The Offering in Trade, Vocational and Technical Schools

Abstract

The rapid growth of vocational and technical education in the United States during the past quarter-century has resulted in a need for information concerning some of the practices in the curriculum offerings in schools of secondary grade providing these specialized types of training. In the present study an analysis was made of the curriculum offerings in a selected group of ninety-three public trade and vocational schools, public technical schools, and public technical high schools, distributed to seventy cities in twenty-three states. These schools were considered in two groups, namely, seventy-three public trade and vocational schools and twenty public technical schools and public technical high schools. The schools include only a minority of all such institutions in operation but may be regarded as representative, since they are included in Proffitt's pamphlet dealing with schools of these types.' Proffitt's list was used because his pamphlet contains information concerning each school that could be used to round out the types of information gathered especially for the present study. The specific aims of this study were to determine (i) how certain practices, such as requirements for admission and graduation and the length of time specified for the completion of curriculums, compare in these two types of schools; (2) what curriculums are offered in these schools and the frequency with which these curriculums occur; and (3) which subjects are offered in connection with certain of the curriculums found most frequently. Since the information for this study was drawn from printed or mimeographed materials furnished by the schools, certain limita-