Your article, “New Tests Formulated To Assess Vocational Skills” (Jan. 19), points up one problem that I wish we all could find an answer for. Students often don’t possess very good skills in communication when they arrive and enroll in vocational programs, and it is often the first time in their lives that they really would like to know how to read and write and communicate well because they feel that they now have a reason.
They want to learn more about the vocation, and suddenly reading and writing skills are very important to them. But the vocational teacher is so busy trying to fill them full of all of the math and science and to teach them the skills of the occupation that sometimes he or she forgets to check the student’s reading level! So, different people look for someone to blame.
It is something that we all need to work together to solve.
Gordon G. McMahon Executive Director National Occupational Competency Testing Institute Albany, N.Y.
