Career and Technical Education's Unequal Dividends for High School Students: The Stratification of a New Generation

Abstract

We examined the relationships between high school CTE participation and indicators of career and college readiness using 2009 High School Longitudinal Study restricted-use data. Regression analyses of 2009–2018 data revealed significantly lower dropout rates for CTE participants, but only White CTE participants experienced better employment likelihood. CTE participants were mostly employed in service or manual labor occupations with below average wages and were significantly less likely to attend a 4-year college. CTE benefits were disproportionate by race and gender, and participation may have a “cooling out” effect on the aspirations of some students. Advising and urban education implications are discussed.

Keywords

career and technical education vocational education social stratification school influence college readiness

Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides streamlined pathways from high school or community college into various occupations, the vast majority of which do not require a college degree for entry-level employment. For high school graduates who do not secure 4-year college acceptance, a CTE program at a community college may represent a welcome fallback option to becoming gainfully employed in a relatively short period of time. However, deciding to engage deeply with a CTE program while still in high school may include tradeoffs that students do not fully realize when enrolling. Concentrated CTE programs of study can purportedly eliminate the cost of attending a trade or other post-secondary school before entering the job market. It is interesting that three years after graduating high school, the percentage of CTE concentrators that find themselves in post-secondary education (73%) is not drastically different from non-concentrators (79%). Moreover, only about one-quarter of CTE concentrators who do enroll in postsecondary education pursue a field of study aligned with their area of CTE concentration (Institute of Education Sciences, 2020b).

A decision to go “all in” on career training in high school in lieu of pursuing a course schedule with a laser focus on 4-year college attendance is potentially a costly strategy as it relates to future earnings. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that individuals with a bachelor's degree earn 65% higher median income than those with only a high school diploma, whereas individuals with an associate degree earn a median income just 17% above those with only a high school diploma (Torpey, 2018). The lifetime earnings for those with a bachelor's degree are higher by $900,000 (men) and $630,000 (women) over those who only complete high school (Tamborini et al., 2015). Despite these long-term consequences, some students from lower socioeconomic status (SES) households may feel an urgency to enter the workforce as soon as possible. Even with extensive CTE training opportunities, students taking a greater proportion of CTE courses have a lower expectation of college attendance (DeLuca et al., 2006), opting instead to take on immediate low-wage job opportunities. This has spurred prior research examining whether participating in CTE programs decreases dropout rates by providing the incentive of full-time employment following high school, as well as research assessing CTE's impact on students’ likelihood of attending a 4-year college (Agodini & Deke, 2004; Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005). Recent data have also revealed no measurable differences in the median hourly wages or job satisfaction for CTE concentrators as compared to non-concentrators (Institute of Education Sciences, 2020a), raising further questions as to the benefits of CTE engagement.

Due to the compacted nature of high school class schedules, the opportunity cost of taking CTE coursework can be prohibitive. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. public school districts have cited “lack of time in students’ schedules” as a moderate or large barrier to student participation in CTE (Gray & Lewis, 2018). If a student's CTE course load is substantial, it can significantly reduce the schedule space available for more advanced college preparatory courses that may improve prospects for 4-year college acceptance.

Students who take dual-enrollment courses, allowing for college credit while still in high school, are more likely to later attend and persist in a 4-year college (Kremer, 2020). This raises questions as to whether high school is the appropriate time for selecting a vocational interest concentration over potential academic preparation for college. Given the possible long-term consequences of enrolling in CTE courses rather than college preparatory coursework, it is important for students, parents, counselors, and administrators to have data-informed guidance as to how this decision impacts future options.

Questions related to CTE career pathways persist, especially when considering the experiences of students in urban schools where what it means to be educated is directly tied to shifting labor markets (Jocson, 2018). This article contributes to the ongoing conversation and debate about what it means to become college and career ready through CTE programs, which has implications for research and practice within urban education and education broadly. The overarching purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between participation in contemporary high school CTE programs and indicators of college and career readiness. Specifically, we examine CTE participation's relationship to high school persistence, post-graduation employment, and levels of college attendance since the incorporation of a college-ready CTE emphasis. Our research questions are as follows:

How is CTE participation related to high school drop out? Does this relationship differ by SES, race, or gender?

How is high school CTE participation related to the likelihood of full-time employment after graduation? Does this relationship differ by SES, race, or gender?

How is high school CTE participation related to the types of employment students acquire after high school graduation?

How is high school CTE participation related to 2-year and 4-year college attendance? Does this relationship differ by SES, race, or gender?

In this article, we outline the background of CTE and the college- versus career-ready debate and we also discuss the role of counselors in student decision-making. After we examine levels of participation in CTE as compared to participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, we then explore the relationship of CTE participation to various factors related to student choices (e.g., high school dropout, full-time employment, 4-year college attendance). Finally, we discuss implications for student advising and urban education.

Background and Literature Review

The potential impact of high school curricula on students’ future academic and professional opportunities has resulted in CTE, also known previously as Vocational Education (VE), being criticized for constraining students’ academic development. At the same time, CTE has been lauded for making high school more career-aligned to future employment opportunities while reducing dropout rates (Plank et al., 2008). The mixed results from CTE research confound the overall impact of CTE coursework, and course taking, on underrepresented students (Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010). Research on nationally representative data has found that CTE participation in the 1980s and 1990s produced “modest” improvements in the dropout rate for students who did not expect to go to college, but only when compared to non-college-bound students who did not participate in CTE (Agodini & Deke, 2004). The same research found no dropout rate improvement for other subgroups of students such as those with low academic achievement, low SES backgrounds, and those in schools with high academic course-taking requirements to graduate.

More recent studies have shown no independent influence of CTE course taking on the likelihood of dropping out (Bozick & Dalton, 2013a, 2013b). These studies also reveal a suppression of learning gains if CTE courses are taken at the expense of academic ones, especially advanced mathematics classes. CTE's benefits include school-to-work transitions into skilled positions, as well as a reduced likelihood of persistent unemployment. Nonetheless, diminished likelihood for CTE students to attend four-year college adds to an uneven narrative, stoking the debate around college and career preparation (Arum & Shavit, 1995). Overall, research on the impact of CTE on high school dropout and career transitions has been mixed (Castellano et al., 2003; Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010).

CTE programs are still an option via community colleges and trade schools, if not taken in high school. Conversely, taking CTE courses at the expense of college prep coursework can eliminate the 4-year college option due to insufficient transcripts. The two most recent reauthorizations of CTE legislation are the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act (2006), and the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (2018), commonly referred to as Perkins IV and Perkins V, respectively. Both of these legislative acts promise a broader approach to preparing students for both career and postsecondary education through program of study revisions, which the Association for Career & Technical Education makes prominent through its website (Association for Career and Technical Education, n.d.). An examination of academic and employment outcomes following this change in emphasis will help to determine whether findings in research conducted under prior CTE legislation still hold true for more recent CTE students, especially those in urban school districts where race, place, and space are considered. In this context “urban” refers to the schools and communities characterized by population size, density, and demographic diversity such as racial and ethnic diversity (Howard et al., 2019; Schaffer et al., 2018). Urban may also refer to schools where students’ experiences, resources, and abilities are highly diverse (Milner, 2008, 2012; Milner & Tenore, 2010); schools where educational inequalities exist at the same level regardless of the district's size (Welsh & Swain, 2020) and race, place, and space are considered (Buendía, 2011). Taken together, the size of the city and the school, the student population diversity, and the resources available to students are characteristic of urban education (Milner & Lomotey, 2014).

College vs. Career Readiness

Proponents of more emphasis on advanced academic high school curricula have found that it develops the analytical skills needed for success in the workplace (Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010; Sutton, 2017). Thus, concentrating on more rigorous high school coursework can address both college and career preparation. However, when college preparation and career readiness are viewed as an “either-or” proposition, it becomes important to understand what the genuine prospects are for students who choose CTE pathways. Key questions remain about CTE participation, such as: Are participants more likely to secure full-time employment after high school graduation? What types of jobs do participants typically acquire? Are students in urban school districts impacted differently? Do some subgroups of students benefit more than others from participation? Does participation impact chances for college attendance? Although these questions have been examined to some extent under prior CTE legislation (e.g., Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005), more recent changes to that legislation (Perkins IV & Perkins V) call for renewed analyses of their impact on students who enter the workforce from high school, as well as for those pursuing postsecondary education.

Some researchers see the college- vs. career-readiness debate as a false dichotomy, favoring instead to prepare all students for both college and career simultaneously (Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010). A concurrent readiness approach purportedly became a viable option under the 2006 Perkins IV legislation that added provisions for providing “exposure to high skill, high wage, or high demand occupations and non-traditional fields, including occupations and fields requiring a baccalaureate degree” (Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act, 2006, p. 714). The most recent CTE reauthorization provides grant funding for transitioning CTE students into baccalaureate degree programs as well (Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21^st Century Act, 2018, p. 31). Although sub-baccalaureate training had long been the primary focus of the CTE and VE domain, the more recent inclusion of baccalaureate emphasis options gives rise to questions as to how successful CTE participants are at enrolling in 4-year institutions since these revisions came into effect.

The Vocational Education Model

Ninety-eight percent of U.S. public school districts offer CTE programs to their high school students, 83% of which are offered through regular comprehensive high schools (Gray & Lewis, 2018). Programs of Study represent a framework within current CTE legislation that broadens its objectives of preparation beyond entry-level employment (Lewis & Kosine, 2008). Although highly accessible, CTE has its share of critics due largely to its historical role in: 1) steering poor and minoritized students away from academic emphases and into low-paying service industries (Butrymowicz, 2016; Oakes, 1983); 2) upholding its masculine subculture and gender implicit bias (Lester et al., 2017); and, 3) perpetuating racializing experiences (Jocson & Dixon, 2021). Such efforts date back to CTE's origins in the first manual arts training school, which was established in 1879 in St. Louis, Missouri. Its Vocational Education (VE) model added hands-on learning to traditional classroom instruction to provide a blueprint for legislation that would bring widespread acceptance of VE by early 20^th century (Barlow, 1976). Legislation that initially shaped VE across the U.S. (Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act, 1917) was specifically designed to provide an education that was “less than college grade” (Stern, 2010) and led to the production and reproduction of social statuses stratified by class, race, and gender (Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005). Subsequent reauthorizations of VE legislation have had similar focus.

In recent decades, enthusiasm for VE as an alternative pathway to college declined (Stone III, 2002). A successor to the Smith-Hughes act in the late 1990s (Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, 1998) still held onto its earlier focus more than 80 years later by declaring that it was designed to prepare students for “occupations requiring other than a baccalaureate or advanced degree” (Johnson, 2002). Changes in the nation's curricular emphases resulted in fewer students enrolling in VE coursework. Increased emphasis on academic rigor followed scathing criticism of American schooling in the report “A Nation at Risk” produced by a national commission in the early 1980s (U.S. Department of Education, 1983). Between 1992 and 2013, the average number of total credits earned by high school students increased 11.4 percent, while the average number of credits earned in VE/CTE coursework decreased 16.9 percent (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). In 2006, Perkins IV replaced the term “vocational education” with “career and technical education” and opened the door to supporting preparation for careers that require a bachelor's degree (Stern, 2010). This included support for partnerships with baccalaureate degree granting institutions.

Despite the rebranding effort of Perkins IV, some negative perceptions of VE/CTE persisted. Nationwide surveys conducted in 2016–17 revealed 32% of districts reporting students’ or parents’ negative perceptions of CTE as a moderate or large barrier to participation. Only 18% of school districts viewed teachers’ or guidance counselors’ negative perceptions of CTE as a moderate or large barrier to participation (Gray & Lewis, 2018). Although VE/CTE has now existed for over a century, the more recent baccalaureate support has not been thoroughly examined nationally as to its effectiveness in influencing 4-year college matriculation for CTE participants. Ainsworth and Roscigno (2005) adeptly examined this issue using data collected from 1988–94 for the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), when VE/CTE's focus explicitly excluded 4-year college preparation. Given CTE's subsequently expanded mission to include 4-year college readiness, examining success rates of CTE students pursuing 4-year college acceptance is timely for the generation of CTE students following this expansion.

Ultimately, there are two competing realities, undergirded by racialized, classed, and gendered characteristics, to be considered when deciding whether to pursue CTE coursework in high school: a) Taking CTE courses is done at the expense of class slots that could be used for 4-year college preparatory courses, potentially diminishing higher educational opportunities, and conversely, b) Students who are perceived as unlikely to gain 4-year college acceptance may shorten the time it takes to access specific job markets by participating in CTE courses, potentially improving job market opportunities. Both realities lead to the same institutional sorting processes within CTE that Ainsworth and Roscigno (2005) argued should have reinvigorated new debates decades ago on curtailing the continued reproduction of social status based on class, race, and gender. As a result, “cooling out” processes and the stratification of students go hand-in-hand across our college preparatory institutions.

Cooling Out and Stratification

As high school counselors guide students toward academic paths that match their strengths and interests, they have a vested interest in increasing their graduates’ employability; thus, they may be well-intentioned when advising a student to enroll in CTE courses to improve employment chances, particularly if they have doubts about the student's potential college success. Such advising reveals the importance of counselors either “cooling” or “warming” student educational aspirations and raises concerns as the biases that advisors may hold consciously or unconsciously are then expressed in the guidance they provide to students (Alexander et al., 2008; Clark, 1960). Ethically, these decisions should be based on the student's academic record rather than group membership bias or economic status connected to zip code. Clark's seminal work on the concept of “cooling out” (1960) may be extended beyond the community college to capture the inherent tension involved for students counseled to make “practical” career choices in high school at the expense of course-taking patterns with better long-term career prospects.

Clark outlined “cooling out” as a process used to sidetrack those perceived as overly ambitious, rather than allowing them to fail (Clark, 1960, p. 571). The goal of the process is to gently nudge students onto alternative career paths when inconsistencies exist between their aspirations and the realities of limited opportunity and/or means of achievement. The term “cooling out” has been described in the community college context to articulate the practices used to raise students’ awareness of their academic struggles and lower their aspirations. The “cooling out” process is a pragmatic approach to advising grounded in education competition that stratifies students based upon achievement, rather that empowering students to make choices that would leave the most options for the future. Clark identified the following salient features of the cooling out process at work in educational or work settings:

Alternative achievement: Alternative pathways are framed as similar to the desired goal, especially in perceived status (e.g., a student may be encouraged to pursue a career as an engineering aide rather than an engineer).

Gradual disengagement: Progress toward the desired goal is stalled, followed by self-assessment being encouraged utilizing “objective” evidence of one's performance or capability.

Objective denial: The record of poor performance is presented to bring about reorientation to a more “realistic” goal. The use of “objective” performance records detaches those facilitating the “cooling out” process from the emotional responses that may result.

Agents of consolation: Individuals trained to patiently console students while reducing their “unrealistic” aspirations, as well as to tout the value of the alternative career paths, even though they are of lower status.

Avoidance of standards: A dialogue is facilitated wherein multiple kinds of ability are touted as valuable in their respective contexts, rather than concentrating on the unmet standards of achievement associated with the original goal.

At the heart of this process is a less than forthright approach that withholds perceived painful truths while systematically tamping down students’ aspirations, leaving students to blame themselves for their predicament due to their “objective” performance records in an environment of educational competition. In Clark's “cooling out” conceptual framework the idea of open access education, where all can aspire and achieve, is problematized such that even when access to educational opportunity is touted, stratification can still be the result. This approach reinforces college and career dichotomies while taking a perceived institutionally neutral stance. Such a stance ultimately facilitates stratification based upon students blaming themselves for not achieving at their highest level, rather than a deeper examination of the systems that have functioned to diminish expectations (Alexander et al., 2008). The students who are often most affected by these decisions fall within a specific category stratified by class, race, and gender (Deil-Amen & DeLuca, 2010) and stratification is reproduced in different ways (Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005). Honest and accurate assessment is what is needed by a student whose projections are not up to par, preferably while the student still has an opportunity to recalibrate efforts and adaptively respond to performance feedback. This is critical to the discourse on CTE in education, specifically urban education, and the need for clearly articulated college and career pathways for students.

Unfortunately, for many students the academic foundation needed to be successful in college is not acquired in their K-12 school experience, leaving colleges with the unenviable task of informing them that they lack the skills needed to be successful, or the possibly insurmountable challenge of trying to remediate several years of inadequate preparation. Rosenbaum (1998) argued that the information about lack of preparedness should be conveyed to students while they are they are still in high school, providing them the opportunity to increase their efforts through an appropriate academic course-taking plan. This would allow them to avoid the performance discrepancy that elicits a “cooling out” process later.

Counselors Role in Student Choices

Counselors are expected to provide students, parents, and schools with tools and information that support college and career readiness for all students (College Board, 2010). Counselors are also expected to serve as leaders who guide students’ career aspirations (ASCA, 2014; Griffin & Steen, 2010; Li et al., 2017). Given the influence high school counselors can have on student aspirations, it is imperative to examine demographic factors that may privilege some student groups over others. A long history of distrust for counselors, particularly among Black and African American students, influences students’ and their families’ receptiveness to counselors’ advice (Cohen & Besharov, 2004; Griffen, 2019). Although family and parent involvement have been known to directly influence students’ career paths (Dietrich & Salmela-Aro, 2012; Howard, 2020; Howard et al., 2019), counselors play a significant role in supporting students of color by recognizing their potential and encouraging college and career aspirations (Dahir, 2001; Farmer-Hinton & Adams, 2006; Shillingford et al., 2017). Therefore, empirical assessments of effective partnerships between counselors and families of color are imperative (Harris et al., 2018).

Counselors’ assessments that students’ aspirations are unrealistic can be influenced by perceptions, implicit biases, and stereotypes (Czopp, 2010; Shure et al., 2019). For example, a well-intentioned counselor may genuinely believe that lowering a Black student's academic aspirations to prevent failure and instead encouraging pursuit of an athletic goal is in the student's best interests (Czopp, 2010; Howard & Howard, 2021). Lowering academic aspirations may deny the student the opportunity to demonstrate that their academic goals were in fact attainable and will likely have negative academic consequences for the student (Czopp, 2010).

As it relates to CTE specifically, a “cooling out” process for college-aspiring students is arguably initiated, in effect, when they are advised to select a CTE pathway (alternative achievement). Although students will likely meet the requirements for high school graduation while pursuing a CTE pathway, a decision to forego other advanced coursework (e.g., advanced mathematics) may negatively impact their chances for acceptance to a 4-year college (Bozick & Dalton, 2013a). Although a few CTE options provide pathways to high-paying careers that result in a lower likelihood of unemployment (Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005; Arum & Shavit, 1995), these courses may not be offered on a student's campus. Moreover, blue collar CTE courses (e.g., agricultural classes) predominately offered in poorer neighborhoods have been shown to raise the likelihood of dropping out of high school and lower the chance of attending college (Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005).

An examination of nationally representative data by Sutton (2017) found that school course offerings in CTE were shaped by local labor markets, particularly in communities where there was more demand for workers in jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree. In these communities, more CTE courses were offered, and fewer advanced college preparatory courses were available, mirroring previous research. Students scoring in the 90^th percentile in one labor market were about as likely to take an advanced math class as students scoring in the 50^th percentile in another labor market (p. 184). Local market demand was a stronger predictor of advanced course taking than individual student achievement, and zip code location allowed students less proficient in mathematics to have a better chance of accessing college prep courses than more proficient students in another location. In this instance, counselors may have no choice but to offer enrollment in less rigorous CTE pathways based on school offerings (gradual disengagement).

Students ultimately compile a high school transcript that is influenced by counselors’ advice and course availability (Farmer-Hinton & Adams, 2006). Research indicates disproportionate numbers of high school girls and minority students are encouraged to enroll in less rigorous AP courses as substitutes for traditional ones (Havard & Howard, 2019; Howard & Havard, 2019). A delineation between counseling for educational attainment and counseling for career planning is not uncommon, especially in research related to guidance for CTE and non-CTE students (e.g., Johnson et al., 2010; Mobley et al., 2017; Symonds et al., 2011). Career-focused counseling may guide a student onto a CTE pathway; however, the student may later come to realize that their CTE coursework prevents them from accumulating the academic record required by a 4-year college (objective denial). Once the student accepts this “reality” the counselor can help them find career options that fit their academic record (agents of consolation), and by moving on from past aspirations will have no need to discuss the criteria they failed to meet (avoidance of standards).

Researchers indicate there is need for a much more comprehensive approach to preparing counselors for supporting all students in both their educational attainment and career planning (Mobley et al., 2017; Symonds et al., 2011). Perhaps unintentionally driven from the start, the collective institutional actions guiding a student's secondary educational experience can further the stratification of their career attainment outcomes based on class, race, and gender. This results in a reproduction of these divisions through an evolved “cooling out” process.

Current Study

In this research, we use data from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09; Duprey et al., 2018) collected between 2009–2018, after the Perkins IV CTE legislation with an expanded emphasis to include college readiness was enacted in 2006. Our analyses include data collection that occurred three years after the participants graduation year. First, we examine the levels of participation in CTE as compared to participation in Advanced Placement (AP) coursework. This provides some indication as to the extent to which students are taking CTE coursework at the possible expense of advanced course options. Next, to explore the notion that CTE adds relevance to high school completion, we examine the relationship between CTE participation and high school dropout. Given CTE's traditional focus on career readiness, we then examine the relationship between CTE participation and full-time employment status three years post high school graduation. Finally, we assess the likelihood of 4-year college attendance for CTE participants vs. nonparticipants.

This research brings into focus the academic and professional outcomes for contemporary CTE participation in high school. Of particular interest is the extent to which CTE fulfills its promise of preparing high school students for both college and careers. Considering the shift to include 4-year college preparation brought forth by Perkins IV in 2006, the period examined for the HSLS:09 data collection to date (2009–2018) is ideal for assessing the occupational, postsecondary, and income-related outcomes for students who have participated in CTE programs of study since the changes were enacted.

Method

Data

The data utilized in this study were drawn from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), which has thus far included five waves of data collected between 2009 and 2018. The study is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education and the data used in our analyses are from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) restricted-use dataset. IES is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The HSLS:09 is a nationally representative, longitudinal study of more than 23,000 students from 944 schools nationwide. This cohort has been followed since their ninth-grade year (2009) and will continue to be followed through a final data collection wave in 2025 (Duprey et al., 2018). HSLS:09 focuses on understanding students’ trajectories from the beginning of high school into postsecondary education, the workforce, and beyond (Ingels & Dalton, 2013; Ingels et al., 2011). In addition to predictors from the base year (2009–10), when the study's cohort was in the 9th grade, data and outcomes from the first follow-up in 2011–12, the 2013 update, the second follow-up in 2016–17, and the postsecondary transcripts in 2017–18 were examined to assess the postsecondary college and career readiness of CTE students. The variables listed in Table 1 were selected from the HSLS:09 dataset for this study.

Table 1.

High School Longitudinal Study 2009 Variables of Interest.

Variable	Description	Metric
Participation in Career Technical Education
Total credits earned in CTE courses (X3TCREDCTE)	Total Carnegie^a credits earned in Career Technical Education courses	0 = no units in CTE courses 12 = highest number of units in CTE courses
Total credits earned in Advanced Placement courses (X3TCREDAP)	Total Carnegie credits earned in Advanced Placement courses	0 = no units in AP courses 12 = highest number of units in AP courses
Educational Outcomes
Dropout status (X4EVERDROP)	Indicator whether a student dropped out of high school since the HSLS:09 2013 update	0 = student has not dropped out of high school 1 = student has dropped out of high school
Attends a 2-year or 4-year college (X4EVRATNDCLG)	Indicator whether a student enrolled in postsecondary education as of February 2016 (HSLS:09 s follow-up)	0 = student has not attended college 1 = student has attended college
Enrolled colleges’ IPEDS level (S3CLGLVL)	2012 IPEDS^b level code for the students’ enrolled postsecondary institution	1 = 4-year college 2 = 2-year college 3 = postsecondary (below associate)
Employment
Student's occupation (X4OCCFB2)	Average number of hours worked by the respondent in their current, February 2016, job	11 = management occupations (lowest 0NET-SOC code) 55 = military occupations (highest 0NET-SOC code)
Demographics
Race – Asian (X1ASIAN)	Students’ race/ethnicity is Asian, taken as a composite based on either the student questionnaire, parent questionnaire and/or school-provided sampling roster	0 = does not identify as Asian 1 = does identify as Asian
Race – black (X1BLACK)	Students’ race/ethnicity is black, taken as a composite based on either the student questionnaire, parent questionnaire and/or school-provided sampling roster	0 = does not identify as black 1 = does identify as black
Race – Hispanic (X1HISPANIC)	Students’ race/ethnicity is Hispanic, taken as a composite based on either the student questionnaire, parent questionnaire and/or school-provided sampling roster	0 = does not identify as Hispanic 1 = does identify as Hispanic
Race – white (X1WHITE)	Students’ race/ethnicity is white, taken as a composite based on either the student questionnaire, parent questionnaire and/or school-provided sampling roster	0 = does not identify as white 1 = does identify as white
Sex (X1SEX)	Sex of the student taken from the base-year questionnaire, parent questionnaire, and/or school-provided sampling roster	1 = identifies as male 2 = identifies as female
Poverty level (X1POVERTY)	Indicator whether the students’ family was at or above the 2008 poverty threshold set by the U.S. Census Bureau	0 = at or above the poverty threshold 1 = below the poverty threshold

A Carnegie credit/unit is equivalent to a one-year academic course taken one period a day, five days a week.

IPEDS is Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for the National Center for Education Statistics.

Procedure

The HSLS:09 uses a complex sampling design, which necessitates the use of sample weights and adjusted standard errors to ensure that estimates made from the data are representative of the population, and that hypothesis tests are accurate. The standard error calculation procedure used in these analyses is the Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR) method, conducted using the survey command (“svy”) in Stata 15, utilizing the appropriate main sampling weights and their respective sets of 200 replicate weights for each of the analyses. Logistic regression procedures were conducted to examine the influence of various demographic and course-taking variables on measures of college and career readiness.

Results

Regression analyses were conducted on the overall sample of students on measures of college and career readiness, which included demographic variables as predictors to examine subgroup membership relationships to outcomes. This was followed by regression analyses to examine the potential influence of CTE participation status on selected outcomes by subgroup.

Participation

Weighted means of participation in CTE and AP coursework, by demographic subgroup, are displayed in Table 2. Although our main focus is on the effect of CTE participation, mean units for AP coursework are provided to illustrate the relative frequency at which students enroll in CTE as compared to courses specifically designated as college preparatory. Most demographic groups participated in CTE coursework at rates greater than two to three times their participation in AP coursework. A notable exception is the Asian subpopulation, which has the lowest CTE participation rate and highest AP participation rate of any other demographic. Asian students participate in AP courses at about three times the rate of other groups and is the only group to participate more in AP coursework than CTE coursework.

Table 2.

Mean Credits Earned for CTE and AP Courses, by Subgroups.

Group/Subgroup	Mean CTE Units^a	Mean AP Units^a
At or Above Poverty Threshold	2.95	1.30
Below Poverty Threshold	3.11	.54
Asian	2.30	2.90
Black	2.99	.64
Hispanic	2.62	.98
White	3.17	1.13
Female	2.83	1.19
Male	3.12	.95
All Students	2.91	1.05

Means have been weighted using a standardized sampling weight.

Drop Out

To examine the potential relationship of CTE participation to high school dropout rates, regression analyses were conducted using the HSLS:09 variable X3TCREDCTE, which indicates the total number of CTE credits each student earned in high school. For our analyses, this variable was recoded to a dichotomous variable using the definition of “participant” used by the U.S. Department of Education in its reporting and assessment of CTE: “A secondary student earning at least one credit in occupational CTE courses” (U.S. Department of Education, 2014, p. xvii). Per the HSLS:09 dataset codebook, this “Carnegie unit is equivalent to a one-year, academic course taken one period a day, five days a week.” Thus, students earning one or more CTE Carnegie credits were coded as “participants,” whereas those with less than one credit were coded as “nonparticipants.” Logistic regression was conducted for dropout on the CTE participant status variable and a set of demographic predictor variables. Table 3 displays the odds ratios and p-values for each of the predictors examined. The full logistic regression main effects model was statistically significant F(7, 190) = 19.86, p < .001. A Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test supported the overall model F(9, 190) = .82, p = .60 (Note: all degrees of freedom for main effect analyses were rounded to the nearest ten per IES data security requirements).

Table 3.

Logistic Regression of Student's Dropout Status on CTE Participant Status and Demographics.

Variable	B	BRR SE	OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
CTE Participant	−0.79	0.13	0.45	[0.35, 0.58]	−6.14	<.001***
Below Poverty Threshold	0.82	0.15	2.27	[1.68, 3.07]	5.36	<.001***
Asian	−0.66	0.27	0.52	[0.30, 0.88]	−2.45	.015*
Black	0.23	0.23	1.26	[0.80, 2.00]	1.01	.314
Hispanic	0.13	0.19	1.15	[0.79, 1.66]	0.73	.466
White	−0.17	0.17	0.85	[0.60, 1.18]	−0.98	.328
Male	0.36	0.12	1.42	[1.13, 1.81]	2.95	.004**

Note. Weighted data are representative of a population N = 3,179,397, Observations n = 22,620.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

As shown in Table 3, four of the predictors each made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model. CTE participants were less than half as likely to drop out of high school (OR = .45, p < .001) as CTE nonparticipants, whereas students below the poverty line were more than twice as likely to drop out as those above the poverty line (2.27 odds ratio, p < .001) regardless of CTE participation status. Asian students were about half as likely to drop out as non-Asian students (OR = .52, p = .015). Black, Hispanic, and White race/ethnicity status were not significant predictors of dropout. Males were 1.42 times as likely to drop out as females (p = .004).

To examine whether CTE participation or SES made unique contributions to dropout status within subpopulations, follow-up logistic regression analyses were conducted. Table 4 displays dropout results by race/ethnicity. Within the White subpopulation of students, CTE participation and SES were both significant predictors of dropout. White CTE Participants overall were less than half as likely to drop out as White non-participants (OR = .45, p < .001). However, White students below the poverty threshold were nearly three times as likely to drop out as White students above the poverty line, irrespective of participant status (OR = 2.87, p < .001). For Black students, CTE participation was not a significant predictor of dropout, but poverty status was a significant predictor; Black students below the poverty threshold were 1.8 times as likely to drop out as those above the threshold (p = .021). For Hispanic students, CTE participation was a significant predictor of dropout as Hispanic CTE participants were about one-third as likely to drop out as Hispanic nonparticipants (OR = .37, p = .001). Poverty status did not reach statistical significance as a dropout predictor for Hispanic or Asian students. CTE participation was not a significant predictor of dropout for Asian students.

Table 4.

Logistic Regression of Student's Dropout Status on CTE Participant Status and Poverty Status, by Race/Ethnicity.

Variable	B		OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
Asian (Observations n = 2,420; Population N = 165,046)
CTE Participant	−0.22	0.78	0.80	[0.17, 3.70]	−0.29	.772
Below Poverty Threshold	0.67	0.51	1.96	[0.71, 5.40]	1.31	.192
Black (Observations n = 3,460; Population N = 598,303)
CTE Participant	−0.70	0.43	0.50	[0.21, 1.17]	−1.71	.107
Below Poverty Threshold	0.59	0.25	1.80	[1.09, 2.96]	2.33	.021*
Hispanic (Observations n = 3,520; Population N = 669,845)
CTE Participant	−0.98	0.30	0.37	[0.21, 0.70]	−3.15	.001*
Below Poverty Threshold	0.35	0.34	1.43	[0.73, 2.77]	1.05	.295
White (Observations n = 16,340; Population N = 2,393,641)
CTE Participant	−0.80	0.14	0.45	[0.34, 0.59]	−5.61	<.001***
Below Poverty Threshold	1.06	0.15	2.87	[2.14, 3.86]	7.09	<.001***

Note. n = unweighted survey observations rounded to nearest ten per IES data security requirements. Weighted data are representative of subpopulation N.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

Career Readiness

To examine the influence of CTE coursework on career readiness, regression analyses were conducted using the HSLS:09 variable X4PSLFSTFB16, which indicates students’ postsecondary enrollment and labor force status as of February 2016, approaching three years after their graduation year. The original enrollment variable contains eight response categories, each representing some combination of enrollment in postsecondary education and employment status (i.e., part-time, full-time, unemployed, or not in labor force). Since our focus is on career readiness, this variable was recoded to a dichotomous variable indicating whether or not the former student was employed full-time (defined in the dataset as working 35 h or more per week). If CTE participation results in students being more career-ready upon graduation, one would expect to see significantly more CTE participants in the full-time employment category than non-participants three years after graduating.

Table 5 displays the results of logistic regression conducted for full-time employment on the CTE participant status variable and a set of demographic predictor variables. The full logistic regression main effects model was statistically significant F(7, 190) = 12.88, p < .001. A Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test supported the overall model F(9, 190) = .27, p = .98. As seen in Table 5, three predictors each made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model. Students below the poverty threshold were 1.45 times as likely to be employed full time as those above the threshold (p = .001). Asian students were about half as likely as non-Asian students to be working full time (OR = .51, p = .001). CTE participant status did not significantly predict full time employment, nor did other racial group memberships. However, males were 1.6 times as likely as females to be working full time (p < .001).

Table 5.

Logistic Regression of Student's Full-Time Employment Status on CTE Participant Status and Demographics.

Variable	B	BRR SE	OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
CTE Participant	0.19	0.12	1.20	[0.96, 1.52]	1.61	.110
Below Poverty Threshold	0.38	0.11	1.45	[1.17, 1.83]	3.33	.001**
Asian	−0.68	0.20	0.51	[0.34, 0.75]	−3.40	.001**
Black	0.27	0.16	1.31	[0.95, 1.79]	1.66	.099
Hispanic	0.17	0.12	1.19	[0.94, 1.50]	1.43	.154
White	0.28	0.16	1.32	[0.96, 1.82]	1.74	.084
Male	0.47	0.08	1.60	[1.37, 1.86]	6.09	<.001***

Note. Weighted data are representative of a population N = 3,179,981, Observations n = 22,620.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

To examine whether CTE participation and SES made unique contributions to full-time work status approximately three years post-graduation within subpopulations, follow-up logistic regression analyses were conducted. Table 6 displays full-time employment results by race/ethnicity. Within the race subpopulations, CTE participation significantly predicted full-time work status only for White students, who were 1.51 times as likely to be employed full time as CTE participants (p = .001). Likewise, poverty status significantly predicted full-time work status only for the White subpopulation of students, as White students below the poverty line were 1.75 times as likely as those above the poverty line to be employed full time (p < .001).

Table 6.

Logistic Regression of Student's Full-Time Work Status on CTE Participant Status and Poverty Status, by Race/Ethnicity.

Variable	B	BRR SE	OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
Asian (Observations n = 2,420; Population N = 165,046)
CTE Participant	−0.43	0.31	1.35	[0.63, 2.89]	0.78	.438
Below Poverty Threshold	0.20	0.20	0.86	[0.32, 2.34]	−0.29	.771
Black (Observations n = 3,460; Population N = 598,303)
CTE Participant	−0.43	0.31	0.65	[0.35, 1.21]	−1.37	.172
Below Poverty Threshold	0.20	0.20	1.22	[0.82, 1.82]	1.01	.313
Hispanic (Observations n = 3,520; Population N = 669,845)
CTE Participant	0.04	0.28	1.04	[0.60, 1.79]	0.13	.899
Below Poverty Threshold	0.34	0.22	1.41	[0.91, 2.19]	1.54	.124
White (Observations n = 16,340; Population N = 2,394,225)
CTE Participant	0.41	0.12	1.51	[1.18, 1.93]	3.32	.001*
Below Poverty Threshold	0.56	0.11	1.75	[1.40, 2.20]	4.93	<.001*

Note. n = unweighted survey observations rounded to nearest ten per IES data security requirements. Weighted data are representative of subpopulation N.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

Table 7 displays the distribution of occupations for CTE participants working full time approximately three years after graduating. Per weighted estimates for the total number of workers in the population, over 72% of these former CTE participants were working in categories that have lower than average median incomes, including the 13% employed in the “Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations” category, which has the lowest median income of all categories listed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). White collar occupations with above average median incomes accounted for less than 15 percent of the jobs held by these CTE participants. The vast majority (87%) of the jobs held by full-time working prior CTE participants can be categorized as service and laborer occupations.

Table 7.

Occupation Distribution for Full-Time Working CTE Participants.

Occupation	Unweighted Frequency^a	Weighted Total Estimates	% of Total Full-Time Workers
Management Occupations^c	390	9,524	5.83%
Business and Financial Operations Occupations^c	190	2,977	1.82%
Computer and Mathematical Occupations^c	150	747	0.46%
Architecture and Engineering Occupations^c	110	1,927	1.18%
Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations^c	130	369	0.23%
Community and Social Services Occupations^c	100	2,666	1.63%
Education, Training, and Library Occupations^c	480	2,327	1.42%
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media^c	370	1,030	0.63%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations^c	230	2,226	1.36%
Healthcare Support Occupations^b	430	8,919	5.46%
Protective Service Occupations	190	2,051	1.26%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations^b	1,940	21,597	13.22%
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance^b	300	10,247	6.27%
Personal Care and Service Occupations^b	820	6,746	4.13%
Sales and Related Occupations^b	1,890	25,897	15.86%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations^b	1,360	19,695	12.06%
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations^b	90	1,503	0.92%
Construction and Extraction Occupations	380	9,620	5.89%
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations	340	5,679	3.48%
Production Occupations^b	640	14,312	8.76%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations^b	490	9,169	5.61%
Military Specific Occupations	180	4,085	2.50%
Totals	11,190	163,313

Unweighted totals rounded to nearest ten per IES restricted-use data requirements.

Occupations with below average median income for all Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational categories.

White collar occupations with above average median income.

College Attendance

To assess the influence of CTE participation on college readiness, we examined the relationship between CTE coursework and college attendance status in 2016, approximately three years after the cohort's graduation year. Logistic regression analyses were conducted using the HSLS:09 variable S4EVRATNDCLG, which indicates whether the student ever attended any college or trade school since graduating, including through online attendance. Table 8 displays the odds ratios and p-values for each of the course and demographic predictors examined. The full logistic regression main effects model was statistically significant F(7, 190) = 21.27, p < .001. A Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test supported the overall model F(9, 190) = 0.46, p = .90. Three predictors each made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model. The strongest predictor of college attendance was poverty status as those below the poverty line were only one-third as likely to be attending college (OR = .33, p < .001) as compared to students above the poverty line. Asian students were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to have attended college as non-Asian students (OR = 2.67, p < .001). Males were only about three-fifths as likely as females to have attended college (OR = .58, p < .001) during the three years post-graduation. CTE participant status was not a significant predictor of college attendance (when all forms of higher education are considered), nor were Black, Hispanic, or White race/ethnicity status.

Table 8.

Logistic Regression of Student's College Attendance on CTE Participant Status and Demographics.

Variable	B	BRR SE	OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
CTE Participant	0.05	0.12	1.05	[0.83, 1.33]	0.42	.678
Below Poverty Threshold	−1.11	0.11	0.33	[0.26, 0.42]	−9.86	<.001***
Asian	0.98	0.24	2.67	[1.67, 4.27]	4.14	<.001***
Black	0.17	0.16	1.19	[0.87, 1.63]	1.08	.279
Hispanic	0.02	0.12	1.02	[0.80, 1.31]	0.18	.859
White	0.22	0.14	1.25	[0.94, 1.66]	1.56	.121
Male	−0.54	0.08	0.58	[0.50, 0.68]	−6.73	<.001***

Note. Weighted data are representative of a population N = 3,178,721, Observations n = 22,610.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

College Level

For students attending college, we examined the level of college attendance three years post-graduation using the HSLS:09 variable S3CLGLVL, which identifies broad institutional characteristics of the colleges attended. This variable was recoded to a dichotomous variable indicating whether the college attended was a 4-year college or less than a 4-year institution (e.g., community college or trade school). Table 9 displays the odds ratios and p-values for each of the course and demographic predictors examined. The full logistic regression main effects model was statistically significant F(7, 190) = 13.26, p < .001. A Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test supported the overall model F(9, 190) = 0.37, p = .95. As shown in Table 9, four predictors each made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model. Students who were CTE participants were only about three-fifths as likely as CTE nonparticipants to attend a 4-year college (OR = .59, p < .001). Students below the poverty threshold were less than half as likely as those above it to attend a 4-year college (OR = .46, p < .001). Hispanic students were half as likely to attend a 4-year college (OR = .50, p < .001), whereas Asian students were 1.84 times as likely to do so (p = .004). Black, White, and male group membership were not significant predictors of 4-year college attendance.

Table 9.

Logistic Regression of Student's College Level on CTE Participant Status and Demographics.

Variable	B	BRR SE	OR	95% CI for OR	t	p
CTE Participant	−0.52	0.12	0.59	[0.47, 0.75]	−4.50	<.001***
Below Poverty Threshold	−0.77	0.13	0.46	[0.36, 0.61]	−5.70	<.001***
Asian	0.61	0.21	1.84	[1.21, 2.78]	2.88	.004**
Black	−0.09	0.22	0.91	[0.59, 1.41]	−0.41	.679
Hispanic	−0.69	0.12	0.50	[0.39, 0.64]	−5.63	<.001***
White	0.17	0.18	1.18	[0.83, 1.69]	0.94	.350
Male	−0.14	0.08	0.87	[0.74, 1.03]	−1.68	.095

Note. Weighted data are representative of a population N = 2,311,324, Observations n = 18,740.

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

Discussion

High school CTE participation was found to be significantly related to several examined educational and professional outcomes. The HSLS:09 nationally representative sample was selected specifically for the timing of its data collection in relation to the CTE legislative shift to include 4-year college preparation as part of its mission. Data revealed that during this period students participated in CTE at nearly three times their rate of participation in AP courses overall. Among the notable findings were that low SES students were half as likely to participate in AP programs, Black students participated at about two-thirds the overall AP average, and Asian students participated at nearly three times the overall AP average (Table 2). Conversely, Asian students participated in CTE at a rate approximately 21% below the overall average and were the only subpopulation to participate at higher rates in AP than CTE courses.

In response to our first research question, CTE participation was significantly related to lower drop-out rates overall. CTE participants were less than half as likely to drop out of high school as CTE nonparticipants (Table 3). This relationship was statistically significant for the White and Hispanic subpopulations, but not for Black or Asian students. Although not statistically significant for the Black subpopulation, the odds ratio indicated that they were about half as likely to drop out when participating in CTE than when not participating (Table 4). Overall, these results suggest that CTE offerings may provide more relevancy for most students who participate, impacting their decision to persist rather than drop out of high school.

Our second research question inquired as to the likelihood of full-time employment after CTE participation. Surprisingly, CTE participation was not significantly related to overall full-time employment status nearly three years after high school graduation (Table 5). Given CTE's primary focus on career readiness, this was an unexpected result. Subpopulation analyses revealed that only White students were significantly more likely to secure full-time employment after having been CTE participants as compared to nonparticipation, particularly low-income White students (Table 6). Asian, Black, and Hispanic students statistically were not any more likely to work full time with CTE preparation than without it. Although this result may be a function of bias in employment practices rather than related to CTE per se, it does provide important information to students of color when deciding whether to pursue CTE coursework. The data reveal that participating in CTE can significantly increase your odds of entering the workforce after high school if you are White but does not afford students of color the same prospect.

Our third research question examines the impact of CTE participation on the type of employment acquired by students after graduating from high school. Occupation distribution data for CTE participants reveal that 72% of those working full time were employed in fields that have lower than average median incomes, and 87% were working in service and laborer occupations (Table 7). Although CTE options include a small number of high-paying occupational pathways, these jobs were scarcely represented in the actual positions held by former CTE students.

Finally, our fourth research question examined the relationship between CTE participation and college attendance. Overall, CTE participation was not significantly related to college attendance when all types of postsecondary institutions were considered (Table 8). However, among those attending college, CTE participants were only three-fifths as likely to attend a 4-year institution rather than a community college, trade school, or other less than 4-year postsecondary institution (Table 9).

Conclusions

With roots in industrial and vocational education, CTE has built a reputation for assisting students not bound for college with direct access into the workforce, providing more stability and self-sufficiency. In response to declining interest due to a push for more academic rigor in schools, CTE has rebranded itself since the 2006 Perkins IV reauthorization to include 4-year college readiness. For students in high school, the dual purpose of college and career readiness can present a dilemma. Rather than pursuing admission to a 4-year college, students may make alternative career choices prior to graduating from high school. In this sense, CTE is true to its VE roots of providing alternative pathways for students who decide against college pursuit. However, if CTE is to provide both college and career readiness, it will have to engage the full spectrum of students in urban high schools. This requires rigorous and relevant coursework that enhances their 4-year college acceptance prospects, rather than diminishes them. This also requires school counselors to offer the appropriate guidance for students uncertain about course-taking plans and their career trajectories. When local labor markets influence the types of CTE offerings available in high population density urban locations (Sutton, 2017), opportunities for students in urban settings are influenced by the demand for workers in jobs that do not require college degrees. Although efforts by local government initiatives may be successful in providing local employers with trained workers, it may be at the expense of advising students into careers unaligned with their potential capabilities. Unfortunately, current data suggest that CTE participation continues to lead students to predominantly manual labor and service occupations that do not require bachelor's degree level education, paying below average wages.

Current data also suggest CTE's effectiveness at providing direct entry into the workforce is dubious. Given that nearly three-quarters of CTE concentrators end up enrolling in post-secondary education anyway, and only one-quarter of those who do enroll pursue a field of study aligned with their CTE concentration, it does not appear that CTE delivers on this promise for most students (Institute of Education Sciences, 2020a, 2020b). The reduced likelihood of drop out associated with CTE participation for all groups except Asians suggests that CTE's promise of potential employment adds a discernible level of relevance to students’ high school attendance, albeit primarily for positions with below average wages. However, the lack of a significant impact on full-time employment for all groups except for White students demonstrates that CTE is not delivering equally to all students who choose its pathways. Students of color who participated in CTE were no more likely to be employed full time than students of color who were not CTE participants, meaning they very well may have been better off taking academic college prep courses to improve their college attendance odds. Males were three-fifths more likely to be employed full time than females. Prior research has found that students of color and females were more likely to be persistently unemployed compared to White students and males, respectively, even with CTE participation (Ainsworth & Roscigno, 2005; Arum & Shavit, 1995). For students of color capable of college success, even the more recent college-friendly CTE model appears to function as a “cooling out” process in that it reduces the likelihood of college attendance, without the payoff of better odds at securing full-time work after graduation.

The predominance of low-wage service and laborer jobs held by full-time working CTE participants is information that should be made transparent by administrators and school counselors to any student or parent considering CTE concentration over advanced college prep coursework. Likewise, students should be made aware that CTE participation does not preclude the need for post-secondary education but does make them significantly less likely to attend a 4-year college. In all, institutionally aligned CTE mechanisms for college and career onboarding reinforce class-based stratifications, particularly by race and gender.

High school students face many complex decisions that will impact their lives for years to come. Parents, counselors, and other school personnel play an important role in guiding them through those decisions and providing them with information to make informed choices. CTE appears to deliver on its promise of career readiness to White students in the form of increased odds of full-time employment after graduation, but provides no statistically significant benefit in this regard for any other group. For students of color, supplanting traditional college-prep coursework with industry-specific CTE coursework appears unwise since it does not significantly influence their likelihood of full-time employment. CTE pathways are available at community colleges if students do end up falling short of 4-year college aspirations, but without the undesired side-effects of limiting their opportunities for college attendance. There is no need to start a “cooling out” process in high school by counseling students with 4-year college aspirations into making early career choices into low-wage CTE occupations, particularly if it redirects college-capable students to such careers before they can fully appreciate or understand the long-term consequences.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Keith E. Howard

Nicol R. Howard

Author Biographies

Keith E. Howard, PhD, is an associate professor and associate dean in the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. His research foci include computer science in K-12 education, equity in K-12 STEM education, and Teacher Education.

Nicol R. Howard, PhD, is an associate professor and associate dean in the School of Education at the University of Redlands. Her research foci include equity in STEM Education and K-12 Computer Science Education, Parental Involvement, and Teacher education.

Douglas D. Havard is a PhD candidate in the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. His research interests include K-12 computer science education, career and technical education, and K-12 STEM education.

Andrew F. Wall, PhD, is a former endowed dean of the School of Education at the University of Redlands. His research and scholarship interests include examining P-12 school finance, teacher preparation, student health and learning, along with assessment and evaluation in education.

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