Taking career and technical education classes in high school increases students’ odds of graduating on time but doesn’t improve their chances of enrolling in college, finds a new study in the American Educational Research Journal.
Researchers tracked a cohort of about 10,000 students from 2002 to 2006, starting when the students were 10th graders and following up as they moved into their first couple of years after high school.
A yearlong career-tech-education course taken anytime during high school decreased the odds of dropping out by 1.2 percent for each course, the study finds. Each course taken in grades 11 or 12, however, reduced students’ dropout risk by 1.6 percent.
