Participation in Vocational Education Was Virtually Unchanged

We found no significant changes in the rate at which special population students participated in vocational education. 1.) 2). Many of the attributes associated with quality programs still affect only a small percentage of vocational education students. However, many more students will need to be exposed to these approaches before they become a standard part of vocational education. Similarly, despite sizable increases in the number of schools and students participating in tech-prep programs, only 16 percent of vocational students in 1993-94 were participating in tech-prep. Districts Report Using More Quality Indicators for Self-Assessment

School districts reported an increase in the use of various measures in their self-assessment process. Specifically, we measured the extent to which changes have occurred for students, in participation in vocational education, including participation in innovative programs; availability of special services; and college attendance and employment following graduation; for vocational education programs, in schools’ and districts’ use of formal coordination of high school and college courses; integration of academic and vocational learning; and development of competency standards for students. Vocational students and all students. The proportion of students who were not part of special population groups remained constant at about 65 percent, while some of the special population groups grew. Access to School-To-Work Activities

As shown in figure 4 (see p.11), the percentage of schools reporting that they have tech-prep programs increased dramatically (from 27 to 45 percent) between 1990-91 and 1993-94, while the percentage of schools reporting the use of work-study and apprenticeship programs remained about the same (at roughly 75 and 7 percent, respectively). Table II.10: Views of the Districts We Surveyed on the Perkins Amendments’ Effect on Their Ability to Produce Quality Programs “Greatly Increased” or “Increased” “Neither Increased nor Decreased” “Decreased” or “Greatly Decreased” “Don’t Know”
Your district’s ability to purchase state-of-the-art equipment Your district’s ability to spend Perkins funds where needed most Your district’s ability to plan vocational programs and use Perkins funds Equity with which Perkins funding is allocated among districts Amount of record keeping required by state to meet Perkins requirements Extent of services your district offered to vocational-technical students in special populations Extent of services your district offered to vocational-technical students in general Access special population students have to vocational-technical programs Tutoring and remediation for vocational-technical students in general Your district’s program improvement efforts Technical education standards that students must achieve Academic education standards that students must achieve Use of applied curricula in vocational-technical courses Use of integration of academic and vocational-technical courses (continued) “Greatly Increased” or “Increased” “Neither Increased nor Decreased” “Decreased” or “Greatly Decreased” “Don’t Know”

Aggregated Responses to Survey of Public Secondary Schools

Aggregated Responses to Survey of School Districts

Comments From the Department of Education

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

	GAO Contacts

	Staff Acknowledgments

Elsie Picyk, Senior Computer Science Analyst, was responsible for computer programming and data analysis.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO compared student participation and program features in high school vocational education programs between the 1991 and 1994 school years, focusing on the: (1) availability of support services; (2) the extent to which program students attended college or found employment following graduation; and (3) extent to which schools have enhanced the quality of vocational education programs.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) between 40 and 50 percent of students in special population groups participated in vocational education programs in 1990 through 1994, despite the removal of the set-aside requirement; (2) schools continued to offer all students access to support services at the same or greater levels in 1994 than in 1991; (3) there was no significant changes in the proportion of program students who attended college, went directly to work, or were unemployed; (4) the percentage of schools offering tech-prep programs increased from 27 percent in 1991 to 45 percent in 1994 and the percentage of students participating in the programs rose from 9 to 16 percent, respectively; (5) traditional school-to-work transition programs showed no major change in participation; (6) teacher training in integrating vocational and academic instruction also increased, but most of the schools surveyed did not use integrated learning concepts in the classroom; (7) some school districts reported increased use of quality indicators in their self-assessment processes, however, the number of vocational education programs that require graduates to meet competency standards has remained stable; and (8) many of the program features associated with high-quality vocational education still affect a relatively small percentage of students and many more students will need to be exposed to these features before they become a standard part of vocational education.