
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994                   TAG: 9403250033
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

MORE VOCATIONAL TRAINING NEEDED, STATE BOARD TOLD

Public school guidance counselors who tend to steer students toward college should do more to promote vocational-technical training, the state Board of Education was told Thursday.

The Virginia Council on Vocational Education recommended that the state board develop a program to boost guidance counselors' awareness of career opportunities that do not require a four-year college degree.

"I don't want it to appear that we're bashing guidance counselors," John H. Tyson, the council's chairman, said after presenting the recommendation to the board. "They're college graduates, so it's understandable that they try to steer students to the area where they were successful."

But he said many counselors are missing the opportunity to expose students to vocational-technical programs that could help them when they enter the job market.

Tyson said that only about one-fourth of the students who go to college earn a degree within five years. That means many people who spend their high school years preparing for a liberal arts education find themselves looking for work in an increasingly technical environment.

"If vocational-technical education was an integral part of their high school education, they would be better off," Tyson said. "We need to integrate this thing a little better."

The council also recommended that the board eliminate a provision in school accreditation standards that allows students to substitute a vocational course for a math or science credit.

"The importance of math and science preparation continues to escalate, and we believe it is in the best interest of students to eliminate this alternative in the requirements of graduation," Tyson told the board.

As far back as 1983, Tyson said, the council was concerned that some students were taking vocational courses - welding, automobile mechanics or cosmetology, for example - just to avoid taking math or science as one of the 21 credits required for graduation.

The council's recommendations came a day after the board issued a report showing the public schools are making more progress preparing students for college than preparing them for work. The Outcome Accountability Project report showed no change in students' math and science proficiency from 1991-92 to 1992-93.

The board took no immediate action on the council's recommendations.

by CNB