Analysis and Synthesis of Existing Career Education Legislation.

Overview & Synopsis

The report attempts to analyze the political feasibility of career education currently through analysis of existing legislation and consultation with experts and key policy officials. The most significant Federal legislation for career education has been Title X of the Education Amendments of 1972 providing State grants for the development of occupational education programs and Title IV of the Education Amendments of 1974, Special Project Act. Any further salable career education legislation should: be endorsed by the National advisory Council on Career Education, be acceptable to major interest groups, utilize the results generated by the National Institute of Education's career education research, offer assurances of State/local education agency resource support, and include planning and evaluation requirements. The authors recommend that: (1) legislation be put forward in stages; (2) potential programs be aimed at a "gearing-up" approach to train career education specialists and infuse career education objectives into the educational mainstream; and (3) additional efforts be directed toward constructing a more concrete definition, more precise program objectives, and evaluation criteria. A list of existing career education related programs and a bibliography are appended. (EA)