Who Counts? Implications of Competing Definitions of Career and Technical Education Students for Research Findings

• In Event: Career Pathways and Credentials: New Evidence on Measurement, Value, and Access

Abstract

Career and technical education (CTE) is a sizeable part of the curriculum in community colleges and plays an important role in opening doors to good jobs and meeting the workforce needs of employers. Researchers studying community college CTE programs often draw on state or institutional administrative data and use a range of operational definitions to identify CTE-focused students. While these differences are understandable given variation in available data and research objectives, different approaches to identifying CTE students can produce markedly different samples of students. Findings about students’ characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes may not be comparable across studies, confounding efforts to build empirically grounded policies and practices to support students’ success.

Using longitudinal data from the Ohio community college system, we compare who is counted as a CTE student and who is not across stated-preference definitions (e.g., a declared major in a CTE field, a career-focused educational goal) versus revealed-preference definitions (e.g., attempting at least a minimum number of CTE credits, taking a minimum percentage of all credits in CTE fields) measured over different time frames.

We find large differences across definitions in the prevalence of CTE students and, in turn, their background characteristics, course-taking patterns, completion, and earnings outcomes. Differences between stated- and revealed-preference approaches tend to be especially large. Stated-preference approaches yield the largest group of CTE students – younger, majority female, with lower average pre-college earnings. Revealed-preference approaches tend to isolate smaller and older cohorts who are disproportionately male, have higher pre-college earnings, and are highly engaged in CTE courses. Within the revealed preferences framework, both credit thresholds and measurement timeframe are consequential. Proportional credit thresholds identify students who focus on CTE coursework early on; notably, non-completing students in this group out-earn credential completers five years after entry. Fixed credit thresholds capture a broader group among whom completers experience a positive earnings premium on average. Extending the measurement window beyond the first term generally magnifies these distinctions.

These findings highlight the need for transparency in how student populations are defined, and we offer specific recommendations for identifying CTE-focused students in ways that produce more consistent and interpretable research findings – with broader implications for how measurement choices shape policy-relevant research and practical guidance for researchers, administrators, and policymakers working with state administrative data.

Authors

• Chenjun Yu, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Peter Bahr, Institute for the Future of Work
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Rooney Columbus, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Quintin Kreth, York University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Jennifer May-Trifiletti, Ithaka S+R
  Non-Presenting Co-Author