Walk around a vocational school today and you'll find auto tech students who reach for the digital volt ohmmeter — a troubleshooting tool that can be used for car repair — as readily as a wrench.

        Or cosmetology students testing hairstyles on a computer model before they cut and dye.

        Vocational schools are in the midst of a great change: raising standards and focusing more on academics.

        While the number of students taking trade, industry and business vocational courses decreased nationally from the early 1980s to 1998, schools have begun altering their curricula to satisfy:

        • Businesses' cry for highly skilled workers and lifelong learners.

        • A demand that schools be held accountable for student achievement.

        • A national economy growing mostly in services and information industries, instead of manufacturing.

        “The nature of work is changing,” said Patricia McNeil, assistant secretary in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. “In the past we had a vocational system designed for the industrial economy. Now we have a knowledge-based economy. ... We need higher academic standards for all students.”

        The Warren County Career Center and other career-technical schools are battling hard to change their image — even shunning the phrase “vocational school.”

        But beating the schools' stigma as a destination for kids who aren't as smart as the rest isn't easy.

        Ask 17-year-old Brandy Stegemoller, who's studying engineering design at the Warren County Career Center.

        Some of her relatives couldn't believe it when Brandy — a bright student — decided to attend a vocational school her junior year.

        “They thought it was for people not able to make it in high school or who didn't have the money to go to college,” Brandy said. “But that's not it.”

        Brandy's job path is a good example. She plans to earn a master's degree, which means at least six more years of school.

        Vocational schools are beginning to cater to degree-bound students like Brandy. But they have to do more than just change their names.

        The Warren County Career Center, for example, is increasing the number of classes students have to pass from their traditional school to attend the vocational school.

        Two years ago, the minimum requirement was three credits. The minimum was raised to five this year and will rise to eight credits next year.

        The career center also recently added satellite programs, such as business technology at Little Miami High School, said spokeswoman Peg Allen.

        Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development campuses have added more academic classes this year, such as junior-level social studies, and they've redesigned the math curriculum.

        The Warren County Career Center also subscribes to the High Schools That Work model. It asserts that most students can master complex academic and technical concepts if schools encourage them to succeed.

        They need both academic and vocational skills in the workplace, said Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, which helped develop High Schools That Work in 1987.

        And many vocational schools now stress that all students should consider education beyond high school. That's because more businesses need workers who are specialists and technology in the workplace requires lifelong learners, Ms. McNeil said.

        But equal-opportunity achievement was not always the goal of vocational schools, which for decades tracked students to trade education if they were not seen as college material.

        That's what happened with Tamara Sturm, now marketing manager and a principal shareholder of Cincinnati-based Cole + Russell Architects Inc.

        Ms. Sturm was in the first graduating class at the Warren County Career Center. She concentrated in horticulture after being earmarked as not-college-bound, she said.

        “Counselors came into the buildings, put you in the gym and talked to you about vocational opportunities,” she said.

        At that time, tracking students was accepted, especially since students could get good, high-paying jobs with only a high school degree, she said.

        But for Ms. Sturm, that was not the answer. She still went on to pursue a degree in architecture and then business, she said.

        Many of the jobs projected to be the most plentiful in the next five years have few education or training requirements, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

        But jobs requiring higher education earn the fatter paychecks.

        For example, workers with little on-the-job training earned a median weekly income of $337 in 1996, while those with associate's degrees earned $639 a week, according to center statistics.

        And some jobs that required little or no higher education two decades ago now demand highly trained workers.

        Todd Gullett, an automotive tech instructor, said things have changed dramatically since his days in vocational school.

        “I was one of those people who didn't want to work on computers,” he said. Now, car repair is mostly computerized, he said.

        Bill DeLord, owner of Bill DeLord Auto Center in Lebanon, said most auto technicians he employs have to be skilled in technology and electrical work. Very few of his employees are hired right out of a vocational school, and those who are generally need in-house training, he said.

        “Working on an automobile is more technical than it's ever been,” Mr. DeLord said.

        Vocational schools can get kids on the right track early, he said, but are seldom the last step anymore.

        Vocational schools began to realize the toughening requirements placed on the work force and made some initial curriculum changes in the early 1990s.

        Then came the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, which requires tough academic and accountability standards for secondary and post-secondary vocational education programs seeking federal funding, Ms. McNeil said.

        Ohio's toughening standards stems from 1997 legislation requiring the state to issue annual school district report cards and assign districts a rating based on their students' Ohio Proficiency Test scores.

        Classrooms in the Warren County Career Center or at Great Oaks campuses reveal the standards and changes in action: Welding students program a robotic arm to do welding on plastics; drafting students design houses to scale and view the house from every dimension through a computer drafting program; students in senior English class tackle the writings of William Faulkner.

        Said Mr. Bottoms of the Southern Regional Education Board:

        “The idea is that you learn not only how to build a computer but to write a manual on how to build a computer.”

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