Career and Technical Education in the Balance: An Analysis of High School Persistence, Academic Achievement, and Postsecondary Destinations

This study explored the benefits of career and technical education. The author examined dropout rates, academic achievement, and postsecondary outcomes. The four groups consisted of (1) academic concentrators, (2) CTE concentrators, (3) dual concentrators, and (4) neither academic nor CTE concentrators. The study found that academic concentrators had the highest 1992 achievement scores in reading, mathematics, science, and history, and CTE students scored the lowest. In terms of the likelihood of dropping out, the lowest risk was estimated at which point a student completes three Carnegie units of CTE for every four Carnegie unit of academic achievement. CTE concentrators were more likely to be involved in the workforce than enroll in college when compared with the academic concentrators; the other two groups fell in between