CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Research Roundup: Data on CTE Offerings, Student Perceptions of Postsecondary Education and Transfer Outcomes

NCES Data on CTE Offerings in Public Schools: NCES has published the results of its January 2024 edition of the School Pulse Panel, the U.S. Department of Education’s monthly data collection effort of vital information in public education.

The results include the following:

• 86% of public high schools reported offering CTE.
• Schools comprised of more than 75% students of color were the least likely to report offering CTE courses.
• Schools in rural settings are more likely to report offering CTE.
• 62% of public high schools reported having graduation requirements that include college and career milestones.

Student Perceptions of American Postsecondary Education: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with HCM Strategists and Edge Research recently published a study on recent trends in postsecondary enrollment. The data is composed of survey responses from 18- to 30-year-olds who did not complete or never enrolled in postsecondary education (referred to as non-enrollees) as well as high scohol juniors and seniors.

Key insights are listed below:

• Non-enrollees are increasingly seeing “excellent or good value” in coursework that leads to a certificate or license.
• Both cohorts of respondents (non-enrollees and high schoolers) believe that in today’s market a good job requires certification as proof of someone’s skills (65% and 69%, respectively).
• Among supports that would be extremely helpful, both cohorts cited debt elimination as the most important support, followed by guidance to navigate the college experience (high school students) and help identifying career skills and interests (non-enrollees).
• High schoolers get most of their information about postsecondary education from school counselors (47%), parents (44%), college websites (37%) and teachers (34%). Non-enrollees obtain most of their information from Google searches (39%), college websites (34%), social media (29%) and peers (23%).

Transfer and Progress Report, February 2024 Edition: The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released more data from its transfer and progress report, which was created to serve educational leaders and policymakers addressing enrollment impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through detailed and readily available data in the clearinghouse platform.

Key insights from the report below:

• Overall upward transfer enrollment along all pathways increased by 7.7% with over 39,000 students moving up a level in their educational journeys.
• The 2022 cohort of students enrolled at the community college level grew by 851,000 new students, representing an increase of 7% compared to the 2020 mid-pandemic cohort. This increase impacted most racial and ethnic groups, particularly Hispanic students. Gains were also high among students aged 20 and younger.
• Over two-thirds of students who started at community college and completed an upward transfer earned a credential within six years, compared to only 30.7% of lateral and 22.7% of non-transfer students.

OCTAE Releases Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) on Advancing Gender Equity in CTE

The Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) at the U.S. Department of Education has released a letter designed to share recent progress around gender equity within CTE programs and highlight areas of success. The Perkins Act continues to place a priority on encouraging students to pursue programs that lead to careers that are non-traditional for their gender, making this a critical issue for CTE leaders as well as the economy, as many fields are struggling with staffing shortages due to a lack of employment interest and retention among one gender.  

The first part of the memo includes a review of historical data trends around gaps in CTE and workforce participation by gender. Key insights included:  

• Between 1990 and 2019, there was no major differences in the share of male and female graduates who earned at least one credit in CTE subject areas such as information technology, construction and architecture, all non-traditional occupations for women.  

• In 2021-22, there was more than 2.8 million CTE high school concentrators across the nation, 46.7% of which were female.  

• Between 1990 and 2019, gaps narrowed between male and female participation in architecture and construction; manufacturing; and transportation, distribution and logistics, but largely because male participation declined. The gap also narrowed in human services, although female continue to have stronger participation.  

• Females made progress in closing the participation gap with males in agriculture, food and natural resources between 1990 and 2019, but the gap widened in IT, continued to be large in engineering and technology, and a new gap emerged in business and marketing.  

• During the 1990–2019 timeframe, a gap emerged in male-female participation in health sciences, with females participating at higher rates.  

• In STEM Occupations requiring less than a baccalaureate degree, women comprised only 25% of the workforce in 2021, highlighting the need for more progress in secondary level training efforts. 

The memo then highlighted results from several states that have made progress closing gaps in participation by gender in some fields. Profiles are included of Arkansas’ efforts to expand female participation in computer science, Washington D.C.’s partnership with a national organization to evaluate and take action on male-female participation gaps in STEM and architecture and construction fields and Kansas’ efforts to increase the number of male concentrators in health science pathways to address critical shortages of nurses and other health care professionals.  

 The report emphasizes that these efforts represent a considerable initiative by state leaders to go above and beyond the bare minimum requirements of Perkins V for advancing gender equity, and that significant progress is unlikely if efforts are confined to only legal requirements. 

Updated Resource: Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Sector Sheet

Today ACTE is releasing CTE: Developing the Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Workforce, the latest in 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.  

These revised Sector Sheets include job opportunities in each sector and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring more streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective. 

This Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports the law, public safety, corrections and security workforce, which employs about 5 million people nationwide. It also shares information on occupations, earnings and credentials that enable individuals to succeed in the emergency medical and fire, legal services and law enforcement sub-sectors. Finally, the Sector Sheet demonstrates the importance of CTE in developing this workforce by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more. 

As we move forward with the revamped Sector Sheets, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will remain 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.  

Research Roundup: CTE Student Impacts, Artificial Intelligence and Sector-based Training Programs

What We Know About the Impact of CTE: A recently published report by the CTE Research Network explored the causal effects of CTE on student outcomes through a systematic review of literature spanning the past 20 years. The report concluded that CTE has a positive impact on student outcomes such as academic achievement, high school completion, employability skills and college readiness in comparison to those who did not take any CTE courses.

More findings and insights below:

• Students who participate in CTE in high school are more likely to be enrolled in a two-year college or be employed after graduation than their non-CTE counterparts, with no statistically significant impact on four-year college enrollment.
• The literature review found no statistically significant negative impacts of CTE participation.
• Researchers highlighted CTE’s impacts on student achievement in postsecondary education as well as CTE’s effect on discipline, attendance, degree attainment and earnings as current research topics for which evidence is lacking.
• Researchers determined that not enough evidence exists about different CTE delivery models to distinguish impact or effectiveness.

ACTE is a lead in the CTE Research Network.

Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: The American Enterprise Institute has published a report that analyzes how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect jobs, skills and the evolution of work through the automation of a variety of tasks. Experts found that AI could add approximately $2.6-$4.4 trillion annually across the globe through industries such as banking, software, technology and the life sciences, highlighting the importance of adapting educational curricula across the nation to accommodate this technology.

According to the analysis, most studies have found to date that AI’s effect on employment has been minimal. While predictions for the future vary greatly, the expectation of skills that are likely to be impacted by AI has shifted over the years from manual tasks to tasks such as writing.

The following list shares recommendations on how state and federal policies can support workers as they navigate this new technological era:

• Invest in sector-based training programs as a worker-centered approach.
• Support displaced workers through job counseling and relocation and financial support during the retraining, transition and job search processes.
• Authorize worker-owned personal employment training accounts through federal legislation.
• Invest in career guidance and counseling, particularly in areas with high concentrations of low-income students.

Sector-based Training Programs: MDRC recently published a report on sector-based training programs that provides insight into the factors that enable sector-based programs to be successful. Researchers discovered that training providers are struggling to provide proper services to workers, with lack of funding and capacity for data collection and analysis seriously hindering their options for program advancement and improvement.

The following list describes insights and recommendations on sector-based training struggles:

• Providers report frequently suffering from data overload with little to no capacity to digest and interpret data.
• Funding opportunities from third parties often lead to rushed expansion that overextends staff and hinders original program models, structures and ideologies.
• Limited staff capacity hinders development and sustainability of industry partnerships, often leading to insufficient pathways for workers and incorrection perceptions of training programs.
• Interviewees identified personal and professional alumni networks as crucial supports.

Extending the Runway: A 50-State Analysis of Middle School Career Exploration

American Student Assistance® in collaboration with Education Strategy Group recently published a report that explores the resources and mechanisms that state leaders, school administrators and CTE educators are leveraging to implement and expand middle grades career exploration.

Researchers noted a worrying trend of 45% of young Americans in Generation Z who say a high school diploma is all they need to get financial security, while 72% of U.S. jobs are expected to require some form of postsecondary education by 2031.

Experts suggest that the solution to better prepare learners to make decisions about their careers is intervention at an earlier age in the form of middle grades career exploration. Most states having identified middle grades career exploration as an important component of a student’s education (73%), have dedicated funding to support such activities (92%), and have policies that require some type of middle grades career exploration (92%). Twenty-seven states require students to develop an individual career and academic plan in middle school. Additionally, all but one state reported offering material supports for schools and districts to guide their middle grades career exploration work, often in the form of templates, tools, lesson plans and platforms.

Despite this recent progress, only 11 states (22%) have explicitly codified the term middle school career exploration in state statute. In addition, only 20% of states collect data on middle grades exploration while only 14% include this topic in their state or federal accountability systems.

When it comes to funding, the majority of states (96%) have allocated some funds to support middle grades career exploration although amounts vary greatly. Forty-one percent of states fund middle grades exploration only through federal sources such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Perkins V and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

School administrators are most frequently using this money to invest in customized online platforms that facilitate students’ career planning. Three states report using their funds to increase districts’ capacity through career advisors and coaches, while only a few states are dedicating funds to specifically support career and technical student organizations with middle grade chapters.

The following recommendations describe how Perkins V and CTE can be leveraged to support middle grades career exploration:

• Use state Perkins V and ESSA plans to set middle grades career exploration expectations and to monitor quality and data collection.
• Revise state policies that limit students’ abilities to access diverse career exploration opportunities, including restricting CTE course enrollment by grade point average or grade level.
• Ensure explicit commitment to middle grades career exploration in local Perkins V subgrantee applications.
• Use Perkins V to set aside funds to support professional development and to encourage localities to prioritize middle grades career exploration in grant applications.

CTE in Governors’ State of The State Addresses 2024

As of early March 2024, at least 29 governors had mentioned CTE and/or workforce development in their State of the State addresses, as reported by the Education Commission of the States.

The following list provides a sample of how CTE was addressed by governors across different states:

• Brad Little announced that Idaho’s LAUNCH grants program will expand to cover up to 80% or approximately $8,000 for enrollment in an education or training program aligned with an in-demand career area after high school graduation.
• Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced an additional state investment of $3 million into youth apprenticeships while celebrating that Missouri now ranks second in the nation for apprenticeship opportunities and describing the establishment or upgrading of 57 CTE institutions in the state.
• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced that the state is working to develop the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences to provide opportunities within health care fields for students from rural populations.
• Ron DeSantis celebrated a milestone of over 600,000 rapid credentials and industry certificates earned by Florida high school students since 2019. He also highlighted the more than 229,000 students enrolled in CTE programs throughout state colleges.
• Maine Gov. Janet Mills celebrated an investment of over $200 million in job training, credentialing, career exploration and skill attainment programs. She also highlighted that more than 25,000 people have participated in internships, apprenticeships and other career exploration programs.
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee proposed that the state expand apprenticeship opportunities and improve pathways into health care to tackle the inequity of health care access across the state.
• Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania celebrated the milestone of 33 new apprenticeship programs with an enrollment of over 6,000 new apprentices statewide as well as investments in CTE, apprenticeship and training programs.
• Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds highlighted a record 70% of Iowans that have attained some form of postsecondary education or training, compared to 58% at the beginning of her administration. She credited this achievement to the Future Ready Iowa Act and enhanced education and workforce training across the state.

In conclusion, the future of CTE looks bright in the near and far future with the support of both Democratic and Republican governors who are increasingly aware of the benefits that CTE provides to learners’ educational and workforce journeys. 

For more information on the state-by-state outlook of CTE across the country, check out the recently published State Policies Impacting CTE: 2023 Year in Review report.

Research Roundup: Workforce Development in Rural America, New Skills for Youth Initiative and Clean Energy Workforce Demand

Workforce Development in Rural America: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce recently published a report on the challenges and strengths of small-town America. Researchers discovered that working adults in rural America are almost as likely as working adults in urban America to have a good job – an occupation that pays a minimum of $43,000 for workers aged 25-44 and $55,000 for workers aged 45-64.

More findings and insights below:

• The rural workforce accounts for 13% of the total 25-64-year-old population and holds a proportionate share of roughly 12% of the country’s good jobs.
• The number of colleges offering middle-skills programs is 13 times greater in very urban areas than very rural areas.
• Workers with an associate degree or some college hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
• Across rural areas, the South has the highest rate of non-participation in the labor force (29%) followed by the West (26%).
• White employees hold a larger share of good jobs in rural areas than in urban areas.
• Women workers are less likely to have a good job in rural areas than in urban areas.

Meeting the Workforce Demand of Clean Energy: A recent report by the National Skills Coalition examined the labor supply and demand and potential talent shortages that may be generated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. Researchers found that an average of 2.9 million jobs per year are expected to be generated by these investments.

Here are more details on the impacts of these new laws:

• 69% of jobs created by the laws will be available for workers without a bachelor’s degree. 
• Newly created jobs are projected to pay a median hourly wage of $26.20 an hour or 10.5% higher than current U.S. workforce median hourly wage.
• Multiple occupations will face an anticipated labor shortage of 1.1 million workers with the necessary skills to fill these jobs.
• Approximately two in three jobs will be directly created by the three laws within construction and manufacturing, amounting to about 680,000 total new jobs.

Lessons from the New Skills for Youth Initiative: Advance CTE in collaboration with Education Strategy Group recently released a report that shares the challenges and successes of sustaining the work of the New Skills for Youth (NSFY). The analysis describes outcomes such as improved training and support for CTE teachers, increased usage of data for addressing equity gaps and expanded access to regional and statewide career pathways, among others.

In addition, the authors made the following recommendations:

• Form industry partnerships with intentionality for regional and statewide career pathways to ensure that partners have fully bought into the career pathways vision.
• Emphasize that projected successes from career pathways grant funds will not show up immediately.
• Advocate for dedicated line-item funding at the state level to help sustain organizational work.
• Provide one-on-one assistance to local leaders to help meet demand for scaling career pathways and support the needs of local sites.

Updated Resource: Biosciences Sector Sheet

ACTE has published CTE: Developing the Biosciences Workforce, the latest in 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.  

These revised Sector Sheets include job opportunities in each sector and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring more streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective. 

This Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports the biosciences workforce, which employs over 2.1 million people nationwide across more than 127,000 business establishments. It also shares information on occupations, earnings and credentials that enable individuals to succeed in the laboratories, medical equipment and devices, and pharmaceutical manufacturing sub-sectors. Finally, the Sector Sheet demonstrates the importance of CTE in developing this workforce by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more. 

As we move forward with the revamped Sector Sheets, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will remain 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.  

Research Roundup: Degree Attainment Inequity, Pandemic Relief Funding and Alternative Credentialing

Alternative Credentials Models: The Online & Professional Education Association in partnership with Wal-Mart recently published a report that examined the landscape of alternative credentials with an analysis of the programmatic and industry partnership models that are necessary to support and sustain them. The authors of the study noted that postsecondary institutions are increasingly opening up to alternative delivery models and credentials such as non-credit certificates, professional certificates, badges, bootcamps, massive open online courses (MOOCs) and more.

The following list includes key insights from the publication’s postsecondary administrator survey:

• 94% of respondents said that their institutions offer alternative credentials.
• 84% of institutions reported offering non-credit certificates, 82% offer professional certificates, 80% offer badges, 45% offer bootcamps and 26% offer MOOCs.
• 67% of institutions reported offering stackable credentials.
• Institutions use multiple models to finance alternative credentials: 75% of institutions reported using fee-based business models, 65% use revenue share, 57% use a self-funded entrepreneurial model and 54% use an employer-funded model.
• 71% of respondents reporting co-creating curriculum through employer engagement or partnership.
• Only 55% of institutions have a consistent process for the development of new alternative credentials.

Researchers also recommended including alternative credentials as a strategic priority within institutional plans, bringing in employers and corporate partners to contribute during the program development process, and avoiding “one size fits all” solutions.

Inequity in Degree Attainment: The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has published a report on recent trends and insights concerning degree attainment, value and inequity. Researchers ascertained that although postsecondary degree attainment increased by 6.7 percentage points from 2010 to 2020, gaps across racial and ethnic groups remained significant.

More statistics and insights below:

• Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw the most gains in the number of adults with an associate degree or higher.
• Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino adults experienced a nationwide degree attainment increase of 11% and 15% respectively, with Texas and Minnesota among the leading states showing gains.
• 26% of white adults hold a bachelor’s degree, 10 percentage points higher than Black/African Americans, 12 points higher than Hispanics/Latinos and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and 15 points higher than American Indian/Alaska Natives.

Researchers recommended strategies such as increasing access to career counseling, investing in high-quality credential programs, expanding financial aid for low-income students and rooting out occupational segregation as key actions that leaders can implement to combat attainment and access gaps across the board.

Federal Pandemic Relief Funding at Community Colleges: A report recently published by the Community College Research Center examined how money from the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund was distributed across community colleges, the extent to which these institutions spent their funds and the variation of allotment that occurred by institutional and student characteristics. Researchers analyzed over 900 colleges and found that nearly half (484) were total spenders, disbursing around 100% of their funds.

More findings and insights below:

• Lower spenders served higher numbers of underrepresented and Pell grant students than total spenders (43% vs. 35%).
• Per-student HEER awards averaged $9,179 for lower spenders and $5,044 for total spenders.
• States with larger community college enrollments like California, Florida and Texas received the highest amount of funds.
• Postsecondary institutions were awarded funds within a range of $306,000 to $25.3 million, depending on student enrollment numbers.

More Resources: Maximizing Access & Success for Special Populations

ACTE and Advance CTE have released the second set in a new series of joint publications that address how to support each of the nine Perkins V special populations and other underserved learner groups.

The Maximizing Access & Success for Special Populations in CTE series features strategies, reflection questions and case studies for supporting each special population as well as other learner groups that have been a focus of state and local support. 

Part II, released last week, features briefs on supporting the following populations: 

• Learners with disabilities
• English learners
• Economically disadvantaged learners
• Learners experiencing homelessness
• Military-connected learners
• Single parents

These publications join the first briefs in this series, including an introduction as well as briefs on nontraditional learners, foster youth and out-of-workforce individuals.

A final set of briefs describing how to support additional populations will be released in March.