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Secondary schools in the United States (US) have come to offer many and varied curricular paths for students to follow and career and technical education (CTE) is a significant part of the mix. Within the context of the multiple missions of high school, diverse student populations and evolving curricular organisation, this study explores how CTE and academic curricula can, or should, exist in US secondary schools. The study examines the relationship between the balance reached between CTE and academic course-taking during secondary school, and academic achievement and persistence in secondary school, and postsecondary destinations. A number of interrelated questions were investigated for a nationally representative sample of public secondary school students who had been in the eighth grade in 1988 (data came from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 - NELS:88). These questions were: (a) what balance was struck between CTE and academic course-taking?; (b) can the effects of this balance on achievement growth as measured by standardised tests be detected?; (c) can the effects of this balance on the likelihood of dropping out of secondary school (or persisting) be detected?; and (d) can the effects of this balance on graduates’ immediate postsecondary destinations be detected?