Last week, the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) released 2023-24 enrollment and performance data for secondary and postsecondary CTE participants and concentrators. 

Several high-level takeaways from the data include the following: 

• In 2023-24, there were about 8.6 million secondary CTE participants — a 10.3% increase from 2022-23, which had 7.8 million secondary CTE participants. Texas is the primary contributor, adding over 690,000 secondary CTE participants. 
  • This total includes 3.8 million secondary CTE concentrators in 2023-24, compared to almost 3.5 million in 2022-23. 

• In 2023-24, there were about 3.3 million postsecondary CTE participants, largely unchanged from the prior year. 
  • This total includes 1.8 million postsecondary CTE concentrators in 2023-24, again very similar to the numbers reported for 2022-23. 

• The nationwide four-year graduation rate for secondary CTE concentrators was 97.3%, a small increase from 2022-23’s graduation rate of 96.6%. 
• The nationwide placement rate for postsecondary CTE concentrators – the percentage of individuals who, after program completion, were employed or were participating in further education, advanced training, military service or a service program — was 81.5%, slightly higher than 2022-23’s placement rate of 81.3%. 

Disaggregating enrollment data yields some additional findings: 

• For secondary CTE concentrators, the top three Career Clusters were Health Science; Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources; and Business Management & Administration. 
• For postsecondary CTE concentrators, the top three Career Clusters were Health Science, Business Management & Administration and Information Technology. 
• About 49.8% of secondary CTE concentrators come from economically disadvantaged families compared to 41.8% for postsecondary CTE concentrators. 
• About 10.8% of secondary CTE concentrators are students with disabilities (SWDs) compared to 4.7% for postsecondary CTE concentrators.  

States also reported data on secondary program quality indicators: 

• Almost 434,000 secondary CTE concentrators attained a recognized postsecondary credential across 22 states and territories. 
• About 134,000 secondary CTE concentrators earned postsecondary credits in their CTE program area across 11 states and territories. 
• About 236,000 secondary CTE concentrators participated in work-based learning across 29 states and territories. 

In addition to enrollment and performance data, national and state fiscal information are provided. In FY25, over $1.4 billion in Basic State Grants were awarded. Secondary recipients received over $693 million in grants; postsecondary recipients received over $429 million.  

Please be aware that this data may be subject to change, if corrections are needed. ACTE is analyzing the 2023-24 data and will share more findings on this blog. In the meantime, we encourage you to explore state CTE enrollment and performance data as well as national enrollment and performance data with the Perkins Data Explorer, and to reach out to ACTE’s Research and Policy Coordinator Jesus Galvan with any questions.