Based on data drawn from seven surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics and two conducted by other organizations. Covers the period from 1991 to 1992 and reviews trends from 1982 to 1992.

Using 60 tables and 60 figures, this report depicts vocational education in the United States as it has evolved over two decades, 1969 to 1990. The report examines patterns of program participation, selected student outcomes, and the characteristics of teachers in both secondary and postsecondary vocational education. It also provides some information on the academic curriculum. Most of the information is presented for single points in time, but some time series data are also reported. Data for the report were taken from many of the large national data systems supported by the National Center for Education Statistics. A few highlights of the report are the following: (1) in the high school senior class of 1987, 98 percent of all public high school graduates completed at least one course in vocational education during the high school years, with 90 percent of those students taking courses preparing them for specific occupations; (2) students with disabilities were more likely than students without disabilities to be heavy concentrators in vocational education; (3) about 62 percent of students in 1982 attended at least one postsecondary institution in 1984; (3) the number of high school seniors taking vocational courses in 1980 was 11 percent higher than the number taking such courses in 1972; (4) vocational and nonvocational teachers tended to have similar characteristics; and (5) about 6 percent of the United States' population of 18- to 34-year-olds was enrolled in postsecondary vocational courses in 1990. The report contains a glossary and appendixes with 60 tables of standard errors for the tables and data sources and technical notes. (KC)

Based on data drawn from seven surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics and two conducted by other organizations. Covers the period from 1991 to 1992 and reviews trends from 1982 to 1992.

Vocational course taking declined between 1982 and 1992, with especially large enrollment decreases occurring in general labor market preparation and consumer/homemaking education. Only a small proportion of 1992 high school graduates specialized in vocational education (VE). Among occupationally specific VE programs, business, and trade and industry had the highest enrollments. Special populations tended to participate more heavily in VE than did other high school graduates in 1992. A recent study established that vocational course taking and National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores have an unexplained inverse relationship. In 1991, public school vocational teachers served fewer students than did nonvocational teachers. In 1990, postsecondary vocational students accounted for approximately one-third of all undergraduates and one-half of all nonbaccalaureate students. At the postsecondary level, business was the most common major for vocational students, and community colleges had the largest vocational student enrollment. Vocational completers were more likely to be employers than were other individuals who do not participate in postsecondary education, and employment in fields related to postsecondary vocational completers' concentration was associated with higher earnings. Nonbaccalaureate students of low socioeconomic status (SES) were more likely to be vocational majors than were students with high SES. (Contains 13 figures/tables.) (MN)

Selected by the American School Board Journal as a “Must Read” book when it was first published and named one of 60 “Books of the Century” by the University of South Carolina Museum of Education for its influence on American education, this provocative, carefully documented work shows how tracking—the system of grouping students for instruction on the basis of ability—reflects the class and racial inequalities of American society and helps to perpetuate them. For this new edition, Jeannie Oakes has added a new Preface and a new final chapter in which she discusses the “tracking wars” of the last twenty years, wars in which Keeping Track has played a central role. From reviews of the first edition:“Should be read by anyone who wishes to improve schools.”—M. Donald Thomas, American School Board Journal“[This] engaging [book] . . . has had an influence on educational thought and policy that few works of social science ever achieve.”—Tom Loveless in The Tracking Wars“Should be read by teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents.”—Georgia Lewis, Childhood Education“Valuable. . . . No one interested in the topic can afford not to attend to it.”—Kenneth A. Strike, Teachers College Record