Educator and Student Perspectives on Career-connected Learning: A report from RAND analyzes educator and student perspectives on career-connected learning using 2025-26 national survey data. Key findings include the following: 

• When discussing career plans with educators and counselors, two-thirds of students report an emphasis on four-year degrees. Other career pathways, such as two-year colleges and apprenticeship programs, receive far less emphasis.  

• By spring of their junior year, more than four in ten high school students have yet to make a plan or meet with their counselor on college and career plans.  

• Career-connected learning opportunities districts offer middle school students include career exploration coursework (79%), invited speakers (73%) and career fairs (67%). 

• Work-related learning opportunities districts offer middle and high school students include CTE pathways (69%), credit-bearing courses (61%) and internships (37%). 

• The Career Clusters districts offer programming in include Health Care & Human Services (67%), Agriculture (62%), Digital Technology (60%) and Education (60%).  

• By senior year, only 31% of students take CTE coursework compared to 56% who planned to do so. This gap was even greater for internship/apprenticeship participation, with 22% of seniors participating in such programs compared to 66% who planned to do so. 

Aligning CTE Professional Development with Teacher Needs: A study by Jeffrey Sun, Heather Turner and Mitchel Mandel in Career and Technical Education Research found misalignment between professional development (PD) offerings and CTE teacher needs. Through a survey of 160 secondary CTE teachers in Kentucky, the researchers identified work-based learning, virtual hands-on learning, advisory board engagement and business/industry engagement as the PD topics with the greatest gaps between perceived need and perceived availability. 

Analysis of the qualitative responses yielded additional findings: 

• PD should be aligned to specific content areas and CTE topics, such as assessment, curriculum mapping and equipment purchases. Offerings are often geared toward new teachers or elementary school environments rather than experienced CTE teachers in middle and high school. 

• Accessing external PD is difficult for CTE teachers for a variety of reasons, from geography to lack of substitutes to cover classes. 

• PD should be offered by experienced CTE teachers in specific content areas and allow teachers with less experience to gain valuable knowledge and skills. 

Pathways to Work Clearinghouse: The Administration for Children & Families—under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—recently revamped the Pathways to Work Clearinghouse. The repository identifies evidence-based workforce programs that connect low-income individuals with careers and advance economic mobility. These programs are selected based on studies reviewed by the repository team, with each study assessed for quality and the findings reviewed to determine the program’s effectiveness. Outcomes reviewed by the team include long-term earnings, employment and credential attainment. 

One program highlighted by the repository is Year Up, which provides 21 weeks of technical skills training to young adults in IT and business pathways. Studies on the program found that participants experience long-term gains in employment and earnings and are more likely to earn a postsecondary credential.  

Additional resources are provided for providers and policymakers as well as researchers. The repository also identifies studies that produced the strongest outcomes, summarizes evidence across different topics and outlines gaps in the research. Users may also submit studies for consideration.