This volume, the first in a two-volume guide to provide vocational educators in Massachusetts with some practical tools for planning and implementing student recruitment strategies in their local areas, discusses the planning and design considerations that have an impact on a student recruitment program and highlights promising practices used in successful programs. Addressed in the individual chapters of the guide are the following topics: recruiting priority population students (overcoming stereotypes, understanding ethnic minority views, recruiting limited-English-proficient students, recruiting for nontraditional programs, and recruiting handicapped students); the changing role of vocational education recruitment; promising recruitment practices that have worked in Massachusetts schools (bilingual teachers in bilingual programs, summer exploratory programs, boys and girls in nontraditional shops, bilingual counseling in suburban schools, and mainstreaming special needs students); organizing and implementing recruitment programs (using promotional techniques, following work plans, and learning from others); reaching out to the public (understanding the concept of community, networking, reaching out to various sections of the public, working with political groups, and obtaining support from business). Concluding the guide is a four-page bibliography that deals with nontraditional programs, minority access, bilingual and limited-English-proficient students, special needs students, and perceptions of and attitudes toward vocational education. (MN)