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While career and technical education (CTE) in America may provide a route to employment for some young people, many people oppose CTE on grounds that it discourages young people from going on to postsecondary education and achieving their full potential and also because of CTE's poor history and obsolete programs that became a dumping ground for less able students. In this paper, the authors argue that while these concerns are valid, instead of abandoning CTE programs, attempts should be made to improve, upgrade and modernise them. After a brief introduction, the need for CTE is outlined under the headings of: The high school dropout problem; High school graduates and the transition to work; Unprepared college students; The importance of non-college careers; What employers really want; The promise of CTE. The paper then provides the background information on CTE covering its history, current programs, public attitudes and CTE in other countries. This is followed by a discussion of what research has revealed about the effectiveness of CTE and the authors then look at the federal role in CTE, recommending that the federal government should concentrate on funding research that could inform state education departments and local school districts on questions of how best to provide CTE.

This paper examines the rationale for federal involvement in occupational education. It is presented in three sections. The first section briefly outlines the historical role of federal government in occupational preparation and extracts from this history some ongoing arguments and presents in greater detail two important changes: the Education Consensus and the Institutional Transformation. The second section outlines why certain changes implied by the Education Consensus are unlikely to be undertaken by states and why a justification for a federal role in implementing this Consensus remains. The final section explains what federal policy might do in the realm of occupational education.

Dual enrolment programs which link high schools and colleges have increased in recent years in America. They are seen as a way of offering high school students access to coursework not available at high school as well as a way to expose them to the academic demands of college. In addition, dual enrolment programs promote partnerships between the two education sectors. This paper describes dual enrolment programs, the benefits of these programs, two models of dual enrolments, concerns that exist about dual enrolments and outcomes and research findings regarding the academic and postsecondary transition outcomes of participants in dual enrolment programs. The paper concludes with a consideration of whether the federal government, through its legislative and funding tools, promotes the spread of the dual enrolment strategy.

The 1998 Amendments to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act (Perkins III) have resulted in an increase in federal and state accountability requirements and a shift in emphasis from access to performance. This paper provides recommendations for developing the next generation of state accountability systems for postsecondary vocational education. The focus is on: the improvements that need to be made in the core indicators for postsecondary vocational education; reducing the burden and improving the value of Perkins accountability requirements; and integrating future federal vocational education measures into a comprehensive institution-centred framework that combines postsecondary education with workforce development performance indicators. Recommendations for the federal role in accountability and the role of OVAE in improving state and institutional accountability systems for postsecondary education are also made.

High Schools That Work Initiative (HSTW) is an initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) to raise the achievement of career-oriented high school students. In this paper, the following three questions from HSTW research and experiences over the past 15 years are addressed: (1) What are the implications for federal policy?; (2) What are the conditions that improve the chances for success?; and (3) What practices work in raising student achievement?