Question:
What are the trends in vocational education?

Response:
The average number of courses in vocational areas completed by all high school graduates was lower in 2000 (4.2 units) than in 1982 (4.6 units).

Between 1982 and 1998, the primary change in vocational/technical coursetaking was not in the proportion of high school students participating in vocational/technical education but in the amount of vocational/technical education they took. That is, the breadth of vocational/technical coursetaking declined slightly, while the depth of this coursetaking declined more steeply. However, most declines in vocational/technical coursetaking occurred by the early 1990s.

Between 1982 and 1998, almost all public high school graduates (between 98.2 percent and 96.5 percent) earned at least some credits in vocational/technical education in high school. However, the average number of vocational/technical credits earned by graduates declined between 1982 and 1990, after which there were no statistically significant changes.

During the 1990s, vocational/technical credits continued to represent a declining share of the total high school credits that graduates earned. This relative decline was due to the fact that public high school graduates earned on average more academic credits and—to a lesser extent—more enrichment/other credits over this decade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). Trends in High School Vocational/Technical Coursetaking: 1982-1998 (NCES 2003-025).

¹ Graduates earning greater than 0.0 credits in vocational/technical education.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2003). Trends in High School Vocational/Technical Coursetaking: 1982-1998 (NCES 2003-025).

Related Tables and Figures:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 132. Average number of Carnegie units earned by public high school graduates in various subject fields, by selected student characteristics: Selected years, 1982 through 2000
  
• 2006, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 133. Average number of Carnegie units earned by public high school graduates in vocational education courses, by selected student characteristics: Selected years, 1982 through 2000
  
• 1999, Percent of public secondary schools offering listed occupational programs that prepare students to earn a vocational/occupational skill certificate, by school type, broad program area, and specific program: 1999
  
• 1998, Percentage of public high school graduates concentrating (accumulating 3 or more credits) in various vocational programs: 1982 and 1998
  

Other Resources:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2005, Data on Vocational Education (DOVE)
  
• 2003, Public High School Graduates Who Participated in Vocational/Technical Education: 1982-1998
  
• 2002, Vocational Education Offerings in Rural High Schools
  
• 2001, Features of Occupational Programs at the Secondary and Postsecondary Education Levels
  
• 2000, Occupational Programs and the Use of Skill Competencies at the Secondary and Postsecondary Levels, 1999
  
• 2000, Vocational Education in the United States: Toward the Year 2000