At D.C.'s Phelps High, A Return to the Future

"My goal is to ensure that every single 12th-grader graduates from our system with options -- options to go to a four-year college if that's what you decide . . . or, if you choose to go straight into the workforce, you have the skills necessary to do that as well," she said.

The high school will open about when school officials introduce plans for spending about $2 billion in city funds to modernize more than 100 schools.

Allen Y. Lew, executive director of the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, said Phelps -- as well as John Philip Sousa Middle School in Southeast and Hardy Middle School in Northwest, both of which are slated to reopen in the fall -- will serve as models for the new approach. He plans to rehabilitate buildings rather than start from scratch, saving money and time.

"Many of these buildings built decades ago are still structurally sound," said Lew, who oversaw construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Nationals Park. "We're marrying them with new construction."

Vocational education classes are growing in popularity across the country. The number of students enrolled in high school and college vocational education programs rose from 9.6 million in 1999 to 15 million in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available, said Sabrina Kidwai, spokeswoman for the Alexandria-based Association for Career and Technical Education.

President Bush has proposed cutting the $1.2 billion budget for such programs to zero in fiscal 2009, Kidwai said. The decision is based on the Office of Management and Budget's assessment that the programs are not a wise use of public dollars because they lack scientifically-based data to justify success, a conclusion advocates reject, she said.

D.C. school officials say Phelps will offer a quality program. Students who complete their course work will take exams for an apprenticeship or certification.

Construction will be an integral part of the academic program, they said. For instance, students in geometry class will construct scale models of buildings. In calculus, they'll learn how plumbing works. In English, they will read stories about architecture and learn to write contracts. In chemistry, they will study the composition of concrete.

The school will have state-of-the-art computer equipment that can be used for a variety of related tasks: simulating the operation of heavy equipment, such as a backhoe and front-end loader; designing blueprints; and controlling window shades and water flow in the greenhouse.

"We'll be training our kids on tomorrow's equipment," said David G. Thompson, program coordinator for the school system's career and technical education department. "Even the employers won't have it because it's so new."