Joanne Jacobs features a thorough article, from Houston, about the new voc-ed--you know, voc-ed for the 21st-Century, not your grandfather's voc-ed, etc. The benefits of such programs are numerous. One ought not forget that, in some ways, high-school students are supremely practical, and 16-year-olds who know either that they aren't prepared for college or that they don't want to attend college directly after high school have few reasons to stick around in class and read Lord of the Flies. Many are going to drop out and find jobs that, while low-paying, are at least paying.
A fine method for keeping such students in high school is to provide them with training that is practical and profitable. They'll stay in school, they'll graduate, and they'll emerge with useful skills that can help them find lucrative employment. Some will go to college after several years in the work world, others won't--but all will be demonstratively better off than if they had attended a regular high school, one with a "college or bust" mindset, and dropped out.