Keypoints
REGIONAL VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL SCHOOL SYSTEM
¬ The Connecticut Regional Vocational-Technical School System is a state-run network of 17 high schools providing academic instruction and trade experience.
¬ In state fiscal year 2000, the system expended $98 million, with most of the money from the state General Fund; individual schools expended $4 million to $7 million each.
¬ For the 2000-2001 school year, approximately 3,000 adults and 10,600 secondary students are attending vocational-technical schools.
¬ In school year 2000-2001, one-third of the secondary students are female, and 39 percent are minorities.
¬ Systemwide, 15 percent or fewer of the vocational-technical school students who took the Connecticut Academic Performance Test in the spring of 2000 scored at or above goal on any portion of it.
¬ The number of students graduating in June 2000 represented only 64 percent of the number who entered the system in September 1996 as the class of 2000; the percentage graduating from individual vocational-technical schools ranged from 43 to 81 percent.
¬ Although 58 percent of the class of 1999 was employed after graduation, only one-third of the graduates were employed full time in a job related to the trade they had trained for; nearly one-third of the graduates were pursuing additional education.
¬ One-quarter of the employers responding to a survey distributed by the program review committee indicated they "agree" or "strongly agree" vocational-technical schools meet the training needs of employers.
¬ Of the businesses responding to the program review survey, a majority that had hired vocational-technical school graduates during the past five years rated those employees "good" or "excellent" in seven skill areas, while employees who were not vocational-technical graduates received a majority of ratings at those levels in only two skill areas.
¬ A series of inter-related factors -- funding, physical resources and personnel, the quality of programs and students, and the image of the schools -- affect the ability of the vocational-technical school system to serve students and employers.
¬ The vocational-technical school system has shown areas of success, but there is room for improvement if the system is going to adequately meet the needs of the 21st century marketplace.