatic focus on education, since direct connections can then be made between what a youth is experiencing at work and what he or she is studying in the classroom.  Eighty percent of high school students currently work in non-academically linked jobs.  Allowing work to be tied directly to the classroom would help to make such an experience more relevant.

Phyllis Hudecki, NCRVE Associate Director, addressed the issues of performance standards and measurement, and the importance of improving data collection and reporting systems to help develop stronger programs.  States are currently given more flexibility to spend federal dollars, yet require information from others in order to spend this money most efficiently.  Collaboration between all players in the vocational education system will allow developing programs access to and assistance from existing models.

Hudecki also argued that funds should be targeted to low income areas, not specific population groups.  She stated that directing resources towards these areas will, as a result, positively impact those groups most in need of assistance.  Direct targeting, however, would prevent youth in non-targeted groups from receiving support, regardless of need.

Discussion Period

The question and answer period focused on whether the federal government will deter or support reform in this area.  The issue of block grants was raised and concerns addressed whether consolidation would result in a shifting of resources from vocational education to job training programs, especially if overall funding levels are reduced.

Grubb responded that this is likely to occur.  Consolidation would put more money into "second chance" systems aimed at helping those who have already left the academic environment, instead of improving "first chance" systems, such as vocational education programs, targeted at existing students and those at risk of failure.  A de-emphasis on prevention would increase the number of youth requiring "second chance" programs, which are often more costly and difficult to operate than "first chance" systems.  This highlights the critical importance of building strong, supportive, "first chance" systems.

The Forum concluded with a discussion of what must be done to ensure that integration is developed and supported by policy makers as well as the public.  Stern warned that while this country has a history of dichotomizing school and work, today's economy requires that students are prepared both academically and vocationally.  Legislative mechanisms will be slow to develop due to the difficulty in defining this relationship.  The School-to-Work Opportunities Act provides the policy community with a strong base from which to build, but the hardest part will be convincing Congress that such reform is meritable.

Federal efforts, such as the Perkins Act, School-to-Work Opportunities Act, Goals 2000 and others must be connected with each other as well as future legislation to ensure that a coherent, comprehensive system is developed.  Typically, the federal government "lurches" from reform to reform.  Continuing this practice will impede the development and success of a national vocational-education system.

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