Implementation Issues in K-12 Career Education. Monographs on Career Education.

Overview & Synopsis

As a result of a series of miniconferences held throughout the United States on implementing career education in grades K-12, four implementation issues were identified and summarized in this monograph. (Other issues are treated in separate publications.) The issues which the K-12 educators identified as very important were the following: (1) the issue of infusing career education into the regular curriculum versus creating separate courses; (2) whether the term "career education" should be abandoned; (3) the nature of the relationship between vocational education and career education, and (4) the use of career education resource centers in many school districts. For each of these issues, the arguments pro and con as advanced by the miniconference participants are summarized, and the personal observations of Kenneth B. Hoyt, Director, Office of Career Education, U.S. Department of Education, are included. As a result of the discussion at the conferences, Hoyt concludes that K-12 career education practitioners are fully capable of defining and discussing crucial conceptual issues, and they should be listened to more by those who make career education policy decisions; and that if an issue can be identified, there are already several K-12 career education practitioners in the country who have developed unique approaches to solving the problem. (KC)