ABSTRACT
In this chapter I try to present a vision of a “new” vocational education program intended to serve as a major element of reform of innercity secondary education. The objective may strike some people as startling, for the “old” vocational education appears to be withering away in major urban areas. Nevertheless, our studies at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) demonstrate the pedagogical power of hands-on academic education, that is, of presenting academic concepts in a real-life context. Indeed, a combination of such practices as contextual learning, cooperative learning, teacher collegiality, and establishment of a focus, or identity, for a high school may be the educational structure that innercity youth have been waiting for.
