Much of the evaluation of vocational education at the state and local levels has been conducted in response to federal legislation. Although some of the evaluative information has been useful for program improvement, much has been collected only for compliance with federal and state mandates. The educational reform movement has prompted school officials to turn to evaluation to answer questions about redesigning their vocational programs despite criticism about the usefulness of evaluation strategies and results. Research on school effectiveness and program improvement indicates that if desired change or redesign is to occur, school culture and stakeholders' needs must be considered in the evaluation. McKinney's model for evaluating vocational education includes these main activities: framing evaluation problems, interpreting dynamics of problems, and overcoming problems. Starr's evaluation method increases the relevance of vocational education offerings in meeting employment needs of students, employers, and labor market areas. This model incorporates the use of both quantitative data and explicit value judgments for comparing and ranking ongoing programs. According to Sirotnik, valid information about the ongoing schooling process should be collected. Microcomputers have added to the evaluation process the advantage of ease in storing, analyzing, and reporting the information collected. (12 references) (YLB)