One of the most striking trends this year: how many young people from all parts of the city and all backgrounds chose what used to be called a “vocational” high school program – now renamed and reimagined as “career and technical education,” or CTE.

Career and technical education (CTE) schools and academies are important and impactful, but they’re also scarce and expensive. To develop the skills of the millions of students who want high-quality CTE, we must be more egalitarian in the ways students access it—and the prospects for economic stability and success that it can create.

Recently, there has been increased interest in career and technical education as a mechanism to create pathways to college and employment. This increased interest has occurred despite the fact that, aside from two studies on career academies, there is relatively little high-quality evidence about whether and how CTE provides educational and work-related benefits to students.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a study on the benefits of Career and Technical Education, and it is both terribly wrong and beautifully right.

Vocational education has come a long way since its emphasis on shop classes and cosmetology.

While career and technical education, or CTE, may have historically been maligned as a “dead end,” a new study based on students in Arkansas shows students who took more CTE classes were slightly more likely to finish high school, attend a two-year college and earn a little more money than those who don’t.

EducationNext (Shaun Dougherty’s recent Fordham Institute report on CTE cited)

The report, published April 7 by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, found that students who “concentrated”—took three related courses focused on one industry—were 21 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school in four years than their peers who did not, and were just as likely to go to a four-year college.

A new study on career and technical education has found that CTE is highly beneficial for students, especially for some of those who need it the most.

CTE Policy Watch Blog (Shaun Dougherty’s report is covered)