CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Research Roundup: Pathways for Future Competitiveness, U.S. Worker Exposure to AI and Aligning State Workforce Systems

Fortifying America’s Future: Pathways for Competitiveness: The Aspen Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute has published a report with the recommendations from thinkers throughout business, education, nonprofit and national security sectors to strengthen the U.S. education system, protect national competitiveness and identify key industries like semiconductor manufacturing.

Top recommendations below:

• Leverage the national security community’s bipartisan support to create a sense of urgency in improving the U.S. education and career pathway ecosystem. Combine funding streams to promote work-based learning, flexibility of public-private partnerships and better coordination of high-quality pathways beginning in K-12.
• Since 92% of future careers need digital skills, promote STEM mastery and computer science through evidence-based practices. Learners with high exposure to technology-related topics are 2.6 times more likely to declare a STEM major and 5.3 times more likely to eventually be employed in a STEM field. 

U.S. Workers and Their Levels of Exposure to AI By Profession: A recently published report by the Pew Research Center examined the levels at which U.S. workers across multiple fields and professions are exposed to artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers classified 19% of workers as having high AI exposure jobs, with exposure being higher for jobs that require more education.

More findings below:

• Nearly 13 million men and 14.6 million women worked a high AI exposure job in fields like office administration, auditing and accounting.
• Workers in more AI-exposed industries like information and technology; professional, scientific and technical services; and banking, finance, accounting and real estate perceive less economic risk from AI.
• High AI exposure jobs require diverse types of skillsets, with 59% using fundamental skills like critical thinking, 48% using analytical skills, 34% managerial and 26% social skills.

Aligning State Systems to Support Students: The National Conference of State Legislatures has published a report that analyzes how states are working to support community college goals of responding to the nation’s workforce needs by aligning, connecting and coordinating efforts across state agencies, postsecondary institutions, businesses and labor partners. Researchers discovered that several states are merging or redesigning their workforce systems to avoid program duplication and streamline support processes for learners.

Highlights of innovative efforts across states below:

• In 2023, Virginia passed B.1470 to create a new department with oversight of all workforce development activities and streamline over 1,500 state programs.
• In 2023, Texas passed B.2315 to consolidate workforce development programs administered across various state agencies into one.
• In 2019, Arkansas passed B. 522 to create a statewide workforce development system, reduce program duplication and create a catalog of industry-recognized credentials, among other things.
• In 2021, Delaware passed B.166 to create the Elevate Program, providing up to $10,000 per learner in approved noncredit programs identified by the Workforce Development Board.

Research Roundup: State of Higher Education, Community College Guided Pathways and the College-to-Jobs Pipeline

Lumina Foundation State of Higher Education 2024: The Lumina Foundation and Gallup have partnered to publish the 2024 State of Higher Education report, which measures the attitudes of U.S. adults toward postsecondary education, their interest in pursuing a credential, enrollment or persistence barriers, as well as the issues that currently enrolled learners face in their programs. Researchers found that, among adults without a degree, the same percentage of respondents value an industry certification (75%) as much as a bachelor’s degree (75%).

More findings below:

• 84% of respondents cite career outcomes (salary increase, promotion or higher-paying job) as the reason they are enrolled or considering enrolling in a postsecondary credential program.
• 51% of currently unenrolled adults say they intend to pursue a credential within the next five years, more so for individuals 25 or younger than for older populations.
• The most common persistence barriers include cost and work conflicts.
• Across enrolled learners, 74% rated their program quality very good or excellent, but fully in-person students responded more positively (81%) than those completely online (68%).

Guided Career Pathways and Community College Students: The Community College Survey of Student Engagement in collaboration with Jobs for the Future has published a report about how guided pathways are preparing community college students to meet their postsecondary and career goals. Researchers learned that over 90% of learners reported choosing a career path but were missing vital information for career advancement, with only 21% of students saying their college contributed “very much” to their local job market knowledge.

Top findings below:

• Work-based learning participants were likelier (71%) to say their coursework provided information about the skills needed for their chosen career path than non-participants (44%).
• 64% of individuals who have chosen a career path never used counseling services.
• Only 22% of students who have chosen a career path reported that their college “very much” helped them learn about the average earnings for their chosen career.
• 30% of learners received career pathway guidance from counselors, 29% from friends/family, 28% from instructors and 13% from current employers.

College-to-Jobs Stakeholder Briefs: The Project on Workforce at Harvard University has published a series of briefs for policymakers, educators and employers that offer practical recommendations and an outlined vision for an integrated education-workforce system. Researchers published briefs covering a range of topics, including college-industry partnerships, work-based learning (WBL), economic development and more.

A few recommendations from across the series are described below:

• Postsecondary institutions: Select a single department as the decision-making authority for employer relations to streamline processes and contacts for businesses.
• Employers: Compensate learners for WBL to ensure that underresourced individuals who cannot dedicate time to unpaid work can have meaningful experiences.
• Policymakers: Use the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act’s authority to implement a state strategy with an agenda for a unified education, workforce and economic development system that includes cross-sector collaboration, clear outcomes and direct investment in key areas.

Research Roundup: CTE Teacher Shortage, Some College but No Credential Learners and Data to Incentivize Postsecondary Success

CTE is a Hidden Weak Spot in Many High School’s Teacher Workforces: The Brookings Institution has published a report that analyzes the CTE teacher shortage across the U.S. with insights about the factors that are perpetuating the problem, the ways in which schools are struggling to fill these positions, policy recommendations and more. Researchers discovered that administrators are having difficulties filling CTE teacher positions 57% of the time compared to only 39% of the time for openings in academic subjects.

Top findings include:

• CTE teachers with professional teaching licenses were less likely to leave teaching than occupationally licensed CTE teachers. Occupationally licensed CTE teachers were 25% likelier to leave the field than non-CTE teachers.
• Occupationally licensed CTE instructors who do leave the profession earn about 20% more upon exit than other teachers (potentially contributing to their higher exit rates).
• Health science teacher exits (a specific area of focus for the study) often do not get fully re-staffed, leading to net losses of student participation, course sections and staff the following school year.

Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes: The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released the annual Some College, No Credential (SCNC) report, which explores the educational trajectories of U.S. adults who left postsecondary education without ever receiving an award or credential. The report found that the SCNC population at the end of July 2022 was 42 million with more than 37 million of these individuals being under the age of 65. 

Top findings include:

• Between January 2021 and July 2022, there were fewer stopouts compared to the similar prior period (-0.7%). Particularly, public two-year institutions experienced larger decreases (-4.1%), which could be contributed to overall pandemic-related enrollment declines.
• In 2022-23 SCNC re-enrollees primarily chose associate degrees (51.9%), 28.2% bachelor’s degrees and 13.3% undergraduate certificates.
• Of the 864,00 learners who re-enrolled in 2021-22, over 39,000 earned a credential during that year, 467,000 persevered into 2022-23 and 80,000 earned a credential in their second year of re-enrollment.
• In 2022-23, of nearly 41,900 re-enrollees that earned credentials, 48.7% earned an undergraduate certificate, 29.4% earned an associate degree, and 19.7% a bachelor’s degree.

How States Can Use Data to Incentivize Student Postsecondary and Workforce Success: American Student Assistance and the Education Strategy Group have published a report that examines how can states use data to demonstrate the value of public education and support the long-term success of students through reporting, accountability and incentive systems. Researchers highlighted striking differences in the value of postsecondary credentials with entry-level graduates in liberal arts majors earning 24% less than STEM majors and 29% less than health-related graduates.

Top finings and recent state developments below:

• 35 states publicly report both postsecondary success and workforce outcomes but only few report metrics related to return on investment and/or postsecondary value.
• 29 states use outcomes-based funding (OBF) mechanisms with only six incorporating workforce outcomes and 22 including two- and four-year institutions.
• 11 states plus D.C report only on college success outcomes but no state reports only on workforce outcomes.
• Seven states have funding incentives incorporating college and career readiness metrics or postsecondary outcomes with five of these only including the former.
• 41 states include one or more college and career readiness metrics into federal or state accountability systems, eight incorporate both college career readiness and postsecondary outcomes and 33 plus D.C include only the former.

Updated Resources: Education & Training and Hospitality & Tourism Sector Sheets

Today ACTE published CTE: Developing the Education & Training Workforce and CTE: Developing the Hospitality & Tourism Workforce as part of our revamped series of Sector Sheets describing CTE’s role in growing the workforce for vital industry sectors. The Sector Sheet series is published with support from ACTE's long-time partner Pearson.  

The Education & Training Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports this workforce, which employs more than 8 million people nationwide supporting preschool through adult learners, while the Hospitality & Tourism Sector Sheet describes CTE’s role in preparing individuals to work in travel and tourism, hotels and lodging, and restaurant fields.

The Sector Sheets share information on occupations, earnings and credentials that enable individuals to succeed in these sectors. And demonstrate the importance of CTE in developing these workforces by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more. 

Both the newer and older Sector Sheets are available on the ACTE Sector Sheet webpage for download and use. We encourage you to share these tools with students, families, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for learners and the workforce. 

Opportunity to Learn More About the College Scorecard

Later this summer, a National Center for Education Statistics’ research team is offering a free professional development opportunity on the use of the College Scorecard. See the note below and instructions on how to register from NCES!

The U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard is a free online tool to help students of all ages, families, educators, counselors, and other college access professionals make data-informed decisions when choosing a college or university to attend. Through an open and easy-to-use website, the Scorecard supports students on their pathway to college and future careers by increasing the transparency of information that will help them understand the benefits of a higher education, such as college costs, student debt, graduation rates, admissions test scores and acceptance rates, student body diversity, post-college earnings, and much more.

This session is designed for counselors, advisors, and other educators involved in training college access professionals. Participants will learn how to use the College Scorecard to support students and parents in making data-informed decisions about college attendance. The training includes a comprehensive toolkit tailored for professional development, equipping advisors with the necessary skills to effectively teach others how to utilize the College Scorecard.

Training will be offered online by College Scorecard experts. Click HERE to register for one of the following dates:

• • Tues, July 30, 10:00am-noon EDT
  • Thur, Aug 1, 4:00-6:00pm EDT
  • Thur, Aug 22, 10:00am-noon EDT
  • Tue, Aug 27, 4:00-6:00pm EDT 

Internship Experiences of Community College Students

The Strada Education Foundation has published a report that highlights key findings from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 2023 National Survey of College Internships. In a previous report on student’s internship expectations and experiences, researchers described how, despite 70% of students planning to complete an internship during college, less than half go on to find and complete one and less than a quarter secure a paid opportunity.

The following are major findings about the internship experiences of students attending two-year postsecondary institutions:

• Only 13% of community college learners had participated in an internship during the prior 12 months compared to 41% of four-year institution seniors and 22% of four-year juniors.

• Most two-year learners participated in internships in the social service profession (19%), followed by physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science (18%) and communications, media and public relations (15%).

• 79% of two-year students completed an in-person opportunity and 18% online. The median internship duration was 16 weeks. In comparison, 75% of four-year students completed an in-person internship and 19% online, working a median of 13 weeks.

• Only 46% of two-year students completed high-skill tasks with supervision or autonomous work compared to 65% of four-year learners.

• Skills gains were similar across the board with two-year and four-year students reporting developments in communication, problem-solving, teamwork and leadership.

• 74% of four-year students and 72% of two-year students reported being very or extremely satisfied with their experiences.

• 71% of two-year students reported being provided with written learning goals and activities prior to their internship experiences, compared to 63% of four-year students.

The report also included recommendations and calls to action for educational institutions, employers and researchers to work together to ensure better internship experiences for all learners. Action steps include the following, among others:

• Using internships intentionally to support structured learning plans and objectives for learners.

• Forming employer-university partnerships to design and scale industry-specific learning opportunities for students.

• Increasing documentation to better understand employer perspectives and the value of internships and other work-based learning models.

Research Roundup: Workforce Supply and Demand, Noncredit Industry Credentials and Community College Enrollment Estimates

Addressing the Mismatch Between Future Workers and the Supply of Postsecondary Awards: A recently published report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analyzed the misalignment between credential supply and labor market demand at the subbaccalaureate level. Researchers determined that the U.S. economy is expected to create an average of 18.5 million job openings annually through 2031, with approximately 31% of these openings for workers with an associate degree, certificate or some postsecondary credit but no degree. However, the report also uncovered substantial misalignment between the current supply and projected demand for these credentials across multiple local labor markets throughout the nation.

The supply-demand relationship for subbaccalaureate credentials differs widely across career fields. For instance, jobs in sales and office support will account for 27% of openings, but only 4% of certificates and associate degrees are awarded in these fields. Relatedly, skilled trades jobs will account for 23% of openings, with only 12% of subbaccalaureate credentials awarded in these programs.  On the other hand, 10% of subbaccalaureate credentials are awarded in education but only 3% of job openings are projected in education occupations that require less than a bachelor’s degree.

More findings below:

• Rural areas experienced the highest levels of misalignment with the most alignment found in or near large cities.
• American Indian/Alaska Native adults were the most likely (5.3%) to live in communities with no local subbaccalaureate credential provider in comparison to white (1.6%), Hispanic/Latino (0.7%), Black/African American (0.6%) and Asian American adults (0.3%).

Noncredit Workforce Training, Industry Credentials and Labor Market Outcomes: The Annenberg Institute at Brown University has released a research paper that examines the labor market returns of industry-recognized credentials connected to community college noncredit programs. The analysis is based on data of around 24,000 working-age adults enrolled in FastForward noncredit workforce training programs at the Virginia community college system. Results indicated that earning industry-recognized credentials, on average, increased quarterly earnings by $1,000 as well as the likelihood of gaining employment by 2.4%.

Top findings below:

• Among the six career fields examined, transportation produced the most earnings gains from attaining an industry credential, with earnings increasing by more than $1,800 (a 21% increase from before FastForward participation).
• A major factor in earnings increases from FastForward is mobility from lower-paying to higher-paying occupations and industries like transportation and construction.
• Findings suggest that variations in return on investment across race/ethnicity, gender identity and age are primarily associated with students choosing higher-earning or lower-earning career fields.

Spring 2024 Community College Enrollment: The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has published its spring 2024 enrollment estimates. Top findings for two-year institutions and comparisons between 2024 and 2023 enrollment levels below:

• Community college enrollment gains again led growth across the higher education sector, with an increase of 4.7% or more than 200,000 students.
• The following CTE program areas saw enrollment increases at two-year institutions: mechanic and repair technologies (+14.2%), precision production (+10.2%), construction trades (+8.1%), and personal and culinary services (+7.7%). In addition, the general health services major at community colleges increased by 27.5% as part of an overall growth in enrollment in health care fields.

IES Announces Availability of CTE Research Grants

In late May, the National Center for Education Research within the national Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released a funding announcement for Fiscal Year 2025 research grant competitions.

Education Research Grants through IES are designed to “expand the understanding of what works for whom, in what context, and why to provide reliable information about how to improve education outcomes for learners at all levels, including early childhood, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult education.” Grants of up to $4 million are available to researchers in 11 different topic areas, including CTE. The CTE topic area is designed to support research on the implementation and effects of CTE programs and policies on students’ education and workforce outcomes. Specific topics mentioned in the research description include work-based learning, middle school CTE programs, and CTE teacher recruitment and retention and the impact on learner outcomes. Research looking at longer-term outcomes, such as college completion and earnings is also a priority. Applications for these grants are due September 12, 2024.  

Those interested in applying for these research grants can access virtual office hours hosted by the National Center for Education Research. To learn more, visit https://ies.ed.gov/funding/technicalassistance.asp or reach out to the CTE program officer, Dr. Corinne Alfeld, at [email protected]. More information about IES grants overall can be found at https://ies.ed.gov/funding/.

NCES Highlights CTE in 2024 Condition of Education Report

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has published its annually mandated Condition of Education report, which presents key indicators on the status of education at all levels throughout the country. This year the report includes a special highlight section about CTE. Findings and insights are below.

Staffing challenges and qualifications of CTE teachers

Data from academic year 2020-21 demonstrates challenges in hiring for open CTE teaching positions across the United States. During the first full school year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 31% of public schools with open teaching positions in CTE reported having difficulties with or being unable to fill CTE instructor roles. This percentage was higher than for many other subject areas.

• CTE teachers were the most likely of all grades 9-12 public school instructors to be newer to the profession, with 10% having less than three years of teaching experience. In addition, 29% had three to nine years of experience, 36% had 10 to 20 years of experience and 25% had over 20 years of experience.

• 13% of CTE teachers had less than a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree (compared to 2% of teachers overall), 44% had a master’s degree as their highest degree (vs. 54% overall) and 6% of CTE teachers had an education specialist degree as their highest degree (vs. 8% overall). The percentage of CTE teachers with a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree (35%) was similar to the percentage of public school teachers overall.

Participation in CTE during school

This next set of data points looked at CTE course participation and completion among 2019 high school graduates.

• 85% of high school graduates earned at least one Carnegie credit, with information technology (29%), human services (28%) and business and marketing (21%) having the highest participation.

• Participation in CTE was higher among young men, with 87% having earned at least one Carnegie credit in comparison to 82% of young women.

• CTE participation was highest among students from rural areas (92%) and towns (91%) in comparison to students from suburban areas (83%) and cities (80%).

• Asian American learners had the lowest participation rate (77%), with American Indian/Alaska Native (87%), Black (86%) and white (86%) students participating at the highest rates.

Trends in CTE degree and certificate completion

This section of the report looked at the completion levels of subbaccalaureate CTE programs at the certificate or associate degree levels in school year 2021-22.

Subbaccalaureate certificates:

• More than 888,000 CTE-focused subbaccalaureate certificates were conferred, with health sciences (30%) and manufacturing, construction, repair and transportation (21%) being the top fields.

• Four CTE fields of study -- agriculture and natural resources, computer and information sciences, education, and business and marketing -- saw increases of more than 50% in certificates awarded between 2011-12 and 2021-22. In contrast, there was a 35% decrease in health science certificates awarded during this time frame. Health sciences remained the most common program area for CTE certificates awarded despite this drop.

Associate degrees:

• More than 499,000 CTE-focused associate degrees were conferred, with health sciences (36%) and business and marketing (21%) being the most prevalent fields of study.

• Public, legal and social services; protective services; engineering, architecture and science technologies; and consumer services all experienced decreases of more than 20% in certificates awarded between 2011-12 and 2021-22. In contrast, agriculture and natural resources; communications and communications technologies; and manufacturing, construction, repair and transportation saw increases in the same time range.

Postsecondary pathways of public school CTE concentrators

This section provided insights about the postsecondary and workforce outcomes of CTE concentrators -- defined as individuals who earned two or more credits in the same CTE area during high school -- who graduated high school in 2013. By June 2021, eight years after high school graduation, 80% of secondary CTE concentrator graduates had ever enrolled in postsecondary education.

• CTE concentrators and non-concentrators enrolled in postsecondary education had similar rates of credential attainment. However, more CTE concentrators (14%) than non-concentrators (9%) received an associate degree as their highest postsecondary award, while non-concentrators (54%) were more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree as their highest credential than CTE concentrators (48%).

• More CTE concentrators (74%) than non-concentrators (64%) who earned any postsecondary degree or certificate earned their highest award in a CTE field of study. About 27% of these CTE concentrators earned their award in the same field as their high school concentration, most prevalently with public services (54%) and health care (44%).

Opportunity to Respond to the National Career Clusters® Framework Validation Survey

Over the last year, Advance CTE, the organization representing CTE state leaders, has been working on a process to modernize their National Career Clusters® Framework. After a year of input, research and development, and testing with business and industry leaders and CTE professionals, a draft modernized National Career Clusters® Framework was released by Advance CTE last week. The draft Framework is now public for validation from leaders, educators, industry professionals, and connected partners in the CTE community. Your voice is needed!

The National Validation Survey — open now through July 7 — is your opportunity to weigh in on the draft modernized Framework. It is the last opportunity before a final Framework is released later this year to ensure the design reflects the changes that have taken place in the world of work and across industry sectors and meets students’ needs. You also can share evidence to support any further suggested changes you make. We encourage as many CTE educators and leaders as possible to participate in the survey.

Visit the survey to view the draft Framework and watch an introductory video and webinar prior to responding. More information can be found on Advance CTE’s Advancing the Framework webpage.