CTE programs have the potential to increase student engagement, achievement, and transition to postsecondary education or careers. CTE courses see higher graduation rates and fewer absences than traditional academic courses. They also improve academic outcomes in reading, math, and science. CTE students are more likely to enroll in further education after high school and earn industry-recognized credentials. However, obstacles like poverty can prevent students from accessing and completing CTE programs. Presenters advocated for strengthening CTE delivery models to help more students achieve economic mobility.

1. GETTING THE FULL VALUE OUT
OF CTE
ACTEAZ Summer Conference
July 2016

2. Bellwork
• Think for a moment about the outcomes you wish for all
students. Please share with your shoulder partner.
Be prepared to share

4. Potential Power of CTE
• 92% of U.S. high school students take at least one CTE
course
• Less concentrate in CTE but it is still significant
• U. S. high schools average 8.57 CTE programs
Discussion: Does your school look like this? Discuss
with a shoulder partner.

5. CTE Delivery Model

6. What we want from our educational
system
• Engagement
• Achievement
• Transition

7. Student Engagement

8. Getting Kids Through HS:
The First Measure of Engagement
Good News
• High School
Completion = 81% -
Highest in 40 Years
• Racial/Ethnic gap is
closing
*Graduating class of 2012
Bad News
• Variability among states:
89% in Iowa; 63% in
Nevada
• Hispanics and Blacks trail
Whites with graduation
rates by 5 and 13 points
respectively; boys drop
out more than girls
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics 2015

9. A state look
• All students: 76.0%
• American Indian/Alaska Native: 62%
• Asian/Pacific Islander: 87%
• Hispanic: 72%
• Black (not Hispanic): 74%
• White (not Hispanic): 85%
Alliance for Excellent Education 2012

10. CTE’s potential contributions to
engagement

11. On the Rise
ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy
• CTE participation has a positive effect on
students’ academic engagement as measured
by the likelihood of dropping out and
absenteeism.
• Tucson Unified – 20 – 60%
• Mesa – 79%

12. Staying Power
• Ratio of 1 academic: 2 CTE courses is optimal
• 98% of AZ 2014-2015 concentrators completed high
school vs. 76% of all other AZ high school students
• Nationally, 90.18% of CTE concentrators graduate as
opposed to 80.0 % of all freshmen

14. Discussion
• Why do kids that are immersed in CTE programs come to
school regularly and graduate on time?
Turn to your should partner and share
Be prepared to share with the group

15. Achievement

20. CTE Contributions to Achievement

22. Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education

23. Impact of Career/Technical Courses that
Integrate Academics
46%
31%
69%
60%
45%
63%
53%
39%
57%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Academics were
integrated
Less intensive
academic
integration
Academics were
not integrated
Reading Mathematics Science

24. Discussion
• What is it about CTE that improves students’ academic
outcomes?
Share with your shoulder partner
Be prepared to share with the group

25. Transition

26. Only 40% of 27-year olds have earned
an A.A. degree or higher

27. CTE’s Potential Contributions to Transition

29. Transition
• “According to data from the National Center for Education
Statistics, the majority of CTE students in high school
continue on to postsecondary education, and those who
join the workforce outright or work to supplement their
incomes as they pursue further education are often in a
better financial situation than high school graduates who
did not pursue CTE.”
Techniques Magazine, February 2014

30. CTE Sends Students on to
Postsecondary Education
• 78% of CTE concentrators enroll in postsecondary education, full time, within
two years of graduation
• About one third of all dual enrollment credits—about 600,000 in all—are
eared in CTE courses
• Students in postsecondary CTE programs are more likely to be employed
within five years than those in an academic field of study
Source: Careertech.org

31. Credential Acquisition
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
CTE
Others
NAVE, 2004

33. THE PARADIGM
IS SHIFTING

34. College for all?
• 68% start college
• Only 40% complete college
• 53% of grads are unemployed
or underemployed
• Student loan debt now
exceeds auto loans, credit
card balances and home-
equity loan debt … $1.3 trillion

35. TIME Magazine
• “Millennials make less
money, are more likely to
live in poverty and have
lower rates of
employment than their
parents did at their ages
20 and 30 years ago.”

36. Discussion
• Any surprises or insights?
Share with your shoulder partner
Be prepared to share with the group

37. Work-Based Learning
• Positive correlations with graduation, academic
achievement and career success.
• 26.1% of young people who could recall no contact with
employers while at school went on to be come NEET(Not
in Employment, Education or Training). Reduced to 4.3%
for those in work-based learning. Dr. Anthony Mann,
Education and Employers (2013)

38. CTSOs
• Involvement in CTSOs
(CTE Student
Organizations) increases
academic achievement,
career self efficacy and
employability skills.

39. Community Involvement
• Advisory Councils
• CTSO judges
• Guest speakers
• Mentors
• CTSO team trainers

40. The new (and not so new) challenge:
children living in poverty

41. The Social mobility escalator is broken
• For the first time in 50 years, a
majority of U.S. public school
students come from low income
families.
• CTE can fix the “mobility
escalator”

43. Facts about children in poverty
• Children living in poverty have a
higher number of absenteeism or
leave school all together because
they are more likely to have to
work or care for family members.
• Dropout rates of 16 to 24-years-
old students who come from low
income families are seven times
more likely to drop out than those
from families with higher incomes.
Dosomething.org

44. Poverty matters
• Poverty really matters
• “CTE is the Rx”
CT
E

45. So, what is stopping us?
• What institutional obstacles prevent students from
accessing CTE and completing CTE programs?
• What are we doing to overcome these obstacles?
Turn to your should partner and share.
Be prepared to share with the group.

46. CTE Delivery Model

47. Azcteleads.org

48. Worth Reading
Pathways to Prosperity (Harvard)
Learning for Jobs (OECD, 2010)
Five Ways that Pay Along the Way to a B.A. Carnevale,
et al., 9.18.12, Center on Education and the Workforce)
21st Century Career and Technical Education Pathways
On the Rise (Morrison Institute for Public Policy)
Knocking at the College Door (WICHE. December
2012)
Toward a Model of Career-Technical Education (Phi
Delta Kappan, September 2013)

49. Need more information?
For more CTE research visit:
• The CTE Research Clearinghouse at
http://www.acteonline.org/clearinghouse.aspx
• The National Research Center for CTE at
www.nrccte.org
• Association for Career and Technical Education
www.acteonline.org