Intended for school administrators, educators, and the lay public, this publication describes five innovative and effective vocational education programs developed with support from the U.S. Office of Education in response to a local problem. The programs, each requiring the coordinated effort of community groups and leaders are: (1) Industrial Arts Curriculum Project, which has been responsible for implementing a 2-year industrial arts curriculum emphasizing theory, operation, and necessity of modern production methods in more than 300 schools in all 50 states, (2) a vocational home economics course for disadvantaged youth that emphasizes preparation for the dual role of wage earner and homemaker, (3) the Work Opportunity Center which provides job skills and basic education and personal development training for dropouts and potential dropouts, (4) Project ABLE which is an individualized instructional system that allows the student to move from one skill level to the next at his own pace, and (5) an experiment which demonstrated that U.S. Air Force courses and teaching materials could be adopted to the public school system. (SB)