Examining the Relationship Between High School CTE Participation and Postsecondary Enrollment

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Students who concentrated their career and technical education (CTE) credits in a specific area had a lower postsecondary enrollment rate than students who did not concentrate or who earned fewer CTE credits, according to a new report.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a new Data Point report today (Dec. 19), entitled Participation in High School Career and Technical Education and Postsecondary Enrollment. This report examines rates of postsecondary education enrollment as of 2012 for graduates from the public high school Class of 2004. This report uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), including high school transcripts collected in 2004 and the ELS:2002 follow-up in 2012.

Among the findings:

• About 82 percent of the graduates who earned at least 3 credits within one of the 12 CTE occupational areas (that is, who concentrated their CTE credits) enrolled in postsecondary education within eight years. This is a lower rate than for graduates who earned 3 or more CTE credits but did not concentrate (88 percent) and for graduates who earned fewer than 3 CTE credits (92 percent); and

• For graduates who concentrated their CTE credits, postsecondary enrollment rates varied by area of concentration. Graduates who concentrated in three areas—computer and information sciences, health sciences, and marketing—enrolled in postsecondary education at rates that were not measurably different from nonconcentrators.