i AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE Nat Malkus MAY 2019 The Evolution of Career and Technical Education 1982–2013

 
Complete report

Nearly a year after Congress reauthorized the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, states are in the thick of developing the CTE  plans the law requires. Over the past three decades,  the courses and students making up CTE have shifted  dramatically. What we now know as CTE was once  thought of as “vocational education,” a term that not  only carried social stigma for its nonacademic con - notations but also harked back to a troubled era of schools’ tracking of students by race and class.  By most accounts, we have moved past the “ voc-ed ” stereotypes. Some rigorous evidence has shown specific CTE programs have boosted student outcomes, and more generally, students concentrating in CTE  courses boast increased graduation rates and higher  earnings. 

However, the transformation from  voc-ed to CTE may have hidden, rather than solved, the durable challenges in vocational education. Examining 30 years of CTE course taking through  transcripts of nationally representative samples of US high school graduates in selected years from 1982 to 2013, this report tracks how CTE course taking has  changed over time, overall and by specific occupational areas. In addition, by examining the percentage  of students who concentrate in a given CTE occupational area and the trends in those areas, the report  finds distinct patterns among business, traditional  vocational, and other CTE concentrations that should  inform and challenge CTE policies and programs  moving into the future.