Six of the first vocational education (VE) programs to adopt new voluntary national skill standards were studied to identify the opportunities and challenges faced by VE programs adopting the new standards. The VE programs studied were located in high schools in seven cities: Chalmette and Walker, Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; L'Anse Creuse, Michigan; Milwaukee, Oregon; Royal Oak, Michigan; and Trenton, New Jersey. Special attention was paid to the following: each school's progress in implementing national skill standards, local contextual factors impeding or facilitating efforts to implement standards, successful strategies for responding to potential barriers and opportunities, and ways policymakers can facilitate local implementation of skill standards. The key findings are based on analysis of the interactions and roles of school staff, employers, and students. Key findings included the following: (1) curriculum and assessment change required external support and incentives; (2) employers found external assessments of students' mastery of competencies more credible than checklists developed by skill standards groups; (3) concrete program changes and trade association leadership can engage employers; (4) programs need to enhance strategies for recruiting, engaging, and placing students; (5) implementation of skill standards will likely require new public and private resources; and (6) skill standards can enhance VE programs whether or not a market for certificates emerges. (The report contains 26 references. Profiles of the case study sites are appended.) (MN)