Who's Who in Career and Technical Education (CTE) Occupations? Documenting the Demographic Composition of CTE Job Holders

• In Event: Alternative Pathways: Career and Technical Education Training and Predictors of Workforce Success

Abstract

Career technical education (CTE) has been held by some to be a means for helping reduce achievement gaps and socioeconomic inequality (Kantrov, 2017). There has been particular interest in using CTE to foster the success of women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from economically disadvantaged families (Dougherty & Lombardi, 2016). Although some research has examined the representation of these groups among CTE course-takers (e.g., Dougherty, 2019; Hudson, 2017), a recent working group of CTE experts described the research on specific subpopulations in CTE as “lacking” (Ahn et al., 2017, p. 5). One reason for the use of this descriptor may be that there is no comprehensive documentation of the demographic make-up of CTE jobholders. This is important because, although many students take CTE-related courses, many do not pursue CTE-related careers.
To rectify this oversight, the purpose of this study was to use a nationally-representative dataset to explore and document the demographic representation of the four major historically studied/interested in groups in CTE occupations (i.e., women, racial minority groups, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from economically disadvantaged families). This foundational research is critical in evaluating important questions around access and equity and will help inform whether some diverse groups are over- and under-represented in the population of CTE jobholders relative to their proportion in the general population.

Method
For this study, we utilized 2012 education and employment data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). We evaluated job-holders across the 16 CTE Career Clusters (Advance CTE, 2019) in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Network (O*NET) Zone 3, which includes jobs that require training from vocational schools, on-the-job experience, or an associate degree. Specifically, we examined the representation of individuals in CTE jobs according to their gender, race/ethnicity, disability/impairment status, and their parents’ income from 2001, and compared to their representation in the general population.

Results & Scholarly Significance
Preliminary findings revealed that gender equity is still a challenge -- males dominated (>90%) CTE jobs in Agriculture, Architecture/Construction, Transportation, and Manufacturing, whereas females dominated (>80%) Education and Health Science. In terms of race/ethnicity, representation in Government & Public Administration jobs was most diverse, and nearly 22% of individuals with disabilities/impairments were concentrated in Agricultural jobs. Additionally, individuals coming from families with income levels below the median were more likely to end up in occupations in Government and Transportation & Logistics.
We cannot evaluate the full extent to which CTE is fulfilling one of its major purposes in helping members of disadvantaged groups until we know to what degree members of those groups are actually present in CTE-related occupations. This study allows us to do so. As more resources are placed in the CTE curriculum in K-12 education, it will be important to re-evaluate these trends in demographic representation periodically. Further, our study lays the foundation for exploring other topics relevant to equity and access in CTE careers, such as whether there are pay gaps between majority and minority groups both across and within CTE occupation clusters.

Authors

• Katrina Crotts Roohr, Educational Testing Service

• Harrison Kell, Educational Testing Service

• Daniel Fishtein, Educational Testing Service