The purpose of this research was to identify and nationally verify the competencies considered important to local administrators of vocational education. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify all relevant administrator competency studies and available competency-based instructional materials. Fifteen studies were located. A curriculum development approach called Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) was used to update the competencies identified through the literature search and to identify an additional 36-40 additional tasks not found in the literature. All competency statements were analyzed, refined, and merged into a single administrator Task Inventory Instrument (191 task statements). It was then submitted to a stratified nationally representative sample of 130 practicing administrators of secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs. One hundred and twenty administrators returned usable instruments. Of the 191 task statements, 166 were considered to be verified as important. Responses to 31 tasks were found to differ significantly between secondary and postsecondary administrators and 15 tasks differed significantly between urban and rural administrators. (The second part of this final report is also available [CE 016 504]. (JH)