Data and Research Archives

Updated Resource: Sector Sheet on Energy

ACTE is launching a revamp of our popular Sector Sheet series that describes CTE’s role in growing the workforce for vital industry sectors. Today, we’ve published the first of these updates, CTE: Developing the Energy Workforce. The Sector Sheet series is published with support from ACTE’s long-time partner Pearson.

The revised Sector Sheets will include job opportunities in each sector and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring more streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective.

The Energy Sector Sheet shares how CTE supports America’s energy needs by preparing learners to enter this critical workforce, which employs 7.8 million people and is growing faster than the total U.S. workforce. It describes key energy occupations and their related earnings as well as how CTE prepares learners for energy careers through courses, education and industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations, and more.

As we move forward with this revision, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will remain available on the ACTE Sector Sheet webpage for download and use. We encourage you to share these tools with students, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for students and the workforce.

Research Roundup: Recent Postsecondary CTE Trends and Developments

The following research roundup will look at five reports by four different publishers that recently sought to analyze some of the most important issues surrounding community colleges and other institutions offering postsecondary CTE. The reports come from New America, the RAND Corporation, Columbia University’s Community College Research Center and Work Shift.

Getting Non-Degree Workforce Programs Right at Community Colleges: New America has released a multiple-part series that focuses on how to plan, deliver and use data to improve non-degree workforce programs at the community college level. The series was produced by the think tank’s Center on Education & Labor as part of the New Models for Career Preparation project, which aims to create stories and research for building a better understanding of non-degree workforce education with the ultimate goal of unlocking the full potential of non-degree workforce training. Researchers looked at literature to “synthesize, develop and pressure-test” a framework for non-degree programs at colleges. This work is based on five criteria for quality non-degree workforce programs:

The program leads to quality jobs with strong labor market outcomes.
The program advances equity and diversity in occupationally segregated jobs.
The program opens doors to advanced credentials or degrees.
The program is affordable.
The program has strong completion rates.

Community Colleges Can Increase Credential Stacking by Introducing New Programs Within Established Technical Pathways: In a recent study conducted by the RAND Corporation, researchers analyzed stackable credentials in community colleges, their cost, their return on investment, as well as their value for students, government and local economies. The report analyzed the effects of the introduction of new certificate or associate degree programs in the Ohio community college system from 2004-05 to 2016-17. Researchers found that students who had just completed a credential program were more likely to re-enroll and earn more credentials within two years if their college had an additional program within their field of study. Additionally, researchers were able to confirm that further short-term enrollment did not significantly decrease student participation in employment or transfer to four-year university programs, showing that stackable credentials fit naturally within these students’ career and education pathways.

High-demand Jobs, High-cost Education: A recent Work Shift article by education reporter Lilah Burke looked at how community colleges around the country are innovating in the face of a major nationwide struggle to afford the necessary facilities and instructors for high-demand fields like microelectronics and biotech. Postsecondary institutions like community colleges are struggling to compete with the resources available to research universities in the field of experiential learning, which is needed to train the ever-rising number of operators or technicians needed in growth areas like semiconductor manufacturing. However, these institutions are finding creative ways around these challenges. The report looks at how four community colleges in Ohio, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina are succeeding in providing experiential learning to their students through incubators, partnerships with industry and government, and creative funding mechanisms from philanthropies and grants.

How Can Community Colleges Afford to Offer Dual-enrollment College Courses to High School Students at a Discount?: A recent report released by Columbia University’s Community College Research Center looked at the issue of high-cost dual-enrollment programs for community colleges. Researchers determined that in most parts of the country, colleges receive less funding per dual-enrollment student than they do for regular, non-dual-enrollment students, meaning that these programs are a financial burden for these institutions. The main purpose of the study was to explore how community colleges could continue to provide broad access to high-quality, sustainable dual-enrollment programs. Researchers analyzed the economics of dual enrollment from the perspective of three different community colleges to demonstrate the conditions under which dual enrollment can be made affordable and efficient.

Research Roundup: Measuring Secondary Program Quality Indicators, Credentials and Microcredentials

Measuring Secondary Program Quality: A December 2022 report by the U.S. Department of Education describes outcomes of the Department’s Quality Indicator Project, an initiative to assist states in refining the validity, reliability and accuracy of their new quality indicators under Perkins V – recognized postsecondary credential attainment, postsecondary credit attainment and work-based learning participation. This toolkit features suggestions, examples and guiding questions to help state leaders develop and refine these measures. It also describes how states have operationalized their secondary concentrator definitions, recommends business rules for CTE data reporting, and provides tips for setting state-determined performance levels for program quality indicators. ACTE’s Senior Director of Public Policy Alisha Hyslop provided content expertise to the project.

Counting Credentials: In late 2022, Credential Engine released its fourth secondary and postsecondary education credential counting report, which identified a total of 1,076,358 unique credentials in the United States. The report looked at 18 detailed credential categories across postsecondary educational institutions, massive open online course (MOOC) providers, non-academic providers and secondary schools. Researchers concluded that a total of $2.1 trillion is expended annually in the United States for the delivery and attainment of the over one million available credentials, which are offered by over 59,000 providers. The analysts also describe the lack of transparency in the credential landscape and the need for standardization to ensure credentials promote economic development and individual mobility.

Relatedly, a recent report by 1EdTech that sought to find the number of digital badges and badging platforms available in the United States identified a total of 53 platforms and 430,272 available badges; at a worldwide level, the survey reported that over 74 million badges had been issued to date.

The Value of Badges and Microcredentials: Despite their widespread use, badges and microcredentials face a problem of legitimacy since there is no widespread system in place to recognize them across state or national lines or evaluate their quality. In a recently released brief by Higher ED Dive, employers were surveyed by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association and Collegis Education on the value of microcredentials. The surveyed employers expressed that even though they value microcredentials and alternative credentials, assessing their quality can be difficult. However, despite their concerns, 23% of respondents said they believe that alternative credentials give workers real-world experience while 16% of respondents said that they help employees develop specialized skills. Finally, 13% of employers said that microcredentials and badges help improve employee performance.

Employability Skill Badges: One type of credential, employability skill credentials, enable students to demonstrate crucial workforce skills like time management, communication, problem solving and more. In Indiana, a growing number of high schools are rethinking the way they prepare students for life after graduation with the launch of a soft skill credentials badge program in certain areas of the state. The statewide program began in 2018 and has since seen more than 3,400 young people earn at least one badge. As reported in The 74, Yorktown High School, an hour northeast of Indianapolis, is launching such a program for its 800-student population.

Research Roundup: Equity Framework for CTE Research, CTE Incremental Costs, CTE Before and After COVID-19

The following reports, released by researchers who are part of the CTE Research Network (CTERN), seek to help educators and administrators better understand how the design and implementation of CTE programs affect learner outcomes. ACTE is proud to be one of the Network leads, focused on supporting and disseminating causal research into how CTE impacts students.

Equity Framework for CTE Research: CTERN’s Equity in CTE Workgroup recently released a framework to help researchers infuse an equity approach into CTE research from start to finish. The framework addresses equity at six stages of the research life cycle — project management, research design, measurement and data collection, data analysis, cost and resource equity, and reporting and dissemination — and includes real and hypothetical examples from CTE research.

Incremental Costs in CTE: A recent brief developed by CTERN’s Workgroup on CTE Cost Analysis explores and analyzes the incremental costs of CTE in classrooms across America. The brief aims to be a guide for researchers, evaluators and administrators in documenting the resources needed to provide CTE experiences for students on the secondary and postsecondary levels. It identifies specific resources used in CTE programs that are generally not used in a standard classroom. The authors emphasize the importance of cost analysis as a crucial step in creating an effective system of career exposure and preparation for students as they journey toward further education and employment and in identifying disparities in resources dedicated to different learner groups.

Relatedly, a recent paper authored by CTERN-affiliated researchers for the Annenberg Institute at Brown University looked at cost data in Connecticut and Massachusetts CTE-dedicated high schools and found clear, positive expected returns on investment in Massachusetts and smaller returns in Connecticut.

CTE Concentration Rates at the Start of COVID-19: CTERN-affiliated researchers participated recently in a multi-state analysis of trends in CTE in Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Tennessee and Washington, which sought to look at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students concentrating in CTE. The analysis looked at three cohorts of students across all the states — ninth graders in SY 2014-15, ninth graders in SY 2015-16 and ninth graders in SY 2016-17 — as well as SY 2017-18 in Michigan and Montana only. Researchers focused on how the disruptions of the pandemic affected students by gender, race and ethnicity as well as by rural vs. urban populations. The following list includes key findings from the study:

Across all five states, students who concentrated in CTE were more likely to graduate from high school than those who did not, both before and after the start of the pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic, no changes in concentration rates occurred across gender, race or ethnicity. Additionally, there were no major changes in concentration rates across clusters except in Montana, which saw large swings one year into the pandemic.
One year into the pandemic, concentration rates had fallen for students with disabilities in Michigan and Montana.
Montana and Tennessee witnessed changes in their rural-urban CTE concentration rates one year into the pandemic.

Research Roundup: CTE Dual Enrollment, CTE-dedicated High Schools

Recently, researchers affiliated with the CTE Research Network (CTERN) released several briefs describing findings of ongoing research on the impacts of CTE. ACTE is one of the CTERN leads and supports the network in its efforts to promote causal research into how CTE affects learner outcomes.

CTE-Focused Dual Enrollment: Participation and Outcomes: In an ongoing study conducted by a CTERN team at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in conjunction with the RAND Corporation, researchers examined North Carolina’s Career & College Promise CTE dual enrollment pathway and found that approximately 9% of the state’s students participated in CTE dual enrollment. The study aimed to examine the implementation, impact and cost of the program’s three dual enrollment pathways, as well as to expand the research available about the implementation and impact of CTE-focused dual enrollment courses to help policymakers and practitioners make better decisions around opportunity and equity. In the study, researchers compared participating students to nonparticipating students and looked at the impacts at the high school, postsecondary and workforce levels. Notable findings include:

Disparities in participation among learner groups were less in CTE-focused dual enrollment courses than for college transfer dual enrollment courses.
Participation in CTE dual enrollment is positively associated with students earning college credits in high school and graduating from high school.
CTE dual enrollment participation has a positive relationship with enrollment in North Carolina public colleges, especially for underrepresented ethnic groups and economically disadvantaged students.

NYC as a Laboratory for Learning About CTE: The Research Alliance for New York City Schools recently published a report of a multi-year study of the city’s CTE-dedicated high schools in collaboration with researchers from MDRC, Boston College and the University of Connecticut. The research focuses on 37 CTE-dedicated high schools in the NYC metropolitan area, which are all structured in a way to ensure CTE participation of students in grades 9-12. Researchers found that the 37 high schools had a lot of variation in their programming, which also led to different outcomes, but in general they offer coursework around industry-aligned themes such as construction, IT and health services as well as work-based learning opportunities and access to aligned college-level coursework.

Researchers examined the experiences and outcomes of nearly 19,000 students who attended a CTE-dedicated high school between 2013 and 2016 and did a comparison with similar students who also applied to CTE programs but were assigned to another type of high school. Here are some key findings:

A majority of CTE-dedicated high school students completed the required CTE credits with one quarter engaging in work-based internships.
There was no evidence that CTE programs impede students’ ability to meet academic requirements — in fact, CTE-dedicated high school students were more likely to be on track for a New York State Regents diploma.
On average, students graduated from CTE-dedicated high schools and enrolled in college at similar rates to their non-CTE counterparts.
The newer generation of smaller, nonselective CTE schools with narrower sets of career themes that prepare students for pathways that can lead to bachelor’s degrees led to better graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates than the older, larger and more selective CTE schools with a wider range of programs preparing students for positions requiring limited postsecondary education.

Further report releases will include information on students’ employment, earnings and longer-term college enrollment as well as persistence and completion outcomes.

DC Digest: February 6-12

Members of Congress were focused on holding some of their first hearings of the 118^th Congress this week, attending the State of the Union speech and responding to national security concerns. In CTE-related news, the CTE Month resolutions have been introduced and we are collecting a strong roster of cosponsors! While the Senate resolution has closed for new cosponsors, House members can still be added as cosponsors. If you haven’t already, please contact your House representative and ask them to cosponsor the resolution! In the meantime, here are some key headlines:

Congressional Education Committees Outline Priorities: On February 8, the newly renamed House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing focused on U.S. education reform, and on February 9, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held its organizing meeting. Given early committee activity often strikes the tone for the remainder of the year, the committees’ focus on issues related to CTE is promising. Read more about the hearings here.

State CTE Policies Year-in-Review Report Released: ACTE and Advance CTE have released the 10th annual report, State Policies Impacting CTE: 2022 Year in Review. In 2022, 36 states enacted 123 CTE-related policy actions across five categories: industry partnerships and work-based learning, funding, access and equity, data, reporting and/or accountability and industry-recognized credentials. You can read the full report here and read our blog post announcing its publication here.

State of the Union Highlights CTE Interests: Tuesday’s State of the Union address by President Biden highlighted several initiatives relevant to CTE, including the necessity of recruiting and retaining workers to fill many of the jobs created by legislation such as the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the importance of increasing teacher salaries. Read more about CTE in the State of the Union here.

Department of Labor Announces Partnership to Train Students for Auto Technician Careers: The Department of Labor has announced a partnership with Mercedes-Benz USA and Job Corps to train cohorts of students at centers in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Utah for automotive industry careers. Read more about the announcement here.

Secretary Cardona Visits Omaha Career Academies: On February 8, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Omaha Public Schools’ Bryan High School to tour its Urban Agriculture, Design & Construction and Transportation & Logistics academies. News coverage from the visit can be found here.

Senate Subcommittee Assignments Yet to be Finalized: We are still awaiting the formal announcement of Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee leaders and members in order to have complete rosters for CTE-relevant committees and subcommittees. A formal announcement is expected soon, according to reports from CQ Roll Call.

Meet Vilmer Alvarado, ACTE’s Newest Public Policy Team Member: Vilmer Alvarado has joined ACTE’s Public Policy team as the newest Research and Policy Associate. Learn more about Vilmer here.

New Resource: State CTE Policies in 2022

Today, ACTE and Advance CTE released their tenth annual report, State Policies Impacting CTE: 2022 Year in Review. In 2022, 36 states enacted 123 CTE-related policy actions across five categories:

Industry partnerships and work-based learning
Funding
Access and equity
Data, reporting and/or accountability
Industry-recognized credentials

The Year in Review publication highlights major trends in CTE and career readiness policies, including legislative, budget and executive actions. The report does not describe every policy enacted within each state but instead focuses on policy trends across the nation. Readers looking for specific state policies can visit the companion online state policy tracker and filter by state; system level; and/or analysis tags such as funding, industry-recognized credentials or work-based learning.

2022 caps a decade of reviews by Advance CTE and ACTE of key state policy trends impacting CTE and career readiness. During this time, at least 1,470 policies connected to CTE have been enacted across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Since 2019, access and equity has consistently replaced dual/concurrent enrollment, articulation and early college as one of the top five policy categories, representing an increased focus among states on how CTE-related policies can more equitably serve learners.

DC Digest: January 30-February 5

February 1 began CTE Month 2023, kicking off the annual celebration of CTE nationwide. ACTE’s CTE Month social media toolkit will help you share your celebrations online and in your communities! The Department of Education also joined the CTE Month celebration with a blog post on some of its Perkins grantees. Both chambers of Congress are currently circulating CTE Month resolutions to recruit cosponsors throughout the next several weeks, so be sure to reach out to your Members of Congress and urge them to cosponsor these CTE Month resolutions! You can do so via ACTE’s Action Center. Beyond CTE Month, Congress spent most of the week working on additional committee organizing activities. Both chambers will be in session next week. In the meantime, here are some notes from Washington:

Ask Your Representative: Cosponsor the 2023 House CTE Month Resolution: The co-chairs of the House CTE Caucus, Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) are leading the House’s annual CTE Month resolution marking February as CTE Month. These House members are currently circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter asking their colleagues to cosponsor the resolution, which is set to be introduced on February 8. CLICK HERE to ask your representative to cosponsor this year’s CTE Month resolution.
JOBS Act Reintroduced in Senate and House: The Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students Act of 2023 (S. 161/H.R. 793) or the “JOBS Act of 2023” has been reintroduced in the Senate by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mike Braun (R-IN) and in the House by Reps. Bill Johnson (R-OH), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Mike Turner (R-OH) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ). This bipartisan legislation would extend federal Pell Grant eligibility to high-quality, short-term workforce training programs between 150-600 clock hours. This is a longtime priority of the CTE community, and ACTE has endorsed the bill. View bill text for the JOBS Act of 2023 here for the House and here for the Senate. Read the accompanying press release here.
Additional Committee Assignments Announced: Additional Senate and House committee announcements were made this week, leaving only the Senate Appropriations Committee to complete their full subcommittee assignments for the 118th Congress. Democratic Members named to the House Appropriations Committee can be found here; senators named to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee have not been publicly listed on the committee’s website. ACTE will provide a full recap of the committee assignments for CTE-related committees once these members have been named!
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) Introduces Bill to Support Youth Apprenticeship: On February 1, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) introduced the Strengthening Youth Apprenticeships Act. This legislation would create an interagency agreement between the Secretaries of Labor and Education to provide publicly available guidance and best practices to support youth apprenticeship programs in secondary and postsecondary education programs. You can read the press release here.
House Education and the Workforce Committee Holds Organizational Meeting: The Committee met for the first time on January 31 to adopt rules for the year as well as an oversight plan. In her opening statement, Chair Virginia Foxx emphasized workforce development, “We will also strengthen our workforce development programs. We must close our nation’s skills gap and prepare the next generation of workers for our evolving economy.”
President's Budget Release Announced: The Administration has announced that the President's Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal will be released on March 9 – about a month later than originally expected.
Energy CLASS Prize Available: The Department of Energy has launched a competition for $4.5 million in funding to support energy management professional-in-training programs in local school districts. The deadlines is February 28 and more information is available here.
Administration Releases Data on Impact of Postsecondary COVID-19 Relief Funds: On February 1, the Administration released a new fact sheet and report on the impact of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). The aid provided by HEERF impacted an estimated 18 million students directly, including 6 million community college students, helping them stay enrolled.
New Senate HELP Committee Chair Sanders Participates in EdWeek Interview: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the new Chair of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, recently participated in an interview with Education Week, where he highlighted his concerns about the teacher pipeline, among other priorities.

DC Digest: January 9-13

The first full week of the 118th Congress has wrapped up. With Members of Congress now sworn in, focus is shifting to organizing committees and beginning work on legislation. In particular, there is already a lot of conversation over fiscal year 2024 funding levels and the debt ceiling. The Senate remains out of session until January 23, and the House will return to Washington on Monday, January 16.

ACTE will soon publish a resource on engaging in advocacy with freshmen Members of Congress. As the 118th Congress is getting underway, it is an important time for CTE advocates to begin getting to know these new members and think about developing relationships with them!

Updated: Investing in CTE Yields Big Returns: ACTE has updated its fact sheet about the economic benefits that CTE programs have for learners and communities across the country. The Investing in CTE map shows just a sampling of CTE’s financial impacts across different states and localities. View the graphic here.

House Republicans Advance Rules, Committee Chairs: After Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was finally elected Speaker of the House early last Saturday morning, the new Republican majority in the House turned to other organizing activities necessary for the 118th Congress. Read more here.

House Education and Workforce Committee Republicans Begin Oversight: New House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has begun several promised oversight activities. Read her letter to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona here.

New Proposed Income-Driven Student Loan Repayment Plan: The Department of Education has released a proposal to reform the existing income-driven student loan repayment plan. The plan would amend the terms of the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan to offer $0 monthly payments for any individual borrower who makes less than roughly $30,600 annually and any borrower in a family of four who makes less than about $62,400. The regulations would also cut in half monthly payments on undergraduate loans for borrowers who do not otherwise have a $0 payment in this plan. The proposed regulations would also ensure that borrowers stop seeing their balances grow due to the accumulation of unpaid interest after making their monthly payments.

Statement from Senate Appropriations Leaders on Appropriations Bills: Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), the Senate Appropriations Committee’s new Chair and Ranking Member, issued a joint statement on their bipartisan commitment to funding the government and passing the Senate’s appropriations bills through regular order. Read the full statement here.

Department of Labor Awards Grants to Support Justice-Involved Young People: The Department of Labor has announced the award of $33 million in Growth Opportunities grants to programs in 11 states. Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, the second round of grants will enable 13 organizations to help justice-involved young people develop leadership skills, offer mentorship and provide education, training and paid work experiences.

Updated: Investing in CTE Yields Big Returns

ACTE has updated its fact sheet about the economic benefits that CTE programs have for learners and communities across the country. The Investing in CTE map shows just a sampling of CTE’s financial impacts across different states and localities:

Five years after earning a CTE credential in Ohio, on average, individuals receive a more than 220% return on investment.
Iowa Community College alumni employed in the Iowa workforce generate $4.8 billion in added income for the state’s economy.
Secondary CTE concentrators in Massachusetts, on average, make $3,359 more in annual earnings seven years after graduating high school than non-CTE concentrators.

Please share this infographic, along with ACTE’s other fact sheets, with fellow CTE advocates, the media, policymakers, and students and families to communicate the many benefits of CTE.