Males earned about the same number of vocational education credits as females in 1982. By 1990 a decline was evident for both males and females, but the number for females declined at a faster rate. Hispanic students completed more vocational credits than any other group in 1982; by 1994 their numbers showed the most dramatic decline, from an average of more than 5 credits to fewer than 4. Asians/Pacific Islanders consistently earned fewer vocational credits than any other group, going from a little more than 3 to fewer than 3. The dramatic increase in vocational coursetaking by students with disabilities — from fewer than 5 credits to 6, by far the highest number for any group throughout the survey period — is attributed to the passage of the 1990 Perkins Act, which emphasized serving students with special needs.
Today, vocational education is at a crossroads. There is a small but growing movement, encouraged by federal legislation like the 1998 Perkins Act, to get schools to focus on providing students with a strong foundation in marketable work skills and at the same time maintain college entry as an option. Until that happens on a much wider scale, people are looking at postsecondary education as the desirable path to better jobs.
In the next panel we look at progress along this trajectory.
Source: Chart: U.S. Department of Education, NCES, High School and Beyond Sophomore Cohort 1982 High School Transcript Study and 1990 and 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress High School Transcript Studies, in Vocational Education in the United States: Toward the Year 2000, NCES 2000-029, by Karen Levesque et al., Project Officer: Dawn Nelson. Washington, D.C.: 2000, Tables 17, 18, 19; A. J. Vogl, "Schools: Should Business Set Their Agenda?" Across the Board, June 1995, p16-23.
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