Effectiveness Evaluation Data for Major City Secondary Education Systems in the United States; Volume IV: Survey of Class of '70 Graduates Vocational Programs.

Overview & Synopsis

Vocational education administrators must think of themselves as managers of manpower development systems and apply tools of management to achieve their objectives. To do this a theoretical model, called the Manpower Conversion Equation, was developed from which six basic vocational education objectives could be generated deductively. The model states essentially that supply should equal demand for skilled manpower. From a sample of 22 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or over, 1970 graduates of 449 secondary schools were surveyed by a questionnaire scored by an optical scanner. Analyses were made by sex and race, by type of program, and by type of occupation. Fifteen basic findings, reported by table and text, lead to the identification and discussion of ten basic problems areas: absence of manpower conversion concept, absence of measurable vocational education objectives, inadequate vocational education supporting systems, undefined responsibility and accountability, inappropriate administrative organization for effective vocational education, inadequate relations with employer community, inadequate relations with community of parents, absence of vocational education operational research, inadequate involvement of vocational teacher personnel, inadequate application of management concepts principles and techniques. (MS)