In North Carolina, work force development education (WDE) begins in grade 6 with exploratory courses and leads to specialized classroom instruction in grades 11 and 12. Since 1992-1993, North Carolina's WDE programs have been evaluated with respect to eight long-range performance standards. Only in the case of standard 1 (all students will have career development plans appropriate to their designated career goals) was steady progress made from 1992-1993 to 1996-1997 (23.73% to 97.96%). Fewer schools met standard 7 (the completer unemployment rate will be lower than the county's youth unemployment rate) in 1996-1997 (93.66%) than in 1992-1993 (95.09%). In the cases of the other standards examined, 1996-1997 indicators were slightly to somewhat higher than 1992-1993 indicators; however, the progress was not steady throughout the intervening years. When asked to rate completers of WDE on a scale of 0 to 5, the 4,534 North Carolina employers who responded to a survey of 11,540 employers gave the completers a 4.0 on most items (including knowledge of duties, accuracy/quality of work, and attendance), a 3.9 on knowledge of technical information, and a 4.1 on ability to get along. On average, 3,600 employers were involved in curriculum development and vocational student organizations annually. (MN)