DATE: Monday, November 17, 1997             TAG: 9711170061

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   43 lines

DELEGATE TO PROPOSE VOCATIONAL-TECH DIPLOMA

Virginia's public high school students can choose between earning a standard or advanced diploma. But with tougher state education standards making it harder for some students to take vocational courses, a state legislator wants to create a third choice.

Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, wants schools to award diplomas for vocational education. He plans to introduce the idea in the General Assembly in January.

``Let's put an educational program in place that allows them to acquire knowledge and skills in courses that focus more on workplace knowledge,'' said Hamilton, a member of the House Education Committee and staff development coordinator with Newport News public schools.

The proposed diploma would require the same number of high school credits as the standard diploma but would require one less art class and one less science class. Vocational classes would substitute for those two classes and six required elective classes.

``A lot of your vocational courses and technical courses focus on some element of science,'' Hamilton said about his decision to reduce the existing science requirement. A special diploma for vocational education could lend more credibility to those classes, he said. Hamilton noted that only 30 percent of Virginia's high school students go on to college.

``What's wrong with saying that vocational education and technical education are just as valuable as our core academic program?'' Hamilton said. ``If we give it diploma status, then we've said, `Hey, kids that go this track are just as valued as kids that want the college-prep track.' ''

New Horizons Director Ned Carr, who supervises one of the most prominent technical education centers on the Peninsula, said Hamilton's idea would give more students the flexibility they need to complete vocational programs.

However, Carr says he's not so sure that offering three diplomas is the perfect answer.

Carr said he leans more toward changing the nature of the standard diploma to require the completion of a vocational program. That way, he said, a separate diploma for vocational education would not be necessary.

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