The role of career and technical education: implications for the federal government

While career and technical education (CTE) in America may provide a route to employment for some young people, many people oppose CTE on grounds that it discourages young people from going on to postsecondary education and achieving their full potential and also because of CTE's poor history and obsolete programs that became a dumping ground for less able students. In this paper, the authors argue that while these concerns are valid, instead of abandoning CTE programs, attempts should be made to improve, upgrade and modernise them. After a brief introduction, the need for CTE is outlined under the headings of: The high school dropout problem; High school graduates and the transition to work; Unprepared college students; The importance of non-college careers; What employers really want; The promise of CTE. The paper then provides the background information on CTE covering its history, current programs, public attitudes and CTE in other countries. This is followed by a discussion of what research has revealed about the effectiveness of CTE and the authors then look at the federal role in CTE, recommending that the federal government should concentrate on funding research that could inform state education departments and local school districts on questions of how best to provide CTE.

Preparing America's Future: the High School Symposium, held in Washington, D.C. in April 2002, provided a forum for a panel of experts to make recommendations for federal involvement in three topics: challenges facing today's American high school; preparing students for high achievement and postsecondary transition; and the role of career and technical education in high schools. A set of eight papers was commissioned by OVAE to be presented at the Symposium. Following the Symposium, a further 10 papers were commissioned. This paper is one of the 10 papers commissioned after the Symposium. Selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 72.438 to TD/TNC 72.448.

While career and technical education (CTE) in America may provide a route to employment for some young people, many people oppose CTE on grounds that it discourages young people from going on to postsecondary education and achieving their full potential and also because of CTE's poor history and obsolete programs that became a dumping ground for less able students. In this paper, the authors argue that while these concerns are valid, instead of abandoning CTE programs, attempts should be made to improve, upgrade and modernise them. After a brief introduction, the need for CTE is ...  [+] Show more