This presentation shows the need and purpose of vocational education in the United States. It starts with data on current state of vocational education in the USA and goes back in the 1600s-1900s highlighting the rise of trades schools, vocational schools and land-grand schools during the industrial revolution. Towards the end, the presentation covers the involvement of the federal government (Smith-Hughes Act 1917, Smith Lever Act of 1914, Hatch Act of 1887, Morrill Land Grant College Act 1862) in funding of vocational education in public schools.

1. SMITH-HUGHES ACT OF 1917
Vocational Education
in Public Schools
Kiran Budhrani
FEB. 10, 2015

2. Vocational Education
Prepares people for a specific
trade, job, or work -- to carry out
a vocation
Education for Work

3. Vocational Skillset
Life Skills
Ability to do / create
to earn
crochet, handicrafts,
programming,
web design, drafting
Ability to survive
day-to-day life
cook, sew, type, basic
accounting
Work Skills

4. Common debate now and since 1900s:
Should vocational education be
included in the US school system?

5. Education System in USA
Early
Childhood
Education
Elementary
– Middle
Secondary
Post-
Secondary
• College
• CTE
(Vocational
Education)
• Associate /
Diplomas

6. Concern on America’s Workforce
9th Grade
(1st Year HS)
100STUDENTS
Data from 2014 Georgetown University - Center of Education in the Workforce,
Presented by members of the Steering Committee of President Obama ́s
Administration for the new strategy on Advanced Manufacturing
69STUDENTS
Graduate HS
13STUDENTS
Get a Degree
42STUDENTS
Enter College
CTE / Vocational Education

7. Concern on America’s Workforce
HIGH
SKILL
JOBS
4-Year
Study
MIDDLE-LOW
SKILL
JOBS
2-Year
Study
HS
Diploma
Associate
or Diploma

8. Vocational Education
helps students develop career skills
and land them in low to middle skills
job after high school

9. There is a strong vocation
education system in America.
Why?

10. Dates back to 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900s
Understanding the history
INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION

11. Life Before the Industrial Revolution
80% were Farmers
Children born into a farming
family helped on the farm
Work w/ simple tasks
at age 5 or 6
Worked full time
As a teenager
Did You Know:
• Today in USA, less than 1% are farmers
Did You Know:
Today in USA, less than 1% are farmers.

12. Life Before the Industrial Revolution
Become a Farmer or Craftsman
Children learned from their
parents what they needed to
know to live:
• how to grow crops
• build and maintain farms
• raise families
No public schools.
Few could read or write.

13. Life Before the Industrial Revolution
Become a Farmer or Craftsman
Took on apprenticeship with a
master of a trade or craft
Master taught vocational skills, math,
reading, writing at his workshop

14. Weavers (Textile Industry)
Spinning wool fibers with
spinning wheel
Weaving rolls of cloth with
Hand loom
View Sample

15. Blacksmith (North Carolina)
VIDEO

16. Life Before the Industrial Revolution
 Handwork Used hands to make what they needed.
 Manpower No machines, quiet, worked by the sun.
 Horsepower Pace of life was slow.
People didn’t travel much.
People had to walk or use horses.

17. Technology - Inventions - Industries
New New New
1700 – 1900s

18. Life Before the Industrial Revolution
 Handwork Used hands to make what they needed.
 Manpower No machines, quiet, worked by the sun.
 Horsepower Pace of life was slow.
People didn’t travel much.
People had to walk or use horses.
MACHINES
Coal, water, steam power
FACTORY LIFE
• Rise of cities and buildings
• People left home for work in new
transportation
• Followed clocks to meet deadlines
during

20. Textile Industry was the first to
undergo Industrialization
Power Looms, Flying Shuttle, Cotton Gin
replaced manual spinning and weaving

21. HOW TO MAKE A T-SHIRT

22. New Tools – Materials – Skills
Factory Mass Production
Training was Necessary
HOW TO MAKE A T-SHIRT

23. Factory Mass Production
 High demand for products
 Required hundreds of workers - men, women and
children
Industrial Arts
Home
Economics /
Crafts
Trade,
Commerce,
Manufacturing
Agriculture

24. Factory Workers
High levels of technical competence was required.
Some were READY.
Skilled
College / HS graduate
Some were NOT.
Unskilled / Too Young /
Migrants from the farm
A few of the young workers in the Beaumont Mill. Spartenburg, South Carolina.

25. Rise of Trade Schools

26. Mechanics Institutes
Technical Institutes
Lyceums
Drawing Schools

27. The Bordentown School
Officially titled the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth,
the State of New Jersey Manual
Manual Training and Industrial Schools

28. Farm Schools

29. Biltmore Forest School 1898: First School of Forestry in US

30. Decline of Apprenticeships
 Apprenticeships shops turned into factory
 Mass production: Small labor force couldn’t meet
demand for more goods
 People didn’t need long years of apprenticeship
with more machines doing to job

31. Children began to attend public
schools
Children went to Public Schools
No longer safe for children to
work at factories
Parents had no time to
teach their children
Children were taught general education and vocational skills in school.

32. U.S. Federal Funding for
Vocational Education

33. Smith Hughes Act
1917
Smith Lever Act of
1914
Hatch Act of 1887
Morrill Land Grant
College Act 1862
• Given land grants to TEACH agriculture,
science, and engineering in university
• Funding to create agricultural experiment station
system to foster RESEARCH
• Created cooperative EXTENSION service to inform
people about developments in agriculture, home
economics and other related subjects.
• Help farmers learn new agricultural techniques.
NATIONAL STUDY
• Promoted vocational education in public high
schools in agriculture, home economics and
industrial education and trade.
• Formed the Federal Board for Vocational Education

34. First Land Grant Universities
College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts

35. First freshman class at the
North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
(now North Carolina State University), 1889

36. The Land Grant University System
Teaching
ExtensionResearch

37. 1914. Congress appointed the Commission to study the problem of federal aid to
public schools for industrial and agricultural education.
Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education

38. Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education
Chair
1914. Congress appointed the Commission to study the problem of federal aid to
public schools for industrial and agricultural education.

39. Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education
Chair
1914. Congress appointed the Commission to study the problem of federal aid to
public schools for industrial and agricultural education.
Two Volume Report – 500 pages
• Fund Pre-collegelevel vocational
programs in public schools
• Prepare students over age of 14
for employment in agriculture,
trade, industrial arts and home
economics
Support 3 types of schools:
• FULL-TIME SCHOOLS with 50%
of time in vocational education
• PART-TIME SCHOOLS for
employed youth
• EVENING SCHOOLS for adult
workers
STUDENTS

40. Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education
Chair
1914. Congress appointed the Commission to study the problem of federal aid to
public schools for industrial and agricultural education.
Two Volume Report – 500 pages
• Fund training of vocational teachers in
agricultural, trade, industrial and home
economics subjects
• Partly pay for salaries of vocational teachers
• Fund research activities of teachers
TEACHERS

41. Commission on
National Aid to Vocational Education
Chair
1914. Congress appointed the Commission to study the problem of federal aid to
public schools for industrial and agricultural education.
Two Volume Report – 500 pages
• Fund public schools
• Develop an administrative structure to supervise grants
the state-level
• Establish a Federal Board of Vocational Education
- to oversee distribution of federal grants
MANAGEMENT AND ADMIN

42. 1917. Times of War

43. Impact of Smith-Hughes Act
 World War I – Mechanical War
 America was vocationally unprepared
 Emergency training by the
Federal Board for Vocational Education

44. Mechanics
Radio Operators
Radio Technicians
Ambulance Drivers
Gas Engine
Technicians
Telephone Electricians
Troops for Army
Government preparing men for radio work under
direction of Federal Vocational Board
Student transmitting a message to four of his classmates
in the class room at the Stuyvesant Evening High School,
N.Y. April 1918. Ca. 1918.

45. Mechanics
Radio Operators
Radio Technicians
Ambulance Drivers
Gas Engine
Technicians
Telephone Electricians
Troops for Army
Government preparing men for radio work under
direction of Federal Vocational Board
Student transmitting a message to four of his classmates
in the class room at the Stuyvesant Evening High School,
N.Y. April 1918. Ca. 1918.
Vocational training for S.A.T.C. in University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Class in Pole-Climbing in the course for telelphone
electricians, with some of their instructors. Ca. 1918.

46. Women were trained to do men’s work.

47. The war created an abnormal
demand for labor
Rapid training of inexperienced
men and women

49. Effects of War Training on
Vocational Ed (CTE)
 America was very conscious of the need for vocational
education
 Adults needed training even after they were employed
 POSTWAR: A period of re-adjustment since jobs defense
jobs would no longer be needed

50. Relevance of
Smith-Hughes
Vocational Education Act
to education today?

51. Health Care and
Social Assistance
Construction Manufacturing Trucking Bookkeeping,
Accounting
Veterinary
Technology
Auto
Servicing
Hair Styling
Cosmetology
Dental
Care
Computer
Support
Food
Services

52. Vocational education is part of
the preparation for living needed
by all individuals

53. THANK YOU!