Programs of Study: Development Efforts in Six States

Abstract

Educational reform in the United States is perpetually evolving. Much of the recent reforms have concentrated on high-stakes testing and assessment, but a parallel effort has been emerging in the field of vocational and career education. Prompted partly by federal legislation—most recently by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (also known as Perkins IV)—the field has been dramatically altered to include a renewed vision of vocational education. The Perkins IV legislation officially changed the title and focus of the efforts, installing the name career and technical education as the replacement for the older version of vocational education and training. Armed with this new name, the focus of the reforms took on new perspectives, adding a career education focus and broadening the goals to include academic learning with vocational/work-based learning. The result has been a renewed effort to make all students “college and career ready.”