Career & Technical Education in Washington State: A Longitudinal Study of Student Access, Participation, and Outcomes

• In Event: Evidence on Participation in High School Career and Technical Education Programs and Student Outcomes

Abstract

We partnered with Washington Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) and the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to conduct a statewide longitudinal study examining students’ access to, participation, and persistence in CTE programming as well as participating students’ outcomes related to high school graduation, postsecondary education, and the labor market. Using ERDC’s integrated data system, we provide a comprehensive, landscape analysis of CTE in the state over the last decade. The study follows more than 750,000 Washington students through high school and into postsecondary education and employment between 2013–14 and 2023–24.

We show that access to CTE across the state has changed little over the last decade. The provision of CTE continues to be highest among large schools, and lowest among rural schools, small schools, and schools that enroll a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Students experience CTE coursework and programming in myriad ways and this study contributes to our understanding of these varied experiences by examining students’ longitudinal credit accumulation across all CTE coursework and within individual CTE pathways. Students are more likely to accumulate CTE credits across pathways than within. In the 2024 cohort, 70% of students earned at least three CTE credits total - across all pathways - compared to just 20% of the cohort who earned at least three credits in a single CTE pathway.

While student participation in CTE, overall and within a single pathway, has increased over time, we find that disparities remain across student groups and by career clusters. Students who are male, Hispanic/Latino, or white are slightly more likely to persist in CTE programming, overall, than their peers. Female students are much more likely to persist in pathways within the Education & Training or Health Science clusters, while male students are more likely to persist in pathways within the Information Technology; Manufacturing; STEM; or Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics clusters. Student participation and persistence is not meaningfully different for students attending rural, small, and lower-income schools (which tend to provide fewer opportunities for students to engage in CTE).

We also find that students’ postsecondary and labor market outcomes vary greatly depending on where they focus their CTE studies during high school. Students who pursue studies in the Health Sciences cluster are more likely to enroll in college, while students who pursue studies in the Information Technology; Manufacturing; or Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics clusters experience the highest earnings six years after high school. 

Author

• Sam Oliver Riggs, Education Northwest
  Presenting Author