A well-developed approach to dissemination and utilization (D&U) at the four levels of spread, exchange, choice, and implementation is essential if vocational education research and development (R&D) is to achieve the measurable impact found lacking in a Committee on Vocational Education Research and Development (COVERD) assessment (1956). Federal legislation provided no specific provisions or funding for R&D or D&U prior to the Vocational Education Act of 1963, which was followed by the increasingly more supportive Vocational Education Amendments of 1968 and the Educational Amendments of 1976. In particular, the "impct statement" of the 1976 Amendments emphasizes D&U by pressuring R&D personnel to show that their work is useful. Assessments of current D&U show that dissemination networks inadequately disseminate reporting which is often poorly done, that the target audiences need help at all levels of D&U, and that practitioners are often unaware of innovations. Improvements in D&U will require coordinated efforts by vocational educators at the national and regional levels to continue development of the nationwide network with trained personnel and adequate R&D funding and at the state and local levels to establish D&U, which is largely a state responsibility, as a high priority. At this level adequate financial support should be provided, responsibility for coordinating the vocational education activities assigned, D&U activities emphasized in the program improvement section of the state plan, and statewide networks for D&U activities established. (YLB)