The document makes up volume I of a report on the philosophy and activities of Project AMES (Actualization of Mainstream Experience Skills), a model program for vocational training and independent living skills instruction for 34 moderately and severely retarded students (6 to 21 years old). Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 briefly describes the seven components of the Project AMES Vocational Training Model: community job assessment, student assessment, vocational training objectives identification, development of school based training, development of community training, placement, and followup. Chapter 3 lists staff development activities. Chapter 4 covers project participants, the roles and responsibilities of staff members, curriculum development, curriculum design in the vocational domain, the school workshop, student assessment, business contracts, training sites, wages, recordkeeping and data analysis, community mobility training, social-interpersonal instruction, individualized education program development, and parent involvement. Among results reported in Chapter 5 are that the students acquired new vocational competencies and the Ames community learned that mentally disabled persons are capable of productive work. Chapter 6 contains research reports with titles that include: "Increasing Production Rates of Mentally Disabled Adolescents in School and Community Vocational Training Programs--The Use of a Changing Criterion Design"; "Improving the Production Rates of Secondary-Aged, Moderately Mentally Disabled Students in a School-Based Work Activity Center"; and "Attending to Task in a Public School Vocational Training Program." Chapter 7 contains a legal reference guide for school vocational training programs. Results of a vocational education survey of intermediate and secondary public school programs for moderately and severely handicapped students are reported in an eighth chapter. The final chapter contains an outline of simulated jobs, the Project AMES employer's manual, the Parent/Guardian Inventory, the Vocational Education Survey, and the Iowa Sheltered Employment Survey. (SW)