The Delphi method was utilized to identify 36 "most successful" vocational education programs on 12 California community college campuses, and these were contrasted with 36 programs not so identified. Data were collected from the administrative supervisors of both types of programs in order to isolate program characteristics which differentiated the identified "most successful" programs. Twenty easily identified characteristics were found to correlate with successful programs; these spanned the domains of student characteristics, curriculum, faculty, supervision, and the program advisory committee. Successful programs were identified as being large, visible on campus, enrolling females in greater proportion to males, regulated through state licensing, screening applicants, and not offering remedial courses. Seven of these twenty variables were identified as contributing more than half of the explained variance, and appeared representative of a broad spectrum of easily identifiable activity associated with program success. The salience of these seven variables and the representiveness of the total twenty suggested a variety of approaches to the study of program success. (Author/LH)