Postsecondary and Workforce Pathways Among Students Who Pursue Career and Technical Education in High School

• In Event: Understanding the Role of Career and Technical Education in Building the STEM Pipeline

Abstract

Motivation
Massachusetts is commonly cited as an example of high quality educational outcomes. It also has a history of hosting an economy that is almost continuously at the center of technological innovation. Among the elements of this success and innovation is a rich and novel set of career and technical education offerings in high school, as well as state statutes that ensure higher quality than mandated by the federal Perkins legislation that provides block grants to states to support CTE (Dougherty, 2016). In this paper, I explore the pathways pursued by CTE participants in Massachusetts high schools into postsecondary education and the workforce. Utilizing multiple quantitative analytic methods, I isolate the local average treatment effect of being admitted to schools with a competitive admissions process, as well as to describe differences in the educational attainment and employment of all students who do, and do no participate in CTE in its various forms.
Context
Massachusetts offers CTE in both traditional comprehensive high schools where students take CTE courses as electives amidst other core academic classes, as well as regional vocational and technical schools where all students who attend those schools take some CTE and CTE coursework is often intertwined with academic coursework. In both of these approaches to offering CTE, the state also defined Chapter 74 approved programs (across all possible career pathways) that satisfy a number of requirements meant to enhance the quality of those programs.
Chapter 74 approved programs maintain lower student-to-teacher ratios, and mandate that programs maintain advisory boards that consist of representatives from private industry, organized labor, and educators. Then boards are designed to inform local labor market demand by industry, up-to-date instructional practices and equipment, and to facilitate transitions into work-based learning opportunities. In addition, Chapter 74 approved programs must also establish articulation agreements with local community and four-year colleges as a means to align training in high school with analogous pathways at the college level. The theory of action undergirding these Chapter 74 requirements posits that programs that are in regular contact with industry, and that can respond to more changing market conditions, are likely to produce a more relevant and successful workforce.
Findings
Initial evidence suggests that high school completion is higher among CTE participants, compared to similar peers who do not take CTE in high school, and that seamless enrollment in postsecondary education is also higher among CTE participants. The outcomes appear to be driven by particularly strong postsecondary education participation among students who participated in Chapter 74 approved programs. Further, students on the margin of being admitted to and attending regional vocational and technical schools saw considerable benefits relative to their similar peers who applied to these schools but were not admitted.
Implications
Implications of this research include recommendations that states consider the Massachusetts Chapter 74 requirements as potentially quality enhancing components of the more generic federal requirements. Findings also suggest that college going among CTE participants happens at higher rates than previously suggested, indicating the importance of facilitating transitions to postsecondary education, and creating aligned pathways.

Author

• Shaun Michael Dougherty, University of Connecticut