The last decade has seen substantial growth in Career and Technical Education (CTE), at federal, state, and local levels. In contrast to more traditional approaches to “vocational education,” CTE has evolved to focus explicitly on preparing students for both college and a career. Yet, there is still relatively little rigorous evidence about the impact of this new generation of CTE programs, the long-term trajectories of the students who attend them, or the effectiveness of various strategies being used to support students’ transitions into post-secondary education and work. 

In collaboration with New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) and an experienced team of researchers from several partnering institutions, including MDRC, the Research Alliance is conducting a multi-year, multi-component study of CTE programs in New York City. The study looks to the City as a laboratory for learning about the implementation, impact, and cost effectiveness of the diverse array of educational options that fall under the heading of CTE.  The slides below highlight some of the study’s key findings to date.

If you prefer, you can view the above-embedded presentation, here.

New York City is in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of career-connected learning for high school students. NYCPS already oversees one of the largest and most diverse CTE systems in the country, offering more than 290 CTE programs across 131 high schools. The NYC Schools Chancellor has articulated a “North Star” goal of having all students in the City “graduate with a pathway to a rewarding career, long-term economic security, and equipped to be a positive force for change.” Recent investments have supported a broad expansion of career guidance classes, work-based learning opportunities, and opportunities to earn college credit while in high school. Our study has informed the design and rollout of these initiatives in a variety of notable ways, from the focus of programs being expanded and supported, to strategies for collecting data and evaluating results.

More information about the study is available in two published reports:

• NYC as a Laboratory for Learning About Career and Technical Education: Lessons from CTE-Dedicated High Schools (2023) 
• Career and Technical Education in Comprehensive High Schools: Lessons from New York City (2024)

Big Questions

Findings from this study raise a number of important questions for future research:

• What are the costs of CTE programs, and how do they compare to the costs associated with other high school options? How does information about cost shape our understanding of CTE’s relative benefits for students? A forthcoming Research Alliance report will examine these questions for CTE-Dedicated high schools. 
• Our analyses to date examined students’ educational pathways for a year and a half after their scheduled high school graduation. How do patterns of college enrollment and persistence shift when we follow students for a longer period of time? 
• There are also crucial open questions about the impact of CTE on students’ employment and earnings. NYCPS is committed to obtaining these data, to assess CTE’s influence on short- and longer-term labor market participation, both in combination and in sequence with further formal education. This information will provide a much more complete picture of the role that New York City’s CTE programs are playing in preparing students for the future and placing them on a path to economic security.