There is a surge of interest in career and technical education programs at the secondary school level, fueled by concerns about the cost of college and opportunities to make good money in jobs that require technical skills, sometimes right out of high school.
But how well are those programs performing?
Most educators feel the overall quality of their CTE offerings is good, but still see room for improvement. That’s according to a nationally representative EdWeek Research Center survey that asked teachers, principals, and district leaders whose jobs include some CTE work to assign a letter grade to their CTE programs. Nearly half of them gave their CTE programs a B.
But what makes an A-rated CTE program? (Twenty-three percent of educators gave their programs an A rating.)
While many factors go into creating a high-quality CTE program, some of the key reasons cited by educators in the survey are good facilities, strong partnerships with local businesses, diverse course offerings, district- and state-level support, quality instructors, and high student enrollment numbers.
“We update our curriculum regularly, we offer multiple concurrent enrollment courses, we market our programs extensively and we have highly motivated and engaging teachers,” a district-level CTE administrator in Connecticut shared in the survey.
“Our CTE program works very hard to accommodate students and gets them into the program that they request,” said another district-level administrator in Michigan. “Students earn a quality education while enjoying the hands-on learning. Students look forward to getting into CTE.”
Said a middle school teacher in Texas who rated their CTE program with an A: “I chose the selected [letter] grade because of my experience working as a CTE teacher. Our administrator totally supports our programs, students, and teachers and licensed instructors.”
Educators identify big challenges for some CTE programs
Still, plenty of educators in the survey acknowledged that there was room for improvement. Some of the challenges top of mind among educators who rated their CTE offerings a B or lower included lack of funding for facilities and equipment, inadequate amount of space, not enough teachers, and a lack of rigor.
“We would have more programming if we had adequate space,” said a district-level CTE administrator in Virginia. “Additionally, we need more teachers. It would be helpful if there were easier pathways for people to teach CTE courses, especially in the trades.”
A district administrator in South Dakota added: “We have teachers new to the profession. They need extra time to fully develop their classroom activities to the point where CTE classes/programs reflect the outside world.”
A district administrator from Oregon who works in student services raised concerns about the rigor of the district’s CTE program: “We have students taking CTE pathway programs, but very few pursue careers in those areas after high school. Students are taking CTE classes because they are fun and easy rather than to prepare for the future.”
Others pointed out that their middle school CTE programs are not well connected with the ones in high school.
“Our district has many offerings and opportunities for students within CTE, but we lack alignment in terms of which students are enrolling,” said a middle school principal in California. “Despite having some CTE programs in middle schools, they do not connect to the more advanced programs at the high school, thus affecting enrollment and pathway completion.”
Despite the challenges, many educators in the survey reported that their CTE programs are growing. In fact, enrollment in K-12 CTE programs increased 10% between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, from 7.8 million to 8.6 million students, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
It’s a trend likely fueled by both state policymakers investing more in CTE and students and parents increasingly questioning the payoff of traditional, four-year college degrees.
Six in 10 educators said in the EdWeek Research Center survey that their districts’ CTE offerings have grown in the past five years, compared with fewer than 1 in 10 who said their districts’ offerings have decreased. And 71% of educators said their students’ level of interest in CTE has increased either a little or a lot in the past five years.
Pathways related to digital technology, artificial intelligence, information technology, and cybersecurity have seen the greatest increase in interest, according to the survey.
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.
