The National Advisory Council on Vocational Education conducted hearings in Washington, D. C., Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Houston, to gather information on the status of vocational education in urban areas. The report summarizes the testimony of the hearings and identifies several common urban problems: demand for vocational education training exceeds current faculty and facilities; expansion and improvement and center-city vocational education programs require increased funding; too many students are trained in fields where there are few jobs; cooperative efforts between educators and the business, industry, and labor communities need to be increased; there is a general need for more and better counseling and the development of effective placement programs; parents, teachers, and administrators continue to assume that all students should be pushed to go to academically-oriented four-year postsecondary institutions; opportunities to maximize the efficiency of the city-wide system are missed due to a reluctance to utilize the resources of the private schools; schools could do more to address the problems of sex and race discrimination in career counseling, training and placement; and there is a lack of adequate programs to provide vocational training for handicapped students. The report lists 17 recommendations for improvements. (Author/PR)