C. Surveillance of programs, services and activities of sub-baccalaureate programs at the Universities, the Community Colleges and the secondary schools to make certain that a power struggle for students, equipment, facilities and finances does not evolve. D. Request the State Legislature to provide additional funding for vocational education based on documentation of need in an amount to at least match Federal allocations. E. Encourage the continuing development of a rational system for planning, programming and budgeting by the Division of Vocational Education to meet State educational needs. F. Encourage a plan of reimbursement that is equitable to local educational agencies and that assures them of their financial support. G. Reimburse educational agencies for approved programs on a quarterly basis rather than at the end of the fiscal year. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE STATE ADVISORY COUNCIL TO THE 1. The State Board for Vocational Education should request that State and Local Plans for Vocational Education be developed in a clear concise manner which reflects planning for the yearly activities, the unexpected outcomes, and the follow-up or evaluation of same. The plans should be a management tool which is used throughout the year to give direction and enable administrators to provide more effective supervision and management over program operation and expenditure of funds. 2. The State Board for Vocational Education should recommend that each local district board appoint a general advisory committee to work in harmony with the State Advisory Council to effect a statewide advisory structure. 3. The system of data collection should be reviewed with the State Employment Security Department and procedures set up to obtain manpower statistics by county at the State level for use by both the State Department and local school districts in the development of their respective yearly plans. 4. The State Board for Vocational Education should reaffirm the legal requirement that the Advisory Council be consulted regarding any application, plan or proposal seeking Federal and/or State funds for vocational programs; regarding significant changes in statewide programming priorities; and regarding assignment of research projects to the Research Coordinating Unit, all of which have a direct effect on Nevada's vocational education. 5. The State Board for Vocational Education should require more stress on the development of vocational-technical programs along the lines of actual and projected employment figures so that the emphasis in training reflects availability of jobs. 6. The State Department should encourage counselors to continuously update information on jobs-local availability, starting salaries, average income, turnover, promotion opportunities, etc.-for use in realistically advising students. 7. The State Department should coordinate efforts to expand vocational knowledge and attitudes, orientation, testing, guidance, etc., throughout the entire educational sequence (K-14); it should also seek better means of integrating these aspects into the total curriculum. 8. The State Department should assist in the expansion of cooperative education programs featuring work experience. 9. The State Department should assist in the expansion of the cluster approach to vocational education. 10. The State Department should encourage operating educational agencies to provide for intensive work with minority communities to determine their particular vocational education needs and recruit members into programs designed to meet these needs. 11. The State Department should develop workable methods whereby closer coordination and integration of Adult Basic Education and vocational programs can occur. 12. The State Plan should be developed in cooperation with local district vocational administrators to insure articulation in the development of the State Plan and local awareness of the purposes, objectives and guidelines for local plan development. 13. The State Department should assign State staff members to facilitate local plan development in small enrollment counties. It is difficult for said counties with small administrative staffs to comply with complicated planning procedures expected of the large urban areas. 14. The State Director of Vocational Education should coordinate the overall planning of institutional programming in counties which have educational agencies at both the secondary and postsecondary levels to insure that programs and services are not duplicated. 15. More dialogue between union organizations and school administrators concerning the implementation and operation of part-time courses and/or programs must take place to meet their needs and gain their support. 16. The State Department should develop and make available for the use of local school districts a standardized form of a certificate of completion to be awarded a student completing a prescribed vocational course of study. 17. The State Department should develop and encourage the use of a plan of action whereby local vocational education administrators can make themselves and their programs better known to business, industrial and labor leaders. NEW HAMPSHIRE Chairman-Paul H. Goldsmith Ex. Director-Andrew J. Moynihan The ultimate goal of our educational system should be to provide our young people with the opportunity to realize their fullest potential and ability. School systems which mark other goals as more important have lost sight of their primary mission. They do a disservice, to themselves, their community, their State, and to the children to whom they have a solemn responsibility. We suspect it may be the prime reason for the failure of our educational system to perform its basic function properly. What other reasons prevail? We feel, as the National Advisory Council has pointed out, that they are Attitude, Program, Money, and, we add a fourth Coordination. ATTITUDE The very core of the problem lies with a national attitude that says vocational education is for somebody else's children, not mine. We are all guilty. It is shared by teachers, students, businessmen, labor leaders, administrators, and parents. We suffer from a national preoccupation that everyone must go to college. We have ingrained ourselves with the thought, no, the condition, that the only good education is one with four or more years of college. This is hogwash. No wonder we have failed so many youngsters. We think the New Hampshire State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education is a good plan. We recommend it and that it be carried out. But of far greater importance is this crucial point: Even if the State of New Hampshire has the best vocational education plan, with the best schools, with the best equipment, with the best teachers, it still would only be partially successful. Why? Because it is caught in an inextricable web spun by our national attitude toward those second-class citizens students marked for vocational-technical education. Our students are guided by counselors toward "a college degree" or they, themselves, make inappropriate choices, in attempting to stay first-class citizens, because they yearn for educational "prestige" forced upon them by social pressures. We must first break out of this web if we wish to have truly effective vocational-technical education in our State. Recommendations 1. That the State Department of Education-Division of Vocational Education place on their staff a qualified director of public information. The specific duties of this office would be mainly directed toward preparing a statewide campaign to change the attitude of second-class citizenry held towards Vocational-Technical Education. This office would also prepare films, programs, speeches, and articles for T.V., radio, and the press, for statewide promulgation to bring Vocational Education into perspective and give it the proper respect it deserves. 2. That respect for work and of working with your hands, pride and dignity in doing a good job, and the honorable position once held by craftsmen must be reinstilled in our State. 3. That school superintendents, vocational directors, and supervisors, seek more consistently the assistance which can be provided by their State and Local Advisory Committees. 4. That sufficient funds be made available as soon as possible by the State to develop the programs necessary to make the changes of attitude referred to above. 5. That all school principals, guidance counselors, and superintendents be informed of this report and that a copy of this report be placed in the hands of each and every one no later than November 30, 1970. PROGRAM School dropouts must be tracked and motivated before they reach 16 or the 8th grade. Statistics clearly show that a child who repeats more than one grade in elementary school has a 90% chance of becoming a dropout when he reaches age 16 or completes the eighth grade. Direct job-related instruction starting in the upper elementary grades should be available for these students. Early-Discovery programs in the lower grades should be activated and coordinated with the proper agency in the state to make them effective. Interest Inventories should be given to all school children in the seventh grade. Consideration should be given to the comprehensive or regional type of high school. Students should have multiple choices within high schools. They should be allowed to move into and out of vocationaltechnical programs and to select mixtures of vocational-technical and academic courses. Each student who so desires should be taught some salable skill. Relevant part-time work experience should be included in all Vocational-Technical programs. The basic, sound, simple fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic must be taught first, without exception, in our elementary schools before any experimental, unproven, largely ineffective, and usually inappropriate method of teaching such as "new math," "looksay" spelling and reading are embarked upon. Orientation to the world of work should be introduced in the early grades. Pre-vocational training, exposing students to the full range of occupational choices should be instituted in the junior high schools. This should include a continuing series of plant visitations by students, and school visitations by industrial representatives. Recommendations 1. That the State Board take a fresh, hard look at the present educational programs and implement as many of the aforementioned suggestions as possible into our schools. 2. That the twenty secondary area vocational centers located strategically throughout the State be funded to provide ready access to any student wishing to participate in a vocational program. 3. That local Advisory Committees assume more leadership in encouraging studies and surveys related to employment needs, job preparation programs, placement and followup of graduates and that reports of such studies and surveys be distributed to the schools and to the appropriate community agencies and individuals. 68-338-71- -10 4. That the State give consideration to the exploration of means of funding, initiating, and implementing new courses in the New Hampshire Vocational Technical Colleges at the time the need is recognized and apparent. 5. That the Vocational Technical Colleges investigate the feasibility of establishing a co-op program similar to that of Northeastern University and a decision be made to implement or not within a period of one year. 6. That in-service training programs for all school guidance counselors be made available in the State's twenty vocational centers. Here counselors could develop, a broader, fuller appreciation of the problems faced by the State, as regards Vocational Technical Education. It would also allow play-back of information from them to the proper agencies to improve both the effectiveness of Vocational-Technical Education and education in general. 7. That a variety of sequential courses be made available by the university system to upgrade and expand vocational teacher education and training. MONEY Final costs to the Nation of educating youth for employment costs far less than educating them for a college they will never reach. But to prepare a student for a job costs more than to prepare him for college. Classes usually must be smaller, equipment and facilities are more expensive. A good job placement service is more costly than a good college enrollment service. Perhaps this added cost for vocational education is another major reason (or excuse) why most school districts turn away from it. The allocations of more and more millions of Federal dollars to alleviate the pool of unemployed, untrained and out of school than to the problem of reducing the flow (from the schools) into the pool just doesn't make any sense. It is wasteful and inefficient. Our nation, and particularly our state, will never reduce its pool of unemployed until the Federal government gives as much attentiton to reducing the flow of drop-outs from the schools as it gives in trying to reduce the pool. Most of the Federal investment should be concentrated in paying the additional cost of vocational and technical programs of career-skill training (as compared with programs which prepare for further academic education) in high schools and postsecondary institutions. The National Council has pointed out that the cures needed to reform our American schools will never come about if the Federal Government continues to invest nearly $4 in remedial manpower programs for each $1 it invests in preventive vocational programs. It is not our purpose here to be didactic but it is obvious that the majority of the educational community-the administrators, the school boards, and the nation in general--have failed to really comprehend these essential, elementary facts: If we can keep our youth in the school system before they drop out in the pool, if the Federal and State governments will substantially support the additional costs of educating our youth for employment, then we believe the social, financial, and personnel costs of unemployment can be drastically reduced. Recommendations 1. That the Federal Government make available to the states sufficient funds to carry out the State Plan for curriculum development, |