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Reports the results of a study that compared three urban comprehensive senior high schools to better understand the rationale and processes that underlie schools' course offerings and students' coursetaking. All three schools made assumptions about their students that were related, in large part, to students' race and family socioeconomic status. An analysis of transcripts showed that low-income and disadvantaged minority students took more vocational courses, and that heavy vocational education participation was partially consistent with respondents' beliefs that such a program is best suited for students who are not expected to be successful in academic programs. Vocational programs are perceived negatively within the schools and are unlikely to receive school-level support or staff-development resources. The study recommends that schools press forward with experimentation and the evaluation of possibilities relating to a "strong" version of integrated academic and vocational education.

A Policy Research Program report.

This report contains a collection of papers summarizing the majorresearch on elementary and secondary schooling conducted over the past decade, and outlining what those studies suggest for designing improved educational indicators. The report includes a section on the design of educational indicator systems. It also includes sections on indicators of educational resources and commitment; school context and organization; teachers and teaching; curriculum; instruction; outcomes, achievement, participation, and attitudes; the distribution of educational opportunities and outcomes; policy problems; and school completion and dropouts. Finally, it discusses the policy context in which indicators are generated and used.

Policymakers need to understand the uses and abuses of the education system's principal diagnostic tools--educational indicators. Those in positions to use indicators and pay for their collection must understand what the realistic information returns are from investing in them. This paper from the Center for Policy Research in Education is designed to help education decisionmakers understand the legitimate roles indicators might play in monitoring the condition of the educational system, tracking changes over time, and anticipating future change. It defines educational indicators, explains their principal applications, describes some of their limitations, and reviews the current state of the indicator art.