Project EDNEED II (Empirical Determination of Nationally Essential Educational Data), conducted from July 1975 to September 1976, was designed to document the extent to which data currently collected by State vocational education agencies could be used to answer prioritized Project EDNEED I questions. (Project EDNEED I identified and prioritized vocational education informational needs of users at the national, State, local levels.) The first phase of EDNEED II focused on the gathering and cataloging of all State vocational education agency data collection forms. Each item of information on a data collection form was classified in relation to the most appropriate Project EDNEED question(s). In the second phase, field visits were made to 10 States to gather more information on alternative approaches to answering the top priority EDNEED I questions. The field visits provided information on the problems that would be encountered in collecting the necessary data and aggregating them to the appropriate levels. In this first of a four-volume final report of Project EDNEED II, the informational needs identified in EDNEED I are discussed in relation to the data currently available at the State level as indicated by State agency data collection forms. The procedures used to derive and organize the vocational education data base are described, and an exemplary core of questions and data elements is presented which represents information that is both highly needed and widely collected. A procedure for empirically selecting alternative sets of questions is also described in detail. (SH)