New Education Statistics Released

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released their Digest of Education Statistics 2020, an annual compilation of education statistics gathered from a variety of government and private sources. This year’s digest features new data from years 2018 to 2020 on secondary and postsecondary enrollment, educational attainment, types of degrees conferred and more.

Enrollment: Overall enrollment in fall 2018 for public elementary and secondary school totaled nearly 50.7 million students while enrollment in fall 2019 for postsecondary institutions consisted of more than 20 million students. More than 5.4 million students were enrolled in public two-year institutions and almost 59,000 were enrolled in public less-than-two-year institutions, an 11% increase from the year prior.

Credentials: During the 2018-19 academic year, public two-year institutions conferred over 687,000 associate degrees and more than 529,000 certificates. Public less-than-two-year institutions conferred nearly 34,000 certificates.

When examining all public postsecondary institutions, both associate degrees and certificates that take longer than a year to complete shared the same most popular fields of study: liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities; health professions; and business. For shorter term certificates, mechanic and repair technologies joined health professions and business as the most popular fields of study.

Earnings Outcomes: In 2019, the median annual earnings for associate degree holders were $50,550 and for those with some postsecondary education were over $47,000. Male associate degree holders made 33% more and males with some postsecondary education made 27% more than their female counterparts.

Data from various NCES surveys are an important source of information about CTE students and programs, with the most relevant data for our community located on the center’s CTE Statistics webpage. This year, NCES is launching the High School & Beyond Longitudinal Study of 2022 (HS&B:22), which will follow 26,000 students as they make the journey to and through high school and into the workforce or postsecondary education. If your school is contacted to participate in HS&B:22, ACTE encourages your participation.

Comments

[Sammy Ford]

I don’t support this change in wording! Agriculture represents a major part of our country’s economy!