CTE Research Network 2.0

Approximately 7.8 million secondary students and 3.3 million postsecondary students are enrolled in career and technical education (CTE), which is supported by roughly $1.4 billion in federal investments. CTE provides students with academic knowledge and technical and employability skills that prepare them for career fields and credentials. CTE also is increasingly seen as an opportunity to strengthen the connection and coherence among K–12 education, postsecondary education, and workforce development efforts.

More rigorous research is needed, however, to understand the effects of CTE on student outcomes. To expand the evidence base, the CTE Research Network, launched in 2018, brought together six research teams to work on major projects studying the impact of CTE. These teams participated in collaborative network activities to share findings, strengthen their research, and learn from one another.

Read about the positive impacts of the Connecticut Technical High School System on male students’ outcomes >>

Read about North Carolina’s CTE dual enrollment pathways and their positive impacts on high school and college outcomes >>

The CTE Research Network 2.0 builds on the momentum of the original CTE Research Network to foster a learning community of CTE researchers and move the CTE field forward by conducting and expanding the use of rigorous research focused on CTE. With an enhanced focus on equity, the network will continue to provide information in a variety of ways to the CTE field about what works, for whom, where, and why.

The CTE Research Network 2.0 conducts its own research, serves as a clearinghouse of high-quality CTE research and resources, and provides training to strength the capacity of the field to conduct and use rigorous CTE research.

Visit the CTE Research Network 2.0 and read about the six new impact studies being conducted in Washington, DC; Baltimore; Chicago; Los Angeles; Delaware; and Florida’s Leon County Schools >>

What We Know About the Impact of Career and Technical Education

In a systematic review of 20 years of research literature on CTE, the first CTE Research Network found that CTE has statistically significant positive impacts on several high school outcomes, such as students’ academic achievement, high school completion, employability skills, and college readiness. There is no impact on student discipline or attendance. Compared to similar students who do not take CTE, those who do are more likely to enroll in 2-year colleges but are equally likely to enroll in 4-year college or progress in college. The studies did not provide evidence regarding college degree completion.

Those who take CTE courses in high school are also more likely than those who did not take CTE courses to be employed after high school. CTE course-takers had similar earnings as those who did not take CTE.

Explore the results of this systemic review of the research:

Learn more about the systemic review >>

Work-Based Learning Data Collection Systems

To inform and encourage expanded data collection on CTE programs with work-based learning (WBL) opportunities, a cross-Network research team involved in the first CTE Research Network documented promising practices and innovations in six school districts that have gone beyond typical data collection and use for work-based learning. Such data have great value not only for researchers, but also for practitioners in managing and improving their programs.

The research team found that profiled districts faced similar challenges in collecting WBL data but employed different strategies to address them. For example, while some districts enhanced their WBL data collection by developing their own data systems, others opted for third-party solutions, reflecting differing priorities and resources. Researchers also noted a variety in stakeholder involvement in data entry and monitoring—from limited access to broad participation of students, teachers, and employers—which further illustrates the complexity of these systems.

District leaders may use this report to examine ways in which local policies and data collection efforts drive local WBL implementation, monitoring, and improvements. The findings also have implications for state leaders who are adding WBL to their longitudinal data systems and accountability models with local policies, practices, and constraints to consider.

Key findings and recommendations:

  • Future WBL research can draw on district-level data on the overall student WBL experience and feedback from student and employer perspectives.
  • Districts can provide critical data about the completeness, feasibility, and usefulness of WBL data systems.
  • Districts have indicated that they need resources to support technology and staff training for more robust data collection, as well as the staff time to support WBL programs and data collection. Gathering information from the local level about the time and effort required for data collection, as well as the current method of capturing data, would be useful in the design of compatible, feasible state data systems.
  • States can support districts by helping them vet and select technology tools that work for them.

Read about the data collection systems >>

 

Practitioner Training Modules

As part of its training mission, the Network has developed research training modules designed for CTE practitioners and state agency staff. The six, self-guided modules can strengthen CTE professionals’ capacity to access, understand, and use CTE data and research as well as conduct their own research.

As the education and workforce development community looks more and more to CTE to help ensure students are both college and career ready, understanding and using CTE data and research becomes increasingly important. How do we know whether a CTE program is successful and for which groups of students? How do we integrate components from other successful programs to improve what we are doing? Without looking at data and understanding research, we cannot answer such questions. This module provides an introduction for practitioners who are new to CTE data and research or just need a refresher.

Continuous improvement, a structured process for using data and research to improve educational programming, is an important component in creating and maintaining successful CTE programs. For practitioners to engage in continuous improvement—and to use data and research to go beyond accountability—they need to maintain an effective data collection system to support data-based decisions that help lead to equity and improvement for all students. In this module, practitioners will learn how data and research are used to improve CTE programs. This module is designed to support school district and college CTE program administrators in understanding CTE data and how best to use it.

Have you ever wondered why you can have all the right program components in place and still not meet your goals? A program evaluation is a critical tool for assessing whether a program is working or not and why. In this module, you will learn about when and why to conduct a program evaluation, the different types of evaluations, the role of logic models, best practices in program evaluation, and the difference between a program evaluation and performance measurement. This module is designed to support school district and college CTE program administrators in understanding program evaluation.

By partnering with researchers, state CTE administrators have the opportunity to better understand CTE programming and practices across their states. In this module, you will learn how including CTE research-friendly data in state accountability and longitudinal data systems can enable state practitioners and research partners to answer important questions that can help improve the quality and mix of CTE offerings. This module is designed to support state education agency administrators in partnering with researchers to analyze statewide secondary and postsecondary CTE data.

With research as a guide, you can design CTE programs that promote equity and help close the opportunity gap at your site. This module examines the student groups identified in the federal Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, better known as Perkins V; explains how to use data to ensure these students are served, and presents lessons learned and best practices for promoting equity in CTE and closing the opportunity gap. The module is designed to support school district and college CTE program administrators in using research to develop equitable CTE programs. (Photo by Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.)

Building on the preceding modules, this module explores how to use research findings to strengthen communications about your CTE program’s value. You will learn about the value of developing a strategic approach for communicating research findings, including how to tailor your message to the needs of the different audiences you want to reach. The module closes with a review of communication options available and what they look like in action. This module is designed to support school district and college CTE program administrators.

Not sure of the meaning of a particular research term? This companion glossary defines key terminology from each of the six modules.

Glossary (PDF, 392 KB)

OCTAE Contact

Braden Goetz
Braden.Goetz@ed.gov
(202) 245-7405