Nancy Hoffman, Jobs for the Future
April 2005
Remaking Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century: What Role for High School Programs?
Richard Kazis, Jobs for the Future
April 2005
These latest installments of the JFF "Double the Numbers" series are worth a look for hardy high school reformers. The first examines programs in Florida, Utah, and New York that allow students to dip their toes into postsecondary education while finishing their high school studies. There's plenty of detail here for policymakers considering their own dual enrollment programs - as well as a frank discussion of the thorny issues to be resolved. Most notably: who pays the bills for such an approach? The second piece is a collection of essays about "Career and Technical Education," formerly known as voc-ed. Those in the field are clearly skittish about the President's proposal to eliminate the entire Perkins voc-tech program (which has as much chance of passing Congress as the Kyoto Treaty). Yet it's hard to find many compelling reasons within these pages to keep it alive. Elliot Medrich of MPR says it best: CTE must "change or die." The reports are available online here and here.
