Performance Signal, Selection into Technical Education, and Postsecondary Outcomes

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 2:15 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Rigorous Evidence on the Accessibility and Impacts of CTE and Vocational Education

Abstract

As Career and Technical Education becomes a key strategy for promoting college and career readiness, its expansion across comprehensive high schools raises important questions about student selection and causal impacts. Using Massachusetts administrative data, this study examines how lower-achieving students without prior CTE experience respond to a negative performance signal: conditional graduation status based on a grade 10 standardized test cutoff. We find that students just below the cutoff were more likely to enroll in CTE during grades 11–12, with a 33% increase in participation in state-approved programs. Our Difference-in-Discontinuities design shows that CTE exposure improves on-time high school graduation by 1.9% and four-year college enrollment by 6.3% for students at the margin, with larger gains for Black/Hispanic students.

Author

• Yerin Yoon, Boston College