CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Research Roundup: Work-based Learning

State Work-based Learning Toolkits: State work-based learning (WBL) toolkits provide guidance to educators, administrators and other career development professionals about effective WBL program implementation in that state. In June, Advance CTE created a tracker of state WBL toolkits. According to the tracker, of the 54 states and territories analyzed, 41 currently have WBL toolkits. The tracker lets users filter by key components that WBL toolkits may include, such as WBL definitions, training forms and employer resources, and explore innovative approaches used by toolkits. You can find a more in-depth analysis of Advance CTE’s State WBL Toolkit Innovation Tracker here.

The Case for Paid Work-based Learning: Recently, New America conducted a study of paid WBL program models at five community colleges across the nation to better understand their design, goals and outcomes. Currently, it is estimated that around one million students receive offers for unpaid internships each year, which can pose significant barriers for students from historically underserved backgrounds. Through interviews with program directors and senior campus administrators, New America found the following themes present among the paid WBL models studied:

• Paid WBL programs enhance a community colleges’ retention strategy, with prior evidence showing that paid experiential learning opportunities can result in higher retention rates.
• On-campus or local paid WBL opportunities can alleviate barriers related to transportation as well as work and family obligations.
• Many programs offered various wraparound services such as reimbursements for travel and course expenses, childcare vouchers and career readiness services.
• Programs were funded in a variety of ways including COVID-19 federal relief funding, donor contributions, corporate sponsorships and local or state appropriations.
• Programs reported a lack of longitudinal data on student outcomes and could only share baseline demographic data on student participation trends.

Equity in Apprenticeships for Young People: Recently, Jobs for the Future (JFF) analyzed federal Registered Apprenticeship data between 2010 and 2020 to gain insight about the demographics and outcomes of youth apprentices – those aged 16 to 24. The following are some of the study’s key findings:

• Between 2010 and 2020, the number of youth apprentices grew 113%, a much faster rate than registered apprentices of all ages.
• When compared to the general population, Hispanic youth are slightly overrepresented as young apprentices (21%) while Black youth are underrepresented (8%).
• Women compromised about 7% of all young apprentices and the top occupations between men and women vary, with women in more service-oriented careers and men in more trades-related careers.
• The average hourly exit wage for all young apprentices was $31. White and Hispanic apprentices roughly matched this average, while Black apprentices made $23 per hour. Additionally, the hourly exit wage for female apprentices was $18 per hour, $13 less than male apprentices.

Tech Apprenticeships in Missouri: In 2020, the Missouri Chamber Foundation created the Industry-Driven IT Apprenticeship Program, which is a four-year program funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant that provides reimbursements to IT companies that are creating or expanding Registered Apprenticeship programs. Recently, the foundation released new data on the program’s progress over the past two years:

• More than 700 apprentices have completed the program.
• Over 95% were hired for permanent, full-time jobs with an average starting salary of $61,000.
• More than 640 of the participating apprentices identify as a person of color and 605 as women.
• Since its inception, the program has funded 113 apprentices with disabilities and 40 veterans.
• The program is on track to create more than 5,300 total apprenticeships.

Research Roundup: Career Exposure, Credentials and Labor Market Practices

Interest In & Exposure to Careers: YouScience released results from their aptitude-based career guidance assessments taken by high school students nationwide in 2021. The analysis found that students have higher aptitude than interest in many career areas, especially those with significant predicted job growth. For example, students had more than three times the aptitude for advanced manufacturing careers than interest and more than two times the aptitude for computer technology careers than interest. The report also revealed the effect of gender stereotypes on interest in careers. For instance, females had a much greater difference between aptitude and interest for advanced manufacturing careers than males. The authors conclude that students need more exposure to a variety of careers to find a match between their talents, interests and goals.

Impacts of Industry-recognized Credentials: A recent study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute examined how completing industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) in high school impacted students’ short-term postsecondary education and employment outcomes. Researchers utilized data from Texas high school students who graduated between 2017 and 2019 to uncover the following:

• IRC completion was weakly associated with a higher likelihood of employment in the short term.
• IRC completion was associated with a 9% increase in annual earnings in the short term, with the largest benefits to students not enrolled in a postsecondary institution and those who completed an IRC in education, cosmetology or transportation.
• IRC completion is positively correlated with postsecondary enrollment and persistence. In fact, students who completed an IRC were 3 percentage points more likely to remain in postsecondary education for a second year.
• The majority of students who completed an IRC were not pursuing education or employment in their IRC field of study.
• While CTE concentrators as well as Hispanic, Asian and higher-achieving students were most likely to earn IRCs, the high school one attended is the most important predictor of earning an IRC.

Labor Market Experiences of Recent Graduates: In May 2022, Cengage Group conducted a survey of respondents who completed a degree or non-degree postsecondary education program within the past 12 months to better understand recent graduates’ perspectives on the labor market. The following are some of the report’s key findings:

• Half of recent graduates had second thoughts about the program they were studying, but felt it was too late to switch, with non-degree graduates experiencing less of this regret.
• Nearly half of recent graduates didn’t apply for entry-level jobs because they felt underqualified, with degree graduates slightly more likely to report this. About 60% of graduates found a job within 12 months in 2022, which is 19 percentage points higher compared to 2021, and degree graduates found jobs quicker than non-degree graduates.
• Almost all graduates said they would pursue online training if their employer covered the cost.
• Roughly 61% of graduates think that employers should stop requiring a two- or four-year degree for many occupations.

Employer Policies & Economic Mobility: Recently, WorkRise released a report that summarizes research on employer policies and how these affect economic security and mobility for individuals who have faced historical exclusion in the labor market. Researchers specifically studied pay, scheduling, leave, hiring, retention, work systems, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employer policies. Overall, the report found that promising practices for increasing economic mobility exist in compensation, hiring, promotion, scheduling, work systems and DEI policies, without negatively impacting a firm’s performance. However, researchers emphasized that there are gaps and exceptions to these promising practices in research that must be studied further.

Research Roundup: Teacher Certifications and Shortages

Alternative Teacher Certification: The Center for American Progress recently published an analysis of alternative teacher certification programs sponsored by organizations other than institutions of higher education (IHEs). Researchers examined the types of sponsors, states in which these programs operate and how enrollment varies by demographics to reveal the following findings:

• Regional education service agencies (50%), non-profit organizations (23%) and for-profit programs (14%) were the largest operators in the non-IHE alternative sector in 2018-19.
• Despite only being 14% of the non-IHE alternative sector, for-profit programs enrolled 70% of students in non-IHE alternative programs, a nearly 280% increase since 2010.
• Between 2010-11 and 2018-19, enrollment in non-IHE alternative certification programs grew by 76%, while IHE-based programs experienced an overall decline. Despite enrollment increases in the non-IHE sector, completion rates dropped by 19%.
• From 2010-11 to 2018-19, non-IHE alternative programs enrolled a higher percentage of students of color than IHE-based programs.

Teacher Shortages: Recently, Brown University released a report and an accompanying interactive map that provides national- and state-level estimates from 2014-22 on the K-12 teacher shortage. Researchers examined news reports, U.S. Department of Education data and publicly available information on teacher vacancies and certifications to uncover the following:

• An estimated 36,504 full-time teacher positions are unfilled; however, this number may be as high as 52,800. Overall, vacancies amount to almost 2% of positions nationwide.
• About 163,650 positions are filled by teachers who are teaching a subject different than their area of preparation or have an alternative, temporary or emergency certification.
• Mississippi had the highest relative vacancies with 68 vacancies per 10,000 students while Missouri had the lowest with less than one vacancy per 10,000 students. (Thirteen states did not have credible data related to teacher shortages).

General Education Data: In May, the National Center for Education Statistics released its annual Condition of Education report, which summarizes the latest data available on P-12 and postsecondary education in the United States. The following are some of the report’s main findings:

• P-12 public school enrollment decreased from 50.8 million in fall 2019 to 49.4 million in fall 2020, a 3% drop, which is the largest single-year decline since 1943.
• In 2017-18, there were 3.5 million full-time and part-time public school teachers. About 8% of these teachers held a provisional, probationary or emergency teaching certificate, and 2% held no certification.
• Between fall 2009 to fall 2020, postsecondary undergraduate enrollment declined by 9%, which was driven by a 35% drop at two-year institutions. In fall 2020, 31% of undergraduate students (4.9 million) were enrolled in a two-year institution.
• The number of associate degrees earned increased by 20% from 2010 to 2020. The most popular fields of study included business, health professions and STEM.

State Report Cards: The Data Quality Campaign released its annual analysis of state school report cards for the 2020-21 school year to identify what school data is accessible, or may be missing, for students and their families. At the time of the study, 43 states had submitted their 2020-21 report cards. The following are some of the analysis’ key findings:

• Twenty-eight states disaggregated data by all federally required student groups.
• Many states did not include data on the 2020-21 school year. For instance, 16 states did not include 2021 assessment data, 25 states did not include 2021 graduation rates and 26 states did not include 2021 chronic absenteeism data.
• About 25 states included some form of language translation for their state report card; however, only seven states had high-quality translations.

Research Roundup: Postsecondary Student Success and Completion

Analyzing Pathways Data: The Strategic Data Project at Harvard University published a CTE Diagnostic toolkit which provides guidance and examples to postsecondary leaders about analyzing student progress and success in various CTE pathways. The toolkit offers proposed questions, sample data visualizations and summaries of analyses to conduct. It is structured around four topics: student completion, student progress, “gateway” courses (courses that prevent students from completing pathways), and credit accumulation. Additionally, it is accompanied by a technical guide that provides more detailed information about how to execute the examples featured in the toolkit.

Improving Pathways Programs: According to research featured in a brief by MDRC, community college career pathways programs can significantly increase credential completion and employment in targeted industries but may not improve earnings. Taking these findings into account, the brief offers several evidence-based strategies, as well as examples, that community colleges can employ to boost student success and economic mobility in career pathways programs. Some highlighted practices include integrating private sector training approaches, targeting family-supporting careers, providing comprehensive supports, and connecting students with employers and work-based learning experiences.

Measuring Beyond Completion: Recently, Strada Education Network released a report that integrates postsecondary student completion data with earnings and personal fulfillment data to provide insight into how postsecondary completion impacts students beyond graduation. Researchers used public data and data from Strada’s own surveys of postsecondary completers to reveal the following:

• About 58% of adults with an associate degree or higher earn at least 20% more than the median for a high school graduate and reported higher personal fulfillment through their education and training.
• Occupation is a strong predictor of earnings and personal fulfillment outcomes. For instance, completers employed in STEM, business and health care experience better outcomes compared to completers in service occupations.
• Higher levels of postsecondary attainment are associated with better economic and personal fulfillment outcomes; however, these results vary by race and gender.

Pell Grant Access and Completion: The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) released an analysis that provides information about Pell Grant recipient enrollments and completion rates at community colleges. Researchers gathered data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and Pell Grant Volume reports and shared the following findings:

• About 2 million Pell Grant recipients attend community colleges, representing one third of all Pell Grant recipients.
• In 2020-21, 25% of all community college students received a Pell Grant. This statistic has been declining since the Great Recession, especially in recent years, largely due to decreased enrollment among low-income students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2020-21, the three-year Pell completion rate was 25%, which is more than double the rate from the early 2000s.

Wraparound Supports: A brief by the Hunt Institute describes how wraparound supports are critical to ensuring that an increasingly diverse postsecondary population has the necessary resources to complete a postsecondary education. The brief outlines common barriers students may face when navigating, financing and prioritizing postsecondary education and accessing socioemotional health services. Additionally, the brief provides examples of innovative state- and local-level practices to address each barrier.

Research Roundup: Equity Gaps and Career Planning Supports

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.

Research Roundup: Dual Enrollment & High School CTE

State Dual Enrollment Policies: Recently, Education Commission of the States compiled dual enrollment policies across all 50 states to create a comprehensive resource that lets users explore and compare states’ policies. Included in the resource is information on student access, eligibility requirements, course offerings, funding and program quality. The following outline broad-level findings:

• About 48 states and D.C. have state-level dual enrollment policies and 28 states have created multiple dual enrollment programs through state policy.
• Approximately 27 states require secondary and/or postsecondary institutions to notify students and their families of at least one of their state-level dual enrollment programs.
• Among 41 states that have student eligibility criteria, the most common types were students’ grade level, meeting the postsecondary institution’s entrance requirements and having a recommendation from a school official.
• Of 42 states that have instructor qualification requirements, the most common were meeting the postsecondary institution’s faculty requirements, meeting institutional accreditor requirements and having a graduate degree.

P-TECH 9-14 & Dual Enrollment: New York City’s P-TECH Grades 9-14 model prepares high school students for STEM careers through dual credit courses at the City University of New York (CUNY), which allows them to earn an applied associate degree within six years. To qualify for dual enrollment in New York, students must pass the New York State Regents exams. In a report by MDRC, researchers compared P-TECH students with students from other New York City high schools and found the following differences:

• About 42% of P-TECH students passed the Regents English language arts exam with a qualifying score compared to 25% of students from other high schools.
• By grade 10, the dual enrollment rate for P-TECH students was significantly higher than for other high school students, with the gap growing larger each consecutive year of high school.
• P-TECH students attempted and earned more dual enrollment credits than other high school students. By graduation, on average, P-TECH students had earned 6.4 more college credits.
• In both P-TECH and other high schools, female students took dual enrollment courses at higher rates than their male counterparts.

Dual Enrollment Access for English Learners: A blog post by the Community College Research Center describes how Anne Arundel Public Schools and Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) in Maryland are pursuing efforts to grow the number of English learners in dual enrollment courses, which has led to the pairing of a noncredit Capstone Grammar and Editing course with a one-credit Student Success Seminar for dual credit EL students. Recently, 19 ELs from Anne Arundel Public Schools applied to AACC and registered for the two classes, almost matching the total number of ELs statewide (23) who were dual enrolled in 2017-2018.

High School Students’ Perspectives on CTE: Between February 2020 and January 2022, ECMC Group conducted five national surveys of more than 5,000 high school students to understand their perspectives on their education and career plans. The following detail findings from the surveys that are particularly relevant to CTE:

• Almost half of students believe that postsecondary education should last less than four years, and skills should be taught by hands-on or on-the-job experiences.
• Roughly 22% of students stated they are more likely to attend a postsecondary CTE institution because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a 10-percentage point increase from May 2020.
• Many careers that students are thinking of pursuing are aligned with CTE pathways; however, only 20% believe that CTE can lead to the career they want. This could be attributed to the fact that more than half of students surveyed don’t understand what CTE is.
• About 74% of students say it’s important to have a career in mind before graduating and 55% of students state that they have already begun exploring their career options during high school.

Research Roundup: Student Aid and Equity in Postsecondary Education

Trends in Financial Aid: Recently, the National Center for Education Statistics published a report covering trends in student financial aid during the 2017-18 academic year. After examining financial aid data by type and source across 1,900 Title-IV-eligible institutions, researchers shared the following findings:

• Roughly 55% of students at community colleges received some type of financial aid, with the most common form being grants or loans, and were awarded $5,300, on average.
• Among community college students that received financial aid, 47% received federal aid, 24% received state aid and 6% received institutional aid.
• For students at public less-than-two-year institutions, 41% received some form of financial aid and they were awarded $5,500, on average.
• About 42% of community college students received Pell grants and 28% of students at public less-than-two-year institutions received Pell grants. ACTE supports the expansion of Pell grants to cover high-quality short-term programs so that more students at these institutions can access education and training for careers.

Analyzing Equity in Postsecondary Education: The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and the University of Pennsylvania collaborated to publish a report on equity trends in the postsecondary education system. The report reviews national and state data on equity as well as historical data on Federal TRIO programs, which are outreach and support services programs targeted at individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, with the goal of identifying policies and practices that improve overall postsecondary education attainment and equity in postsecondary outcomes.

Prospective and Current Students’ Perspectives: As postsecondary institutions seek ways to enroll and retain students, a report by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation provides helpful insights from prospective and current students. In 2021, researchers surveyed adults enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, adults with some postsecondary education who stopped out, and adults who never enrolled in postsecondary education. Some of their key findings are detailed below:

• Among adults who have never enrolled in postsecondary education, 40% have considered enrolling. In addition, 85% of those who stopped out in the past few years have considered reenrolling. For these adults, associate degrees and certificates were the top credentials of interest.
• Most enrolled students report that they are pursuing postsecondary education to obtain knowledge and skills, pursue a more fulfilling career and obtain a higher paying job.
• About 41% of associate degree students said they considered stopping out in the past six months with many citing emotional stress as a cause. However, about half report that financial aid and the value of their degree were important factors in helping them remain enrolled.

Postsecondary Education in Southern States: This May, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) published a factbook that provides a comprehensive overview of postsecondary education in the 16 SREB states. The book addresses statistics on the population and economy, enrollment, completion, affordability, faculty and administrators, and revenue and expenditures. In addition, the book includes over 100 tables of data related to these topics.

Financing Postsecondary Education: Recently, the State Higher Education Executive Officers association (SHEEO) released this year’s State Higher Education Finance Report, which gives a detailed analysis of state and local postsecondary education funding, tuition revenue and student enrollment during the 2021 fiscal year. The following are selected statistics about public two-year institutions from the report:

• Total state and local support for public institutions was $9,347 at two-year institutions, 88.6% of the amount at four-year institutions ($10,555).
• About 29 states increased state financial aid for full-time students at public two-year institutions. State aid for these students grew by 4.6%, reaching $510 per full-time student.
• Total education revenue for public two-year institutions averaged $11,928 per full-time student, which is an 8% increase from 2020.

Research Roundup: The Pandemic’s Impact on Education and Connecting Students to Supports

COVID-19 and CTE Perspectives: This March, EdChoice conducted a national survey of high school students and their parents to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted their views on post-high school plans and learning experiences. The following highlight the survey’s CTE-related findings:

• Since the pandemic started, the number of students planning on attending an in-state technical school increased from 3% to 6%.
• More than half of parents and students agreed that learning skills for future employment is the main purpose of high school education.
• Roughly 20% of parents stated that CTE is the most important subject for their child to learn before graduating high school.
• About 40% of students and 64% of parents say that apprenticeships would be useful right now.

K-12 Pandemic Learning: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report that discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted K-12 learning during the 2020-21 school year. Researchers surveyed teachers and parents to uncover the following findings about learning obstacles and strategies to prevent learning loss:

• Virtual and hybrid learning teachers were about 21 percentage points more likely than in-person teacher to state that their students had more difficulty learning than a typical school year.
• Nearly 75% of all teachers had more disengaged students than a typical school year, with high school teachers and virtual teachers experiencing higher levels of disengagement.
• Teachers that used live in-person instruction were significantly more likely to say it improved academic progress for at least half their students than teachers that used live virtual instruction or asynchronous instruction.

Relatedly, the Institute of Education Sciences released new data for the School Pulse Panel, a study that surveys K-12 public schools each month to assess the impact of the pandemic on a variety of topics. Detailed below, the latest survey findings from March and April touched on mental health, staff concerns and updates to school health policies:

• K-12 staffs’ top concerns included getting their students to meet the school year’s academic standards, a shortage of substitute teachers, and students’ social, emotional and mental health.
• About 70% of schools said that the percentage of students seeking mental health services has increased since the start of COVID-19 and 29% of schools reported the same for K-12 staff.
• In April, 30% of schools needed to quarantine one or more students due to COVID-19 exposure, symptoms or a positive test, which is a 64 percentage point decrease since January.

Postsecondary Pandemic Impacts: Recently, the Federal Reserve Bank released its annual Economic Well-being of Households report, which contains survey findings about adults’ financial challenges and opportunities related to employment, education and income. This year’s report included the following findings related to postsecondary education, the workforce and the COVID-19 pandemic:

• While K-12 schools largely returned to in-person instruction, more than 75% of postsecondary students said their classes were partly or completely virtual.
• Technical college and associate degree students prefer virtual education more than bachelor’s degree students, likely due to a greater adult population who may have other responsibilities.
• Around 31% of those with some postsecondary education said the benefits from their education exceeded the cost compared to 46% of associate degree and 67% of bachelor’s degree holders.
• Although the percentage of adults aged 25 to 54 that are not working increased, adults who said they were not working because they couldn’t find work returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Supporting Community College Students: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt students’ academic and personal lives, the Hope Center published a study that demonstrates how community colleges can raise awareness of support services. Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, researchers sent two types of text messages to Dallas College students: one offering information about resources and another offering both information and language to reduce stigma. The information-only texts increased emergency aid applications by five percentage points and outreach to college navigators by one percentage point. In contrast, the texts reducing stigma were successful at empowering students but did not increase support-seeking behaviors.

Safety in CTE Programs

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association published a free, downloadable book that provides research findings on teacher and student safety training, school district safety policies, facility safety and accidents in CTE and STEM programs with the purpose of helping educators advocate for better safety practices. The authors studied educator responses from the 2020 Technology and Engineering Education – Facilities and Safety Survey to learn the following:

• About one-third of respondents did not receive any form of safety training in their undergraduate teacher education coursework.
• Only 32% of educators received safety training from their school district upon being hired.
• Over half of respondents were unsure about or stated their school district did not have an annual safety audit.
• While 57% of educators indicated their largest class had 25 or more students enrolled, only 26% said they had a facility large enough to hold this number of students.
• More than half of the teachers in this study reported that lab stations or workbenches were not wheelchair accessible.
• Around 80% of educators experienced one or more minor safety-related accidents in the 2019-2020 academic year, and 12% experienced one or more major accidents.
• Respondents reported student behavioral issues as one of the top causes of accidents.
• 24% of teachers reported not requiring student safety testing before conducting a hazardous activity or using a hazardous item.

The above is just a sampling of the wealth of findings included in this book, which also touches on findings about safe use of specific equipment such as table saws, soldering and welding tools, and 3D printers as well as data on specific injuries and the activities most associated with injuries. 

The report concludes with recommendations to provide a safer teaching and learning experience when facilitating CTE and STEM activities including developing a school district lab safety policy, providing mandatory teacher and student safety trainings, conducting annual safety inspections, sanitizing personal protective equipment, creating accessible workspaces for students with disabilities and ensuring proper air ventilation.

Research Roundup: Barriers, Supports and Workplace Innovation in CTE Programs

Supporting Learners with Disabilities: Although CTE coursework can improve employment opportunities for learners with disabilities, many face barriers to access and success in CTE programs. A recent Advance CTE brief examines survey responses from state CTE directors to determine how states are leveraging Perkins V to support learners with disabilities. The following summarizes some of the survey’s key findings:

• About 84% of state CTE directors plan to leverage Perkins V to improve access and success for learners with disabilities. The top-reported strategies include partnering with state special education offices, providing training on learner recruitment and reviewing disaggregated data.
• While most state CTE directors reported state and local collaboration with special education offices, they were less likely to take such actions as braiding funding or conducting cross-agency training.
• Barriers to enrolling students with disabilities in CTE programs include lack of coordination with special education, lack of educator training, hesitancy related to behavioral plans and safety, and admissions requirements.
• Only 13% of state CTE leaders share data by disability type with local recipients.
• Less than half of state CTE directors reported providing accommodations to learners with disabilities for credential examinations.

Although the findings uncovered challenges, they also revealed CTE leaders’ desire to improve outcomes for learners with disabilities. To act on this, the brief recommends fostering relationships with special education offices through Perkins V, providing decision-makers with CTE data disaggregated by disability type, creating cross-training opportunities with special education agencies, and utilizing accommodations to help learners succeed.

Barriers to Skilled Trades Careers: According to a survey by Stanley Black & Decker, 85% of young people value a skilled trades career, but only 16% are very likely to consider such a career. The survey interviewed high school sophomores, juniors and seniors; parents of students in these grades; and skilled trades professionals to gain a better understanding of misconceptions and factors that prevent youth from entering skilled trades careers. The following highlight the survey’s key findings:

• Only 42% of young people believe skilled trades workers earn at least $50,000. In reality, half of skilled trades workers with less than 10 years of experience earn at least $50,000 upon starting.
• Many young people don’t have an accurate idea of the required skills. For example, 23% said that skilled trades jobs don’t use cutting-edge technology when most workers stated they do.
• Underrepresentation of women in the industry plays a role. Young women were 15 percentage points less likely to report considering a skilled trades career.
• About 37% of young people reported never having a conversation with anyone about careers in the skilled trades, signifying a lack of exposure to these career options.

Keeping Pace with Workplace Innovations: The Community College Research Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology interviewed over 200 administrators, faculty and staff at eight community colleges with strong workforce programs to determine how community colleges are adapting their programs in response to workplace innovation, including changing skill demands and equity-related concerns. The report uncovered that workforce programs are making greater use of digital technologies, partnering with industry professionals, aligning short-term and long-term programs, and providing scholarships for short-term certificate programs in high-demand fields.