This study was designed to determine Trade and Industrial (T & I) education instructors' use and assessment of the effectiveness of staff development and instructional innovation practices in selected community and technical colleges in the Midwest teaching profession and employers of community and technical college graduates indicated the need for research in T & I staff development, especially as our workforce has adopted 'Hi-tech';The research questions dealt with the estimation of the effectiveness of staff development and instructional innovation practices. The hypotheses tested the differences in instructors' participation in formal staff development training (1981-1983), and the relationships between the degree of perceived 'extent of use' of staff development practices, the instructors' use and nonuse of instructional innovation practices, and the independent variables;The sample (300) for the study was randomly drawn from public two-year colleges in Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska, with 105 (35%) usable responses collected for data analysis. A series of frequency distribution, t-test, chi-square, and one-way analysis of variance was performed to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses of the study;The following conclusions were drawn based on the findings: (1) More than a quarter of the instructors perceived media, technology and course development practices more effective for T & I instructors than any category of staff development practices. (2) On the average, T & I instructors did not implement curriculum and instructional innovations learned during staff development training. (3) The demographic characteristics listed were not a function of T & I instructors participation in formal staff development training. However, Power and Energy instructors used analyses and assessment category of staff development practices significantly more than the Graphic Communications instructors. (4) There were no significant differences in the use of instructional innovation practices by the instructors;Further research involving all the states in the Midwest and soliciting the assistance of the state directors of post-secondary instruction to ensure higher return rate (60% or more) of survey questionnaires was recommended.