Here and There: An Examination of Community College Career and Technical Education and Student Mobility Across Rural Locales

• In Event: Factors Impacting Career and Technical Education Outcomes

Abstract

While there is a clear link between postsecondary education and economic mobility, there is growing economic stratification between urban and rural regions. High-quality community college career and technical education (CTE) programs may offer rural students an affordable and efficient way toward remunerative and stable employment opportunities. We used the latest iteration of the National Center for Education Statistics Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study of 2012-17 (BPS 12:17) to explore whether community college students who reside in rural areas were as likely as comparable urban students to pursue CTE fields, which CTE clusters rural residents were more or less likely to pursue, and whether student mobility across or within urban and rural areas was associated with study in particular CTE clusters?

Authors

• Cameron Sublett, WestEd

• Jay Plasman, The Ohio State University

• Vanessa Cruz, Pepperdine University