CTE Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: In March, Georgia Policy Labs at Georgia State University published a report that analyzed participation, graduation rates and postsecondary outcomes for high school students with identified disabilities (SWD) who concentrate in CTE. Researchers examined student data from Massachusetts, Tennessee and Washington and shared the following findings:
- Across all three states, students with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia are more likely to concentrate in CTE than any other disability category. In contrast, students with autism and low-incidence disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities or multiple disabilities, are less likely to concentrate.
- CTE SWD are 10 to 15 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than non-CTE SWD.
- Of the three states examined, only Tennessee has higher postsecondary attendance rates for CTE SWD than non-CTE SWD.
- CTE SWD are 5 to 10 percentage points more likely to be employed at least part-time one year after graduation than non-CTE SWD. However, this trend isn’t consistent across all disability categories.
Female CTE Concentrator Outcomes: An article by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development analyzes the outcomes of female Minnesota students who take high school CTE coursework. The analysis is highly detailed but concludes that, for many female CTE concentrators, high school CTE is not enough to attain a family-sustaining wage. However, when combined with a postsecondary credential, female CTE concentrators can reap benefits.
Improving Access and Success for English Learners: Recently, Advance CTE released a brief that describes challenges English learners (ELs) may encounter in CTE programs. In the 2018-19 school year, over 520,000 secondary and nearly 122,000 postsecondary CTE participants were ELs. Barriers to access and success these learners may face include a lack of personalization; entrance exams that test language ability as well as content knowledge; out-of-school commitments, such as supporting one’s family; and a lack of data on ELs and feedback mechanisms to learn more about EL students’ needs.
Career Planning Supports: A brief published by MDRC describes lessons learned from a pilot career planning program for recent high school graduates. In 2021, MDRC partnered with the Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership, an organization that serves young people in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to implement the Park City Career Pathways (PCCP) program. Partnering with key stakeholders, PCCP aimed to connect 300 to 400 Bridgeport high school graduates and non-graduates from the class of 2020 and 2021 with career planning supports as well as postsecondary, work-based learning and employment opportunities. The brief highlights some of the challenges PCCP faced regarding building partnerships, program promotion strategies and follow-up support for participants that may be useful for communities implementing similar initiatives.
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