This thesis makes a general survey of work experience and considers specifically the role of the Texas public high school teacher in the work experience program.

The main purpose of the study is to describe the developmental story of one of the larger university cooperative education programs in the United States to provide the evidence of outcomes and to utilize selected elements of the program in other colleges and universities. The study utilizes historical methodology with a descriptive approach to investigate and analyze the program's establishment, its development of staffing, organization, students, employers, funding, and its evaluation by using primary and secondary sources, annual reports, federal grant request proposals, evaluation reports, and the on-campus newspaper. The information for this study was also gathered through personal interviews with previous and present staff members of the program. The study shows that the program was established in the dean of students' office, but in order to get more support from the faculty, the program was moved to the academic affairs office. As a result of the academic support by the faculty, the program expanded. The findings show that the federal grant, Title VIII, contributed significantly to the initiation and growth of the program. The investigator observes that the director's leadership and the staff members' commitment to the program were two of the most important factors in the continued growth of the program. Strong commitment by the chief executive officer of the institution has also been a strong factor in the continuous growth of the program. The study indicates that close affiliation with professional organizations has benefited the program by influencing the development of quality and effective, diverse employers. The results show that the cooperative program significantly aided the students, institutions, and employers annually by placing approximately 1,200 students in their major-related working places.

The problem of this investigation was to clarify the responsibilities of the employer participating in the VOE program. Three major purposes were stated: (1) to determine the role expectations of employers of VOE students as perceived by employers participating in the program; (2) to determine the role expectations of employers as perceived by the VOE teacher-coordinators; and, (3) to determine if any significant differences existed between the employer perceptions and those of the teacher-coordinators. To obtain information, questionnaires were sent to a random sample of fifty employers participating in the VOE program during the 1983-84 school year. An identical survey instrument was administered to thirty VOE teacher-coordinators in Fort Worth. A Chi-square test of independence was applied to the data to test the hypotheses, with the .05 level used as the point of rejection. Of the seventeen surveyed possible role functions addressed, a majority of the employers responded positively to sixteen, were undecided about one, and responded negatively to none. A majority of the teacher-coordinators responded positively to eleven, were undecided about six, and responded negatively to none. One significant difference existed between the employer perceptions and those of the teacher-coordinators concerning one training responsibility which resulted in the rejection of one of the stated null hypotheses. As a result of the study, it was concluded that employers' views are more positive toward their training responsibilities than those of the teacher-coordinators; teachers are more indecisive about the employer responsibilities; employers are more willing to accept responsibility for training—in all areas except basic skills—than teachers are willing to delegate; and, if VOE teacher-coordinators continue to resist allowing employers to take added responsibilities in training students, the VOE program will continue to fail in meeting the demands of the market place.